Allen: return to stern doctrines

Friday, August 23, 2013
    Commemoration of Rose of Lima, Contemplative, 1617
Meditation:
    Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons.
    —1 Corinthians 10:19-21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is in St. Paul’s definite, soul-stirring assertion of the wrath of God and the reality of the judgment at hand, a truth more profound than any that underlies our somewhat enfeebled ideas of universal benevolence and the determined progress of the race. There is something more true in his denunciation of idolatry as sin than in our denial that it is possible for a man to worship an idol, or in our suggestion that all idolatry is only a road to spiritual worship of the one true God... One day I think we shall return to these stern doctrines, realizing in them a truth more profound than we now know, and then we shall preach them with conviction, and being convinced ourselves we shall convince others.
    ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or ours?, London: World Dominion Press, 1927, reprinted, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1962, p. 73 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 10:19-21; Lev. 17:7; Deut. 32:16-17; Ps. 78:58; 106:37-39; Matt. 6:24; 1 Cor. 8:10-13; 10:14-16; 2 Cor. 4:4; 6:15-17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, clear all idols away. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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