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THE FATE OF A TRAITORLast night's reading was from 1st Maccabees chapter 9 which gives the account of Seleucid General Bacchides' aggression against Israel around 160 BC. In this account the High Priest Alcimus, who favored the Seleucid government and opposed the Maccabean revolt for independence, tried to tear down the wall of the inner court of the Temple Sanctuary in an attempt to appease the pagan Greek overlords. Verses 55 and 56 state, "Al′cimus was stricken and his work was hindered; his mouth was stopped and he was paralyzed, so that he could no longer say a word or give commands concerning his house. And Al′cimus died at that time in great agony."Only Christ had the authority to tear down that wall. Ephesians 2:14 states, "For he [Christ] is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility..." And Matthew 27:51 records the following on Jesus' death, "And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom; and the earth shook, and the rocks were split..."Alcimus was the prototype of so many Catholic priests and Protestant ministers today who compromise the Gospel of our Blessed Lord and Savior with a pagan culture and government worse than what General Bacchides defended and his king, Demetrius, ruled over. These clerics take for themselves Christ's authority, and invent new doctrines and teachings to support wicked politicians who legitimatize grotesque immorality and the murder of the pre-born. Sadly, we today have forgotten the lessons of such history: God will punish clergy who compromise the Gospel for the sake of political expediency just as He punished Alcimus.