i think offtehdeepend pretty much hit the nail on the head.... and i think the part about "reach out your hand only to be plagued by disease" is talking to catholics and how they think if they tell the priest about their sins that he will forgive them and in reality this is no better than telling a random person you meet on the street your sins....... (in other words it has no effect) and the "horrors and beliefs camouflaged by commonality" is talking about all the rituals of catholicism that people practice so often that it becomes second nature and they never really stop to think about what theyre doing and how the bible never says anything about them (such as praying to saints..... john was rebuked by an angel for trying to worship him but the angel said to worship God)
tim mentions "whitewashed tombs" and i have no doubt that that phrase is talking about the false teachers that call themselves christians but really are spiritually dead... as Jesus said in Matthew 23, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean."
i think offtehdeepend pretty much hit the nail on the head.... and i think the part about "reach out your hand only to be plagued by disease" is talking to catholics and how they think if they tell the priest about their sins that he will forgive them and in reality this is no better than telling a random person you meet on the street your sins....... (in other words it has no effect) and the "horrors and beliefs camouflaged by commonality" is talking about all the rituals of catholicism that people practice so often that it becomes second nature and they never really stop to think about what theyre doing and how the bible never says anything about them (such as praying to saints..... john was rebuked by an angel for trying to worship him but the angel said to worship God) tim mentions "whitewashed tombs" and i have no doubt that that phrase is talking about the false teachers that call themselves christians but really are spiritually dead... as Jesus said in Matthew 23, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean."
That makes a lot of sense, actually. I didn't pick up on the allusion myself.
That makes a lot of sense, actually. I didn't pick up on the allusion myself.