"The Anointed Priest Who Sins"

Rev. Susan Tang's book, entitled, "The Anointed Priest Who Sins," and amazingly it zeroes in on what is happening now in the Church...

"When we raise money supposedly for God's kingdom and then use it on ourselves, it is extortion. It is wrong to tell people to give money to church projects, to "God's work" for starving orphans, destitute old people, unwanted mental patients, etc. and then use the money on ourselves to feed our excesses." (Tang, 2005, 29)

"It is unfortunate that the 21st century church loves to thrive on outward excesses and extortion. Are we using all these exteriors, the theatrics, the sensationalism, the false excitement, the sensuality, the 'hyping up,' the showmanship, the entertainment, etc. to make up for the lack of inward spiritual reality?

Human nature loves excesses. Greed is so natural. If we can have two, three, or four, why have one? God speaks very clearly in His word that kings [or, senior pastors - some senior pastors do see themselves as kings, and even worse, they act like they are really kings!] are NOT to multiply horses [or luxury cars, in today's context!], silver, gold [or loaded personal ministry bank accounts, in today's context!] or women, yet Solomom did it and was not judged. This emboldened him to continue to multiply these possessions until he lost the spiritual reality and the presence of God." (Tang, 2005, 29-30)


"If the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people; then let him bring for his sin, which he hath sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto the LORD for a sin offering" (Leviticus 4:3)

STEP THREE: "Bring a young bullock" The offending priest was required to bring a sacrifice larger than that brought by the common people and the ruler of the people. This is because he had a larger share of the sacred position before God. Special privileges do carry with them special responsibilities. But why bring an unblemished young bullock?

Holiness demands it. God will not accept any sacrifice with defects as the sacrifice is a symbol of the coming supreme sacrifice that will be offered at Calvary. Why a bull, and not a lamb or any other animal? Because that bullock represents the offending priest - and all of us. Yes, by nature, we are all 'bullish' - stubborn, insensitive, rebellious, stong and (destructively) powerful. The guilty priest had to identify himself with that bull by laying his hands on it and then he had to KILL IT. Yes, kill it. Kill it without any second thoughts, without any mercy and without any excuses.

This is not a pleasant scene - no, not in the natural. To plunge a knife into a healthy animal and watch it totter, die and have its body hacked into pieces with its blood splattered all over the place is nauseating. But God requires it because this is the only way to atone for this sin. This is the only way to put an end to all our natural talents and human dynamism. Many of us are too strong, too capable, too brilliant, too shrewd, too manipulative in ourselves for God to use us. We have to die. This nauseating and brutal act of killing and hacking this young healthy bull to death has spiritual meaning and eternal validity." (Tang, 2005, 21-22)

(This is a borrowed comment that someone posted on The Spikeee's blog. It is so relevant for our current situation. Thank you whoever you are, for this comment)