The Clear Proof of the True Church of God

To the Reader.

to investigate how it Referring back to "wisdom" from the previous page. is corrupted, and is corrupted more and more every day by the power of darkness, which confuses us and leads us astray, as much in the Holy Scripture original: "H. Schrift," shorthand for Heilige Schrift. as in our sins. And the master of this confusion in the Holy Scripture is always the King of Babylon In this context, a symbolic figure representing spiritual confusion, pride, and the "Babylonian Captivity" of the church or the soul., with whom the deceiver original: "verleyder," referring to the devil. plays his game.

If that game were not so powerful among the poor people, and if they did not produce so many confused books, it would certainly not have been necessary for me, driven by God’s Spirit out of my simple wisdom, to write books to serve as a bit gebit: the metal mouthpiece of a bridle used to restrain or steer a horse. in the mouth of the deceiver and the King of Babel Babel and Babylon are used interchangeably here to denote the source of linguistic and spiritual chaos. to restrain him. And yet, one must still hear many insults from the people, who say, "there are enough books if we only follow the Bible and Testament"—which would indeed be true, if the Bible and Testament were rightly understood and embraced.