Recurrence to the New Testament doctrine of God, and a comparison of it with the doctrine of Deity set forth in the Nicean and Athanasian creeds, will exhibit the wide departure--the absolute apostasy--that has taken place in respect of this most fundamental of all doctrines of religion--the doctrine of God. Truly "Christians" back in those early Christian centuries denied the Lord that brought them,[A] and turned literally to fables. They enthroned a conception of a negative idea of "being," which can stand in no possible relationship to man, nor man to it; and to this they ascribe divine attributes and give it title, knee and adoration which belong to God alone. Small wonder that the angel whom John saw flying in the midst of heaven having the everlasting Gospel to commit to the earth in the hour of God's judgment, in the last days, should cry aloud to the inhabitants of the earth, saying, "Fear God and give glory to Him; * * * * * * and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of water"[B]--small wonder, I repeat, that such should be part of his great message, for truly the whole world had departed from the worship of the true and living God. [Footnote A: II Peter ii:1.] [Footnote B: Rev. xiv:6, 7.] LESSON XXXVIII. (Scripture Reading Exercise.) THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST DISPLACED BY CHURCHES OF MEN. ANALYSIS I. The Christian Church. II. The Roman Hierarchy. III. Corruption of the Ministry. REFERENCES. I Cor. xii: Eph. iv. The Gospel ch. xxii. Outlines of Ecclesiastical History, Section viii, 15-31 and note 5 and 6 in that section. See also authorities cited in notes New Witness for God, ch. iv. NOTES