The Eliminator; or, Skeleton Keys to Sacerdotal Secrets

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Westbrook Richard Brodhead. The Eliminator; or, Skeleton Keys to Sacerdotal Secrets

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

PREFACE

CHAPTER I. THE WHOLE TRUTH

CHAPTER II. SACERDOTALISM IMPEACHED

CHAPTER III. THE FABULOUS CLAIMS OF JUDAISM

CHAPTER IV. MOSES AND THE PENTATEUCH

CHAPTER V. ANCIENT SYMBOLISM AND MODERN LITERALISM

CHAPTER VI. ASTRAL KEYS TO BIBLE STORIES

CHAPTER VII. THE FABLE OF THE FALL

CHAPTER VIII. SEARCH FOR THE “LAST ADAM”

CHAPTER IX. WHAT IS KNOWN OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

CHAPTER X. THE DRAMA OF THE GOSPELS

CHAPTER XI. THE IDEAL CHRIST

CHAPTER XII. JESUS AND OTHER CHRISTS

CHAPTER XIII. A REVERENT CRITIQUE ON JESUS

CHAPTER XIV. A FEW FRAGMENTS

CHAPTER XV. BLOOD-SALVATION

CHAPTER XVI. THINGS THAT REMAIN

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Many things in this book will greatly shock, and even give heartfelt pain to, numerous persons whom I greatly respect. I have a large share of the love of approbation, and naturally desire the good opinion of those with whom I have been associated in a long life. There is no pleasure in the fact that I have to stand quite alone in the eyes of nearly all Christendom. There is no satisfaction in being deemed a disturber of the peace of the great majority of those “professing and calling themselves Christians.” But, at the same time, I must not be indifferent in matters where I believe truth is concerned.

Before I withdrew from the orthodox ministry I used to wonder why God in his gracious providence had not seen fit to so order events as to give us a credible and undoubted history of the incarnation and birth of his Son Jesus Christ, and why that Saviour, who had come to repair the great evils inflicted upon our race by Adam, had never once mentioned that unfortunate fall.

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3d. The third article of impeachment, under the general charge of infidelity is, that sacerdotalists teach dogmas which they do not believe themselves. They do not all believe, ex animo, the distinctive dogmas of the orthodox creeds—that God is angry with the great body of mankind, that his wrath is a burning flame, and that there is, as to a majority of men, but a moment’s time and a point of space between them and eternal torture more terrible than imagination can conceive or language describe. It is well said that “Actions speak louder than words;” and we need only ask the question, “Do ministers who profess to believe these horrible dogmas preach as if they really believed them?” Notice the general deportment of the clergy at the summer resort, at the seaside, or on the mountain-top, and say whether they can possibly believe what for eight or nine months they have been preaching in their now closed churches. Listen to the private conversation of our evangelists at the camp-meeting or at the meetings of ecclesiastical bodies, and then conclude, if you can, that they believe what they teach.

Take, if you please, the case of one of our best-known evangelical ministers, a member of the strictest of our orthodox sects, who spends a large proportion of his time in studying the ways of insects, and who would chase a pismire across the continent to find out its habits. Can a pastor believe in his heart the dogmas of the Westminster Confession, and yet devote so much time to ants? It is impossible. He may deceive himself; he cannot deceive others.

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