First published in 1852, this TGS reprint is for any Christian or Jew questioning the validity or authenticity of thier own religion. This book tackles problems between Judaism and Christianity, and between the Old Testament and the New Testament, in a straight forward, common sense approach. Cresson challenges many of the doctrines of Christianity that are in direct contradiction to the religion of the man they call their God and Savior, and proves his points from Old Testament Scripture.
IN the spring of 1844 I left everything near and dear to me on earth. I left the wife of my youth and six lovely children, (dearer to me than my natural life), and an excellent farm, with everything comfortable around me. I left all these in the pursuit of truth, and for the sake of Truth alone. I had often from my youth asked my soul, "Where is perfect, incontestable Truth to be found? The answer was, It exists everywhere. It is in the heart. It consists in the conscious evidence of her existence, against which no reasoning can prevail."
Excerpt: from the Introduction
Excerpt:
Still, I was not satisfied. Prayer after Prayer, and aspiration after aspiration, ascended up to God. I knew that He would not deceive me, and therefore trusted my all to Him, and still pursued Truth. Every step was actuated by a sincerity and a holy warmth of purpose; and every prophetic promise with a sacred feeling unadulterated and without care. --But I soon discovered that I only now perceived her afar off in Idea, in Sentiment, in Theory, and longed to behold her realized in Fact, (As I have since in Jerusalem), in Reality, in Time, Place, and Circumstances; for I found "Truth in the mind was never complete," Truth in the abstract was never developed. I therefore found one Key that presented itself clearly to my mind, that would infallibly lead me through the door of Truth.
It was this: and entire Faith and dependence upon God's ever living Word and Promises. Two of these had often presented themselves to my understanding, which I shall hereafter more particularly refer to, as sufficient for my purpose, although I had the misfortune (without any power or control of my own to prevent it) to be born and educated in the Great Moral and Physical Labyrinth consisting of above 380 opposing and contending sects, all of Christians' own making; each party contending and branding the other with being unsound and heretical, and composing a block in the "Great Mystical Babylon," from the Church of Rome down to the least and latest sect, or dissenter. I had often been impressed with the call to "Come out of Babylon." "Come our of Babylon, my People, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." Rev. xviii. 4.
This I sincerely tried to do; but I soon found that what the ministers understood by coming out of Babylon was to come out of any of the opposing sects to their own sect, which they in this manner were trying to build up, thinking, no doubt, their own persuasion was the only right one. But as my understanding became enlightened and opened, so that I understood all the distinctive marks given in God's Most Holy Word of "Mystery Babylon," I became convinced and assured, from Christians' own testimony, (which I was then living under), that the whole structure, from the Church of Rome (whom Protestants called the "Whore of Babylon and Mother of Harlots") down to the least of her daughters, who consequently must be the "Harlots" if she be the "Mother" of them, as all sacred and profane History declares that from Head to Tail, and from the least to the greatest, all compose this Great "Mystery Babylon," "for all nations have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication." See Rev. xviii.2, and xvii.2.
But God was not pleased to let my soul rest in any one department of this great Labyrinth, in which thousands and myriads of souls have been lost and bewildered, and have never found the way out. Although all Christians profess to believe the assertion that "Salvation is of the Jews," there is an impassable barrier between believers in that man which they have made a God of, that must forever form a separation between every Israelite and every soul that remains still in Babylon; and this must forever remain a Barrier that cannot be thrown down, so long as they believe their testimony to be true. However, of one thing am I convinced and satisfied, that there is no Salvation for the Gentiles but by coming to Israel, to be saved, as I have done; for I have seen everything give way, and fall through as being insufficient, as all the Law of God and his Holy Prophets declare.
The Key is an emblem of the authority of Government, and in the East to this day, in transferring the Authority and Government of a City, a large Key is laid upon a person, and hangs down in front, as a mark of his Authority. The Key of David is the authority and Government, which God has given David over his Everlasting Kingdom and City of Jerusalem, which Jeremiah, 3:17, tells us, "Shall be the Throne of the Lord."
And all the strength of this Authority and Government of the "Key of David," depends upon one great and grand principle, viz.: The Divine Unity. Indeed, to take away or destroy the Divine Unity of God, by attempting to divide it, would be certain death, so far as it concerns ourselves--for division is Death, from the highest created Being down to the lowest Human Existence. Therefore the true mother, when the wise King Solomon merely pretended to divide the "Living Child," said, "O, my Lord, give her the Living Child, and in no wise slay it" (by dividing it) "for her bowels yearned upon her son." 1 Kings iii. 26.
In truth, the very first gasp or breath of the soul in Immortality and Eternal Life, is a belief in the Unity of God, therefore God's very first law to Israel was, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is One Lord," Deut. vi. 3, 5, and the very first step of the soul in darkness, and Eternal Death, is attempting to divide the Unity of God into a Trinity, or Plurality, whether it be in number, name, or division of parts; and for this great reason, because the "true Thesis of God is without Body, Parts, or Passions." that is, God is not a Corporeal or Physical Being, but a Moral or Spiritual, and therefore his character, or Being, must be composed of certain powers or virtues, that we properly call attributes, because we attribute them to him, viz.: Power, Wisdom, Righteousness, Justice, Mercy, Goodness, and Truth, and these Seven Principles or Powers, or Attributes, we see clearly manifest in the whole visible Creation of God, and therefore they cannot be denied, neither can they be divided, nor treated of separately from the great Principle of Unity, because if they are attributes, and Eternal in their nature, we cannot divide them unless we are also guilty of Idolatry.
This the great Maimonides saw, although almost all Christian writers have spoken of them and treated of them separately, and very improperly; for who cannot at once see, that it is impossible for Power to exist without Wisdom to apply and appropriate it; and that Righteousness cannot be maintained without Justice to protect it--neither can Mercy exist without she has Goodness for her bowels; and they must all exist in Truth, or else all would be, and is, fiction and falsehood.
There Eternal Attributes are existent everywhere; but how could the attributes constitute God's existence, and be Omnipresent, if composed of corporeal or visible parts?
But the most perfect and complete representation of an Invisible Being, whom we call God, is his Most Holy Divine Law, and this is the only revelation or exhibition that first led the mind of man (Moses) to see him or his Similitude, which similitude is his Divine Attributes, as we can plainly see in all his visible creation, as a God of Power, Wisdom, Righteousness, Justice, Mercy, Goodness, and Truth; and these are Seven Pillars of Wisdom.