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Liberty of Conscience Threatened
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confession the secret imaginations of his heart is degrading his soul.
In unfolding the sins of his life to a priest—an erring mortal—his
standard of character is lowered, and he is defiled in consequence.
His thought of God is degraded to the likeness of fallen humanity,
for the priest stands as a representative of God. This degrading
confession of man to man is the secret spring from which has flowed
much of the evil that is defiling the world. Yet to him who loves
self-indulgence, it is more pleasing to confess to a fellow mortal
than to open the soul to God. It is more palatable to human nature
to do penance than to renounce sin; it is easier to mortify the flesh
by sackcloth than to crucify fleshly lusts.
A Striking Similarity
While the Jews at Christ’s first advent secretly trampled upon
the law of God, they were outwardly rigorous in observance of its
precepts, loading it down with exactions that made obedience bur-
densome. As the Jews professed to revere the law, so do Romanists
claim to reverence the cross.
They place crosses on their churches, their altars, and their gar-
ments. Everywhere the insignia of the cross is outwardly honored
and exalted. But the teachings of Christ are buried beneath senseless
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traditions and rigorous exactions. Conscientious souls are kept in
fear of the wrath of an offended God, while many dignitaries of the
church live in luxury and sensual pleasure.
It is Satan’s constant effort to misrepresent the character of God,
the nature of sin, and the real issues at stake in the great controversy.
His sophistry gives men license to sin. At the same time he causes
false conceptions of God so that they regard Him with fear and
hate rather than with love. By perverted conceptions of the divine
attributes, heathen nations were led to believe human sacrifices
necessary to secure the favor of Deity. Horrible cruelties have been
perpetrated under the various forms of idolatry.
Union of Paganism and Christianity
The Roman Catholic Church, uniting paganism and Christian-
ity, and, like paganism, misrepresenting the character of God, has