become an epidemic! If this is offensive to many God-fearing people today, what must it be to God himself? It is just as offensive as when those twenty-five sun worshipers in Jehovah’s temple in Jerusalem were obscenely “thrusting out the shoot” to His nose. (Ezekiel 8:17) Should he hear such hypocritical Christians when they soon cry to Him? No!

CHRISTENDOM INFECTED WITH DEADLY DEMONISM

42. How has our tour of inspection of the house of worship of Christendom shown that Jehovah is justified in acting shortly in rage against her, and as to her what did Cardinal Newman write?

⁴² There is every justification for Jehovah to “act in rage,” without feeling compassion, when he shortly brings upon Christendom and her worldly associates the “great tribulation” with which this system of things will come to its end. Our tour of inspection regarding the religious conditions of Christendom has been just as revealing as that which Ezekiel made in the polluted temple of Jehovah in Jerusalem. It has disclosed that Christendom’s house of worship is so infected with demonism and so loaded with the appendages of demonism as to be inseparable from it. This was admitted almost a hundred years ago by one of Christendom’s famous clergymen. In the year 1878 the Roman Catholic prelate, John Cardinal Newman, published his book entitled “Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine.” In this he expressed his belief that the early professed Christians had not been infected with spiritual disease by any adopting into their religious organization the things that had to do with the worship of devilish demons. Accordingly he wrote:

Confiding then in the power of Christianity to resist the infection of evil, and to transmute the very instruments and appendages of demon-worship to an evangelical use, and feeling also that these usages had originally come from primitive revelations and from the instinct of nature, though they had been corrupted; and that they must invent what they needed, if they did not use what they found; and that they were moreover possessed of the very archetypes, of which paganism attempted the shadows; the rulers of the Church from early times were prepared, should the occasion arise, to adopt, or imitate, or sanction the existing rites and customs of the populace, as well as the philosophy of the educated class.

Proceeding now to show the origin of Christendom’s things, he says:

The use of temples, and these dedicated to particular saints, and ornamented on occasions with branches of trees; incense, lamps, and candles; votive offerings on recovery from illness; holy water; asylums; holydays and seasons, use of calendars, processions, blessings on the fields; sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure, the ring in marriage, turning to the East, images at a later date, perhaps the ecclesiastical chant, and the [song] Kyrie Eleison [Lord, have mercy], are all of pagan origin, and sanctified by their adoption into the Church.—Pages 355, 371, 373, of the edition of 1881.

43. How did the late Pope Pius XI express the same spirit of compromise religiously to newspapermen regarding dealing with others for church interests?

⁴³ Expressing the same spirit of compromise as continuing into this twentieth century is the statement made to newspapermen in Rome, Italy, by the late Pope Pius XI (died 1939):

The head of the Catholic Church would consider it his duty to deal with the Devil himself, to say nothing about any mortals who, hypothetically, or in reality, were merely agents of the Dictator of Diabolism, if reasonable grounds existed to support the hope that such dealings would protect, or advance, the interests of religion among mankind.—Quoted by Michael Williams, in the February 21, 1943, issue of the Brooklyn Eagle, New York.

44, 45. Have the Eastern Orthodox and Protestant churches discarded the inspired expressions and teachings of demons, and in the light of 2 Corinthians 6:14 to 7:1 what excuse do professed Christians have for contaminating themselves with the things of demonism?

⁴⁴ Even the Eastern Orthodox churches and the Protestant churches of Christendom have not discarded the practices and the “misleading inspired utterances and teachings of demons” that were to mark “later periods of time.” (1 Timothy 4:1) As regards the Israelites in the days of the prophet Ezekiel, there was no Biblical excuse for them to adopt the rites and teachings of demon worship, as this course was forbidden even back in the Law of Moses. (Deuteronomy 18:9-14) Likewise, as respects those who profess to be Christians, there is no excuse for them to contaminate themselves with the teachings, practices, instruments and appendages of demonism, especially in view of the apostolic command:

⁴⁵ “Do not become unevenly yoked with unbelievers. For what fellowship do righteousness and lawlessness have? Or what sharing does light have with darkness? Further, what harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what portion does a faithful person have with an unbeliever? And what agreement does God’s temple have with idols? For we are a temple of a living God; just as God said: ‘I shall reside among them and walk among them, and I shall be their God, and they will be my people.’ ‘“Therefore get out from among them, and separate yourselves,” says Jehovah, “and quit touching the unclean thing”’; ‘“and I will take you in.”’ ‘“And I shall be a father to you, and you will be sons and daughters to me,” says Jehovah the Almighty.’ Therefore, since we have these promises, beloved ones, let us cleanse ourselves of every defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in God’s fear.”—2 Corinthians 6:14 to 7:1; Isaiah 52:11; Jeremiah 31:9.

46, 47. Disobedience to those divine commands has resulted in what religious condition in Christendom, and what is prophesied to come upon her, so that we should ask ourselves what searching questions and seek for answers where?

⁴⁶ Disobedience to such inspired commands has resulted in the confused, contaminated religious condition of Christendom today. She is beyond recovery. Like her ancient prototype, ancient Jerusalem, she is bound to suffer execution at the hands of the God against whom she has so greatly offended. A “great tribulation” exceeding even that which came upon Jerusalem in the days of the apostles of Jesus Christ is prophesied to come upon her. (Matthew 24:15-22; Mark 13:14-20) In view of this, searching questions present themselves to each one of us: Am I an active member of Christendom’s religious organization? Or, Am I in sympathy with her and cooperating with her? If so, how will the “great tribulation” that is coming upon her affect me? Is there any way to escape sharing with her in that destructive “great tribulation”? Will even anyone who is in the midst of Christendom but who is not a sympathetic part of her be spared alive?

⁴⁷ What Jehovah showed to Ezekiel in vision after he inspected the temple in Jerusalem furnishes answers to these questions.

Chapter 9

Marking Foreheads of Those to Be Spared

1. What does Jehovah, while still at the temple, call out in Ezekiel’s hearing as a summons?

JEHOVAH and his prophet Ezekiel were still, in vision, at the defiled temple of Jerusalem when what Ezekiel next describes took place: “And he proceeded to call out in my ears with a loud voice, saying: ‘Have those giving their attention to the city come near, each one with his weapon in his hand for bringing ruin!’”—Ezekiel 9:1.

2. To whom did the expression “those giving their attention to the city” not apply, and what was their mission?

² Here “those giving their attention to the city” were not members of the city government of Jerusalem. So those whom Jehovah called did not include King Zedekiah, who was then governing Jerusalem and all the Kingdom of Judah in that year 612 B.C.E. Certainly King Zedekiah and his princes did not try to destroy Jerusalem. In fact, they appealed to Pharaoh of Egypt to come and help to save the city. Those