The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity

The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity – August 25, 2024

Psalm 74; Leviticus 19:9-18; Galatians 3:16-22

St. Luke 10:23-37

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The certain man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho is representative of mankind. He is every man. He is you in this parable. He is going the wrong way. He is leaving Jerusalem, the city of peace which God has appointed for His holy habitation.[1] He is going to Jericho, the city that God commanded never to be rebuilt. In fact, God said that should Jericho be rebuilt, it would be built in the blood of the firstborn and youngest sons of the one who rebuilt it.[2] In the days of evil king Ahab, Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho and sacrificed both his firstborn and youngest sons to Baal in the process.[3] In other words, the man going from Jerusalem to Jericho describes humanity’s fall into sin and the ever-present desire to sin that clings to our flesh.

The thieves who meet humanity on the road are Temptation and Satan. Every day of our journey on this side of glory, we are beset by Temptation and Satan. In his fallen state, man falls victim to these thieves who leave him half dead. He is “half dead” because he is spiritually dead even if he is physically alive.[4] The man is left helpless to save himself. He lays dying on the road to perdition and there is nothing he can do to prevent his damnation.[5]

At this fortunate moment, a priest and a Levite come down the road as well. Together, these represent the Mosaic Law and the Levitical priesthood, specifically the Temple regulations and sacrifices. The priest and the Levite are also coming down from Jerusalem. They have finished their service at the Temple and are returning to their homes. This signifies that the Law and the sacrifices have done their job. They have shown man his sin, revealing to him the ways in which he has disobeyed God’s will.[6] The sacrifices have accomplished their duty in pointing man to the mercy of God and His forgiveness. There is nothing left for them to do because faith in the Law and faith in the sacrifices of goats and sheep cannot save the man.[7] Their duty is accomplished and so both pass by on the other side of the road.

Finally, a Samaritan, who is on a journey, comes to the man. The Samaritan is far from his home. He is something other than the man himself and yet descends into the ditch to be with the man. The Samaritan is the very figure of our Lord, Jesus Christ. He journeys from the Father, into our flesh to be with us. He descends from His heavenly throne into the ditch of creation to be with His beloved mankind.[8]

Seeing the sorry state of man, God has compassion on him. He is moved in His inward being and determines to rescue man.[9] God is moved by His great love for man to descend into our flesh, into our sorry state. Christ bandages man’s wounds with oil and wine. The oil is the consolation of a clean conscience before God, the comfort of the Holy Spirit, the knowledge of the Gospel—Christ’s own sacrifice for your sins that you would be reconciled to the Father. The wine, which stings as it cleans and disinfects the wounds, is the cross given to all who believe to bear in this life.[10] This cross is affliction, give to man by God that he would ever be mindful of the sorry state which is the result of sin. This sting reminds man that he is not made for sin nor to endure in this physical life forever but has the eternal life of glory to live for.[11]

Christ raises man up out of the muck and mire of our sin and places him on His own beast of burden. He gives us His relief, His place upon the animal, and takes for Himself the burden of our sin.[12] He walks in our place. His feet tread the burning sand and sharp rocks created by the fall of our first parents in our stead. That which we deserve, Chris endures for our sakes.

Upon this beast of burden, Christ carries man to the inn. This inn is the established location for the care of man. It is the hospice designed to care for man as he concludes his life on this side of glory and enters into eternity. It is the hospital where man is nursed back to health to face life on this side of glory. It is the gym where man is trained, strengthened, and equipped to life the life of the righteous man before the world. The inn is the Church. It is that place where the beloved of God gather to hear the Word of God and receive His holy gifts in the Sacraments.

These Sacraments are the two denarii which the Samaritan given to the innkeeper. They are the means given to provide for the care of Christians: Holy Baptism to wash away sin and rebirth the Christian as one born of God, and the Holy Supper, given to feed, strengthen, form, and forgive the Christian as he continues the journey on this side of glory.

To whom are these denarii given? They are given to the innkeeper, the man given authority to administer the Holy Sacraments of God. The innkeeper is the pastor, whose solemn duty it is to preach the Word of God and administer the Holy Sacraments for the forgiveness of sins and the strengthening of Christians in body and soul.[13] He stands in the stead of the Samaritan who has delivered the injured man to the inn and cares for him as the Samaritan has directed.[14] He receives his orders from the Samaritan and is called to execute them according to that divine command.

Finally, the Samaritan promises to return. He will return to repay the innkeeper and to retrieve the injured man as the Samaritan returns on His journey to His Father. Christ has promised to return to gather His elect into the heavenly mansions He has prepared.[15] He has also promised to return and give to His servants, His undershepherds, the honor due their service. Pastors will be judged more harshly than all others because of the severity of their charge but they will also be rewarded more handsomely for their faithful service because of the value of the souls given to their care.[16]

Now, this parable is given to the certain lawyer as the answer to the question, “And who is my neighbor?” The lawyer is trying to find the loophole in the commandment to love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. He doesn’t want to know who it is he must love. He wants to know who he doesn’t have to love to inherit eternal life. He wants to narrow the field and make it possible to keep the Law of God.

The beauty of the parable is that Christ transitions the definition from passive to active. The lawyer defines the neighbor as the one who needs help—the passive person in need. Jesus defines the neighbor as the one who shows mercy—the active person who helps. Even the lawyer acknowledges this as being true. When asked who was a neighbor to the man who fell among thieves, the lawyer responds that it was the Samaritan, the one who showed mercy who was his neighbor. And Jesus responds, “Go and do likewise.”

The parable is unquestionably about our salvation being achieved by Christ alone. It is about the inability of man to save himself in any way, shape or form. Every step of the man’s healing is the work of the Samaritan, not the man himself. And yet, Jesus’ command remains, “Go and do likewise.” For those who have been grafted into Christ, who are the baptized children of the Father and who find themselves united to THE Good Samaritan, it is a necessary consequence that we find ourselves imitating Him. We are to look to Christ our Salvation and see the very model of the perfect man. We are to look to Him and see what righteousness is. “Who may abide in the Tabernacle of the Lord? Who may dwell in His holy hill? He who walks uprightly and works righteousness and speaks truth in his heart.”[17]  “To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul…Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation…Good and upright is the Lord; therefore He teaches sinners in the way.”[18]

Everyone in the world is a candidate for you to show mercy to but not everyone in the world has been placed before you. You have been placed in a specific location with particular people around you. These are your neighbors, and these are the people for whom you are called to be a neighbor. No one chooses for whom he is a neighbor. God has placed you in a particular place among particular people. It is their needs, their bodies and souls to which you have been called to show mercy—not for the sake of earning the inheritance of eternal life but as one who has been shown the ways of the Lord and taught to walk along His paths. 

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

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[1] Isaiah 4:3.

[2] Joshua 6:26.

[3] 1 Kings 16:34.

[4] Genesis 2:17.

[5] Psalm 14:1-3.

[6] Romans 3:19-20.

[7] Hebrews 9:11-15.

[8] St. John 1:14.

[9] St. John 3:16.

[10] St. Mark 10:39.

[11] 2 Corinthians 12:7.

[12] 2 Corinthians 5:21.

[13] 1 Corinthians 4:1; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; Romans 15:4.

[14] St. John 20:21-23.

[15] Acts 1:11; St. John 14:1-4.

[16] James 3:1; 1 Timothy 3:1.

[17] Psalm 15:1-2.

[18] Psalm 25:1, 4, 8.

In Memoriam + Susan Kay Fields +

In Memoriam + Susan Kay Fields + – November 1, 2022

Psalm 23; Job 19:21-27; Romans 3:19-28

St. Luke 2:25-32

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Although Scripture does not tell us his actual age, it is presumed that Simeon is an old man when he sings the words just read. “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant, depart in peace, according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy Salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples.”[1] Presumably many years before, the Lord revealed to Simeon that he would not die until he had seen the coming of the Lord’s Christ. When Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus to the Temple, Simeon joyfully took up the child and burst forth in song.

What Simeon is praying for is death. He is praying that God would release him from this veil of tears because the Word of God had been fulfilled. The Savior had been born to save the world from sin. Confident that the Christ had come to forgive his sins, Simeon tells God that he is ready to die in peace.

Be very careful not to misunderstand these words of Simeon. When he asks to depart in peace, Simeon is not asking for a quiet death. He is not praying to fall asleep with a pleasant dream and simply not wake up on this side of glory. The peace in which Simeon prays to depart is peace with God. This peace is only possible with the coming of the Savior, the coming of the Son of God in human flesh, the coming of Jesus Christ.

St. Paul writes that “by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in [God’s] sight…for there is no difference; all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”[2] To be justified in God’s sight is to be declared, to be made, righteous, and yet there is nothing to be done according to the deeds of the law for man to make himself righteous. All have fallen short. All have sinned. All have sinned first through the original sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve, and then through the sins of your own flesh; sins in thought, word, and deed.

What are these sins? They are the works of the flesh: adultery, fornication, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, wrath, selfishness, dissensions, envy, murder, drunkenness, and the like.[3] Anything that is contrary to the will of God is sin and there is no one who is free from sin. All have fallen short of the glory of God.

Falling short of God’s glory would not present a problem if God was unjust. If God was unfair, unjust, and played by inconsistent rules, then sin would not matter. God would choose those whom He likes, or who please Him, and they would be saved. Those He doesn’t like; they would be damned. But the True and Living God cannot be persuaded. He cannot be bribed. He is not partial and He is not unfair. God is just.

God’s justice means that the only fair punishment for rebelling against His Word is death…eternal death. All sin is worthy of eternal death no matter how slight in your eyes because all sin is a despising of the God who created you. According to God’s justice alone, man does not stand a chance.

The evidence of sin and the consequences thereof lay before us today. Susan died because of sin. Do not misunderstand me, she did not die because God was punishing a specific sin. God is not so petty as to punish a lewd joke with a terrible disease. No; Susan died because she is human and in being human, she has participated in the sins common to all mankind. The wages of sin is death.

Thanks be to God that He is not only just. He is also the justifier of man. What does this mean? It means that God Himself is the one who took on human flesh. It means that God Himself lived a perfect life. He was born without sin because He was born of a virgin, without inheriting the sin of Adam. As Jesus walked through Galilee and Judea, teaching and healing, He was also gathering the sin of man upon His shoulders. When the Pharisees and the mob took Him to Pilate and demanded Jesus be crucified, He humbly submitted to an unjust death.

Where God is perfectly just, man is unjust. Therefore, God submitted Himself to an unjust death. The sins of man that He bore on His shoulders, He carried with Him to the cross. As Jesus Christ breathed out His final breath on the cross, He died the death that every human deserves. He endured the anguish not only of His own torturous death on the cross, but the physical and spiritual torment due to every human at every time and in every place. There is no suffering common to man which our Lord did not endure.

This same Jesus rested in the tomb for three days and then rose again. Christ rose from the dead not only because He is God, but because death had no claim to Him. He had not sinned in any way. The wages of sin is death and He had not earned death. Because of this, Jesus broke the power of death. He broke the chains of death. He ripped the teeth out of the vicious dog.

This is what Jesus means when He says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.”[4] The death and resurrection of Jesus is the opening of the doorway to eternal life. Death no longer has dominion over those who are in Christ Jesus. Thus, when Simeon prays for a peaceful death, he is not rushing to die. He is not trying to hurry along. He is not looking for a death with dignity. He is asking that God would deliver to him the joys of salvation, that which has been promised to him in the death and resurrection of the Christ.

There was not a moment of Susan’s illness that was not torturous. Aggressive cancer is an ugly sight. It is an ugly sight because it is a visual reminder of the ugliness and the terrible effects of sin. It is the body consuming itself through growth against the will of man and the will of God. How can a just and merciful God allow such suffering, especially to one of His dear children?

Susan was a humble woman. A part of her humility was never bothering to question why God brought her such suffering. Susan’s faith, her trust in God, was an example to us all. And yet, not all of us are capable of such humility. We may question. We may worry.

The 17^th century pastor and hymnwriter, Paul Gerhardt, can help us to understand Susan’s humility, and possibly help us to imitate her great faith:

8    Leave all to His direction;

            In wisdom He doth reign,

      And in a way most wondrous

            His course He will maintain.

      Soon He, His promise keeping,

            With wonder-working skill

      Shall put away the sorrows

            That now thy spirit fill.

9    A while His consolation

            He may to thee deny,

      And seem as though in trial

            He far from thee would fly;

      A while distress and anguish

            May compass thee around,

      Nor to thy supplication

            An answering voice be found.

 

10  But if thou perseverest,

            Thou shalt deliverance find.

      Behold, all unexpected

            He will thy soul unbind

      And from the heavy burden

            Thy heart will soon set free;

      And thou wilt see the blessing

            He had in mind for thee.

 

11  O faithful child of heaven,

            How blessed shalt thou be!

      With songs of glad thanksgiving

            A crown awaiteth thee.

      Into thy hand thy Maker

            Will give the victor’s palm,

      And thou to thy Deliverer

                  Shalt sing a joyous psalm.

(Paul Gerhardt, Commit Whatever Grieves Thee, stanzas 8-11, translation as found in The Lutheran Hymnal. Text is in the public domain.)

On this side of glory, the children of God will continue to suffer because there is sin in the world. There is sin in our flesh. Satan and his demons still lurk in the shadows and still seek to destroy our faith that we would join them in their eternal suffering. And yet God never leaves us alone. What is a lifetime of suffering compared to an eternity of bliss in the presence of Christ? What is a year of cancer compared to an eternity of perfected glory? What is the pain of seeing a loved one suffer compared to an eternity of seeing your Savior with your own two eyes?

We are brought together today because of death. We mourn the loss of Susan because we can no longer reach out and hold her. We can no longer spend evenings talking and laughing together. It is just and right to mourn because death is not good. Death is not the friend of anyone. It is not a part of the circle of life.

However, we also gather today to look forward. We look forward to the day when all who have died will be raised. There will come a day when Christ returns to gather His people as a mother hen gathers her flock. On that day, all who have died in Christ, all who believe in Christ alone for their salvation, all who look to Him as the way, the truth, and the life will be reunited for all eternity. We shall open our eyes and see the face of Christ in glory.

However, on that day, all who do not follow the way, the truth, and the life will also be raised, but they will be raised to everlasting destruction. These will look to the face of Christ and see only judgement. These will only receive the justice of God, a just punishment for their sin. This eternal punishment is far worse than any human can imagine.

It is for this reason that we, like Susan, must rely on Christ. We must go to where He has promised to be—in His Word and Sacraments. We must gather with the church so that our bodies and souls will be fed on the Bread from heaven. We must train our hearts, minds, bodies, and souls to trust on Jesus with everything that we have, praying that He would forgive our sins and strengthen us against the temptations of evil.

For a while, God may deny His consolations, His comforts to you. Susan certainly endured such a while. It may seem as though God is far off while distress and anguish surround you. And yet, if your faith perseveres, that is, if you trust that every act of God is for the good of those that love Him, then you know that He will find a way to bless you. When you least expect it, God will unbind your soul, releasing you from the burden of your sins, from pain and suffering. In Susan’s case, this meant calling her home to His side.

And then, with songs of glad thanksgiving, there will come the day when all His saints shall arise. With crowns of gold and palm branches of victory held high, the saints of God will sing His praises day and night. What a joyous day that will be. What a beautiful sight to behold. And all those who repent and believe in Christ will be there—with angels and archangels, with all the company of heaven, with Susan; and we will laud and magnify the glorious name of Christ forever and ever.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

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[1] St. Luke 2:29-30.

[2] Romans 3:20, 22-23.

[3] Galatians 5:19-21.

[4] St. John 14:6.

The Commemoration of the Reformation

The Commemoration of the Reformation – October 30, 2022

Psalm 34; Revelation 14:6-7; Romans 3:19-28

St. Matthew 11:12-19

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The term “antichrist” is used in the Scriptures in both a broad and narrow sense. The broad sense can be found in 1 John 2, in which all false teachers are called “antichrists.”[1] This broad sense is the plain understanding of the word. False teachers stand opposed to Christ, making them “anti-Christ,” “against the Christ.”

The narrow sense of the term “antichrist” is most clearly described in St. Paul’s second letter to the Church in Thessalonica, where he writes as follows:

Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, ² not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. ³ Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, ⁴ who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

⁵ Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? ⁶ And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. ⁷ For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. ⁸ And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. ⁹ The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, ¹⁰ and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. ¹¹ And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, ¹² that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.[2]

With St. Paul, we can identify 5 marks of this narrow use of the term “Antichrist.”[3] First, the position taken by the Antichrist is called the “falling away,” or apostacy. This means that the Antichrist will lead Christians away from the true doctrine of the Christ, especially the central doctrine of the Scriptures—that “man cannot be justified before God by his own strength, merits, or works, but is freely justified for Christ’s sake, through faith, when he believes that he is received into favor, and that his sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake, who, by His death, has made satisfaction for your sins.”[4]

The second mark of the Antichrist is that he will sit in the temple of God, that is, he will arise from within the Church itself. While it is tempting to claim any number of evil political leaders as “the Antichrist,” this would be contrary to Scripture. The Antichrist shall sit himself within the Church of God and attempt to deceive God’s children from such a position within the Church.

Third, the Antichrist will conduct himself in accord with this seat within the church, namely, he will act as if he was God, Himself. The Antichrist will claim supreme authority over man, refusing to submit to any other authority. He will claim to be above the authority of all creation and to be the soul source of God’s interaction with man.

The fourth mark of the Antichrist is that although he is not Satan himself, his coming and his reign will be built and backed by all manner of lying powers, signs, and wonders. Christ warns us that many will come in His name and even perform miracles, claiming to be from God.[5] All those claiming to be from God must be judged by their doctrine, and that according to the Word of God.

The final mark of the Antichrist is that he will remain until the return of Christ. The Lord will destroy the Antichrist at His visible return and yet, as St. John writes, “As we have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists.”[6] It is this final mark that tells us the term “Antichrist,” when used in this narrow sense, refers not to an individual person, but to an office. An office endures longer than the lifetime of one man and yet remains unchanged until God destroys it.

These five marks are all fulfilled in the office of the Papacy, or the Roman Pope. At the Council of Trent, the Papacy officially declared the biblical doctrine of justification to be accursed, saying that anyone who teaches that man is declared righteous freely through the merits of Christ and cannot add to his own salvation according to his own works is anathema, that is, condemned to hell. Thus, in the Papacy, we can see the greatest and most pronounced “falling away” from the most fundamental article of faith by which man is saved.

Certainly, there are many others in the world who deny the doctrine of Justification, but the Papacy promotes such false doctrine from within the Christian Church. What I mean is that there are Christians in the Roman Catholic Church. There are Christians because they still receive Holy Baptism in the Name of the Triune God. The Holy Scriptures are still read and proclaimed. It is through these means that the Holy Spirit works faith in the hearts of man. It is a miracle of God that there are Christians who, despite the false teachings of the Pope and the seductive nature of the Church body to which they belong, still cling to faith in Christ, trusting in the death and resurrection of Jesus alone for their salvation.

In 1302, Pope Boniface VIII issued Unam Sanctum, declaring that it is necessary for salvation that man be subject to the Roman Pope above all others. This is a matter of official doctrine in the Roman Catholic Church. It is necessary for salvation that man be subject to the Pope above all other authorities on earth. This means that the Pope is above any criticism. It means the Pope alone is supreme in the Church and the world. He submits to no one.

Perhaps the most seductive to the eyes of man are the numerous reports of miracles, visions, and wonders related to the Roman Pontiff. Marian apparitions, miracles of healing, and statues that weep, bleed, or heal are all said to point to the validity of the papacy. In fact, these signs point to the contrary. Since they do not point to Christ, but instead to a man who claims greater authority than the Word of God, they are demonic in origin. I do not deny that some of these signs and wonders have occurred. In fact, I’m certain they have. However, they are signs fulfilling precisely the words of our Lord: “We played the flute for you and you did not dance; we mourned to you, and you did not lament.”[7]

Finally, in the papacy, we see an office that for a time after the apostles, remained beneath a veil. The early bishops of Rome were pious Christians who sought to lead the flocks God placed under their authority according to the Word of God. But after a time, and certainly by the 14^th century, the nature of the Papacy was revealed to be the very seat of the Antichrist. It is an office which will endure until the return of Christ, when He will destroy the Papacy, along with all who fight against Christ and His reign in the Church.

Why is it worth studying the office of the Antichrist? St. Paul told us that he wrote concerning the man of lawlessness that you would not be “soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter.”[8] A proper understanding of the Antichrist is not necessary for salvation. Salvation is only gained by faith in Christ, a true understanding of the Son of God who took on human flesh to die on behalf of the sin of man, making atonement to the Father and sending His Holy Spirit to bestow such faith on man.

An understanding of the Antichrist serves as both a warning and a comfort. It is a warning in that it draws your attention to the one thing most needful—faith in Jesus Christ. It is a warning against fascination with the mysteries of God which He has chosen not to reveal to man. It is a warning against the seductive signs, wonders, and claims to history of the Roman Catholic Church.

It is a warning against seeing different churches as simply different social clubs. There are doctrinal differences between church bodies and doctrine is important. It is important whether you confess the biblical teaching that the Body and Blood of Jesus is truly present in the Holy Communion. It is important if you confess against the clear teaching of Scripture that one man is given all authority in heaven and earth to bestow salvation on whomever he chooses. These differences matter because given time, false doctrine will destroy faith. Even though there are Christians within the Roman Catholic Church, these Christians are in danger. They are in danger of falling into the trap of the Papacy and placing their faith in the salvation of the Pope, rather than the salvation of Jesus Christ.

The doctrine of the Antichrist is also a comfort, a consolation for your conscience because it forces you to examine the true doctrine of the Scriptures. Here you will find that it is not by your works that you are saved. You will find that there is nothing you can do to save yourself. There is no work you can perform, no amount you can pay, no decision you can make to escape the punishment of hell.

Only the perfect life of Jesus, who willingly kept the Law of God perfect from the moment of His conception to His death on the cross, merits salvation. Only the sacrifice of Jesus on Mount Calvary, willingly offered to the Father on your behalf, can atone for you sin. Only the work of the Holy Spirit, who has called you by the Word of God, the Holy Gospel, can draw you to salvation.

This is a comfort because it does not rely on you. It does not rely on how you feel or how much you understand. Your salvation relies on the Blood of Jesus, shed for you, and the faith bestowed upon you by God to cling to this Word of promise. The Pope in Rome would have you kneel before him in submission to his claim to authority. Jesus Christ submitted to death, even death on a cross for you. We now kneel before Jesus Christ alone, as He alone has called you by the Holy Gospel to join Him in eternity.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

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[1] 1 John 2:18.

[2] 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, quoted from the New King James Version (Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1982).

[3] Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, Volume 3 (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1953), 462-469.

[4] AC IV.

[5] St. Matthew 24:24.

[6] 1 John 2:18.

[7] St. Matthew 11:17.

[8] 2 Thessalonians 2:2.