History of the Church #16

(BRIEF) CHURCH HISTORY
From the multi-volume work of Philip Schaff
(late 1800s)
WORSHIP IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE 
Synagogue
As the Christian Church rests historically on the Jewish Church,
so Christian worship and the congregational organization rest on
that of the synagogue, and cannot be well understood without it.
The synagogue was and is still an institution of immense
conservative power. It was the local centre of the religious and
social life of the Jews, as the temple of Jerusalem was the cen-
tre of their national life. It was a school as well as a church,
and the nursery and guardian of all that is peculiar in this
peculiar people. It dates probably from the age of the
captivity and of Ezra. It was fully organized at the time of
Christ and the apostles, and used by them as a basis of their
public instruction. It survived the temple, and continues to
this day unaltered in its essential features, the chief nursery
and protection of the Jewish nationality and religion.
The term "synagogue" (like our word church) signifies first
the congregation, then also the building where the congregation
meet for public worship. Every town, however small, had a
synagogue, or at least a place of prayer in a private house or in
the open air (usually near a river or the sea-shore, on account
of the ceremonial washings). Ten men were sufficient to const-
itute a religious assembly. "Moses from generations of old hath
in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues
every Sabbath." To erect a synagogue was considered a work of
piety and public usefulness. In large cities, as Alexandria and
Rome, there were many; in Jerusalem, about four hundred for the
various sects and the Hellenists from different countries.
1. The Building.--Was a plain, rectangular hall of no peculiar
style of architecture, and in its inner arrangement somewhat
resembling the Tabernacle and the Temple. It had benches, the
higher ones ("the uppermost seats") for the elders and richer
members, a reading-desk or pulpit, and a wooden ark or closet
for the sacred rolls (called " Copheret" or Mercy Seat, also 
"Aaron"). The last corresponded to the Holy of Holies in the
Tabernacle and the Temple. A sacred light was kept burning as
a symbol of the divine law, in imitation of the light in the
Temple, but there is no mention made of it in the Talmud. Other
lamps were brought in by devout worshippers at the beginning of
the Sabbath (Friday evening). Alms-boxes were provided near the
door, as in the Temple, one for the poor in Jerusalem, another
for local charities. Paul imitated the example by collecting
alms for the poor Christians in Jerusalem. There was no artistic
(except vegetable) ornamentation; for the second commandment
strictly forbids all images of the Deity as idolatrous. In this,
as in many other respects, the Mohammedan mosque, with its severe
iconoclastic simplicity, is a second edition of the synagogue.   
The building was erected on the most elevated spot of the
neighborhood, and no house was allowed to overtop it. In the
absence of a commanding site, a tall pole from the roof rendered
it conspicuous.
2. Organization.--Every synagogue had a president, a number of
elders (Zekenim) equal in rank, a reader and interpreter, one
or more envoys or clerks, called "messengers" (Sheliach), and a
sexton or beadle (Chazzan) for the humbler mechanical services!
There were also deacons (Gabae zedaka) for the collection of alms
in money and produce. Ten or more wealthy men at leisure, called
Batlanim, represented the congregation at every service. Each
synagogue formed an independent republic, but kept up a regular
correspondence with other synagogues. It was also a civil and
religious court, and had power to excommunicate and to scourge
offenders. 
3. Worship.--It was simple, but rather long, and embraced three
elements, devotional, didactic, and ritualistic. It included
prayer, song, reading, and exposition of the Scripture, the rite
of circumcision, and ceremonial washings. The bloody sacrifices
were confined to the temple and ceased with its destruction; they
were fulfilled in the eternal sacrifice on the cross. The prayers
and songs were chiefly taken from the Psalter, which may be
called the first liturgy and hymn book.
The opening prayer was called the Shema or Keriath Shema, and
consisted of two introductory benedictions, the reading of the
Ten Commandments (afterward abandoned) and several sections of
the Pentateuch, namely, Deut. 6:4-9; 11:13-21; Num.15:37-41.
Then followed the eighteen prayers and benedictions (Berachoth). 
This is one of them: 
"Bestow peace, happiness, blessing, grace, mercy, and compassion
upon us and upon the whole of Israel, thy people. Our Father,
bless us all unitedly with the light of thy countenance, for in
the light of thy countenance didst thou give to us, O Lord our
God, the law of life, lovingkindness, justice, blessing,
compassion, life, and peace. May it please thee to bless thy
people Israel at all times, and in every moment, with peace.
Blessed art thou, O Lord, who blessest thy people Israel with
peace." 
These benedictions are traced in the Mishna to the one hundred
and twenty elders of the Great Synagogue. They were no doubt of
gradual growth, some dating from the Maccabean struggles, some
from the Roman ascendancy. The prayers were offered by a reader,
and the congregation responded "Amen." This custom passed into
the Christian church.
The didactic and homiletical part of worship was based on the
Hebrew Scriptures. A lesson from the Law (called parasha), and
one from the Prophets (haphthara) were read in the original, and
followed by a paraphrase or commentary and homily (miidrash) in
the vernacular Aramaic or Greek. A benediction and the "Amen"
of the people closed the service.
As there was no proper priesthood outside of Jerusalem, any Jew
of age might get up to read the lessons, offer prayer, and
address the congregation. Jesus and the apostles availed
themselves of this democratic privilege to preach the gospel, as
the fulfilment of the law and the prophets. The strong didactic
element which distinguished this service from all heathen forms
of worship, had the effect of familiarizing the Jews of all
grades, even down to the servant-girls, with their religion, and
raising them far above the heathen. At the same time it attracted
proselytes who longed for a purer and more spiritual worship.
The days of public service were the Sabbath, Monday, and
Thursday; the hours of prayer the third (9 A.M.), the sixth
(noon), and the ninth (3 P.M.).
The sexes were divided by a low wall or screen, the men on the
one side, the women on the other, as they are still in the East
(and in some parts of Europe). The people stood during prayer
with their faces turned to Jerusalem.
Christian Worship
Christian worship, or cultus, is the public adoration of God in
the name of Christ; the celebration of the communion of believers
as a congregation with their heavenly Head, for the glory of the
Lord, and for the promotion and enjoyment of spiritual life.
While it aims primarily at the devotion and edification of the
church itself, it has at the same time a missionary character,
and attracts the outside world. This was the case on the Day of
Pentecost when Christian worship in its distinctive character
first appeared.
As our Lord himself in his youth and manhood worshipped in the
synagogue and the temple, so did his early disciples as long as
they were tolerated. Even Paul preached Christ in the synagogues
of Damascus, Cyprus, Antioch in Pisidia, Amphipolis, Berea,
Athens, Corinth, Ephesus. He "reasoned with the Jews every
sabbath in the synagogue," which furnished him a pulpit and an
audience.
The Jewish Christians, at least in Palestine, conformed as
closely as possible to the venerable forms of the cultus of their
fathers, which in truth were divinely ordained, and were an
expressive type of the Christian worship. So far as we know, they
scrupulously observed the Sabbath, the annual Jewish feasts, the
hours of daily prayer, and the whole Mosaic ritual, and
celebrated, in addition to these, the Christian Sunday, the
death and the resurrection of the Lord, and the holy Supper. 
(This is Schaff and his ideas talking here. There is nothing in
the NT to say that the WHOLE Jerusalem church observed the
rituals of the Temple. Certainly we know from Paul and the book
of Acts, the Christians could if they wanted to, do the Temple
rituals, but it was not anything they HAD to observe. Certainly
the Christians did observe the 7th day Sabbath as it was part of
the Ten Commandments, and they did observe the Festivals of the
Lord [they are called the Feasts of the Lord in Lev.23]. As for
observing Sunday, the true Christians of the first century A.D.
did no such thing - nothing in the NT proves they obaserved
Sunday as some "Christian Sabbath" as Schaff would like you to
believe. Nothing in the NT makes Sunday a holy day, or even a day
to commemorate the resurrection of Christ. If it was so, it would
have been clearly and loudly proclaimed. If the church had to
meet to make a ruling on circumcision - Acts 15 - you can bet
making Sunday into some kind of "Christian holy day" would have
had just as much open ruling as the matter of circumcision -
Keith Hunt)
But this union was gradually weakened by the stubborn opposition
of the Jews, and was at last entirely broken by the destruction
of the temple, except among the Ebionites and Nazarenes.
In the Gentile-Christian congregations founded by Paul, the
worship took from the beginning a more independent form. The
essential elements of the Old Testament service were transferred,
indeed, but divested of their national legal character, and
transformed by the spirit of the gospel. Thus the Jewish Sabbath
passed into the Christian Sunday; 
(Yes in time that was true, but it took some time, as Dr.Samuele
Bacchiocchi in his PhD book "From Sabbath to Sunday" clearly
shows from historical records. But the true Christians of the
Church of God did not observe Sunday, they observed the 4th
Commandment as written - the 7th day Sabbath - Keith Hunt)
the typical Passover and Pentecost became feasts of the death and
resurrection of Christ, and of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit;
(The true history of the adopting of Easter in-place of the
Passover is recorded in the church history of the 2nd century
A.D. And all of that history is covered in other studies on this
website. Pentecost was continually observed but counted from a
different day as the Roman church adopted the pagan Easter and
Roman calendar. But yes Pentecost [always falling on a Sunday]
has always been observed in some form by the Roman Catholic and
many Protestant churches - Keith Hunt)
the bloody sacrifices gave place to the thankful remembrance and
appropriation of the one, all-sufficient, and eternal sacrifice
of Christ on the cross, and to the personal offering of prayer,
intercession, and entire self-consecration to the service of the
Redeemer; on the ruins of the temple made without hands arose the
neverceasing worship of the omnipresent God in spirit and in
truth. So early as the close of the apostolic period this more
free and spiritual cultus of Christianity had no doubt become
well nigh universal; yet many Jewish elements, especially in the 
Eastern church, remain to this day.
(The true people of God continued to observe the 7th day Sabbath
the Feasts of the Lord, and never went along with the church of
Rome as it moved into observing Sunday and Easter - Keith Hunt)
The Several Parts of Worship
The several parts of public worship in the time of the apostles
were as follows:
1. The PREACHING of the gospel. This appears in the first
period mostly in the form of a missionary address to the
unconverted; that is, a simple, living presentation of the main
facts of the life of Jesus, with practical exhortation to
repentance and conversion. Christ crucified and risen was the
luminous centre, whence a sanctifying light was shed on all the
relations of life. Gushing forth from a full heart, this
preaching went to the heart; and springing from an inward life,
it kindled life - a new, divine life - in the susceptible
hearers. It was revival preaching in the purest sense. Of this
primitive Christian testimony several examples from Peter and
Paul are preserved in the Acts of the Apostles.
The Epistles also may be regarded in the wider sense as sermons,
addressed, however, to believers, and designed to nourish the
Christian life already planted.
2. The READING of portions of the Old Testament, with practical
exposition and application; transferred from the Jewish synagogue
into the Christian church. To these were added in due time
lessons from the New Testament; that is, from the canonical
Gospels and the apostolic Epistles, most of which were addressed
to whole congregations and originally intended for public use. 
After the death of the apostles their writings became doubly
important to the church, as a substitute for their oral
instruction and exhortation, and were much more used in worship
than the Old Testament.
3. PRAYER, in its various forms of petition, intercession, and
thanksgiving. This descended likewise from Judaism, and in fact
belongs essentially even to all heathen religions; but now it
began to be offered in childlike confidence to a reconciled
Father in the name of Jesus, and for all classes and conditions,
even for enemies and persecutors. The first Christians
accompanied every important act of their public and private life
with this holy rite, and Paul exhorts his readers to "pray
without ceasing." On solemn occasions they joined fasting with
prayer, as a help to devotion, though it is nowhere directly
enjoined in the New Testament. They prayed freely from the
heart, as they were moved by the Spirit, according to special
needs and circumstances. We have an example in the fourth chapter
of Acts. There is no trace of a uniform and exclusive liturgy; it
would be inconsistent with the vitality and liberty of the apos-
tolic churches. At the same time the frequent use of psalms and
short forms of devotion, as the Lord's Prayer, may be inferred
with certainty from the Jewish custom, from the Lord's direction
respecting his model prayer, from the strong sense of fellowship
among the first Christians, and finally from the liturgical
spirit of the ancient church, which could not have so generally
prevailed both in the East and the West without some apostolic
and post-apostolic precedent. The oldest forms are the
eucharistic prayers of the Didache, and the petition for rulers
in the first Epistle of Clement, which contrasts most beautifully
with the cruel hostility of Nero and Domitian.
(The just mentioned works we need to remember are from a
Christianity that was moving away from anything that could be
declared as "Jewish" so hence we have to read those works in the
light of that background - Keith Hunt)
4. The SONG, a form of prayer, in the festive dress of poetry and
the elevated language of inspiration, raising the congregation to
the highest pitch of devotion, and giving it a part in the
heavenly harmonies of the saints. This passed immediately, with
the psalms of the Old Testament, those inexhaustible treasures of
spiritual experience, edification, and comfort, from the temple
and the synagogue into the Christian church. The Lord himself
inaugurated psalmody into the new covenant at the institution of
the holy Supper, and Paul expressly enjoined the singing of
"psalms and hymns and spiritual songs," as a means of social
edification. But to this precious inheritance from the past,
whose full value was now for the first time understood in the
light of the New Testament revelation, the church, in the
enthusiasm of her first love, added original, specifically
Christian psalms, hymns, doxologies, and benedictions, which
afforded the richest material for sacred poetry and music in
succeeding centuries; the song of the heavenly hosts, for
example, at the birth of the Saviour; the "Nunc dimittis" of
Simeon; the "Magnificat" of the Virgin Mary; the "Benedictus" of
Zacharias; the thanksgiving of Peter after his miraculous
deliverance; the speaking with tongues in the apostolic
churches, which, whether song or prayer, was always in the
elevated language of enthusiasm; the fragments of hymns
scattered through the Epistles; and the lyrical and liturgical
passages, the doxologies and antiphonies of the Apocalypse.
(And so of course it continued until you had the Roman church
doing all kinds of "rituals" among and within these songs and
spiritual hymns; developing into its own kind of ritualistic
temple priesthood, with all the outward trappings of fancy
clothes, jewels, candles, head-wear, and so forth. As you see 
still in the church of Rome today - Keith Hunt)
5. CONFESSION OF FAITH. All the above-mentioned acts of worship
are also acts of faith. The first express confession of faith is
the testimony of Peter, that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the
living God. The next is the trinitarian baptismal formula. Out
of this gradually grew the so-called Apostles' Creed, which is
also trinitarian in structure, but gives the confession of Christ
the central and largest place. Though not traceable in its
present shape above the fourth century, and found in the second
and third in different longer or shorter forms, it is in
substance altogether apostolic, and exhibits an incomparable
summary of the leading facts in the revelation of the triune God
from the creation of the world to the resurrection of the body;
and that in a form intelligible to all, and admirably suited for
public worship and catechetical use. We shall return to it more
fully in the second period.
(Yes of course Schaff says returning to it more fully in the
second period - second century - as Rome more and more adopted
all these outward forms of rituals and clothes and cantations, as
like the heathen priesthood of many pagan religions also had.
Surely no one believes the churches founded by the original
apostles had church services as like the Roman Catholic and
Church of England services of rituals and dress of today - Keith
Hunt)
6. Finally, the administration of the SACRAMENTS, or sacred rites
instituted by Christ, by which, under appropriate symbols and
visible signs, spiritual gifts and invisible grace are
represented, sealed, and applied to the worthy participators.
(But are we to believe the Roman church or Church of England
"sacraments" of today were done with the pomp and dress, in the
apostolic churches of God, that thee two aforementioned church
organizations practice today? I think not - Keith Hunt)
The two sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, the
antitypes of circumcision and the passover under the Old
Testament, were instituted by Christ as efficacious signs,
pledges, and means of the grace of the new covenant. They are
related to each other as regeneration and sanctification, or as
the beginning and the growth of the Christian life. The other
religious rites mentioned in the New Testament, as confirmation
and ordination, cannot be ranked in dignity with the sacraments,
as they are not commanded by Christ.
Baptism
1. The IDEA of Baptism. It was solemnly instituted by Christ,
shortly before his ascension, to be performed in the name of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It took the place of
circumcision as a sign and seal of church membership. It is the
outward mark of Christian discipleship, the rite of initiation
into the covenant of grace. It is the sacrament of repentance
(conversion), of remission of sins, and of regeneration by the
power of the Holy Spirit. In the nature of the case it is to
be received but once. It incorporates the penitent sinner in the
visible church, and entitles him to all the privileges, and binds
him to all the duties of this communion. Where the condition of
repentance and faith is wanting, the blessing (as in the case of
the holy Supper, and the preaching of the Word) is turned into a
curse, and what God designs as a savor of life unto life becomes,
by the unfaithfulness of man, a savor of death unto death.
The necessity of baptism for salvation has been inferred from
John 3:5 and Mark 16:16; but while we are bound to God's
ordinances, God himself is free and can save whomsoever and by
whatsoever means he pleases. The church has always held the
principle that the mere want of the sacrament does not condemn,
but only the contempt. Otherwise all unbaptized infants that die
in infancy would be lost. This horrible doctrine was indeed
inferred by St. Augustin and the Roman church, from the supposed
absolute necessity of baptism, but is in direct conflict with the
spirit of the gospel and Christ's treatment of children, to whom
belongs the kingdom of heaven.
The first administration of this sacrament in its full Christian
sense took place on the birthday of the church, after the first
independent preaching of the apostles. The baptism of John was
more of a negative sort, and only preparatory to the baptism with
the Holy Spirit. In theory, Christian baptism is preceded by
conversion, that is the human act of turning from sin to
God in repentance and faith, and followed by regeneration, that
is the divine act of forgiveness of sin and inward cleansing and
renewal. Yet in practice the outward sign and inward state and
effect do not always coincide; in Simon Magus we have an example
of the baptism of water without that of the Spirit, and in
Cornelius an example of the communication of the Spirit before
the application of the water. 
In the case of infants, conversion, as a conscious act of the
will, is impossible and unnecessary.   
In adults the solemn ordinance was preceded by the preaching of
the gospel, or a brief instruction in its main facts, and then
followed by more thorough inculcation of the apostolic doctrine. 
Later, when great caution became necessary in receiving
proselytes, the period of catechetical instruction and probation
was considerably lengthened.
(What Schaff has said so far on baptism is correct. Hence infant
baptism is as nothing, useless and meaningless. Most do not know
that the Roman Catholic church itself did not practice wholesale 
infant baptism till about the 4th century A.D. when they finally 
"did away" with baptism by immersion. And they did baptize by
full immersion only at one time, then a mixture, and finally only
by pouring or sprinkling, and then infants, because of the theology
they were then teaching. That truth of history is contained in my 
studies on baptism on this website - Keith Hunt)
2. The Usual FORM of baptism was immersion. This is inferred
from the original meaning of the Greek (given) and (Greek given)
from the analogy of John's baptism in the Jordan; from the
apostles' comparison of the sacred rite with the miraculous
passage of the Red Sea, with the escape of the ark from the
flood, with a cleansing and refreshing bath, and with burial and
resurrection; finally, from the general custom of the ancient
church, which prevails in the East to this day. But sprinkling,
also, or copious pouring rather, was practised at an early day
with sick and dying persons, and in all such cases where total or
partial immersion was impracticable. Some writers suppose that
this was the case even in the first baptism of the three thousand
on the day of Pentecost; for Jerusalem was poorly supplied with
water and private baths; the Kedron is a small creek and dry in
summer; but there are a number of pools and cisterns there.
(Such ideas are purely imagination and human reasoning; and the
practicing of sprinkling or copious pouring, if started early,
was a move away from the truth. Certainly under special
circumstances God can save a person who is not able to be
baptized by immersion before they die. All covered in my studies
on the subject - Keith Hunt)
Hellenistic usage allows to the relevant expressions sometimes
the wider sense of washing, bathing, sprinkling, and ceremonial
cleansing. Unquestionably, immersion expresses the idea of
baptism, as a purification and renovation of the whole man, more
completely than pouring or sprinkling; but it is not in keeping
with the genius of the gospel to limit the operation of the Holy
Spirit by the quantity or the quality of the water or the mode of
its application. 
(The Holy Spirit would lead to the truth of the matter - baptism
is full immersion in water, hence a quantity is needed. As stated
God can save a person who dies before they are baptized in full
immersion of water  - Keith Hunt)
Water is absolutely necessary to baptism, as an appropriate
symbol of the purifying and regenerating energy of the Holy
Spirit; but whether the water be in large quantity or small, cold
or warm, fresh or salt, from river, cistern, or spring, is
relatively immaterial, and cannot affect the validity of the
ordinance.
(Again a quantity is needed as baptism is only by full immersion,
but where that quantity is from indeed makes no difference. My
comments already given stay the same - Keith Hunt)
3. As to the SUBJECTS of baptism: the apostolic origin of infant
baptism is denied not only by the Baptists, but also by many
paedobaptist divines. The Baptists assert that infant baptism is
contrary to the idea of the sacrament itself, and, accordingly,
an unscriptural corruption. For baptism, say they, necessarily
presupposes the preaching of the gospel on the part of the
church, and repentance and faith on the part of the candidate for
the ordinance; and as infants can neither understand preaching,
nor repent and believe, they are not proper subjects for baptism,
which is intended only for adult converts. 
It is true, the apostolic church was a missionary church, and had
first to establish a mother community, in the bosom of which
alone the grace of baptism can be improved by a Christian
education. So even under the old covenant circumcision was first
performed on the adult Abraham; and so all Christian missionaries
in heathen lands now begin with preaching, and baptizing adults.
True, the New Testament contains no express command to baptize
infants; such a command would not agree with the free spirit of
the gospel. Nor was there any compulsory or general infant
baptism before the union of church and state; Constantine, the
first Christian emperor, delayed his baptism till his death-bed
(as many now delay their repentance); and even after Constantine
there were examples of eminent teachers, as Gregory Nazianzen,
Augustin, Chresostom, who were not baptized before their
conversion in early manhood, although they had Christian mothers.
But still less does the New Testament forbid infant baptism; as
it might be expected to do in view of the universal custom of the
Jews, to adroit their children by circumcision on the eighth day
after birth into the fellowship of the old covenant.
On the contrary, we have presumptive and positive arguments for
the apostolic origin and character of infant baptism, first, in
the fact that circumcision as truly prefigured baptism, as the
passover the holy Supper; then in the organic relation between
Christian parents and children; in the nature of the new
covenant, which is even more comprehensive than the old; in the
universal virtue of Christ, as the Redeemer of all sexes,
classes, and ages, and especially in the import of his own
infancy, which has redeemed and sanctified the infantile age; in
his express invitation to children, whom he assures of a title to
the kingdom of heaven, and whom, therefore, he certainly would
not leave without the sign and seal of such membership; in the
words of institution, which plainly look to the Christianizing,
not merely of individuals, but of whole nations, including, of
course, the children; in the express declaration of Peter at the
first administration of the ordinance, that this promise of
forgiveness of sins and of the Holy Spirit was to the Jews "and
to their children;" in the five instances in the New Testament
of the baptism of whole families, where the presence of children
in most of the cases is far more probable than the absence of
children in all; and finally, in the universal practice of the
early church, against which the isolated protest of Tertullian
proves no more, than his other eccentricities and Montanistic
peculiarities; on the contrary, his violent protest implies the
prevailing practice of infant baptism. He advised delay of
baptism as a measure of prudence, lest the baptized by sinning
again might forever forfeit the benefit of this ordinance; but he
nowhere denies the apostolic origin or right of early baptism.
(Schaff is here giving his human reasoning to you as to why
infants can be baptized. He did not know the plan of God. He just
assumes the families baptized as recorded in the NT, had
"infants" - for "children" are not infants, and children back
then were not as we today think of children. In the Jewish world
you became an adult at age 12, and it is not unreasonable to
believe in the society then, a child of 9,10,11, would have been
much more mature in mind [because of the way they were trained]
and hence were able to understand the Gospel and baptism, in a
more mature mind-set than children of that age in our 21st
century world [there are of course exceptions to the general
overall] - Keith Hunt)
We must add, however, that infant baptism is unmeaning, and its
practice a profanation, except on the condition of Christian
parentage or guardianship, and under the guarantee of a Christian
education. And it needs to be completed by an act of personal
consecration, in which the child, after due instruction in the
gospel, intelligently and freely confesses Christ, devotes
himself to his service, and is thereupon solemnly admitted to the
full communion of the church and to the sacrament of the holy
Supper. The earliest traces of confirmation are supposed to be
found in the apostolic practice of laying on hands, or
symbolically imparting the Holy Spirit, after baptism.
...................
When all is said and done Schaff argues against what he said in
some sentences above, and agrees that infant baptism is 
UNMEANING, and its practice a PROFANATION. And as he admits it
needs to be completed by an act of personal consecration.....and
etc.
Keith Hunt
To be continued