(Two priests ask a heretic to repent as torture is administered.)
From the Jews hating Christ Himself, and all throughout the history of the Church, including the Spanish Iquisition, there have been zealous religious types, who in pretense sought to glorify God, and defend Him from blasphemers, and heretics.
Jesus told the Jews that God was His Father, and that He could forgive sins. They called Him a blasphemer, and tried to kill Him. How they hated the Christ. If they truly had the glory of God in their hearts, then they would have knelt before Christ, and asked for His mercy, and then rejoiced in God their Father and His Son. who was in their midst.
And yet, don't we ALL hate God. Would we have been those who cried out, "Crucify Him!"? I believe, until His mercy finds our hearts and we are touched by this mercy and His truth, the Gospel, we ALL long to be left alone in our dark corner of hatred and indifference.
We need to remember where we came from, so we don't do the same, and persecute others in pretense. There's a fine "spiritual" line we need to walk here.
Surely we need to be contending for the faith, the holy Gospel, and keeping it pure. We should be willing to die for the Gospel. Many who were killed in the Spanish Inquistion surely could have simply believed in the pretender's christ, and avoided torture and death.
Protecting the Body of Christ from false teachings and heresy is imperative. We need to do this with great, and patient, discernment, and most of all love for Christ, and for those who are bringing these false gospels, and doctrines within the community of God's people.
Satan will always have his wolves in sheeps-clothing, and we need to be wise as snakes. But we also need to be harmless as doves.
2 comments:
I saw this yesterday, and have been troubled with the image of the Inquisition. No wonder when King David was given a choice for the consequence of taking the census, he chose not to give himself to the hands of men, but only in the righteous (albeit painful) punishment from God Himself. I personally believe the Inquisition was not a thing done by Christians, but rather by impostors, who were not truly born again.
"but rather by impostors"
Amen Craver. And their condemnation will be great.
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