Flesh-pleasing pulpit opiates!
(John Angell James, "Dislike to Ministerial
Faithfulness Stated and Explained")
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They are a rebellious people,
deceptive children--
children who do not obey the LORD'S
instruction. They say to the seers,
"Do not see," and to the prophets,
"Do not prophesy the truth to us.
Tell us flattering things!
Prophesy illusions!
Get out of the way!
Leave the pathway.
Rid us of the Holy ONE of Israel."
Isaiah 30:9-11
It is a striking fact, that HE who was
Love incarnate; who was mercy's
messenger to our lost world; who was
named JESUS, because HE was to be
the SAVIOR of HIS people; who was
the manifestation of GOD'S love to man--
delivered, during the course of HIS personal
ministry, more fearful descriptions of Divine
justice and the punishment of the wicked,
than are to be found in any other part
of the Word of GOD!
What can exceed the solemn scene
of the parable of the rich man in torments?
Hell and destruction are there set
openly before us.
No man can fulfill his ministry,
therefore, without frequently alluding
to the justice of GOD in the punishment
of sin. He must seek to alarm the fears
of the unconverted by a representation
of the consequences that will follow
a state of final impenitence.
Such a subject frequently calls up
all the enmity of the carnal mind.
To be told, not only that they are sinners,
which all will admit in general terms--
but that their sins are such as to deserve
the wrath of GOD, such as to expose them
to the torments of Hell, and such as will
infallibly bring them to the bottomless pit--
unless they truly repent; to be told again
and again that they are hastening to perdition;
to have the rod of Divine vengeance shaken
over their heads; to have all the dreadful
curses of the violated law analyzed,
ascertained and announced;
to have this done in their hearing,
and done frequently; to be made to sit
and hear their future eternal doom, and
thus to be tormented before their time--
is what they cannot, and will not endure!
Unable to bear any longer his pointed
addresses to the conscience, they
will leave his ministry--
for the flesh-pleasing pulpit opiates
of some flatterer of men's souls, who
is too cowardly to trouble the minds,
or alarm the consciences of those
who love smooth, flattering and
delusive preaching.
To be publicly denounced as deserving
Divine wrath; to be told that they are
sinners to such a degree as to merit
the eternal punishment of a holy GOD;
to be reminded that, instead of their
imagined good heart, pure nature,
and blameless life--
they are, in the sight of GOD,
depraved in every faculty and polluted
in every part; to be represented as
unfit for communion with GOD here,
and for HIS presence hereafter--
all this is so opposed to all their notions,
so mortifying to their vain pride, so
degrading to their dignity, that they
cannot but hate it.
To such a debasement they would
not willingly descend; and hence their
demand for the teaching of deceit,
and the smooth speech of falsehood.
What they want is to be flattered into
a good opinion of themselves. They hate
the doctrine which disturbs their self-delight,
and revile the man who attempts to tell them
the solemn reality of how vile they are!
"This is what the LORD Almighty says:
Do not listen to what the prophets are
prophesying to you; they fill you with false
hopes. They speak visions from their own
minds, not from the mouth of the LORD.
They keep saying to those who despise ME,
'The LORD says: You will have peace.'
And to all who follow the stubbornness
of their hearts they say,
'No harm will come to you.'"
Jeremiah 23:16-17
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