DR. LEHMANN of New York’s Message.
WITH much peace and joy I have to tell the story of my conversion from the Roman Catholic priesthood into the glorious light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The conversion of a Roman Catholic priest is a very special miracle of God. There is no other way to explain it. It is hard to put into words what happens to the soul; it undergoes this wonderful transformation by the Grace of God. One’s soul is enlightened by faith and led out of darkness into light. A priest is taught that he is “another Christ,” able to offer sacrifice for sin daily at an altar, able to forgive the sins of people in confession, able to mediate between God and man.
But by the grace of God, by an act of God, I and others like me have been able to come out from that pretended position of being “another Christ,” and to humble ourselves under God, and to confess that we are not another Christ, but “another sinner” saved by Christ. But that is something that the heart of man does not like—it doesn’t like to humble itself. It is not by any human means that this change can come about in the heart of man, so that he comes down, tumbling down, head over heels, as it were, from that high, exalted, but false position; pretending to be able to do what Christ alone can do, admitting that he is like other people, born a sinner and needing to be saved by Jesus Christ, who is the only Saviour. This, therefore, is the story I tell of my spiritual conversion. Like the blind man in the Gospel who was cured and made to see by Christ, when I am asked about it, I say—like him—”How it came about, I do not know. All I know is that once I was blind, and now I see.”
I would like to tell you all the details of the happenings to my soul personally in my conversion. But there is another side to the Roman Catholic question. There are, indeed, two aspects to the Roman Catholic Church; one is the false teaching in religion, the other is political intrigue amongst nations. One is a counterpart of the other. In fact, one cannot understand the political intrigues of the Roman Catholic Church without understanding its religious teachings.
*By the kind permission of the Churchman’s Magazine (June) we reprint the report of Dr. Lehmann’s Message. This Message is being printed by the Protestant Truth Society, 184 Fleet Street, London, price 4d (post free).
By its Priesthood, by its teachings about Purgatory, and by its Pope, the Roman Catholic Church is able to grip the souls of men and to place fear in their hearts. Without its Priesthood, without its Purgatory, without its Pope, man—they claim—cannot be saved, he cannot escape Hell. And when you grip the souls of men then you keep them in subjection and they look for the offering of masses because men fear most what is going to happen to them after death. It has always been the principle and practice of priests from the very beginning of the world to use the sacred religious instincts of mankind to hold them in subjection. It was only when Christ came and gave His Gospel and accomplished the work of our Redemption that we began to realise that the saved man is a free man, that the man who is saved by Christ and is sure of salvation, is no longer the slave of other men, but can stand up and face other men boldly. By the liberation of men from sin, and the making of them partakers of God’s own nature, they become sons of God. Therefore, I can say that my soul is like a bird that has escaped from the snare of the fowler.
But there still remains, even after Christ has come with His great Gospel of liberation, there remains this old idea of a sacrificial priesthood, that claims sole and exclusive power over all men, over their souls and bodies. And this power over men they sell to the oppressors of peoples and nations, in order to keep people in subjection and build up power and wealth for themselves.
This has been the sad history of the Roman Catholic Church, and I need not remind you of the past history of it, in your fight against the Roman Catholic Church which has tried—but has not been able—to regain this power over you. To-day, more than ever, we need to be reminded of this fact, because too many people have forgotten how their principles are taken from them and how they are kept in subjection by the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church. To-day, the world is in a state of crisis, and all crises of history have been largely religious. All the wars of history have been centred around religion. This crisis we are now in is a theological crisis and we must therefore remind ourselves of the source of it, and looking on the facts of past history you will find, right here in your midst, the same enemy as your forefathers had to fight. We in America are not very conscious of this. We are becoming, however, conscious of the growing power of the Roman Church.
We have not the same strong traditions of the Protestant faith that you have, because you are living on the soil where your ancestors shed their blood in defence of the faith that you have now, and of the principles you still enjoy. The Protestants in America are three thousand miles remote from that, and they have not the same reminders as you have. They have allowed themselves to become very complacent and indifferent to the heritage they have received from you at second-hand, and they have allowed the Roman Catholic Church and its power to creep in amongst them and to seize power over almost every phase of American life. Let me quote for you a warning of a Protestant leader aware of this.
Dr. Ayer, writing a series of articles in New York, says as follows:—“Protestantism as a religious and social force in America is rapidly being driven into a corner and soon will be fighting for its very life if the present trend continues,” and further: “We have noted the growth of the Roman Catholic Church, its powerful personnel, its ever-expanding institutions, its alertness and efficiency, its ability to get tremendous
publicity for all its causes, and its religious pageantry, all of which is pushing Protestant Christianity out of the publicity picture, making the religious public feel that the faith on which our nation was largely founded is now passé.”
Americans have to be reminded that everything they have of good in their country has as a source the Protestant faith.