The Golden Chain - Robert J. Wieland
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and Martyr, says, speaking first of our Saviour:<br />
"He was the ark formed of corruptible wood. For<br />
by this is signified that His tabernacle was exempt<br />
from sin, of wood not obnoxious to corruption<br />
according to man; that is, of the Virgin, and of the<br />
Holy Ghost, covered within and without with the<br />
pure gold of the word of God" (Berington and<br />
Kirk, <strong>The</strong> Faith of Catholics, Confirmed and<br />
Attested by the Fathers of the First Five Centuries<br />
of the Church, vol. Ill, pp. 443-446, emphasis<br />
supplied).<br />
<strong>The</strong> difficulty with the word "exempt" and the<br />
idea associated with it is that it divorces the<br />
incarnate Christ from the exercise of His free<br />
choice. It bypasses the "right action of the will, the<br />
power of choice" (SC 47). <strong>The</strong> Word of God has<br />
described this twisted, confused, apostate system of<br />
thought that permeates the Roman Catholic idea of<br />
"righteousness by faith" as "the abomination that<br />
maketh desolate" and "the mystery of iniquity" (see<br />
Daniel 11:31; 2 <strong>The</strong>ssalonians 2:7). Its clever<br />
doctrine concerning the nature of Christ fulfills the<br />
prophecies, for its natural consequence is the<br />
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