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Cleansing the Temple: A Call to Radical Christianity
“Cleansing the Temple” was written by a young fiery street preacher. Jesse Morrell was only eighteen years old in 2003, preaching in the streets of New England, when he began to write the contents of this book. It is not your typical Christian book. It is a compilation of very passionate articles calling the church of believers to uncompromising holy service to God. This book is primarily about purity, prayer, and preaching. The hope is that this book will cleanse modern Christianity to be the bride that Christ wants her to be.
349 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 9, 2016
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April 6, 2025
Overall a tremendous book, but with many problematic endorsements. Reading it is like a rollercoaster ride, pulsating with excellent teachings and deep valleys, with delighting and cringing.
PROS
+ Excellent theology. He seems to have started with Calvinism and then having found his way out of it.
+ A book which breaks with many unhealthy church customs and careerism, and which challenges readers to be more active for CHRISTOS.
+ Great motivation for street preaching. But although being a remarkable story, it is not wise to teach others to occasionally go out alone. The biblical instruction to go out two by two makes sense, a fact I know from my own experience with Evangelism tracts. His boldness and energy are remarkable, just once his language of 'bloody people' was a bit too much.
+ Many Scripture quotations (probably the book with most quotations ever read, which is excellent!).
+ Very good defense of Works of Faith.
+ Great and much needed teaching on righteous anger. Quote "Jesus Christ not only preached against sin but our Master preached against sinners. Jesus did not say 'Woe to hypocrisy' but He said 'Woe to you… hypocrites' (Matt 23:13)."
CONS
- Some spiritualizing and some minor inaccuracies. Quote "The mystery within this event is why did G-d accept Abel's sacrifice and not Cain's? There is no clear answer [yes there is], however scripture says that "Abel also brought of the first born of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering" (Gen 4:4), yet there is no mention of the quality of Cain's sacrifice at all." We (Early) Christians have not received the Hebrew OT, but clearly the Greek OT, which was the predominant Bible from the 3/2c. BC until the 5/6c. AD (600-800 years). Gen 4:7 in the Greek reads: 'Hast thou not sinned if thou hast brought it rightly, but not rightly divided it? be still, to thee shall be his submission, and thou shalt rule over him.' The manipulated text as quoted by him reads: 'If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.'.
- Problematic example, by using divorce as a positive illustration: "We are to put off the old life, acting as if it were no longer ourselves, and separating it from our sinful self as a wife is divorced from her husband, and as the soul is separated from the body by death."
- Quote: "There can be no partial consecration! No half-conversion! No progressive sanctification!" Although his intention is right, there is indeed progressive sanctification. Yes, we should stop instantly from committing sin. But sanctification does not only imply sin. To become holier, is much more than the putting away of sin, it is a progressive growth which lasts decades, sometimes even involves a shrinking back in certain areas when THEOS assigns us new tasks, and growing in new areas while dealing with personal issues not having been aware of before or simply coming up in new settings.
- Heavy endorsement of Spurgeon (quoted at least 15x; "more people are in heaven than in hell", ecumenism, Augustinian / Calvinist, "infants cannot but be odious and abominable to G-d", preached against baptismal regeneration).
On the one hand, he recognizes his error of endorsing him:
"Why I normally would not recommend anything from any Calvinist to anybody, I would recommend the diary of David Brainerd to everyone. There are some men who live better than their Calvinist theology. Men like Spurgeon, Whitefield and Brainerd were such men. I despise their theology but I admire their lives." [Spurgeon was an addict to several vices]
But this looks more like a retroactively added footnote which avoids to change all the quotes, and is not a biblical behavior. We cannot recommend wolves, just because the author feels emotionally connected to them for the one fact that they also started their ministry early. There are plenty of other options to quote from, but it is most of the time best to not quote at all and to refer to the Bible only. Morrell is a 'heavy quoter' and his books would be more powerful without those crutches which many authors use to increase their credibility and reputation.
Spurgeon's theology contradicts also fundamentally Morrell's very good theology, e.g. Spurgeon calls Free Will ridiculous in 'Lectures to my Students' (a book cited twice by him), while Morrell defends the concept at length.
- Endorsement of A. W. Tozer (quoted 9x; see review of his book 'The Pursuit of G-d'), C. S. Lewis (believed in purgatory; Tao is the highest morality; rejected biblical inerrancy; theistic evolutionist; considered Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims as brothers in CHRISTOS), of Michael Brown, of George Whitfield (Anglican), of Ruth Graham (wife of the great false teacher Billy Graham) and of the Puritans (although he teaches against Calvinism).
GREAT / PRACTICAL QUOTES:
"If Jesus were alive today I wonder how many churches there are that wouldn't even let Him preach there because He doesn't have any degrees. We put such an emphasis on our ministers to have degrees, why? G-d doesn't."
"To preach the G‑spel it doesn't take degrees, it takes devotion. We don't need more doctorates but more dedication. Don't care about praise and start caring about people. Preach the G‑spel as if Judgment Day were today or "as a dying man unto dying people."
"For roughly four hours I preached "sin, righteousness, and judgment to come" and "Christ and Him crucified." Taking drinks of warm water helped sustain my throat the entire time. Warm water is the best. Cold water will only close your throat more."
"Instead of a bumper sticker 'G-d loves you', [we need stickers saying] 'G-d is angry with the wicked everyday' (Psa 7:11) or 'The wicked shall be turned into hell. (Psa 9:17)"
"A preacher once asked a successful actor how it was that he was able to attract multitudes of people to watch him perform, while he was struggling to get crowds to hear him preach. The actor responded with something to the effect of, 'I present artificial stories as though they were real, while you present real stories as though they were artificial.'"
"Here is a revelation for some of you preachers: when the Bible says what a man sows he shall surely reap, it is not talking about money! In context that scripture is referring to the wrath of G-d! Although G-d may bless your giving, I have never heard that scripture used in context. We have twisted, corrupted, and manipulated the Bible to make it as "seeker sensitive" and as sinner friendly as possible."
PROS
+ Excellent theology. He seems to have started with Calvinism and then having found his way out of it.
+ A book which breaks with many unhealthy church customs and careerism, and which challenges readers to be more active for CHRISTOS.
+ Great motivation for street preaching. But although being a remarkable story, it is not wise to teach others to occasionally go out alone. The biblical instruction to go out two by two makes sense, a fact I know from my own experience with Evangelism tracts. His boldness and energy are remarkable, just once his language of 'bloody people' was a bit too much.
+ Many Scripture quotations (probably the book with most quotations ever read, which is excellent!).
+ Very good defense of Works of Faith.
+ Great and much needed teaching on righteous anger. Quote "Jesus Christ not only preached against sin but our Master preached against sinners. Jesus did not say 'Woe to hypocrisy' but He said 'Woe to you… hypocrites' (Matt 23:13)."
CONS
- Some spiritualizing and some minor inaccuracies. Quote "The mystery within this event is why did G-d accept Abel's sacrifice and not Cain's? There is no clear answer [yes there is], however scripture says that "Abel also brought of the first born of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering" (Gen 4:4), yet there is no mention of the quality of Cain's sacrifice at all." We (Early) Christians have not received the Hebrew OT, but clearly the Greek OT, which was the predominant Bible from the 3/2c. BC until the 5/6c. AD (600-800 years). Gen 4:7 in the Greek reads: 'Hast thou not sinned if thou hast brought it rightly, but not rightly divided it? be still, to thee shall be his submission, and thou shalt rule over him.' The manipulated text as quoted by him reads: 'If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.'.
- Problematic example, by using divorce as a positive illustration: "We are to put off the old life, acting as if it were no longer ourselves, and separating it from our sinful self as a wife is divorced from her husband, and as the soul is separated from the body by death."
- Quote: "There can be no partial consecration! No half-conversion! No progressive sanctification!" Although his intention is right, there is indeed progressive sanctification. Yes, we should stop instantly from committing sin. But sanctification does not only imply sin. To become holier, is much more than the putting away of sin, it is a progressive growth which lasts decades, sometimes even involves a shrinking back in certain areas when THEOS assigns us new tasks, and growing in new areas while dealing with personal issues not having been aware of before or simply coming up in new settings.
- Heavy endorsement of Spurgeon (quoted at least 15x; "more people are in heaven than in hell", ecumenism, Augustinian / Calvinist, "infants cannot but be odious and abominable to G-d", preached against baptismal regeneration).
On the one hand, he recognizes his error of endorsing him:
"Why I normally would not recommend anything from any Calvinist to anybody, I would recommend the diary of David Brainerd to everyone. There are some men who live better than their Calvinist theology. Men like Spurgeon, Whitefield and Brainerd were such men. I despise their theology but I admire their lives." [Spurgeon was an addict to several vices]
But this looks more like a retroactively added footnote which avoids to change all the quotes, and is not a biblical behavior. We cannot recommend wolves, just because the author feels emotionally connected to them for the one fact that they also started their ministry early. There are plenty of other options to quote from, but it is most of the time best to not quote at all and to refer to the Bible only. Morrell is a 'heavy quoter' and his books would be more powerful without those crutches which many authors use to increase their credibility and reputation.
Spurgeon's theology contradicts also fundamentally Morrell's very good theology, e.g. Spurgeon calls Free Will ridiculous in 'Lectures to my Students' (a book cited twice by him), while Morrell defends the concept at length.
- Endorsement of A. W. Tozer (quoted 9x; see review of his book 'The Pursuit of G-d'), C. S. Lewis (believed in purgatory; Tao is the highest morality; rejected biblical inerrancy; theistic evolutionist; considered Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims as brothers in CHRISTOS), of Michael Brown, of George Whitfield (Anglican), of Ruth Graham (wife of the great false teacher Billy Graham) and of the Puritans (although he teaches against Calvinism).
GREAT / PRACTICAL QUOTES:
"If Jesus were alive today I wonder how many churches there are that wouldn't even let Him preach there because He doesn't have any degrees. We put such an emphasis on our ministers to have degrees, why? G-d doesn't."
"To preach the G‑spel it doesn't take degrees, it takes devotion. We don't need more doctorates but more dedication. Don't care about praise and start caring about people. Preach the G‑spel as if Judgment Day were today or "as a dying man unto dying people."
"For roughly four hours I preached "sin, righteousness, and judgment to come" and "Christ and Him crucified." Taking drinks of warm water helped sustain my throat the entire time. Warm water is the best. Cold water will only close your throat more."
"Instead of a bumper sticker 'G-d loves you', [we need stickers saying] 'G-d is angry with the wicked everyday' (Psa 7:11) or 'The wicked shall be turned into hell. (Psa 9:17)"
"A preacher once asked a successful actor how it was that he was able to attract multitudes of people to watch him perform, while he was struggling to get crowds to hear him preach. The actor responded with something to the effect of, 'I present artificial stories as though they were real, while you present real stories as though they were artificial.'"
"Here is a revelation for some of you preachers: when the Bible says what a man sows he shall surely reap, it is not talking about money! In context that scripture is referring to the wrath of G-d! Although G-d may bless your giving, I have never heard that scripture used in context. We have twisted, corrupted, and manipulated the Bible to make it as "seeker sensitive" and as sinner friendly as possible."
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