98:3.9 The last stand of the dwindling band of [[Salem]] believers was made by an earnest group of preachers, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynics Cynics], who exhorted the [[Romans]] to abandon their wild and senseless [[religious]] [[rituals]] and return to a form of [[worship]] embodying [[Melchizedek]]'s gospel as it had been [[modified]] and contaminated through [[contact]] with the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_philosophy philosophy of the Greeks]. But the people at large rejected the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynics Cynics]; they preferred to plunge into the [[rituals]] of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_cult the mysteries], which not only offered [[hopes]] of [[personal]] [[salvation]] but also [[gratified]] the [[desire]] for diversion, excitement, and [[entertainment]]. | 98:3.9 The last stand of the dwindling band of [[Salem]] believers was made by an earnest group of preachers, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynics Cynics], who exhorted the [[Romans]] to abandon their wild and senseless [[religious]] [[rituals]] and return to a form of [[worship]] embodying [[Melchizedek]]'s gospel as it had been [[modified]] and contaminated through [[contact]] with the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_philosophy philosophy of the Greeks]. But the people at large rejected the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynics Cynics]; they preferred to plunge into the [[rituals]] of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_cult the mysteries], which not only offered [[hopes]] of [[personal]] [[salvation]] but also [[gratified]] the [[desire]] for diversion, excitement, and [[entertainment]]. |