Holy site

“ To this the apostle answers that the Christian church is a much nobler fabric than the Jewish temple; it is a living temple, consisting not of dead materials, but of living parts. Christ, the foundation, is a living stone. Christians are lively stones, and these make a spiritual house, and they are a holy priesthood; and, though they have no bloody sacrifices of beasts to offer, yet they have much better and more acceptable, and they have an altar too on which to present their offerings; for they offer spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. ”

“ Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? It may be understood of the church of Corinth collectively, or of every single believer among them; Christian churches are temples of God. He dwells among them by his Holy Spirit. They are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit, Eph. ”

“ The Church is called God’s holy Mountain—typified by Mount Sion, firmly settled in the eternal love, and everlasting purposes of Grace. Conspicuous and useful in the world, and which, as a great Mountain, shall fill the whole earth in the latter day. They are called a holy people; the Lord Jesus Christ is their holiness before God, Ye are compleat in him, who of God is made unto us Sanctification. Secondly, All their holiness is received from him, as the High Priest of their profession ”

“ Every such local church has Christ in the midst, is a temple of God, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit 1 Corinthians 3:16,17. When perfected in organization a local church consists of "saints, with the bishops elders and deacons." ”

“ And again—The Lord has ordained that all the most holy things pertaining to the salvation of the dead, and all the most holy conversations and correspondence with God, angels, and spirits, shall be had only in the sanctuary of His holy Temple on the earth, when prepared for that purpose by His Saints; and shall be received and administered by those who are ordained and sealed unto this power, to hold the keys of the sacred oracles of God. ”

“ If the editress of Pure Religion were half as zealous to know what the Bible teaches as she is to exhibit her wit, she would doubtless have learned that the church is not something that men organize and admit members into, but that it is "a holy temple in the Lord," "God's building, God's husbandry." ”

“ Only in the true Church of Christ can be found the fruits of the redemption; only in her is the true priesthood of the Lord. The fruits of the redemption here on earth are truth and grace, and in the hereafter eternal salvation. The divine truth, as proclaimed by Christ, is alone contained in the holy Catholic Church; and through the co-operation of the Holy Ghost it is preserved uncorrupted in this Church. The Church is the pillar and the beacon of the truth. ”

“ But I have the contemporaneous interpretation of holy Scripture; and more than this, men who practise before human tribunals know that the continuous usage of a country is the interpretation of its laws written and unwritten. But I have the contemporaneous and the continuous usage of the Church of God. The seven sacraments are institutions of Jesus Christ and every one of them interprets a cluster of truths. The existence of the Church itself is an interpretation of the words: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." ”

“ How, then, can the prophets and the apostles be foundations and at the same time Christ be the foundation beyond whom there is nothing? How do we think but figuratively of the foundation of foundations, except as he is expressly called the holiest of the holy? If, therefore, thou thinkest of the sacraments, Christ is the holiest of the holy; if thou thinkest of an obedient flock, Christ is the shepherd of shepherds; if thou thinkest of the edifice, Christ is the foundation of foundations. ”

“ Our Lord tells us, "Except ye become as little children ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven"; and again: "Narrow is the gate and strait the way that leadeth to life." Do not wonder, then, that our holy church, which is glorious and magnificent in the eyes of angels and saints, should be thought little, and lowly, and poor by the world, and the flesh, and the devil. ”

“ What has become of candour and straightforwardness? What Scripture texts or Scripture meanings or authorities of Fathers thus portray the Church? There are letters of Christ to the Asiatic Churches (Apoc. i. 3) , letters of Peter, Paul, John, and others to various Churches; frequent mention in the Acts of the Apostles of the origin and spread of Churches. What of these Churches? Were they visible to God alone and holy men, or to Christians of every rank and degree? But, doubtless, necessity is a hard weapon. ”

“ The doctrines of this Church include a belief in the Trinity, God being the infinite divine essence, Christ the human manifestation of God, and the Holy Spirit the divine power seen in all the dispensations of God; a belief in heaven and hell, with an intermediate world of spirits where both good and bad go directly after death and are there prepared respectively for heaven and for hell ”

“ A church organized as was the primitive church, with Apostles, Prophets, etc., which the inspired writers of old taught as being absolutely necessary, and a church which enjoyed the promised gifts and powers of the Holy Spirit. Such a church I found among the Latter-day Saints, one similar in all ways to the primitive church, with her divine authority, and the marvelous manifestations of the Holy Spirit as promised by Messiah to all true believers, manifestations to which thousands of good, earnest Christian men and women can bear the most direct and truthful testimony. ”

“ The Church by its very existence is a body of men and women set apart for a holy use. The New Testament word for Church, ecclesia, means a society "called out" from among other men. It exists not for common purposes, but to witness for God and for Christ, to maintain before the eyes and in all the common ways and works of men the ideal life realized in Christ and the presence and holiness of God. ”

“ The visible Church, with her apostolic ministry, her worship, her sacraments, and her various provisions for the edification of the body of Christ, is instituted and constructed on the manifest principle that the present is a probationary state, and that those who by her ministrations are brought under the obligations of the Christian covenant, are not thereby absolutely but conditionally sealed to eternal life, which is suspended on their faithful adhesion to Christ, and final perseverance in his holy ways. ”

“ We must not dare to approach to God, or to present any thing to him, but in and through Christ, depending upon his merits and mediation; for if we are accepted, it is in the Beloved. 2. Christ must now execute his priesthood in heaven, in the holy of holies, the true tabernacle which the Lord hath fixed. Thus the type must be fully answered; having finished the work of sacrificing here, he must go into heaven, to present his righteousness and to make intercession there. ”

“ The Communion of Saints." The pictures of the saints of the Old and the New Testament, of the angels who worship Christ our Saviour, and of the men blessed by Him when on earth, which shine for us in the windows, may help to give it reality in our thought. The four main walls of the church, which are supposed to represent the four Evangelists, and the pillars, "which, as the chief supports of the fabric, are said to represent the Apostles, prophets, and martyrs," may remind us also of the holy and glorious fellowship into which we have been brought. ”

“ I believe that the Church of Jesus Christ is the congregation of all the faithful who are baptized, and who believe in neither more nor less than what is taught in the Holy Scriptures, which Church is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic, having Christ for its head. And I believe that this Church exists separately, among the different languages and nations, as in the time of the Apostles. ”

“ By the impartation of spiritual life to believers and by the agency of the Holy Spirit operating in the apostles as special agents appointed to do his work, Christ built his church on earth. There was a building of the church, then, which pertained specifically to its local and visible development among men. ”

“ We do not see the Church, but we know where it is, where we can find it. The Holy Ghost calls and keeps the Church only by the Gospel. God has promised us that, where His Gospel is preached, it shall not remain without fruit; some of those who hear it will come to Christ and believe in Him. Wherever the Word of God is preached, and only where it is in use, the holy Christian Church is to be found. ”

“ Christ, present by the Holy Ghost, regenerating men by the sovereign action of the Spirit, and organizing them into himself as the living centre, is the only principle that can explain the existence of the church. ”

“ The Levitical law, the laws of clean and unclean, the tabernacle and the temple with its outer court, its holy and most holy place, the priestly order and the high priest, the bounds set around Mt. Sinai, things and persons that might not be touched without causing defilement, sacred times and seasons, these, and much more, speak in unmistakable terms of the holiness of God. We are thus taught that if sinful man is to approach unto God, it must be through the blood of atonement. ”

“ And it shall be a centre of unity to them; a church shall be set up in the world, to which the Lord will be daily adding such as shall be saved.
II. That this church shall be firmly founded and well-built: It shall be established in the top of the mountains; Christ himself will build it upon a rock; it shall be an impregnable fort upon an immovable foundation, so that the gates of hell shall neither overthrow the one nor undermine the other (Matt. xvi. 18) ; its foundations are still in the holy mountains (Ps. lxxxvii. 1) , the everlasting mountains, which cannot, which shall not, be removed. ”

“ If you are satisfied, in your sensitive powers and faculties, that God has revealed the holy Priesthood, established his kingdom upon the earth, restored the fulness of the Gospel, and set to his hand to gather the house of Israel, this will answer your purpose just as well as though you went into heaven to see for yourselves. If you believe with all your hearts, you are entitled to the blessings of the things of the kingdom. ”

“ "Forsooth, ye have heard it said that ye shall do well in this world that in the world to come ye may live happily for ever; do ye well then, and have your reward both on earth and in heaven; for I say to you that earth and heaven are not two but one; and this one is that which ye know, and are each one of you a part of, to wit, the Holy Church, and in each one of you dwelleth the life of the Church, unless ye slay it. ”

“ Here is the life of holiness as the Thrice Holy gives it: the Father, the first, the Holy One, making holy; the Son, the second, His Holy One, in whom we are; the Spirit, the third, who dwells in us, and through whom we abide in Christ, and Christ in us. Thus it is that the Thrice Holy makes us holy. ”

“ For one single person may oftentimes be broken, as it seemeth to himself, but the whole Body of Holy Church was never broken, nor never shall be, without end. And therefore a sure thing it is, a good and a gracious, to will meekly and mightily to be fastened and oned to our Mother, Holy Church, that is. ”

“ It is the Catholic Church only which retains the true worship. This Church is the fountain of truth, it is the house of faith, it is the temple of God. If any one either comes not into this Church, or departs from it, his eternal salvation is desperate. No one must flatter himself obsti­nately, for his soul and salvation are at stake. ”

“ Temples, utensils, lands, &c. devoted and lawfully separated by man, for holy uses, are holy, as justly related to God by that lawful separation. To say as some do, that They are indeed consecrated and separated, but not holy, is to be ridiculously wise by self-contradiction, and the masterly use of the word holy, contrary to custom and themselves. ”

“ Those who, with a knowledge of the truth from the Scriptures, had also the Spirit and grace of God, and who, in the night of their bitter trial, had patiently waited, searching the Bible for clearer light,—these saw the truth concerning the sanctuary in heaven and the Saviour's change of ministration, and by faith they followed Him in His work in the sanctuary above. ”

“ With temple, tabernacle or altars; without priests or Levites, and almost without ceremonies, it made known at once its character and purpose as spiritual and not carnal, as, in fact, a kingdom of God “not of this world.” Its only authority was
THE WORD OF GOD
We have already seen that the only creed of the primitive Church was the central truth of God’s revelation to man—“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The whole New Testament is but an expansion of this thought. ”

“ The Church is the living Temple of God, into which believers must be builded as so many living stones. It is his Body, and his Body is no more to be dispensed with than his Soul; otherwise we could not call her always visible, for to some she would be visible, to others only invisible, and then there would be no visible Catholic Church. ”

“ They point out six hundred roads to heaven, when Christ says there is but one,—"One Lord, one faith, and one baptism." The churches are simply guessing institutions, and their creeds so many stereotyped systems of guess-work. How much has been learned, or what important questions have been settled, either in religion or morals, by the nearly two thousand years' reading and study of the Christian Bible? The six hundred jarring churches, and their constantly increasing number, furnish a sufficient answer to this question. ”