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Smith.</title> +<style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + } + HR { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .note {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} /* footnote */ + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-left: 1em; font-size: smaller; float: right; clear: right; font-weight: bold;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + .poem .caesura {vertical-align: -200%;} + + a:link { + color: #000000; + text-decoration: none; + } + + a:visited { + color: #000000; + text-decoration: none; + } + + a:hover { + color: #ffffff; + background: #009900; + text-decoration: none; + } + + a:active { + color: #009900; + background: #ffffff; + text-decoration: underline; + } + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13330 ***</div> + +<a name='Page_1'></a> + +<center> +<div style="width:250px; border-width:thin; border-style:solid" +align="center"><big>BY THE SAME AUTHOR</big><br> + WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES<br> +THE REVELATION EXPLAINED<br> +PROPHETIC LECTURES<br> +ON DANIEL AND<br> +REVELATION<br> +</div> +</center> + +<hr style='width: 65%;'> +<a name='The_Last_Reformation'></a> +<h1>The Last Reformation</h1> + +<a name='Page_2'></a> + +<h3>By F.G. Smith</h3> + +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;'> +<a name='PREFACE'></a> +<h2><a name='Page_4'></a><a name='Page_3'></a>PREFACE</h2> + +<br> + + +<p>God's true people everywhere are looking for light on the church +question. A deep undercurrent of dissatisfaction with the present +order of things exists in the ecclesiastical world. The historic +creeds are stationary and conservative, but religious thought can +not always be bound nor its progress permanently hindered. Honest +Christian men and women will think, and they are now thinking in +the terms of a universal Christianity. If I am able to discern the +signs of the times, the rising tide of Christian love and +fellowship is about to overflow the lines of sect and bring +together in one common hope and in one common brotherhood all those +who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.</p> + +<p>What will constitute the leading characteristics of the church +of the future? This is the burning question. Spiritual-minded men +are conscious that things can not long continue as they now are, +but what and where is the remedy?</p> + +<p>After this book was completed and in the hands of the printers, +I received a copy of "The Church and its Organization," by Walter +Lowrie, and was surprized to find in it much truth that I had +already received through independent investigation and embodied in +my manuscript. I refer particularly to the charismatic organization +and <a name='Page_5'></a>government of the church. It is gratifying +to know that other minds are being led to the same conclusions +regarding a subject of such vital importance to the future of +Christianity.</p> + +<p>In writing the present work I have endeavored to present the +Scriptural solution of this great problem, a solution which takes +into account, and gives due respect to, historic Christianity, the +prophecies respecting the church and its destiny, and the +fundamental characteristics of our holy religion as it emanated +from the divine Founder.</p> + +<p>If this work can be of service in pointing out Christ's plan and +purpose to "gather together in one the children of God which are +scattered abroad," and also be instrumental in helping to +accomplish this grand Christian ideal, I shall feel abundantly +repaid. F.G. SMITH.</p> + +<br> + + +<p>Anderson, Indiana, May 6, 1919.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;'> +<a name='CONTENTS'></a> +<h2><a name='Page_6'></a>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table align='center' border='0' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' +summary='Table of Contents'> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td> </td> +<td align='center'><b>PAGE</b></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align='left' colspan='2'><a href="#Page_9">Introduction--"The +Time of Reformation"</a></td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td align='left'><a href="#PART_I">Part I--The Church in Apostolic +Days</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align='center'><b>CHAPTER</b></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align='right'>I </td> +<td align='left'><a href="#Page_19">The Church Defined</a></td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align='right'>II </td> +<td align='left'><a href="#Page_21">The Universal Church</a></td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align='right'>III </td> +<td align='left'><a href="#Page_33">The Local Church</a></td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align='right'>IV </td> +<td align='left'><a href="#Page_41">The Organization and Government +of the Church</a></td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td align='left'><a href="#PART_II">Part II--The Church in +History</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align='right'>V </td> +<td align='left'><a href="#Page_73">Corruption of Evangelical +Faith</a></td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_73">73</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align='right'>VI </td> +<td align='left'><a href="#Page_87">Rise of +Ecclesiasticism</a></td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_87">87</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align='right'>VII </td> +<td align='left'><a href="#Page_101">The Reformation</a></td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_101">101</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align='right'>VIII </td> +<td align='left'><a href="#Page_111">Modern Sects</a></td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_111">111</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align='right'>IX </td> +<td align='left'><a href="#Page_125">The Church of the +Future</a></td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_125">125</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td align='left'><a href="#PART_III">Part III--The Church in +Prophecy</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align='right'>X </td> +<td align='left'><a href="#Page_141">Interpretation of Prophetic +Symbols</a></td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_141">141</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align='right'>XI </td> +<td align='left'><a href="#Page_149">The Apostolic Period</a></td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_149">149</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align='right'>XII </td> +<td align='left'><a href="#Page_169">The Medieval Period</a></td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_169">169</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align='right'>XIII </td> +<td align='left'><a href="#Page_209">Era of Modern Sects</a></td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_209">209</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align='right'>XIV </td> +<td align='left'><a href="#Page_223">The Last Reformation</a></td> +<td align='right'><a href="#Page_223">223</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr style='width: 65%;'> +<a name='Page_9'></a> <a name='INTRODUCTION'></a> +<h2>INTRODUCTION</h2> + +<h3>"THE TIME OF REFORMATION"</h3> + +<br> + + +<p>In ecclesiastical history the term Reformation has been applied +specifically to the important religious movement of the sixteenth +century which resulted in the formation of the various Protestant +churches of that period. Since the sixteenth century there have +been other religious reformations, some of considerable importance +and influence.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>A present reformation</div> + +<p>There is a present reformation specially distinguished from all +those that have gone before. It is resulting from the particular +operation of the Spirit of God as predicted in the Word of God, and +its influences are being felt in varying degrees throughout all +Christendom. Many Christians are already stirred to action by the +conscious knowledge of Christ's message for these times, while +multiplied thousands of others who love the Lord Jesus are +experiencing within their own hearts the awakening <a name= +'Page_10'></a>of new aspirations and impulses, the real meaning of +which they do not as yet understand, but which are, through the +leadership of the Holy Spirit, unconsciously fitting them for their +true place in this great world-wide movement which is destined to +exceed in importance and influence all other religious reformations +since the days of primitive Christianity.</p> + +<p>Since, as we shall show, the present reformation is the work of +the Spirit affecting all true Christians, drawing them together for +the realization of a grand Scriptural ideal, it is evident that no +particular band of people enjoy its exclusive monopoly. May the +same Holy Spirit illuminate our hearts and minds in the +contemplation of the truths of the divine Word.</p> + +<p>The term <i>reformation</i> signifies "the act of reforming or +the state of being reformed; change from worse to better; +correction or amendment of life, manners, or of anything vicious or +corrupt." In its application to the religion of Christ, reformation +means the correction of abuses and corrupt practises that have +become associated with the Christian system; the elimination of all +unworthy, foreign elements. In other words, it implies +<i>restoration</i>, a return to the practises and ideals of +primitive Christianity.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>What the final reformation must include</div> + +<p>If we inquire concerning the limits of true reformatory work, we +see at once that, if there is to be a final reformation, such a +movement must restore in its fundamental aspects <i>apostolic +Christianity</i>—its doctrines, its ordinances, its personal +regenerating and sanctifying experiences, its spiritual life, its +holiness, its power, its purity, its gifts of the Spirit, its unity +of believers, and its fruits. This assumes, of course, that during +the centuries there has been a departure from this<a name= +'Page_12'></a><a name='Page_11'></a> standard.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The church itself the real object of +reformation</div> + +<p>No reformation since apostolic times has covered all this +ground. All the reformations taken together fall far short of this +standard. They have been reformations only in part, each movement +simply placing special emphasis on particular doctrines, or +ordinances, or personal experiences. Hence the need of further +reformation. The present movement embraces all the truth contained +in all the previous reformations of Protestantism. But it does not +stop there. It stands committed to all the truth of the Word of +God. It goes straight to the heart of the reformation subject and +reveals the pure, holy, <i>universal</i> church of the apostolic +times as made up of all those who were regenerated, uniting them +all IN CHRIST; in the "church of the living God," which church was +"the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Tim. 3:15); the church that +was graced with the gifts of the Spirit and filled with holy +power.</p> + +<p>The true apostolic church has been largely lost to view since +the early Christian centuries, when a general apostasy dimmed the +light of truth and plunged the world into the darkness of papal +night. In modern times the t<a name='Page_13'></a>erm "church" as +applied to a general body of religious worshipers is usually +employed in a restricted sense, specifying some particular +organization, as the hierarchy of Rome or the aggregation of local +congregations constituting a Protestant sect. By a natural reaction +from the Romish extreme, wherein the church and church relationship +are exalted above the personal relationship of the individual with +his God, many teachers now incline to an opposite extreme, which +makes little of the church as an institution, substituting therefor +a sort of "loyalty to Christ," <i>individualism</i>, subversive of +true New Testament standards.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The true church Scripturally important</div> + +<p>The church is not to be exalted above the Christ, nor is it a +substitute for the Christ; but in the light of New Testament +teaching we must regard the true church as <i>the</i> +instrument—the divinely appointed instrument used by the Holy +Spirit in carrying forward the work of Christ on earth. Jesus +himself said, "Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates +of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18). At a later +time we read, "And the Lord added to the church daily such as +should be saved" (Acts 2:47).</p> + +<p>If Paul were living today, he also might despise the "church" +idea in its narrow sectarian sense. But from the apostle's words, +it is very evident that he regarded the church as it existed in his +day as an institution <a name='Page_14'></a>crowned with glory and +honor, the concrete expression of Christ and his truth. "<i>God +hath set some</i> IN THE CHURCH, first apostles, secondarily +prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of +healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues" (1 Cor. +12:28). "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, +evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of +the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the <i>edifying of +the body of Christ</i>; till we all come in the unity of the faith +... that we ... may <i>grow up into him in all things</i>, which is +the head, [of the body, <i>the church</i>, Col. 1:18] even Christ" +(Eph. 4:11-15).</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The church as a divine institution</div> + +<p>Inasmuch as God set in the church apostles, prophets, +evangelists, gifts of miracles, of healings, etc., we must regard +the church as originally instituted as being more than a mere +aggregate of individuals associating themselves together for +particular purposes. We must recognize the divine element. This +company was the host of redeemed ones whom Christ had saved, in +whom he dwelt, and through whom he revealed God and accomplished +his work on earth. It was his body—the organism to which he +gave spiritual life and through which he manifested the fulness of +his power and glory.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Church relationship vs. individualism</div> + +<p>Any reformation that h<a name='Page_15'></a>as not for its +object the full restoration of the New Testament church, can not be +a complete reformation, but must be succeeded by another. In this +respect the church subject is fundamental and all-inclusive. To +emphasize a mere "personal-union-with-Christ" theory to the +disparagement of the divine <i>ekklesia</i>, is to evade the real +issue. Jesus declared, "I will build my church," and that church +was an objective reality, which was not intended to be concealed +under high-sounding theological verbiage nor dissipated in +glittering generalities. It is true that Christ himself must be +presented as the ground of our hope and salvation and as the object +of our personal faith, love, and devotion; as "the way, the truth, +and the life"; but we must not forget that there is also a +revelation of the way, the truth, and the life in the church of +Christ. The apostles preached Christ as the divine "way"; but when +men believed on him, he straightway "set the members every one of +them <i>in the body</i>"—the church (1 Cor. 12:18). "And the +Lord added <i>to the church</i> daily such as should be saved" +(Acts 2:47). They preached Christ as the personification of +"truth." But they also taught that the gospel was a special +"treasure" committed to the church for dispensing to the nations. +Paul said that God hath "committed <i>unto us</i> the word of +reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5:19). Therefore he could represent the +church of God "as the pillar and ground of the truth." They +preached him as "life," but he was also the life of the collective +body of believers as well as of individuals. He dwelt in his +church. He was its life, and through it he manifested himse<a name= +'Page_16'></a>lf in the only form in which, since the incarnation, +he can be fully exhibited to men.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Avoiding extremes</div> + +<p>The fact that Romanism has stressed the "church" idea, parading +before the world as the church an organic body devoid of true +spiritual life, a mere corpse, is no reason justifying a view +which, ignoring the practical church relationship taught in the New +Testament, talks glibly of an ethereal, intangible, ghostly +something which, without a body, lacks all practical contact with +men. The Bible standard is the proper union of soul and body. It is +certain that, as in apostolic days, such union is necessary to the +proper exhibition of the divine life and absolutely essential to +the full accomplishment of the divine purposes in Christ's great +redemptive plan.</p> + +<p>Christ, the life of his spiritual body, and the life-giver, +remains the same in all ages. Hence the church <i>body</i> is the +part that has been disrupted and corrupted by apostasy and +sectarianism, and is therefore the sphere of reformatory effort. +And while reformation pertains to historical Christianity, it +implies, as we have already shown, a return to the primitive +standard. Therefore, before proceeding to describe particularly the +present reformation, we must give attention to the constitution of +the apostolic church, the divine original.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;'> +<a name='Page_17'></a> <a name='PART_I'></a> +<h3>PART I</h3> + +<a name='Page_18'></a> + +<h2>The Church in Apostolic Days</h2> + +<hr style='width: 65%;'> + +<h1>The Last Reformation</h1> + +<hr style='width: 65%;'> +<a name='Page_19'></a> <a name='CHAPTER_I'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>THE CHURCH DEFINED</h3> + +<br> + + +<div class='sidenote'>The term "church"</div> + +<p>The word "church" as used in the New Testament is, in most +cases, derived from the Greek word <i>ekklesia</i>. The component +parts of this word literally mean to summon or call together in +public convocation. It was, therefore, used to designate any +popular assembly which met for the transaction of public business. +As an example of the secular use of the term, see Acts 19: 32, 39. +This particular application of the word, however, does not here +concern us.</p> + +<p>Since the word <i>ekklesia</i> conveys the idea of an assembly +of "<i>called ones</i>," it expresses beautifully the Christian's +call to churchly association. The divine call of believers is +frequently expressed in the New Testament: they are "called with an +holy calling" (2 Tim. 1:9); "called in one body" (Col. 3:15); +"called unto his kingdom and glory" (1 Thess. 2:12); or, as Peter +expresses it, "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an +holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the +praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his +marvelous light" (1 Pet. 2:9). While these texts and many others +describe the exalted rights and privileges accorded the "called +ones," there is distinctly implied the idea of their organic +association, and it was this association that constituted them the +Christian church.</p> + +<a name='Page_20'></a> + +<div class='sidenote'>Its two Christian phases</div> + +<p>"The church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood" +(Acts 20: 28), is Clearly set forth in the New Testament. And the +term "church" in its religious usage is given two significations. +In its largest and primary signification, the church of God is the +entire body of regenerated persons in all times and places, and is +in this respect identical with the spiritual kingdom of God, the +divine family. In a secondary sense, church designates an +individual assembly in which the universal church takes local and +temporary form and in which the idea of the general church is +concretely exhibited. Besides these two significations of the +Christian term "church," there are, properly speaking, no other in +the New Testament. It is true that <i>ekklesia</i> is sometimes +used as a collective term to denote the body of local churches +existing in a given region, but there is no evidence that these +churches were bound together in groups by any outward organization +which separated or distinguished them from other congregations of +the general church. Therefore this use of the term "church" can not +be regarded as adding any new sense to those of the general church +and the local church already referred to.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;'> +<a name='Page_21'></a> <a name='CHAPTER_II'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH</h3> + +<br> + + +<p>Matt. 16:18 introduces in the gospel history the subject of the +church. Jesus said, "I will build my church; and the gates of hell +shall not prevail against it." This text implies that the church as +an institution was not yet founded, and it also clearly implies +that Christ himself was to be the founder and builder of his +church.</p> + +<p>Jesus had already preached that the kingdom of heaven was at +hand, and when he sent forth his twelve apostles he commanded them +to preach and say, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." Jesus +himself taught the doctrines of the kingdom, but in the words of +our text there is implied deeper ideas of the kingdom of God yet to +be revealed in all their fulness of meaning.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The body of Christ</div> + +<p>We should divest our minds, temporarily at least, of +preconceived ideas of formal church organization and earnestly seek +to understand the real signification of that church of which Christ +was himself personally the founder. A few texts make this point <a +name='Page_22'></a>clear: "And hath put a<a name='Page_23'></a>ll +things under his [Christ's] feet, and given him to be the head over +all things to the church, <i>which is his body</i>, the fulness of +him that filleth all in all" (Eph. 1: 22, 23). The church, then, is +the body of Christ. Of this body Jesus himself is the head. "And he +is the head of the body, the church ... that in all things he might +have the preeminence" (Col. 1:18). "For his body's sake, which is +the church" (verse 24). Christ is head of but one body. "There is +<i>one</i> body" (Eph. 4:4). In these texts the body and the church +are used interchangeably, referring to one and the same thing. The +body of which Christ is the head is the church that he built, "the +church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood" (Acts +20: 28).</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The atonement its procuring cause</div> + +<p>It is therefore to Calvary that we must look for the specific +act by virtue of which Christ personally became the founder of his +church. <i>There</i> it was "purchased with his own blood." +<i>There</i> we find the application of those sublime words of the +Savior, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, <i>will draw all +men</i> UNTO ME" (John 12: 32). By virtue of that act, God "put all +things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things +to the church." Yea, by virtue of that act, "God also hath highly +exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that +at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,... and that every +tongue should confess" (Phil. 2:9-11).</p> + +<p>The church, then, proceeds from Calvary: Pentecost was but its +initial manifestation to men and its dedication for service. Of +this we shall have more to say hereafter.</p> + +<a name='Page_24'></a> + +<div class='sidenote'>Composed of true Christians</div> + +<p>Since through his death Christ proposed to draw all men unto +him, it is evident that all the members of Christ are therefore +members of his body, the church. To this agrees the words of the +apostle Paul, "For as we have many members in one body, and all +members have not the same office: so we [true Christians], being +many, are <i>one body in Christ</i>, and every one members one of +another" (Rom. 12: 4, 5). "Now hath God set the members <i>every +one of them</i> in the body, as it hath pleased him" (1 Cor. +12:18).</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Mode of admission</div> + +<p>Becoming a member of the spiritual body of Christ is necessarily +a spiritual operation. Men may admit members to a formal church +relationship, but only the Spirit of God can make us members of +Christ. "For by one Spirit are we all baptized [or inducted] into +one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or +free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit" (1 Cor. +12:13). This text does not refer to literal water-baptism, but to +the work of the "Spirit," by whom we are inducted into Christ. +"<i>God hath set the members</i> every one of them in the body" +(verse 18). And since this is the work of the Spirit, it is evident +that none but the saved can possibly find admittance into the +spiritual body of Christ. Under a different figu<a name= +'Page_25'></a>re Jesus conveys the same truth. "I am the door: by +me if <i>any man</i> enter in, <i>he shall be saved</i>" (John 10: +9). "And the Lord added to them day by day those that <i>were being +saved</i>" (Acts 2:47, R.V.). Salvation, then, is the condition of +membership.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Family relationship</div> + +<p>The members of Christ are members of God's family. How do we +become members of the divine family? "Except a man <i>be born +again</i>, he can not see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). "As many +as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God +... which were <i>born ... of God</i>" (John 1:12, 13). "Beloved, +now are we the sons of God" (1 John 3:2). Since this family, or +church, is composed of the saved, or those who are born again, and +excludes all the unsaved, we can understand Paul's reference to "a +glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing," +but "<i>holy and without blemish</i>" (Eph. 5:27).</p> + +<p>We have spoken of the union of all believers with Christ when he +draws them unto himself and becomes their spiritual life. But this +unity of all believers <i>with Christ</i> is a spiritual +relationship and experience not to be confused with external +things. The Bible speaks of Christians as being "in Christ." What +does this mean? It certainly means to be "born again," for without +that experience we "can not see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). +"Therefore if any man be <i>in Christ</i>, HE IS A NEW CREATURE: +old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new"<a +name='Page_26'></a> (2 Cor. 5:17). "Whosoever abideth <i>in him</i> +sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known +him" (1 John 3:6).</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Unity of believers</div> + +<p>But our union with Christ, by which we become members of the +divine family, necessarily fixes our relationship with all those +who are members of Christ. If, through salvation, we are brought +into a sacred unity with Christ, we are by the same act brought +into essential unity and fellowship with the members of Christ. +This the Word distinctly affirms: "We, being many, are one body in +Christ, and <i>every one members one of another</i>" (Rom. 12: 4, +5). "There should be no schism in the body; but the members should +have the same care one for another" (1 Cor. 12:25). While this last +text relates literally to the physical body, the apostle applies it +in an illustrative way to the spiritual body. "Now ye are the body +of Christ, and members in particular" (verse 27).</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Unity and uniformity</div> + +<p>Harmony in a normal physical body is not effected by external +means, but is organic. The members may be many and diverse, but +they are all necessary and have their respective places and work. +So also with the body of Christ. Union with Christ is not dependent +upon absolute uniformity except in the one thing—the +fundamental experience by which we are made memb<a name= +'Page_27'></a>ers of Christ. In the apostolic period the children +of God who loved our Lord and were known of him were not all of one +age or size or nationality. They had not all enjoyed the same +social advantages, nor had they had the same intellectual +attainments. The act of receiving Christ and his salvation did not +perfect their knowledge; therefore they had to be patiently taught +in order to bring them into the "unity of the faith." And for this +purpose divinely chosen instructors were appointed, who must +themselves "study" and give careful attention to "doctrine" (Eph. +4:11-14; 1 Tim. 3:13-16). But the gospel penetrates beneath the +surface; it goes straight to the heart and reaches fundamental +things. "There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither bond nor +free, there is neither male nor female: <i>for ye are all one</i> +IN CHRIST JESUS" (Gal. 3:28).</p> + +<p>The unity of believers with Christ is, therefore, based on +divine relationship, and <i>this is the fundamental basis of the +true relationship of believers with each other</i>. In order to +maintain spiritual relationship with Christ and his people, the +Christian must have an obedient heart and "walk in the light of the +Lord"; but we should always be ready to extend our fellowship to +those whom Christ really receives and approves.</p> + +<p>How prone men have ever been to ignore this simple, divine +standard and set up arbitrary rules of their own by which to +measure others! This wrong tendency combined with the carnal +ambitions of men who love to parade their own unscriptural ideas +before the world<a name='Page_28'></a> and gain adherents has been +the real cause of the disunion of Christians. But the Bible +standard is what we are now considering. It teaches that the saved +people were "members one of another" as well as members of Christ; +that they were, in fact, "<i>all one in Christ Jesus</i>."</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Unity a practical reality</div> + +<p>According to the New Testament standard, unity of believers is +more than an invisible, intangible, spiritual fellowship. They are +"members one of another" as well as members of Christ. That unity +was designed to be visible and to form a convincing sign to the +world of the mighty power of Christ. This stands out prominently in +that notable prayer of our Lord recorded in John 17, which was +uttered on the most solemn night of his earthly life. First he +prayed for his immediate disciples, then for all believers, in +these words: "Neither pray I for these [twelve] alone, but for them +also which shall believe on me through their word; THAT THEY ALL +MAY BE ONE; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they +also may be one in us: THAT THE WORLD MAY BELIEVE <i>that thou hast +sent me</i>" (verses 20, 21).</p> + +<p>Such unity is a real standard. It will convince the world. The +practical force of this last scripture can not be lessened by +reference to those other words of Jesus, "By this shall all men +know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one for another" +(John 13: 35), for Jesus taught the inseparable nature of love and +unity. Love, as an inward affection, produces de<a name= +'Page_29'></a>eds and results, and is measured thereby. Jesus said, +"If a man love me, he will <i>keep my words</i>; and my Father will +love him, and we will <i>come unto him</i>, and <i>make our abode +with him</i>" (John 14: 23). And just as love to God invariably +produces union with God, so also true love to man will result in +unity. "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in +tongue; but <i>in deed and in truth</i>" (1 John 3:18). Carnal +divisions can not exist where true love reigns.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Christ died for unity</div> + +<p>For this visible unity Christ prayed—"That they all may be +one,... <i>that the world may believe</i>." More than this, he +died that unity might be effected. John 11:52 clearly shows that +one purpose of Christ's death was that "he should gather together +<i>in one</i> the children of God that were scattered abroad." +Therefore unity of believers is a sacred truth resting on the solid +basis of the atonement. That this unity is more than that general +union resulting from the personal attachment of separate +individuals to Christ as a common center, is proved by the fact +that it is designed to gather together in one the scattered +<i>children of God</i>. Jesus himself said, "Other sheep I have +[Gentiles], which are not of this [Jewish] fold: <i>them also I +must bring</i>, and they shall hear my voice; and THERE SHALL BE +ONE FOLD [flock] AND ONE SHEPHERD" (John 10:16).</p> + +<a name='Page_30'></a> + +<div class='sidenote'>Jew and Gentile united</div> + +<p>Broadly speaking, there were at that time but two classified +divisions of men—Jews and Gentiles. Jesus predicted that his +sheep from both sections should be brought together into one flock. +In the second chapter of Ephesians, Paul tells us how this was +accomplished. Although "in times past" the Gentiles were "strangers +from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in +the world," in Christ they were "made nigh by the blood." "For he +is our peace, who hath made both [Jews and Gentiles] ONE, and hath +broken down the middle wall of partition between us ... that he +might reconcile both unto God <i>in one body</i> by the cross" +(verses 12-16). Since this glorious reunion through Christ, the +Gentiles "are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens +with the saints, and of the household of God." They also "are built +upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ +himself being the chief corner-stone ... in whom ye also are +builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit" +(verses 19-22).</p> + +<p>On account of the high standard of unity set forth in his +epistles, Paul has been branded an idealist. But what shall we say +of Christ who prayed for such visible unity and died for it? An +idealist is one who forms picturesque fancies, one given to +romantic expectations impossible of accomplishment. The idealist +usually h<a name='Page_31'></a>as but few practical results. But +Paul accomplished things. He broke away from his Jewish prejudices, +which brought down upon his head the wrath of his fellows. He went +into the synagogs of the Jews and brought out those who were +willing to become disciples of Jesus. To build up the work of the +Lord he labored night and day with tears; he laid broad and deep +the very foundations of the Christian faith in heathen lands. +Within a very few years he established Christian churches in four +provinces of the Roman Empire—churches in which Jew and +Gentile met together in common fellowship, <i>in one body</i>. If +this is idealism, Lord, give us many more such idealists.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The burden of Paul's ministry</div> + +<p>But the unity described by Paul in the epistles which he wrote +late in life is not given as a mere ideal standard for the future +toward which men should strive. It is given as the record of a +historic fact, the accomplishment of which lay at the very +foundation of Paul's call to the ministry.</p> + +<p>In the second chapter of Ephesians, already quoted, Paul +declares that both Jews and Gentiles were reconciled to God in one +body <i>by the cross</i>. In the next chapter he shows his part in +the accomplishment of that end. First, he was called of God as the +apostle of the Gentiles; then by revelation was made<a name= +'Page_32'></a> known unto him "the mystery of Christ which in other +ages was not made known unto the sons of men ... that the Gentiles +should be fellow heirs, and OF THE SAME BODY, and partakers of his +promise in Christ by the gospel" (Eph. 3:4-6). The promise referred +to was doubtless the "promise of the Father," the gift of the Holy +Ghost. "That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles +through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the <i>promise of the +Spirit through faith</i>" (Gal. 3:14). "For this cause," says Paul, +"I was made a minister ... that I should preach among the Gentiles +the unsearchable riches of Christ; and <i>to make all men see</i> +what is the fellowship of the mystery ... to the intent that now +unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be +known BY THE CHURCH the manifold wisdom of God" (Eph. 3: 1-10).</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Was divinely attested</div> + +<p>Paul was given a tremendous task—"TO MAKE ALL MEN SEE" +that mystery. This task required from God "the effectual working of +his power" (verse 7). And in another place he also shows that this +power was not lacking: "For I will not dare to speak of any of +those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the +Gentiles obedient, by word and deed, through mighty signs and +wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God" (Rom. 15: 18, 19).</p> + +<p>Paul, then, was divinely commissioned "<i>to make all men +see</i>" the mystery of this union of all classes of men "<i>in one +body</i> by the cross" (Eph. 2: 16), all in "the SAME body, and +partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel" (Eph. 3: 6). And +when Paul's career was finished, the same mystery was given over to +others that it might be "known BY THE CHURCH" (verse 10), "the +church, which is his body" (Eph. 1: 22, 23). The ministry, then, +should have held the ground already attained, the actual union of +all the saved in one body, and have labored earnestly "to make all +men see" that that body only is the church.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;'> +<a name='Page_33'></a> <a name='CHAPTER_III'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>THE LOCAL CHURCH</h3> + +<br> + + +<p>The words of Christ, "I will build my church; and the gates of +hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16: 18), convey a deeper +meaning than the simple preaching of the kingdom. As we have +already shown, the one specific personal act by virtue of which +Christ became the founder of the church was his atonement on +Calvary, where the church was "purchased with his own blood" (Acts +20: 28). The church, then, as an institution, resulted from the +atonement. Paul, describing the union of Jews and Gentiles in one +body, the church, declares that it was effected "by the cross" +(Eph. 2: 16).</p> + +<p>There was power in redemption. It brought into the lives of +believers forces that could not but unite them in social compact. +It threw them together in living sympathy and united their hearts +firmly in the strong bonds of brotherly love. Their outward organic +union as a church was the natural and inevitable result of this +inward life and love.</p> + +<a name='Page_34'></a> +<div class='sidenote'>Local church defined</div> + +<p>By the impartation of spiritual life to believers and by the +agency of the Holy Spirit operating in the apostles as special +agents appointed to do his work, Christ built his church on earth. +There was a building of the church, then, which pertained +specifically to its <i>local</i> and <i>visible</i> development +among men. The expression "<i>I</i> will build" indicates the +transcendent element, the divine element, in church organization. +This being true, it follows that the local church was not merely an +aggregate of individuals accidently gathered together, but was the +local, concrete embodiment of the spiritual body of Christ; the +unified company of regenerated persons who, as a body, were +dedicated to Christ, acknowledged of Christ, and used by Christ +through the Holy Spirit for the accomplishment of his work. +Jerusalem furnishes the first example, dating from Pentecost (Acts +2).</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Particular example: Corinth</div> + +<p>That this is, generally s<a name='Page_35'></a>peaking, the +Scriptural definition of a local church of God, is further shown by +another particular example. Paul addressed two of his epistles "to +the church of God which is at Corinth" (1 Cor. 1: 2; 2 Cor. 1: 1). +As individuals they are called "saints" and "brethren," but +collectively as a church they are called "the church of God" and +referred to as "God's building" (1 Cor. 3: 9). And the apostle says +to them, "Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the +<i>Spirit of God dwelleth in you</i>?" (verse 16, R.V.). They had +been inducted by the Spirit into the "<i>one body</i>," and they +were filled with the gifts of the Spirit—wisdom, knowledge, +faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, and tongues (chap. +12). In fact, the apostle said, "Ye come behind in no gift" (chap. +1: 7). And he said<a name='Page_36'></a> particularly, "<i>Ye are +the body of Christ</i>" (chap. 12: 27).</p> + +<p>A true local church, then, was the concrete embodiment of the +spiritual body of Christ in a given place. It was the body of +Christ because it was made up of the people of God, manifested the +power of God, was the repository of the truth of God, was filled +with the gifts of the Spirit of God, and was actually used by the +Spirit in performing the works of God. Such characteristics made it +"<i>the church of God</i>."</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Local membership</div> + +<p>Membership in the general body of Christ was conditioned solely +on the new birth, or salvation. Since the individual church was the +local embodiment of the general church, none but the saved could +properly become members thereof, and all who were truly saved (in +the same locality) belonged to it by divine right. At this point, +however, the human element in the constitution of the local church +became manifest. We have pointed out the divine element in the true +church—the element that particularly distinguished it as the +church of God, but the bringing together of many individuals in one +assembly involved also a social element and required the principle +of <i>recognition</i>. There is, however, no evidence that such +recognition was given by a formal, official act of the church in +its corporate capacity. And since salvation is of the heart, it was +possible for human recognition to temporarily miss its t<a name= +'Page_37'></a>rue purpose. Thus, in the church at Jerusalem we find +recognized as a constituent part of the assembly two false +members—Ananias and Sapphira. On the other hand, when the +converted Saul "was come to Jerusalem, he essayed to join himself +to the disciples: but they were all afraid of him, and believed not +that he was a disciple" (Acts 9: 26). The church at Corinth, +already referred to, had some false members at the time the Pauline +epistles were written. The church at Samaria also tolerated for a +time one whose "heart was not right in the sight of God" (Acts +8).</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>A holy church</div> + +<p>Since the local church was designed to exhibit concretely the +spiritual body of Christ, none but saved persons could +<i>properly</i> hold membership therein; therefore the local church +when in its normal condition was free from sin and sinners. The +physical body, which Paul uses to illustrate the spiritual body, is +normal only when every member possesses the life of the body and +functions properly. So also was the body of Christ. It was not +God's will that there should be (as recognized members) "sinners in +the congregation of the righteous" (Psa. 1: 5). It was his will to +purge Jerusalem "by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of +burning" until "<i>he that is left</i> in Zion, and he that +remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called <i>holy</i>, even <i>every +one</i> that is written among the living in Jerusalem" (Isa. +4:3,4).</p> + +<a name='Page_38'></a> + +<div class='sidenote'>Discernment and judgement necessary</div> + +<p>The local congregation in Jerusalem did not cease to be the +church of God because two unworthy persons obtained recognition in +it. This incident gave occasion for the church to manifest its +inherent <i>life</i> by its ability to discern and then cast off +the secret offenders just as a healthy physical body casts off +effete matter. As a result of the judgment pronounced on Ananias +and Sapphira, "great fear came upon all the church ... and of the +rest <i>durst no man join himself to them</i>; but the people +magnified them" (Acts 5:11, 13). The fiery judgments of God put an +end to formal church-joining there, as a result of which "believers +were the more <i>added to the Lord</i>, multitudes both of men and +women" (verse 14). "And the Lord added to them day by day those +that were being saved" (Acts 2:47, R.V.).</p> + +<p>A clean, pure local church was the divine standard. It is +evident that such could never be obtained and maintained except by +the power of the Holy Spirit, who discerned evil and prompted its +elimination. Peter discerned the condition of the two false members +in the church at Jerusalem and removed that blemish. He also +exposed the hypocrisy of Simon at Samaria, and Paul pointed out the +evil affection in the church at Corinth and directed its removal. +Chief responsibility for the maintenance of the normal condition of +the church will be considered in <a name='Page_39'></a>our +discussion of the particular features of church organization and +government.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Apostasy possible</div> + +<p>We have shown the characteristic, spiritual features of a New +Testament congregation in its normal condition; also the +possibility of deviation from that standard. A practical question +is, How far could such a congregation lapse into an abnormal state +and still be a church of God? Or, Can a church as a body backslide? +The church at Ephesus evidently was on the verge of such an +apostasy. Therefore in the special message addressed to it in +Revelation the Lord said: "I have somewhat against thee, because +thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou +art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come +unto thee quickly, and <i>will remove thy candlestick</i> out of +his place" (Rev. 2: 4, 5). So also the church at Laodicea. "I know +thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert +cold or hot. So then because thou art luke warm, and neither cold +nor hot, <i>I will spew thee out of my mouth</i>" (Rev. 3: 15, +16).</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The line of distinction</div> + +<p>The physical body may experience the mutilation of some of its +members and still survive, but there is a limit beyond which death +will ensue. So also the spiritual body may survive the encumbrance +of a few false members<a name='Page_40'></a>. From the general +facts and principles already adduced, however, we may safely assert +that a local church is a church of God only so long as it is able +to function properly <i>as a body</i>. As long as the Spirit of God +is in the ascendency, so that the people of God as a body manifest +the power of God, maintain the truth of God, are filled with the +Spirit of God, and are actually used by the Spirit in performing +the works of God, so long they are the church of God. Whenever +another spirit gains the ascendency and the divine, spiritual +characteristics are lost to view, then is brought to pass the +saying that is written, "<i>I will spew thee out of my mouth</i>." +Beyond that time they may continue their formal services, singing +hymns, saying prayers, and making speeches; but the real message of +God describing their condition is, as was true of Sardis, "Thou +hast a name that thou livest, <i>and art dead</i>" (Rev. 3: 1). +Such dead congregations are no longer a part of the true church and +are unworthy of the recognition of spiritual congregations.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;'> +<a name='CHAPTER_IV'></a> +<h2><a name='Page_41'></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>THE ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE CHURCH</h3> + +<br> + + +<div class='sidenote'>The fact of organization</div> + +<p>We have already shown that the words of Christ "I will build my +church" have a deeper meaning than the simple preaching of the +kingdom. They imply the formation of an organized structure against +which even the gates of hell should not prevail. They can signify +nothing less than the visible establishment of the church among men +as the concrete embodiment of the divine kingdom or family. The +church, then, as made up of local congregations, is an institution +of divine appointment. This is shown by the words of Christ in +Matt. 18: 17, according to which it sometimes becomes necessary in +admonishing and disciplining trespassers to "<i>tell it unto the +church</i>"; and the appellation "church of <i>God</i>" is +frequently applied to individual congregations (1 Cor. 1: 2, et +al.).</p> + +<p>Many teachers hold that Christ did not build a church and that +the "form of church organization is not definitely prescribed in +the New Testament, but is a matter of expediency, every body of +believers being permitted to adopt that method of organization +which best suits its circumstances and condition." Such is the +Protestant view put forth by those who seek an excuse for the +modern system of sect-building. The incorrectness of this theory is +easily shown. First, as we shall see, it underestimates the need of +divine direction in church relationship and ignores +well-established facts in the New Testament history. Secondly, if +it proves anything, it proves too much; for to admit such a +principle of "church powers" is to admit that the papacy <a name= +'Page_42'></a>and every other human system of church control is +justified—systems which can be historically shown to be +subversive of the church as a spiritual body.</p> + +<p>That the church was actually organized into local assemblies in +apostolic days is abundantly shown by the New Testament record. +They had regular meetings at stated times (Heb. 10:25; Acts 20:7; I +Cor. 16:12); officers (Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:2; Eph. 4:11, 12); +recognized authority (1 Tim. 5:17; Heb. 13:17); discipline (1 Cor. +5:13; 2 Thess. 3:6, 10-14); a system of contributions (1 Cor. 16:1, +2); ordinances (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 10:16; 11: 23-29); a common work, +etc. On one occasion Paul instructed Titus to "<i>set in order</i> +the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city" (Tit. +1:5).</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>By whom effected</div> + +<p>The words of Jesus "I will build my church" point us to the +Christ as its real founder. Since the life and genius of the church +is the superhuman element, which element must at all times be given +precedence over mere outward forms and<a name='Page_44'></a><a +name='Page_43'></a> human characteristics, and since this life +proceeds from Christ as the Redeemer of men, therefore in all +fundamental aspects he is the personal founder of the church. But +more than this, working by proxy, Jesus gave even external form to +his church, employing for this purpose his chosen apostles, to whom +he gave special instruction and authority. Even during his personal +ministry Jesus performed some of his work by proxy. It is expressly +stated that he baptized many (John 3: 22; 4: 1), and yet +explanation is made that "Jesus himself baptized not, <i>but his +disciples</i>" (John 4: 2).</p> + +<p>So also in the organization of the church. The germ of that +organization existed during Christ's personal ministry. Doctrine +was given, ministers preached, baptism was administered, and people +believed, but this embryonic organization could not be completely +established as a church before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. +Therefore provision was made for its progressive development under +the tutelage of specially inspired apostles. Doctrine was given +gradually, yet invariably through the oral and written teaching of +these inspired apostles. Therefore we can not but believe that the +same invariable guidance of the Holy Spirit also perfected through +them God's own plan of church organization and work. The gradual +development of church organization under the labors of the +apostles, therefore, no more proves the theory of a constant +historic development than does the fact of a gradual unfolding of +the Christian faith and doctrine by the apostles prove a constant +and unending revelatio<a name='Page_45'></a>n of the gospel through +all succeeding ages. One writer has well said, "The same promise of +the Spirit which renders the New Testament an unerring and +sufficient rule of faith renders it also an unerring and sufficient +<i>rule of practise</i> for the church in all places and times." We +must therefore regard the organization of the church, as we do the +unfolding of the gospel message, as complete in all its fundamental +and essential aspects before the close of the sacred canon.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Apostolic agency</div> + +<p>There is no doubt that the apostles occupied a special place in +the divine establishment of the church and its message. Regarded as +a temple, the church is "built upon the foundation of the apostles +and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone" +(Eph. 2: 20). The Old Testament Scripture "came not in old time by +the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by +the Holy Ghost" (2 Pet. 1: 21). But now we read, "God, who at +sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the +fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days <i>spoken unto +us</i> BY HIS SON" (Heb. 1: 1, 2). Moses, representative of the +law, and Elias, representative of the prophets, appeared in glory +on the Mount of Transfiguration; but when Peter suggested that they +be accorded equal honors with Jesus, immediately a cloud +overshadowed the company and a voice out of the cloud said, "This +is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased<a name='Page_46'></a>; +HEAR YE HIM." "And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no +man, save <i>Jesus only</i>" (Matt. 17:1-8).</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Model for all ages</div> + +<p>The revelation of divine truth, therefore, as the foundation of +our faith, reached its highest level in the Son. We need not look +for another gospel—<i>hear him</i>. He has also said, "I will +build my church"; hence we need not look for another +church—HEAR HIM! Paul declares that the gospel with its +revelation of the "mystery" of the union of the saved in one body, +the church, was in his day "<i>made manifest</i>," and, "according +to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all +nations <i>for the obedience of faith</i>" (Rom. 16:25, 26). See +Eph. 2; 3:1-10. While therefore Christ was the author of the truth +in its highest form of revelation, also the founder of his church, +both reached their fulness of perfection under the inspired +apostles and was by them "made known to all nations <i>for the +obedience of faith</i>." The unity of all believers for which +Christ solemnly prayed was to be accomplished through the direct +agency of the apostles, the result of believing on Christ +"<i>through</i> THEIR <i>Word</i>" (John 17:20).</p> + +<p>In describing how both Jews and Gentiles were reconciled in one +body by the cross, Paul says that God "hath raised us up<a name= +'Page_47'></a> together, and made us sit together in heavenly +places in Christ Jesus: <i>that in the ages to come</i> he might +show the exceeding riches of his grace" (Eph. 2: 6, 7). The unified +church of the apostolic day is therefore the divine model for all +succeeding ages.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Paul's relation thereto</div> + +<p>Since the first apostles were employed as special agents in +establishing the perfected New Testament church, Paul's connection +therewith is of particular importance. Paul was not one of the +original twelve, yet he exerted a tremendous influence in that +period and was undoubtedly one of the chief agents used in +establishing the church and fixing its external form and +character.</p> + +<p>Many believe that Paul belonged among the twelve as the real +successor of Judas. According to this view, the election of +Matthias to the apostleship was without divine sanction, being +proposed by the impetuous Peter, who, before the descent of the +Holy Ghost, often proposed inadvised things. Strength is given this +view by the oft-repeated assertion of Paul that he was an apostle, +"not of men, neither by men, but by Jesus Christ" (Gal. 1: 1). We +are not forced to that conclusion concerning Matthias, however. In +writing the Acts of the Apostles, Luke the companion of Paul, +records the appointment of Matthias without intimating that it was +a mistake. In Scripture usage a cert<a name='Page_48'></a>ain +parallelism is maintained between the twelve apostles of the Lamb +and the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. When we recall +that there were literally thirteen tribes in Israel, Ephriam and +Manasseh standing for Joseph, we need not be surprized that there +should be literally thirteen foundational apostles in the Christian +church, Matthias and Paul standing, as it were, in the place of +Judas.</p> + +<p>There can be no doubt that Paul really ranked with the Twelve. +He was a "chosen vessel," the "apostle of the Gentiles." Although +as one "born out of due time," he himself saw Jesus and from him +received the entire gospel by direct revelation. Consequently the +other apostles possessed no advantage over him. He himself says, +"The gospel which was preached of me was not after man. For I +neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the +revelation of Jesus Christ" (Gal. 1:11, 12). He "was not a whit +behind the very chiefest apostles" (2 Cor. 11:5). And it was +through Paul particularly that the revelation of the "mystery" was +made complete—"that both Jews and Gentiles should be fellow +heirs and of <i>the</i> SAME <i>body</i>," and he was commissioned +"<i>to make all men see</i>" it.</p> + +<p>The general church was, therefore, made up of various local +congregations, which were "set in order" by apostolic authority. +The essential nature of this organization is determined by the +object for which these congregations were formed, the conditions of +membership therein, and the kind of laws by which they <a name= +'Page_49'></a>were governed.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Nature of its organization</div> + +<p>The primary object for which the local church was formed was the +establishment and extension of the kingdom of God among men. A +secondary object was the encouragement and mutual edification of +the believers themselves, which was best obtained by united worship +in prayer, exhortation, praise, thanksgiving, and religious +instruction.</p> + +<p>We have already noted the conditions of membership in the local +church. None but those who were already members of the body of +Christ could properly be recognized as members in a congregation +which was designed by Christ to exhibit in local and temporary form +the true idea of the church universal. According to this standard +of membership, every individual owed allegiance directly to Christ +himself as the great head of the church. Christ was the only +lawgiver. The relation of the individual to the local church, then, +did not in any sense supersede his personal relations to Christ, +but simply strengthened and further expressed this higher +relationship.</p> + +<p>In this standard of church-membership is found the secret of the +union in one body of all apostolic Christians. The standard was +<i>personal relationship to Christ</i>, and this relationship could +be obtained only by an experience of salvation and humble obedience +to the law of Christ. Therefore all the truly saved were members of +Christ and members of each other. This st<a name= +'Page_50'></a>andard being the same for all, it led to absolute +equality among members. Hence Paul could say, "There is neither Jew +nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male +nor female: for ye are all one <i>in Christ Jesus</i>" (Gal. +3:28).</p> + +<p>The law of the church, as already stated, was simply "the law of +Christ"; first as delivered orally by specially inspired apostles, +and afterwards expressed by them in the Christian Scriptures.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Organization and government</div> + +<p>The closest relationship necessarily existed between the +organization of the church and its method of government. It is +impossible for us to get a clear conception of either independently +of the other; and in order to understand the subject at all, we +must bear in mind the fundamental nature of the church itself, what +it was and what it was designed to accomplish. The church was not, +as we have seen, a mere aggregate of individuals that happened to +gather or that assembled for ordinary purposes. A social club or a +business organization would have possessed all those features. The +church was the body of Christ, the body to which he gave spiritual +life and through which he designed to manifest his power and glory. +Hence its visible organization was secondary, merely incidental as +the means for the accomplishment of those higher ends involved in +the transc<a name='Page_51'></a>endental element of the church. The +relation of the divine and the human characteristics was, +therefore, the relation of <i>soul and body</i>—Christ, the +soul; redeemed humanity, the body. The establishment of this +relationship was the manifestation to the world of the "body of +Christ." It was organization of the church.</p> + +<p>From the foregoing considerations, we are certain that in the +apostolic church the real emphasis was placed on <i>life</i> and +that the governmental power and authority of the church was derived +from its divine life in Christ and not from its organization. +Apostolic church government was, therefore, more than the adoption +of some particular form of external organization and +administration.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Divine administration</div> + +<p>The origin of the church was divine. Jesus said, "I will build +my church." And though, as we have seen, he employed human agents +in its completion, these agents were so specially inspired and +directed by Christ through the Holy Spirit that it was in reality +<i>his</i> work. Jesus was not only the initial founder of the +church, but he was its permanent head and governor. Isaiah, +predicting the coming of Christ, declares that "the government +<i>shall be upon</i> HIS <i>shoulder</i>" (Isa. 9:6). And again, we +read that "HE <i>is the head of the body, the church ... that in +all things he might have the preeminence</i>" (Col. 1:18). He it +was who called and commissioned Paul and then personally directed +his ministerial labors (Acts 26:13-19; 16:6-9). He it was who +walked in the midst of<a name='Page_52'></a> the seven golden +candlesticks, encouraging or reproving the congregations of Asia +(Rev. 1:17, et seq.). He is "alive forever more" (Rev. 1:18); "the +same yesterday, and today, and forever" (Heb. 13: 8); "upholding +all things by the word of his power" (Heb. 1:3). "To him be glory +<i>in the church</i> ... throughout all ages, world without end. +Amen" (Eph. 3:21).</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Christ the living head</div> + +<p>Thus, the general nature of church government was an absolute +monarchy, or, to use a better term, a theocracy. Christ was king +and lawgiver, governor and administrator. Whoever the instruments +employed in carrying out his purposes, whatever the scope of their +particular activities, all were governed directly by Christ through +the Holy Spirit. It was <i>his</i> church. He was its living head. +No other church was known in those days. It was only when the +living, vital union of Christ with his church was lost to view that +men began endeavoring to strengthen the bonds of external union by +unscriptural human organization, just as when life is departed from +the physical body we seek by an embalming process to prevent its +speedy dissolution.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Delegated authority</div> + +<p>In order to understand church government, therefore, we must +begin at the central source of authority and proceed to its varied +manifestations. We have seen that Chri<a name='Page_53'></a>st +employed human agents in accomplishing his work; hence, in thus +performing the work of Christ as commanded by Christ, and as +personally directed by the Spirit of Christ, these men possessed +the <i>authority of Christ</i>. Any church governmental authority +that does not proceed directly from Christ through his Holy Spirit +is but human authority, an usurped authority, and has no place in +the real church of Christ.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Ministerial oversight</div> + +<p>The apostles were the first to whom Christ delegated authority. +They became his special representatives. They established the +church and became responsible for its general direction and +oversight, "the Lord working with them, and confirming the word +with signs following" (Mark 16:20). But these twelve did not stand +alone in the government of the church. Soon a host of ministers +were raised up, and these also possessed divine authority for their +representative lines of work. To the elders of Ephesus, Paul said, +"Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over +which <i>the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers</i>, to feed the +church of God" (Acts 20:28). Peter also writes: "The elders which +are among you I exhort ... feed the flock of God which is among +you, <i>taking the oversight thereof</i>" (1 Pet. 5:1, 2). "The +Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work +whereunto <i>I have called them</i> ... so they, <i>being sent<a +name='Page_54'></a> forth by the Holy Ghost</i>, departed" (Acts +13: 2-4). "AND HE GAVE some, apostles; and some, prophets; and +some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the +perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the +edifying of the body of Christ" (Eph. 4:11, 12). In accordance with +this standard, we read, "Obey them that have the rule over you, and +submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, <i>as they that +must give account</i>" to him who is "that great shepherd of the +sheep" (Heb. 13:17, 20). The ministers were under-shepherds +appointed to feed the flock of God, for which service they had to +give account to the great Shepherd.</p> + +<p>The foregoing scriptures and many others show conclusively that, +while in the apostolic church spiritual oversight was, in general, +vested in the ministry, it did not originate with them; that it did +not proceed from the general body of believers by a majority vote +or by conference appointment; but that it came by the Holy Spirit +direct from the great head of the church, who alone determined the +general bounds of that authority and responsibility. This ministry, +or presbytery, consisted of two classes—local ministers and +general ministers. Before proceeding from this general +classification to a discussion of the more specific duties and +responsibilities of the individual ministers comprising this +presbytery, I shall call attention briefly to the geographical +distribution of their work as a body.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Local and general phase</div> + +<p>We have already shown <a name='Page_55'></a>that the church in +its visible phase was made up of various local congregations "set +in order" by apostolic authority. So far as their own local affairs +were concerned, these congregations were autonomous. When a matter +was purely local, such as the financial oversight and ministration +in the church at Jerusalem, the local congregation itself +determined the course of action and (excepting that class of +officials who were divinely chosen) who should be appointed to +oversee it. In the Jerusalem example cited, the apostles suggested, +"<i>Look ye out among you</i> seven men," etc., "and the saying +pleased the whole multitude: <i>and they chose</i>" the proper +persons for that work (Acts 6:1-5).</p> + +<p>But while these congregations possessed such autonomy and were +distributed over a wide territory, they were not in all respects +independent, isolated units. As members of Christ sharing in a +common life and engaged in a common cause, they were bound together +in one brotherhood by ties of fellowship and love. In addition to +the union of separate individuals in one locality under the care of +the local presbytery, the local congregations themselves were +brought into close, sympathetic relationship with one another +through the labors and influence of those general ministers who +were not attached to particular churches, but whose gifts, +callings, and qualifications fitted them for general service +throughout the various congregations. The responsibility and +authority of these general ministers vari<a name='Page_56'></a>ed +in accordance with their own gifts and qualifications and the +degree of development attained by the churches among which they +labored. In the case of infant churches, it is evident that +oversight was of the apostolic kind—direct and immediate. But +whenever they became thoroughly established, the principle of local +autonomy was recognized and the relation of the general ministers +to such congregations was evangelistic rather than +apostolic—helpers and advisors, not administrative +directors.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Geographical distribution</div> + +<p>That the foregoing analysis is correct is abundantly proved by +the history of events in the Acts respecting the geographical +distribution of the churches and their relation to one another. +Jerusalem was the original seat of Christianity. Isaiah prophesied, +"Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from +Jerusalem" (Isa. 2:3). Jesus told the apostles "that repentance and +remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, +beginning at Jerusalem" (Luke 24:47). And again, "Ye shall be +witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in +Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8). +Philip went from Jerusalem to Samaria and there preached Christ +with great success. "Now when the apostles<a name='Page_57'></a> +which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of +God, <i>they sent unto them Peter and John</i>" (Acts 8:14). Later +we read that when churches had been established throughout all +Judea and Galilee and Samaria, "it came to pass, <i>as Peter passed +throughout all quarters</i>, he came down also to the saints which +dwelt at Lydda" (Acts 9: 31, 32). It was while he was on this +general tour visiting the churches that he came to Joppa and there +received the vision which led him to the household of Cornelius, +after which he came to Jerusalem and was there called to account +for his action in visiting the uncircumcised Gentiles.</p> + +<p>There is no doubt that there was exerted from Jerusalem a +general care over the surrounding churches. Some of the disciples +who were scattered from Jerusalem at the time of persecution, went +as far as Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the word, and many believed +and turned to the Lord. "Then tidings of these things came unto the +ears of the church which was in Jerusalem: <i>and they sent forth +Barnabas</i> that he should go as far as Antioch" (Acts 11: 19-22). +Barnabas went to Antioch and there found such a splendid work that +he departed at once for Tarsus seeking Saul, and together they +returned to Antioch and preached for a whole year.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Operative centers</div> + +<p>While this principle of general superintendence of infant +churches originated with the apostles themselves, it was ext<a +name='Page_58'></a>ended to others who were not of the first +apostles. Barnabas and Saul were successful at Antioch and there +established the first Christian community outside the confines of +Judaism, as the result of which Antioch became the seat of Gentile +Christianity. Shortly afterwards "certain prophets and teachers" in +the church at Antioch, men who were not of the original apostles, +were directed by the Holy Ghost to send forth Barnabas and Saul on +their first missionary journey, and they went forth establishing +local churches and afterwards setting them in order by ordaining +elders, after which these ministers returned to Antioch, gathered +the church together, and gave them a report of their work. Antioch +was, therefore, an operative center.</p> + +<p>At a later time Paul established the truth in Ephesus, the chief +city of Proconsular Asia. As might naturally be expected from the +strategic position and political importance of that city, Ephesus +also became an operative center for Christianity, "so that all they +which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and +Greeks" (Acts 19:10). Thessalonica in Macedonia and Corinth in +Achaia are other examples of the kind.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Regional units</div> + +<p>The work of the church naturally fell into these geographical +units; therefore the word "church" is sometimes used as a<a name= +'Page_59'></a> collective term designating a body of regional +congregations. The church "throughout all Judea and Galilee and +Samaria" (Acts 9:31), "the seven churches which are in Asia" (Rev. +1:11), "the churches of Macedonia" (2 Cor. 8:1), "the churches of +Galatia" (1 Cor. 16:1).</p> + +<p>We must bear in mind, however, that this regional concept of the +church was not an integral part of fundamental apostolic church +government, but was merely incidental, the result of geographical +location. In fundamental analysis distinctions are always drawn +between things that are <i>different</i>, not between things of the +same kind. These regional churches were not different kinds of +churches; they were not bound together in separate groups by an +external organization which placed a wall between them and other +congregations of the saints. There was no authority here for the +national-church theory nor for the sectarian church idea. +Geographical separation there was, but not denominationalism.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Common bond of unity</div> + +<p>We have already shown from Paul's writings that under his +ministry both Jews and Gentiles were united in one body, "the +<i>same</i> body." That these regional units to which we have +referred were no denial of this clear truth, but that collectively +they constituted one body, is further shown by the indications we +have of their <i>operative unity</i>. Notwithstanding the poor +facilities fo<a name='Page_60'></a>r communication and travel in +those days, which made general cooperation very difficult, and +notwithstanding the fact that the record of historic Christianity +in the Acts is exceedingly brief, we have, nevertheless, clear +proof that there was cooperation throughout the apostolic church. +Two instances, one of a business nature, the other ecclesiastical, +establish this point. The churches of at least three provinces of +the Roman Empire—Galatia, Macedonia, and Achaia—united +under Paul's direction in establishing a weekly financial system, +the immediate object of which was to assist in accomplishing a +particular object in which they were all interested (2 Cor. 8:9; 1 +Cor. 16:1-3). The ecclesiastical example is the council of the +apostles and elders held in Jerusalem and recorded in Acts 15. A +question of doctrine and practise arose in Antioch; the church +there was not able to settle it; therefore it was "determined that +Paul and Barnabas, and certain other with them, should go up to +Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question" (verse +2).</p> + +<p>This was not a general council of the church. No other sections +or provinces were represented. Nor did it meet as a legislative +body, even though there were present specially inspired apostles, +to whom had been given the commission to unfold the gospel as an +authoritative revelation. It is clear that the ministers of this +council even sought to avoid the legislative function. "For it +seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no +greater burden than these necessary things" (verse 28). While +this<a name='Page_61'></a> incident does not prove an +administrative human headship of the whole church centralized at +Jerusalem, it does prove that the individual congregations were not +isolated units, but that they had respect for, and sought the +advice and counsel of, older established congregations, and +particularly of those general ministers whose gifts, +qualifications, and reputation fitted them for general care of all +the churches.</p> + +<p>When we consider the divine nature of the church's organization, +with the ever-living Christ working mightily in all his ministers +and through them in particular administering its government, we can +see that the entire church was necessarily one body joined together +in a common fellowship and actually laboring together in the +performance of common tasks.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Bishop and elder</div> + +<p>The presbytery, to whom was given particular oversight and +government of the church, was set apart by the Holy Ghost for this +special work. Different terms, such as "elder" and "bishop," were +used to designate this office. The term "bishop," which literally +means <i>overseer</i>, implies the duties of the office, while +"elder" denotes its rank. That these terms were used +interchangeably and applied to the same order of persons is proved +by Acts 20:28 (cf. 17); Phil. 1:1; 1 Tim. 3:1, 8; Tit. 1:5, 7; 1 +Pet. 5:1, 2. This was admitted by many early writers, as Jerome, +Augustine, Urban II, Petrus Lombardus, Chrysostom,<a name= +'Page_62'></a> Theodoret, and others.</p> + +<p>From the general classification already given, let us proceed to +the specific. This body was made up of elders or bishops. The fact +that the terms "elder" and "bishop" were applied to all the +presbyters shows equality of rank; that the office was one. We +find, however, that these elders as individuals were diversified in +their gifts and callings in accordance with the specific work which +the Holy Ghost designed them to perform. Under one classification +there were, broadly speaking, two kinds of elders—local and +general; that is, those whose sphere of operation was particularly +local and those whose influence, work, and responsibility extended +beyond any congregational limitation. This distinction was not made +arbitrarily, however; for it was essential to the performance of +the twofold class of work to be done and was the inevitable result +of that operation of the Spirit in individual ministers which +fitted them particularly for these distinctive lines of +activity.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Divine gifts</div> + +<p>To be still more specific, we must go a step farther and +consider the reason why and the process by which ministers became +differentiated from other saints. In this we shall find the inner +secret, both of particular spiritual organization and of divine +church government. The apostle says, "By one Spirit are we all <a +name='Page_63'></a>baptized into one body" and "God hath set the +members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him" (1 +Cor. 12:13, 18). These texts suggest more than a mere attachment to +the body: they imply <i>functional activity in the body</i>. The +functions of the body as described by Paul means the exercise of +spiritual gifts. "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same +Spirit ... there are diversities of operations, but it is the same +God <i>which worketh all in all</i>. But the manifestation of the +Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given +by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge +by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another +the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of +miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to +another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of +tongues; but all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, +dividing to every man severally as he will" (1 Cor. 12: 4-11).</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Basis of ministerial authority</div> + +<p>The foregoing scripture is a mere enumeration of the gifts that +God implanted in the church as a body. The more particular +application of these gifts and their relation to church +organization and government are given further on in the same +chapter. "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. +And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily +prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, t<a name= +'Page_64'></a>hen gifts of healings, helps, governments, +diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all +teachers? are all workers of miracles? have all the gifts of +healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret? <i>But covet +earnestly the best gifts</i>" (verses 27-31).</p> + +<p>Comparison of verses 4 to 11 with verses 27 to 31 of the chapter +just quoted shows conclusively that one is the counterpart of the +other, the latter merely amplifying and explaining the former. From +this clear teaching it is evident that the work of apostleship, of +teaching, of governing, etc., were all based upon and grew out of +divine gifts implanted in the heart by the Holy Spirit.</p> + +<p>The same truth is taught by Paul in another place. Speaking of +Christ, the apostle says, "When he ascended up on high, he ... +<i>gave gifts unto men</i> ... and he gave some, <i>apostles</i>; +and some, <i>prophets</i>; and some, <i>evangelists</i>; and some, +<i>pastors</i> and <i>teachers</i>; for the perfecting of the +saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body +of Christ" (Eph. 4: 8-12).</p> + +<p>According to these scriptures, the very governmental positions +of the church with their authority and responsibility were the +product of those gifts and qualifications bestowed upon certain +individuals in particular. Such gifts could be legitimately coveted +with a view to spiritual edification of the body (1 Cor. 12:31; +14:12). "If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good +work" (1 Tim. 3:1). "Helps" doubtless included that class of +assistan<a name='Page_65'></a>ts commonly called deacons (1 Tim. +3:8-11).</p> + +<p>Since in the primitive church organization and government were +determined by the divine gifts and callings possessed by +individuals, it is evident that we have in this something totally +different from that later conception of church government as a mere +human arrangement. At a subsequent time, as we shall show, church +government was patterned after the forms of political government in +that it was vested inherently in men. Four such forms have been +developed—the imperial, or papal; the episcopal; the +presbyterial; and the congregational. While these four differ in +external form, they are all alike in fundamental character, in that +they assume that the governing power rests inherently in +<i>men</i>.</p> + +<p>None of these forms of government represent the New Testament +church. The organization and government of that church was based +upon the <i>charisma</i>, or divine gifts and callings, of +individuals composing the church. The power and authority of an +apostle or of an evangelist, for example, did not rest upon any +selection or appointment made by men. The church did not act in a +corporate capacity and confer ecclesiastical power and authority +upon any one. All such power and authority came direct from God +through the Holy Spirit, and it was in God's name and by his +authority alone that they acted. The organization of the church was +therefore charismatic. If, for example, the gifts of an apostl<a +name='Page_66'></a>e were conferred by the Holy Spirit upon an +individual, he possessed apostolic responsibility and authority. +The brethren recognized such gifts when these were evident, and +submitted themselves voluntarily to such spiritual leadership and +oversight; for at this period there had not been developed that +ecclesiastical system by which human election and appointment gave +positions and authority to men. In fact, we shall clearly show +later that the true church can not be <i>legally</i> organized. +Every attempt of men to assume the reins of authority and give +governmental form and administrative direction to the church has +been denominational and sectarian.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Ordination</div> + +<p>The true church was the whole family of God directed by his Holy +Spirit. Ministerial appointment, with its authority and +responsibility, was therefore divine. We have seen that through the +spiritual operation called the new birth, one became a member of +Christ, and hence by divine right belonged to whichever +congregation of the church he might be able to associate with; but +that in practical experience, such local membership involved +recognition on the part of the other members. So it was with the +divine appointment to the ministry. The only other essential to its +practical operation was simply recognition of that call. Such +recognition, in the last analysis, belonged to the whole church (1 +Tim. 3: 2-7; Tit. 1: 6-9), but was given formally by the laying on +of the hands<a name='Page_67'></a> of the presbytery.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Plurality of local elders</div> + +<p>The development of ministers in an apostolic church was a +divine, natural process, the inevitable result of the emphasis +placed on the gifts and callings of the Spirit. This free exercise +of the Spirit's gifts working in the members doubtless accounts for +the plurality of ruling elders found in those local churches. See +Acts 14:23; 20:17; Phil. 1:1; 1 Tim. 5:16, 17; Tit. 1:5. It could +not be otherwise as long as the churches were Spirit-filled, +working congregations and the Spirit of God had his way. The system +that limited local church government to a one-man rule originated +in the apostasy, after the gifts of the Spirit had died out. It is +simply one part of that great system of human organization that +developed the full-grown papacy. Of this we shall learn more +hereafter.</p> + +<p>The same principles that developed local ministers produced also +ministers of the general class. While some naturally became +"pastors," "teachers," and "helpers" in the local church, +particular gifts and qualifications fitted others for "apostles" +and "evangelists," whose particular sphere was general oversight +and work in the churches. The prophet was not limited to either +class.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Apostolic oversight</div> + +<a name='Page_68'></a> + +<p>As it is not germane to my present purpose, I shall not here +attempt to define the various phases of ministerial work designated +by various terms but all included under the one generic term +"elder." The work described by the term "apostle," however, +requires brief notice, on account of its bearing on the subject of +church government. The fact that Paul had particular "care of all +the churches" (2 Cor. 11:28) and that he gave special instructions +to Timothy and Titus, other ministers (1 Tim. 5: 21; Tit. 1:5), +forms the basis for the episcopacy argument—church rule by a +superior order of clergy called bishops.</p> + +<p>"Apostle" literally signifies "a planter." The term belongs +specifically to the first founders of the Christian faith, but is +loosely applied in a more general sense to any minister who plants +Christianity in a new territory. It is clear that the first +apostles were especially inspired for a particular work in laying +the foundations of the Christian church and in writing the New +Testament Scriptures. Hence the apostolic office in this special +sense passed away with them. But there was, nevertheless, an +apostolic work such as planting and overseeing the infant work in a +new field, and in this sense Barnabas also was an apostle (Acts +13:46 with 14:4).</p> + +<p>That the word "apostle" really signified a planter and was +therefore descriptive of the kind of work done is shown <a name= +'Page_69'></a>by the words of Paul himself: "For he that wrought +effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the +same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles" (Gal. 2:8). And again, +he says to the Corinthians, "If I be not an apostle unto others, +yet doubtless I am <i>to you</i>; for <i>the seal of mine +apostleship are ye in the Lord</i>" (1 Cor. 9:2). In another place +he says to the same church, "Though ye have ten thousand +instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ +Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel" (1 Cor. 4:15).</p> + +<p>The special, personal relation that the apostle, or planter, +sustained to the work which he had founded and over which he +exercised general jurisdiction, was but temporary, a sort of +fatherly care. He was obliged to oversee the work as a whole, +including young ministers, until it became thoroughly established. +After others were able for the work and the apostle's special +oversight was withdrawn, there might be ten thousand other +instructors, but <i>no more fathers</i>. This disproves entirely +the episcopal idea as an essential feature of church government. +The apostle Peter even classes himself simply as an elder in common +with other elders (1 Pet. 5:1). But with the exception of the +original apostles, who were specially commissioned to reveal the +doctrine and message of the gospel and to establish the Christian +faith, the difference existing between elders in the primitive +church was not a difference in kind, but in degree only, varying in +accordance with their ability to put forth some portion of that +moral and spiritual power by which alone Christ governs his +church.</p> + +<a name='Page_72'></a><a name='Page_70'></a><a name='Page_71'></a> + +<hr style='width: 65%;'> +<a name='PART_II'></a> +<h3>PART II</h3> + +<h2>The Church in History</h2> + +<hr style='width: 65%;'> +<a name='Page_73'></a> <a name='CHAPTER_V'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>CORRUPTION OF EVANGELICAL FAITH</h3> + +<br> + + +<p>It is not my purpose to write an ecclesiastical history, but in +order to make clear the work of final reformation, it will be +necessary to present at least a brief sketch of historic +Christianity, outlining particularly those leading features which +show a radical departure from the true church as originally +constituted by our Lord and his apostles.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>"The faith"</div> + +<p>In the days of primitive Christianity there was something called +"the gospel," "the truth," "the form of sound words," "<i>the +faith."</i> To understand its fundamental nature is not difficult, +for it has been preserved and handed down to us in the writings of +the New Testament. According to this record, the gospel message, or +"the faith," centered in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, who +died and rose again that he might be a "Prince and a Savior, for to +give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins" (Acts 5:31). +"And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in +his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem" (Luke 24:47). +Around this central fact of salvation from sin through faith in +Christ clustered those other truths and facts which either +necessarily resulted from the new relationship of redeemed humanity +with God or were essential to its visible manifestation and +propagation. Prominent among these features were the entire +sanctification of believers, holy life and conduct, the baptism, +gifts, and leadership of the Holy Spirit, and the visible unity and +relationship of believers in one body, the church.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>An apostasy foretold</div> + +<p>I need not take time or space to describe the wonderful +successes of Christianity as long as the primitive purity and power +of the gospel message was sustained and its results realized in a +living, Spirit-filled church. But facts compel me to record a +change from that happy condition. This transition was foreseen by +those who "spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Paul +declared: "Some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to +seducing spirits and doctrines of devils" (1 Tim. 4:1); "Also of +your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw +away disciples after them" (Acts 20:30). Peter predicted, "There +shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in +damnable heresies" (2 Pet. 2:1). Jesus himself declared, "Many +false prophets shall arise, and shall deceive many. And because +iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax<a name= +'Page_74'></a> cold" (Matt. 24:11, 12).</p> + +<p>Paul gives a more particular description of the coming apostasy +in the second chapter of Second Thessalonians. Asserting that the +second coming of Christ was not at that time imminent, he says: +"Let no man deceive you by any means: for that<a name= +'Page_76'></a><a name='Page_75'></a> day shall not come, except +there come a <i>falling away</i> first, and that man of sin be +revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself +above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as +God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God" +(verses 3, 4).</p> + +<p>The development of the "man of sin," which was occasioned by the +"falling away," was to be gradual, but should finally assume great +proportions, "so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God +showing himself that <i>he</i> is God." The apostle further states: +"For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now +letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall +that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the +spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his +coming" (verses 7, 8). We should not seek for the fulfilment of +this prediction in those minor sects and heresies which at an early +date arose and soon passed away: the description refers to some +great power occupying the greatest prominence, making the most +pretentious claims, a power that is to endure until the second +advent of Christ. We must, therefore, look for its fulfilment in +what we may term the main line of historic Christianity.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>First evidences of decline</div> + +<p>The "falling away" from the simple truths and standards of the +gospel began at a very early date. The mystery of i<a name= +'Page_77'></a>niquity was already working in the apostles' day. +Before the close of the first century we find in the churches of +Asia Minor a sad deflection from their primitive condition. The +church at Ephesus had left its first love (Rev. 2:4); the church at +Pergamos was tolerating false teachers and being ruined by false +doctrines (2:14, 15); Thyatira had lost the spirit of holy judgment +against wrong-doing and was therefore affected by a shocking degree +of immorality (2: 20-23); the message to Sardis was, "Thou hast a +name that thou livest, <i>and art dead</i> (3:1); Laodicea had +become so lukewarm that the Lord said, " I will spew thee out of my +mouth" (3:15, 16).</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The apostolic fathers</div> + +<p>The transition from the apostles to the age of the early church +fathers is involved in considerable darkness. Not until the middle +of the second century, when Justin Martyr appears on the scene, +does the church emerge from its obscurity into the clear light of +history. The apostolic fathers—Clement of Rome, Ignatius, the +Pastor of Hermas, Papias, and the unknown author of the Epistle to +Diognetus—all these lived and wrote during that transitional +period, and they could have told us much, but they have told us +little. We can not but admire the beautiful spirit in which they +wrote, and their style is earnest and vital. Nevertheless, we +discern in these works two leading tendencies which stand, so to +speak, as prophecies of what was to predominate in the <a name= +'Page_78'></a>ecclesiastical thought of succeeding centuries.</p> + +<p>In the mind of the author of the Epistle to Diognetus, the grand +central thought is the incarnation and the spiritual presence of +Christ in redeemed humanity, by which they are led to the "free +imitation of God," as a result of which they become to the world +what the soul is to the body—its life and the means of +holding it together. This teaching is an epitome of the Greek +theology developed later by Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and +Athanasius. But in Papias, who attaches much importance to oral +traditions that "came from the living and abiding voice"; in +Ignatius, who exalts the bishop above other presbyters; and in +Clement, who, writing as a Roman, is concerned with matters of +administration and subordination to authority—in these we +discern the beginnings of the Latin theology developed later by +Tertullian, Irenaeus, Cyprian, and Augustine, which produced the +papacy, and which, as we shall show, has in a great measure +dominated the ecclesiastical thought of the world until the present +day.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The Ante-Nicene age</div> + +<p>After emerging into the clear field of historic Christianity in +the time of Justin Martyr, we find everywhere evidences of a +rapidly developing apostasy. In one respect we approach an +examination of the Ante-Nicene church with feelings of admiration. +This was a heroic age, an age of Christian martyrs. The struggles +of Christian<a name='Page_79'></a>ity against the powers of +heathenism enthroned in the Roman Empire and throughout the world +form a bright chapter in the annals of historic deeds and supreme +loyalty to lofty ideals. When we view the subject from this angle, +it would almost seem to be an act of irreverence or of sacrilege to +call in question the doctrines and practises of that period when +the church was baptized by fire and waded through rivers of blood. +Reverence for the martyrs and for their noble efforts to extend the +cause of Christ is praiseworthy, but in justice to truth, we must +remember that even the martyrs were not inspired teachers +commissioned to build a model for all succeeding ages. That they +were heroic does not prove them infallible. We should never +hesitate, therefore, to compare their teaching with the pure +doctrines of the Word of God, and wherein there is any lack of +harmony, we should be guided by the truth as it is in Jesus.</p> + +<p>However much we may admire the early church fathers, we can not +help noticing the sharp contrast between them and the first +apostles; between their writings and the sublime, inspired teaching +of the divine Word. If, after reading Paul, Peter, or John, we turn +to Tertullian, Irenaeus, or Cyprian, we instinctively realize that +we have, so to speak, been transferred from sunny Italy to frigid +Siberia. We are conscious of a change to another era, and to +another country. Notwithstanding the fact that we find numerous +familiar objects, we know that we are moving in another atmosphere +amid foreig<a name='Page_80'></a>n surroundings.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Growth of ritualism</div> + +<p>The church of the Middle Ages was the natural fruitage of the +seeds planted during the second and third centuries. There we began +to notice particularly foreign elements which stand out in bold +contrast to the simple forms of primitive Christianity. One of +these innovations was the development of the ritualistic spirit, +according to which undue importance was attached to particular +forms of worship, such as time, place, positions of the body, and +ceremonial observances in general. Take baptism for an example. +Apart from erroneous notions concerning the efficacy of baptism, +which will be referred to under another head, the writings of the +church fathers abound with the most minute and puerile details +concerning how the act is to be performed—details of +catechism, of consecration of waters, of dressing and undressing, +exorcism, anointing from head to foot with oil, the laying on of +hands, etc., all of which were to be carried out in the most +exacting and solemn manner.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Example from Tertullian</div> + +<p>As an example of the ritualistic character of Christian worship +at the beginning of the third century, I will cite a passage from +Tertullian. In the third chapter of his work De Corona, this +celebrated Latin father undertakes to defend customs and practises +that he confesses were received "on the ground of trad<a name= +'Page_81'></a>ition alone." He says: "I shall begin with baptism. +When we are going to enter the water, but a little before, in the +presence of the congregation and under the hand of the president, +we solemnly profess that we disown the devil, and his pomp, and his +angels. Whereupon we are thrice immersed, making a somewhat ampler +pledge than the Lord has appointed in the gospel.<a name= +'FNanchor_A_1'></a><a href='#Footnote_A_1'><sup>[A]</sup></a> Then +when we are taken up (as new-born children) we taste, first of all, +a mixture of milk and honey, and from that day we abstain from the +daily bath for a whole week. We take also, in congregations before +daybreak, and from the hand of none but the president, the +sacrament of the Eucharist, which the Lord both commanded to be +done at mealtimes and enjoined to be taken by all alike. As often +as the anniversary comes round, we make offerings for the dead as +birthday honors. We count shouting or kneeling in worship on the +Lord's day to be unlawful. We rejoice in the same privilege also +from Easter to Whitsunday. We feel pained should any wine or bread, +even though our own, be cast upon the ground. At every forward step +and movement, at every going in and out, when we put on our clothes +and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the +lamps, on couch, on seat, in all the ordinary actions of daily +life, we trace upon the forehead the sign of the cross."</p> + +<p>In words immediately f<a name='Page_82'></a>ollowing, at the +beginning of Chapter 4, Tertullian says: "If for these and other +such rules you insist upon having positive Scriptural injunction, +you will find none. Tradition will be held forth to you as the +originator of them, custom as their strengthener, and faith as +their observer."</p> + +<p>According to this confession, all the ceremonial observances +here set forth are without Scriptural authority. When we read in +the New Testament concerning the simple act of baptizing believers, +and compare it with the customs and practises that had grown up in +the Ante-Nicene church, we do not wonder that evangelical faith was +soon afterwards almost entirely lost in ritualistic forms; that, +like the Pharisees of old, men made the faith of God of none effect +by their traditions.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>False doctrines and heresies</div> + +<p>Another evidence of the decline of evangelical faith is found in +the presence of many false doctrines among the leaders of so-called +orthodox Christianity in that period of which I now write. Paul not +only taught that at a later time some should "depart from the +faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and devils" (1 Tim. 4:1), +but he referred to some who had already "erred concerning the +faith" (1 Tim. 6:21), and named two persons, 'who, concerning the +truth, had erred, saying that the resurrection was past already, +and overthrew the faith of some' (2 Tim. 2:18). After the death of +the apostles, error made deeper inroads, and its baneful influence +cast a shadow over the church, which rapidly deepened into the +darkness of spiritual night.</p> + +<a name='Page_83'></a> + +<div class='sidenote'>Baptismal regeneration</div> + +<p>One of the earliest corruptions of apostolic truth concerned the +design and purpose of baptism. It was not long until unscriptural +significance was attached to the literal rite itself, so that what +was originally a mere sign, was substituted for the thing +signified, and thus baptism took the place of spiritual +regeneration. In several places in the writings of Justin Martyr, +who lived about the middle of the second century, his language +seems to attach undue importance to the literal rite; but other +passages from the same author indicate that he had not as yet +entirely lost sight of the apostolic standard. In his Dialog with +Trypho, chapter 14, he says: "We have believed and testify that +that very baptism which he [Isaiah] announced is alone able to +purify those who have repented ... and what is the use of that +baptism which cleanses the flesh and body alone? Baptize the soul +from wrath and covetousness, from envy and from hatred, and lo, the +body is pure."</p> + +<p>In his First Apology, chapter 61, the same writer draws a clear +B<a name='Page_84'></a>iblical distinction between spiritual +regeneration secured through repentance and faith, and ritual +regeneration in baptism as a mere outward sign of the inward work. +He says: "I will also relate the manner in which we dedicated +ourselves to God when we had been made new through Christ ... as +many as are persuaded and believe that what we teach and say is +truth, and undertake to be able to live accordingly, are instructed +to pray and to entreat God with fasting for the remission of their +sins that are past, we praying and fasting with them. Then they are +brought by us where there is water and are regenerated in the same +manner in which we were ourselves regenerated. For, in the name of +God, the Father and Lord of the Universe, and of our Savior Jesus +Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, they then receive the washing with +water."</p> + +<p>Other writers of the period under consideration, however, praise +the saving efficacy of baptism in the most exalted terms. According +to their minds, it is the actual means of the redemption of sins, +not a mere literal rite expressing ceremonially the work of God's +Spirit within the heart; it is an illumination; it extinguishes the +fire of sin; it removes the unclean spirits from men and seals them +for heaven. Tertullian wrote extensively on this subject. In his +work On Baptism, chapters 3 to 8, he maintains the doctrine of +baptismal regeneration "by which we are washed from the sins of our +former blindness and set free for eternal life." He declares that +by this act men are prepared to receive the Holy Ghost; that in the +literal act, "the spirit is corpore<a name='Page_85'></a>ally +washed in the waters, and the flesh is, in the same, spiritually +cleansed." Cyprian, bishop of Carthage (third century), in his +treatise concerning the Baptism of Heretics, teaches the same +doctrine in no uncertain terms.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Other erroneous doctrines and practises</div> + +<p>The limits of this work preclude the historic treatment of the +rise and development of the host of false doctrines and practises +that finally bound the people in the thralldom of superstition and +plunged the world into the darkness of spiritual night. One who is +free from such influences can scarcely read without feelings of +disgust the elaborate treatises of these church fathers wherein +they extol the virtues of virginity as forming a new order of life, +as an evidence of divinity, as making virgins while in this world +"equal to the angels of God," and as a certain surety of special +rewards in heaven. From this false standard proceeded at length the +celibacy of the clergy and monkery with all their attendant evils. +And the time would fail me to tell of the introduction of images +and image-worship in the Western Church and of that superstitious +regard for miserable relics of every description and kind. True +evangelical faith was at length lost to view, buried beneath the +rubbish of men's traditions. The treatment of such matters, +however, belongs to the church historian, and as the general facts +are well-known, it is unnecessary here to make more than a brief +reference to them so as to prepare the mind for that treatment of +<a name='Page_86'></a>the reformation which is a special object of +the present work.</p> + +<a name='Footnote_A_1'></a><a href='#FNanchor_A_1'>[A]</a> +<div class='note'> +<p>Tertullian is the earliest writer that clearly and unmistakably +teaches trine immersion, or records its practise. But here he +honestly confesses that it is a "somewhat ampler pledge than the +Lord has appointed in the gospel."</p> +</div> + +<hr style='width: 65%;'> +<a name='CHAPTER_VI'></a> +<h2><a name='Page_87'></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>RISE OF ECCLESIASTICISM</h3> + +<br> + + +<div class='sidenote'>Two phases of apostacy</div> + +<p>In order to understand the place which the work of reformation +has in the plan and purpose of God respecting his church, we must +carefully observe the twofold character of the apostasy. Both these +phases are clearly outlined in that remarkable prediction of Paul +to which reference has already been made, recorded in the second +chapter of Second Thessalonians. The first phase, described as +"<i>a falling away</i>," was that decline from true Christianity +which we have considered in the preceding chapter as the Corruption +of Evangelical Faith. The second phase was the rise and development +of a foreign element which was from its beginning "the mystery of +iniquity" and which in certain respects usurped the true place of +Jehovah himself in spiritual worship in the temple of God. This +phase now demands our special attention.</p> + +<p>Since the sixteenth century reformation a large part of the +Christian world has renounced the right of the pope to sit as the +supreme earthly head of the church, but we shall show later that +these same modern Christians who have sought the restoration of the +evangelical <i>faith</i> have not discarded the essential elements +of the papal hierarchical system, but have perpetuated them in +their own ecclesiastical constitutions, and that this relic of +medievalism is the chief barrier to a reunited Christendom and the +restoration of pure apostolic Christianity. It is highly essential, +therefore, that this phase of the apostasy be carefully considered. +It is not enough to reject the pope and his college of cardinals. +If that tree, as judged by its fruits, is an "evil" tree, we should +seek to know where, when, and by whom the evil seed from which it +grew was first planted, and then <i>reject it from the roots +up</i>. Then, and not until then, can the work of reformation be +made complete. We have, therefore, to trace the rise and +development of what may be forcibly expressed by the apparently +pleonastic phrase <i>human ecclesiasticism</i>.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Divine authority vs. positional +authority</div> + +<p>We have already seen t<a name='Page_88'></a>hat in the church, +as originally constituted, organization, authority, and government +proceeded from the divine and not from the human. The agents whom +Christ used in performing his work and in overseeing his church +were called and endowed by the Holy Spirit, and this divine +endowment was the real basis of their authority and responsibility. +Paul's authority and responsibility as an apostle, for example, was +not positional authority, or authority proceeding from a certain +position to which he had been appointed or elected. His authority +was divine, and out of that divine authority grew his positional +responsibility as the "apostle of the Gentiles." Over and over he +affirmed that he was an apostle, "not of men, neither by man, but +by Jesus Christ"<a name='Page_90'></a><a name='Page_89'></a> (Gal. +1:1). On the same principle the position, work, and responsibility +of all the members of the body of Christ grew out of the gifts and +qualifications possessed by them, and thus the church was divinely +organized and divinely governed.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Original bond of union</div> + +<p>The bonds which united primitive Christians in one body were +essentially moral and spiritual. Christ was their ever-living and +ever-acting head. Their life proceeded from him, and they were all +one in him. While those living in widely separated districts +consulted together concerning matters of general concern, or united +in cooperative efforts to accomplish common tasks, there is not the +slightest evidence that there was an external human organization of +the primitive church—either sectionally, nationally, or +universally—centralized under a human headship of the +administrative, legislative, and judicial kind. Christ was the head +of the general church, the head of all the local churches, the head +of all the individual members of the church. In him, the source of +their common life, the primitive Christians were essentially one, +and by his Spirit he operated in all hearts, in all the individual +churches, and in all the ministers whose particular gifts and +qualifications fitted them for divinely appointed oversight, both +local and general. By this means the primitive church was able to +perform the work of Christ harmoniously and present to the world +the grand spectacle of one body.</p> + +<a name='Page_91'></a> + +<div class='sidenote'>First steps to ecclesiasticism</div> + +<p>Jesus taught the humble equality of the New Testament ministry. +"All ye are brethren" (Matt. 23:8). According to the New Testament +they were all of one general order or rank, although greatly +diversified in gifts and qualifications and the kind of work +accomplished by each. The first example we have in Scripture of +<i>positional authority</i> in the ministry as distinguished from +the authority of the Holy Spirit, is the case of Diotrephes, of +whom the apostle John wrote in his third epistle. We are also +informed as to the nature of the authority exercised by him and the +direction in which it led. It was <i>human authority</i>, something +additional and foreign to the authority and government through the +Holy Spirit, and the first example of church government by a single +man. It proceeded from the evil root of pride and ambition, the +love of "preeminence" among the brethren; and this usurped power +and authority led to a judicial process by which innocent brethren +were 'cast out of the church.'</p> + +<p>What a contrast this presents to that New Testament picture of +the divine ecclesia, exhibiting the highest form of human society +known to history, a body in which every member had his gift and use +for it. Among these many activities, oversight and preaching had +thei<a name='Page_92'></a>r place, but did not constitute the whole +sum of Christian service. Paul describes Christ as the living head +"from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by +that which every joint supplieth, according to the <i>effectual +working in the measure of every part</i>, maketh increase of the +body unto the edifying of itself in love" (Eph. 4:16). The object +of the ministerial function was "the perfecting of the saints, unto +the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of +Christ" (verse 12, R.V.).</p> + +<p>In his early epistle to the Philippians, Paul makes reference to +the officers that guided that church. He sends greetings "to all +the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops +and deacons" (Phil. 1:1). Polycarp, writing to the same church in +the next century, addresses the "presbyters and deacons," showing +that the apostolic order was still preserved there.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Bishops vs. Presbyters</div> + +<p>In the Ignatian epistles, however, written early in the second +century, there appears positional authority of a new order. In +place of the New Testament standard of a plurality of elders, or +bishops, jointly teaching and guiding the local church, we find +recognition of an office which was superior to that of the +presbyters and to whose incumbents alone the term "bishop" was +applied. A few extracts from his writings will<a name= +'Page_93'></a> make clear this recognition of a threefold order of +the ministry—bishops, elders, and deacons. "Wherefore, it is +fitting that ye should run together in accordance with the will of +your bishop, which thing also ye do. For your justly renowned +presbytery, worthy of God, is fitted exactly to the bishop as the +strings are to the harp" (To the Ephesians, chap. 4). "He is +subject to the bishop as to the grace of God, and to the presbytery +as to the will of Jesus Christ" (To the Magnesians, chap. 2). And +again, in the same epistle he says, "I exhort you to study to do +all things with a divine harmony, while your bishop presides in the +place of God, and your presbytery in the place of the assembly of +the apostles" (chap. 6). "In like manner, let all reverence the +deacons as the appointment of Jesus Christ, and the bishop as Jesus +Christ, who is the Son of the Father, and the presbyters as the +Sanhedrin of God, and assembly of the apostles. Apart from these +there is no church" (To the Trallians, chap. 3). To the Smyrnaeans +he writes: "See that ye all follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ +does the Father.... Let no man do anything connected with the +church without the bishop" (chap. 8). "It is not lawful without the +bishop either to baptize or to celebrate a love-feast; but +whatsoever he shall approve of, that is also pleasing to God" +(chap. 8). "It is well to reverence both God and the bishop. He who +honors the bishop has been honored of God; but he who does anything +without the knowledge of the bishop, does [in reality] serve the +devil" (chap. 9).</p> + +<a name='Page_94'></a> + +<p>That this early recognition of a superior order of ministers was +a distinct innovation is also shown from the literature of that +period. In the Shepherd of Hermas, dating from the first part of +the second century, elders and presbyters are distinctly named but +no bishop in contrast therewith. In the so-called "Teaching of the +Twelve Apostles," also dating from the first part of the second +century, bishops and deacons only are named as teachers and leaders +of the church, showing that the original signification of the term +"bishop" is here retained. Clement of Rome, in his first epistle to +the Corinthians, speaks of the ministry as an institution of the +apostles, but he mentions, nevertheless, only a twofold +order—elders and deacons, presbyters and deacons, or bishops +and deacons. The same classification is made in the second epistle +of Clement to the Corinthians, a work which is generally ascribed +to another author; so also in the epistle of Polycarp to the +Philippians.</p> + +<p>The superior office of <i>the</i> bishop as distinguished from +the local presbytery was, therefore, an innovation, but in process +of time its recognition became general. It is probable that in the +local presbytery of the primitive church some one minister</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Innovation becomes general</div> + +<p>excelled in special gifts and qualifications and consequently +became a natural leader of his brethren. <i>Such</i> leadership was +of God, comes general because <a name='Page_95'></a>it was based on +the authority proceeding from the Spirit of God. Such was the +leadership which Paul held in a sphere of activity wider than a +local congregation. But such was not positional authority or +authority proceeding from a humanly created superior office and +appointment thereto. It was of divine order. But this fact of +distinguished leadership at first, doubtless furnished an excuse +for the creation of a distinct office with carefully defined +functions and limits of authority. The power of the bishop thus +constituted advanced steadily. The churches of the cities where +they were located extended their influences over smaller towns in +the surrounding territory, and thus the city bishop came to rule +over the elders of the lesser churches of a district.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Development of hierarchy</div> + +<p>When the first step toward ecclesiasticism was definitely taken, +by the recognition of official position authority, and government +proceeding from human appointment alone, the way was prepared for +rapid progress toward a highly organized system of man-rule. When +the bishops met in provincial councils, special deference was given +those bishops from cities of great political importance, and they +were exalted to the presidency of these councils, and this in time +led to the recognition of a new order of church offici<a name= +'Page_96'></a>als—<i>metropolitans</i>. Later the +metropolitans seemed too numerous for general utility in +governmental functions; therefore general leadership gradually +became centralized more and more in the bishops or metropolitans of +certain of the most important cities, until they were finally given +recognition as an order superior to that of metropolitans and were +styled <i>patriarchs</i>. The first Council of Nice recognized this +superior authority possessed by the patriarchates of Alexandria, +Rome, and Antioch. The General Council of Constantinople placed the +bishop of Constantinople in the same rank with the other three +patriarchs, and the General Council of Chalcedon exalted the see of +Jerusalem to a similar dignity. The race for leadership between the +patriarchates then began. On account of the Moslem invasion in the +seventh century, Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch fell away from +their former positions of greatness; therefore the rivalry for +leadership was henceforth between the see of Rome and the bishop of +Constantinople. Rome possessed many natural advantages, and +consequently the bishop of Rome gained the greater prestige. The +full-fledged papacy was the result.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Fundamental causes</div> + +<p>What produced that transition from the humble apostolic church +of the brethren to the medieval church of the impious Hildebrand, +who caused monarchs to tremble on their thrones? The change +resulted from two particular causes, and it is highly essential to +our purpose that we u<a name='Page_97'></a>nderstand them. One was +a misconception both of the Fundamental constitution of the true +church itself as designed by its Founder and of Christ's perpetual +relationship to it; and the second was the imperialistic tendencies +of that age to which the first error naturally exposed the +church.</p> + +<p>It is unnecessary here to recite at length that conception of +the primitive church which we have described in preceding chapters +as the concrete expression of the kingdom of God. Such was the only +true <i>catholic</i>, or universal, church. Its catholicity, +however, was a moral and spiritual dominion exercised over men by +the truth and Spirit of God, and was rendered visible only in the +society of redeemed believers who held the truth and bore its +appropriate fruits of righteousness. Being composed of the +redeemed, it lovingly embraced within its membership the entire +brotherhood of Christ.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Two theories of catholicity</div> + +<p>It is not too much to say that in the age in which Christianity +first appeared it was difficult for men to appreciate the +conception of a purely moral and spiritual authority which was to +be universal and perpetual. Another idea of catholicity soon began +to take possession of men's minds—the idea of a temporal and +earthly organization of the kingdom of heaven. In this conception +of the church the bond of union was not moral and +spiritual—not the inevitable result of divine life <a name= +'Page_98'></a>and love in the individual members—but its +pretended catholicity was to be secured by official, +administrative, legislative, and judicial functions under a human +headship and a self-perpetuating human magistracy. Such was the +"mystery of iniquity," and in its developed form historically it +was "the man of sin." The student of the New Testament can easily +see that the great Founder never intended that the boundary of his +church should be determined by the administrative functions of a +self-perpetuating clerical corporation. But, on the other hand, the +real church embraces the entire <i>spiritual brotherhood,</i> and +out of this spiritual membership was developed by the Spirit of God +the capacity and authority to teach, guide, and instruct. What a +contrast these two conceptions present!</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The power of the keys</div> + +<p>Out of that worldly conception of the kingdom of God grew the +Romish figment of the "power of the keys." According to this idea, +Christ constituted his ministers a sort of clerical, close +corporation invested with direct authority over souls so that +without their priestly mediation the kingdom of heaven is forever +shut against men. The words "keys of the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. +16:19) are evidently nothing more than a figurative expression +indicating the moral influence in the kingdom which Peter in +particular should wield with peculiar energy and efficiency. +According to Matt. 18:18 all the apostles<a name='Page_99'></a> and +others were to exercise the same functions. In time, this +expression denoting moral influence and usefulness in the service +of Christ was tortured into an engine of despotism and made the +means of spiritual tyranny over the consciences of millions of men +and women. The corporation entrusted with such power durst not be +resisted, and the church was identical with the hierarchy.</p> + +<p>But all of Rome's boasted catholicity, centralized in an +official, administrative corporation, is a chimera; for it is a +fact that multitudes are accepted of God as members of the divine +family who are not identified with the hierarchy. The real catholic +church, embracing the whole spiritual brotherhood, is therefore +something else.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Main source of ecclesiasticism</div> + +<p>But we have not yet reached in this discussion the tap-root of +the evil tree of human ecclesiasticism. The fundamental error +underlying all other errors on this subject, was the idea of an +absent Christ. Notwithstanding the definite assertions of our Lord, +"I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" and "Where +two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the +midst of them"—notwithstanding these reassuring promises and +the definite statements of the apostles which represent Christ as +the ever-living and ever-acting head of the church, soon after the +apostolic period men lost the consciousness of the divine presence +and began to <a name='Page_100'></a>think and to act as if Christ +were indeed absent and would not return again for thousands of +years. The presence of gigantic evils in the world with no apparent +available means of redressing them, the dead weight of heathenism, +and the disturbing influences of speculative Oriental philosophies +impressed upon the conscience of the world a despairing pessimism. +In the midst of this trial there was a revival of the Platonic +philosophy. The treatise of Plato that made the most profound +impression upon the religious thought of the second century was the +"Timaeus," wherein the Deity is pictured as withdrawn from the +world into a distant heaven separated from all creation because of +the evil with which matter is essentially connected. With God +withdrawn from the world and Christ absent on a long journey, what +was man to do? What was the hope of the world?</p> + +<p>Here ecclesiasticism found its real opportunity. Here human +authority and government could be and was substituted for that +spiritual dominion of Christ which gave life, form, and character +to his church in primitive days. Here grew up that conception of +the church as identical with the hierarchy whose power and +authority was handed down by direct descent from the apostles and +without whose priestly mediation there was no hope of salvation. +Here was introduced the idea of world-wide centralization of +administrative, legislative, and judicial functions in a +self-perpetuating human headship. What a contrast! With Christ +absent, the church an ark for the saving of the world, the truth a +mere deposit made to the church for safe keeping to be handed down +like a heirloom from generation to generation, and with a +self-perpetuating priestly corporation as master of the destinies +of the universe, we are prepared to understand the tyrannical rule +of the church of Hildebrand and Innocent III. Traced to its source, +this evil system is found to have sprung from that worldly +conception of the kingdom of Christ which was substituted for the +inconceivably grander conception of its Founder—a kingdom +whose dominion is moral and spiritual under the personal +supervision of Christ himself in all ages, and which embraces in +its membership the entire spiritual brotherhood.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;'> +<a name='CHAPTER_VII'></a> +<h2><a name='Page_101'></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>THE REFORMATION</h3> + +<br> + + +<p>The age of popery's greatest glory was the world's midnight. I +have not attempted to give an adequate description of that long +reign of superstition and error preceding the reformation of the +sixteenth century. Such is the particular province of +ecclesiastical historians. I have simply confined the discussion to +certain features essential to our present purpose.</p> + +<p>One point of importanc<a name='Page_102'></a>e I have endeavored +to impress, namely, that the papal hierarchy, with all its +attendant evils, corruption, superstition, and spiritual despotism, +was the logical successor of the Ante-Nicene church; that the +ripened fruits of papalism were the direct results of the seeds of +error planted in the second and third centuries. In view of this +fact, one is led to inquire why true Christianity was not +permanently buried in oblivion beyond the possibility of +resurrection, how any reformation could be possible.</p> + +<p>If Christianity were nothing more than a human religion, its +reformation at such a period of decline and corruption would appear +impossible. But Christianity was of divine origin. No matter how +deeply it was buried under the rubbish of human tradition and +superstition, no matter how grossly it was perverted and +misunderstood by men, it still retained within itself the vital +spark of divine life, the living principle of reformation.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>First cause of reformation</div> + +<p>The secret of this reformatory power was Jesus Christ himself, +the great ever-living head of the church. Notwithstanding the +decline of faith and morals among those professing Christ, the +wonderful character of Jesus still stood out with remarkable +clearness and power in the records of the New Testament and could +not but exer<a name='Page_103'></a>t a tremendous influence in +spite of prevailing standards; could not but shed rays of light and +warmth in the midst of the surrounding darkness. Although men's +ideas of the church became perverted, they could not entirely lose +sight of the great Founder of the church, and they could not escape +the conviction that the record of the founding of that church was +given in the writings of the New Testament and that these writings +were worthy of peculiar veneration. Perhaps this is the main reason +why the learning of antiquity was chiefly preserved in monasteries +and churches. There were ecclesiastics in all these ages who were +acquainted with the Scriptures in Latin, and this acquaintance +tended to preserve the knowledge of Jesus the Christ as portrayed +in the original gospel records. The history of that epoch proves +that there were men who loved the Lord more than priestly forms and +ceremonial observances. John Wyclif, Jerome of Prague, John Huss, +and others experienced that deeper longing for personal +relationship with Christ, and they proclaimed the gospel of Christ +in a manner that could not be understood by the hierarchy of<a +name='Page_104'></a> their times.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Classical learning</div> + +<p>Jesus was indeed the Christ of God. The light which shone forth +from his presence could not be totally obscured, and the moral +power and influence of his life and teaching could not be +destroyed. The revival of classical learning restored the Greek +Testament to western Europe and attracted the attention of students +and learned men in all the monasteries and universities. While the +hierarchy insisted on the exclusive right to interpret the +Scriptures, the simple reading of these wonderful records could not +but create new conceptions of truth which no clerical prohibition +could banish. Life was springing up in the midst of death.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Love for truth</div> + +<p>The Reformation was the sincere effort of honest men to restore +the truth of primitive Christianity, that the world might again +experience the triumph of evangelical faith. To the everlasting +credit of the Continental reformers be it said that their motives +were not selfish. They sought not for themselves freedom of thought +and speech nor church power. Their immediate object was the +restoration of the gospel; all other results were but secondary. +Nothing is more certain than that at the first Luther had no idea +of a<a name='Page_105'></a>ssailing the organization of the papal +church. Most of the reformers at the first still believed most +earnestly in the imperial government of the universal church; and +they relinquished this long-cherished ideal only when driven by +force of circumstances which were at first unseen and unsuspected. +Luther did not at first question the doctrine of the supremacy of +the pope; but when he found that the reigning pope could not be +reconciled with the principles of truth which he taught, Luther +proposed to appeal the matters in question to a general council, +notwithstanding the melancholy example, a century earlier, of the +Council of Constance and the fate of John Huss and Jerome of +Prague.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Indulgences</div> + +<p>The real occasion for the outbreak of the Reformation was the +papal traffic in indulgences. Leo X had great need of money for the +building of St. Peter's, and other undertakings, and in order to +fill the coffers of the church he had recourse to the sale of +indulgences. The power of dispensing these indulgences in Saxony in +Germany was committed to a Dominican friar named Tetzel, a +fanatical enthusiast who entertained the most extravagant notions +concerning their efficacy in forgiving not only the sins already +committed but even those which were contemplated. Luther's soul +burned with righteous indignation. Of what use was the doctrine +that forgiveness of sin came by the death of Christ on the cross if +any sinner<a name='Page_106'></a> could obtain it from an emissary +of the pope for a pecuniary consideration. Luther felt that this +infamous traffic was making the Word of God of none effect. He +therefore drew up ninety-five theses against the doctrine of +indulgences and nailed them on the church-door at Wittenberg. The +printing-press scattered copies of these theses everywhere, and +soon the continent of Europe was in a blaze of controversy. Such, +in short, was the beginning of the Reformation and some of the +causes leading thereto.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Gospel standard sought</div> + +<p>The key-note of the reformers was, therefore, the gospel. The +views of the reformers with respect to truth were not altogether +harmonious, and it is evident that some of them had much clearer +conception of the gospel than had others. Nevertheless, their +primary purpose was the same. They were gradually forced to the +conviction that Rome had made the faith of God of none effect by +her traditions, errors, and superstitions, so much so as to make it +practically unknown. It was the purpose of these heroic preachers +to bring out these long-obscured truths and thus make them +effectual in the saving of men. The main doctrine around which the +Reformation centered was justification by faith independent of +human mediation.</p> + +<p>So far as the Reformation restored to the world right doctrine, +it tended to correct the evils of that phase of the apostasy which +we have characterized as the corruption of evangelical faith. But +it did not remove that other evil characteristic of the apostasy, +the parent of<a name='Page_107'></a> nearly all other +evils—<i>human ecclesiasticism</i>. Viewed from one angle, +that power appears to have been modified; but from another point of +view, we can see that what was formerly an imperial system of +centralized ecclesiastical control simply ended now in nationally +centralized systems perpetuating the same principles. Thus, from +the centralized dominion of the papal hierarchy there sprang the +national, or state, churches in Switzerland, Germany, Holland, +England, Sweden, and Scotland.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Lingering influence of Rome</div> + +<p>We have already shown that development of ecclesiasticism which +culminated in the papacy. From the primitive autonomy of the local +churches, there came the centralization and consolidation of +churches sectionally under a human headship with administrative +functions, then provincial or national centralization, then finally +the primacy of Rome over them all. The reason for this is evident. +When the moral and spiritual dominion of Christ's kingdom was lost +to view or could not be appreciated, the wrong conception of the +church as a world-empire naturally took possession of men's minds; +for in that age vast, centralized, imperial power was the ideal +government. When, however, the political empire fell, and men +witnessed the ruin of their political ideal, they sought to realize +the same universal conception in a world-church possessing imperial +powers under the pope of Rome.</p> + +<a name='Page_108'></a> + +<div class='sidenote'>National churches</div> + +<p>At the period of the Reformation the Christian world had been in +the grip of this world-church idea for more than a thousand years. +As already stated, the reformers, whose minds were directed chiefly +toward the restoration of evangelical doctrine, had at first no +idea of breaking away from this standard. Evidently they had no +conception of that moral and spiritual dominion of Christ by which +alone he governs his church—a 'kingdom that is not of this +world.' They therefore abandoned the world-church idea reluctantly, +and not until the opposition of the hierarchy drove them to +separation. When the issue was clearly drawn, they of course +decided to obey God rather than man. Having no idea of the real +spiritual character of the divine ecclesia, they had to content +themselves with that <i>national</i> church unity which was still +in their power.</p> + +<p>The clergy, who had long been accustomed to the imperial tie, +believed that a national headship was now necessary. The +governments of Europe at that time were for the most part absolute +monarchies, about the only limits to the sovereign power of these +kings being the control which the pope exercised over the +ecclesiastical affairs of the nations. From this control the +Reformation liberated them. Therefore they eagerly took upon +themselves the oversight of the national churches, and thus came +into exis<a name='Page_109'></a>tence the church-and-state system +of Protestant Europe. To a great extent the power that the imperial +head of the church lost was acquired by the national heads.</p> + +<p>All this seemed perfectly consistent to the reformers. They felt +the necessity of lodging somewhere that power of human control +which had been formerly exercised by the pope. As one writer has +said, "They could not understand that Christianity could prosper +without a strongly organized and governed church or without the +presence of a strong and vigorous hand ready at all times to +repress dissent and enforce uniformity of faith and worship." The +time of absolute religious freedom was not yet.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Ecclesiasticism perpetuated</div> + +<p>As might be expected, numerous modifications of the principles +and usages of the papal church occurred in the change from imperial +control to the state-church system. This diversity took place in +the different countries in accordance either with prevailing +conditions and sentiments or with the whims and caprices of the +reigning sovereigns. While some retained the episcopate, others +greatly modified it or rejected it altogether. In forms of worship, +ritual, and other things numerous changes were also made. But +notwithstanding the diversity in forms of worship and in church +polity, in two respects there was perfect agree<a name= +'Page_110'></a>ment among all the Reformed churches—two +things brought over from the papacy—namely, first, the idea +of a self-perpetuating clerical caste possessing in their corporate +capacity legislative and judicial authority over the church; and +second, the centralization under a human headship of administrative +functions, instead of that local autonomy which prevailed in the +congregations of apostolic times. The doctrine of the "power of the +keys," a power wielded by a clerical corporation with authority to +prescribe the very manner and form of worshiping God and to require +men to comply therewith or else exclude them from gospel +privileges. That doctrine was accepted without question. It was the +same power in principle as that which was wielded so terribly by +Gregory VII in the papal church of the eleventh century.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;'> +<a name='CHAPTER_VIII'></a> +<h2><a name='Page_111'></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>MODERN SECTS</h3> + +<br> + + +<div class='sidenote'>A mental picture</div> + +<p>Picture a keen observer living in the middle of the first +century of our era. He travels about from place to place studying +the development, nature, and fruits of the recently established +religious phenomenon—Christianity. He observes the purity of +its doctrines and the high moral standard exemplified in the lives +of its adherents, and he inquires particularly concerning the +secret of that mysterious bond which unites in one body and in one +fellowship, sympathy, and love the entire society of believers in +Jesus. He departs. After the lapse of long ages he returns near the +beginning of the twentieth century, and lo, what is it that meets +his astonished vision? The mournful spectacle of a divided +Christendom; of rival sects compassing land and sea to make +proselytes; of the spiritual alienation of those who, in reality, +belong to the one divine family; of waste and inefficiency in +methods of evangelical effort; not to mention the error, pride, and +worldliness inherent in the gigantic ecclesiastical systems known +as denominational churches. What a change!</p> + +<p>It is useless to minimize the evils inherent in the sect system. +Intelligent men the world over need not the services of an +eye-specialist to see clearly that there is something wrong with +modern Christendom; that the sect system does not represent the +standard of primitive Christianity, but that in reality the sect +principle misrepresents the apostolic ideal as portrayed in the New +Testament. We may as well face the facts honestly and seek for a +remedy for this disease that has so long marred the beauty and +corrupted the nature of the true Christian system.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Inherent evils</div> + +<a name='Page_112'></a> + +<p>I cheerfully admit that God has worked among his people in all +ages in accordance with the degree of light and truth which they +possessed. But I can not forget that the greatest revivals of +evangelical religion have either taken place in spite of the sect +system or among those who had just made their escape from the +bondage of ecclesiastical despotism and had not as yet become very +deeply affected by the sectarian principle. To what source, then, +are we to trace sects? What is their cause?</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Alleged causes of sect-making</div> + +<p>A large proportion of the Christian world would reply without +hesitation that the existence of the modern sects is due to these +two things: the principle of religious liberty and the limitations +of human knowledge.<a name='Page_114'></a><a name='Page_113'></a> +Such an answer reveals a superficial view of the whole subject. +Religious liberty among Christians existed in the primitive church +before the rise of ecclesiastical tyranny over the conscience, and +the masses of men in those days were at least as limited in +knowledge as are we. Still, the church was one; it was not divided +into rival and hostile sects. There was no need in those days of +constructing churches to conform to the limited capacity of men's +minds; for there was already in existence a church sufficiently +<i>catholic</i> in its nature and spirit to accommodate all classes +of minds, because there was in operation the power of the Spirit of +God which revealed truth to men and thus enlightened their minds +and brought them into harmony with the divine standard. Concerning +the principle of religious liberty, I shall have more to say +hereafter.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Human limitations</div> + +<p>The natural limitations of human knowledge may account for +difference of opinion, but more than this is required to account +for the entire system of organized sects such as we see it today. +Millions of evangelical Christians possessing spiritual affinity +and holding opinions no more divergent than often exist between +members of the same sect, are, nevertheless, divided into +independent, rival parties. Something else originated and now +perpetuates that barrier between them.</p> + +<p>When differences are fu<a name='Page_115'></a>ndamental and +therefore unavoidable, they will become more pronounced under test +than at any other time. If, during an epidemic, a physician +believes that the method of treatment employed by another doctor is +actually killing the patients, his opposition to such a method will +then he stronger than at any other time. As long as that method is +simply a theory, it is harmless. Only when put into practise does +it become dangerous.</p> + +<p>It is a matter of common knowledge that evangelical Christians +are not driven further apart but are really driven together +whenever Christianity itself is placed under any special trial, as, +for example, in foreign missionary work in heathen lands. And even +in our own country, whenever a great local interest is taken in the +work of soul-saving there is a corresponding tendency for +Christians of different sects to ignore their differences of +opinion and get together as if they believed in a common Lord over +all and were all members of the same family. Thus, whenever the +high tide of evangelism comes in, the landmarks of sects are +scarcely visible; but whenever the tide goes out, behold, <i>the +ancient boundaries of sects appear as before</i>. This fact proves +that there are no fundamental reasons why sects should exist. It +proves that in reality sects are a barrier to the true work of +Christ; hence are, in their essential nature, antichristian. What, +then, is the real cause of sects'?</p> + +<p>Traced to the original source, modern sects, we find, originated +where the papacy originated—in the corruption of Christianity +in the early centuries. All came from the same roots of error.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>True causes <a name='Page_116'></a> of +sects</div> + +<p>However modified and diversified in external form and in +doctrinal teaching they may now be, they exhibit in their +ecclesiastical constitutions a foreign character derived from the +foreign stock from which they sprang. Into this system there have +been engrafted many noble scions of truth from the "good +olive-tree," and these have produced commendable fruits of +righteousness. But we are here concerned with pointing out those +fundamental characteristics of the system that are foreign to the +true church of Jesus Christ.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Erroneous ideas of the church</div> + +<p>The first cause to which I call attention is an erroneous +conception of the church itself. At the cost of some repetition I +must point out that in the beginning the church was the universal +company of the redeemed, the whole <i>spiritual brotherhood</i>, +whether isolated members of Christ or those worshiping in local +assemblies distributed over the earth. The tie which united these +members of Christ in one body was their common faith in our Lord +Jesus Christ and the life of the Spirit. But as in those times vast +centralized imperial power was a divinity that every one worshiped, +it was impossible properly to appreciate <i>the moral and spiritual +dominion</i> of Christ by which alone he designed to rule his +church; therefore men soon proceeded to pattern the church of C<a +name='Page_117'></a>hrist after the political government, first by +grouping together under one administrative human headship the +congregations of a province or section of the empire, and then +finally uniting these different provinces under one administrative +headship at Rome. From that day until the present time the +church-idea that has generally prevailed in Christendom has been an +organization fashioned according to the kingdoms of this world; a +human organization in which the administrative functions of +government are centralized under some form of human headship; a +unity that is not moral and spiritual, but official and +administrative, as well as legislative and judicial.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Wrong standard of church-membership</div> + +<p>Coincident with the creation of foreign ideals concerning church +societies was the formation of of a foreign idea of +church-membership and church-relationship. In the beginning, as we +have shown, the church was simply the divine family. Therefore +salvation through Christ was its sole condition of membership. "And +the Lord added to them day by day those that were being saved" +(Acts 2:47, R.V.). And as the local congregation was but the +concrete expression of the ideals of the general body or church, +that membership in Christ which made men members of the general +body, made them, by a moral and spiritual law, members of all the +other members of Christ, and therefore fixed their loc<a name= +'Page_118'></a>al relationship: they belonged by divine right with +whichever company of believers they happened to be associated. +Nothing more than simple recognition of what God had done for them +and the according to them of the local rights and privileges that +naturally belonged to them was necessary on the part of a local +congregation to make the actual union complete.</p> + +<p>The wrong conception of the constitution of the church +necessarily required another standard of church-membership. When +<i>church</i> came to signify merely a group of congregations +consolidated under a centralized human headship possessing +administrative, legislative, and judicial functions (so organized +as to distinguish it from all other organized groups or +congregations), simple membership in Christ was insufficient to +mark the convert with the stamp of denominational individuality. +Salvation itself made no one a member of a church fashioned +according to the kingdoms of this world. Consequently another +standard of membership was necessary, a standard which required +acceptance of and conformity to the self-made rules and regulations +of that foreign society called a church. And when these earth-born +institutions became identified in the public mind with the real +church of Christ and membership in them became confused with +membership in the true church of God, the natural result was that +millions complied, in a formal manner at least, with the conditions +of the counterfeit church membership who never knew what it meant +to be vitally joined to Christ. In this we see the "evil" fruit +which grew on that tree of error. The multitudes that have been by +this means deceived with the thought that they were <a name= +'Page_119'></a>Christians, only to be lost at last, will not be +known until that awful day of final reckoning.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Divisive nature of the creeds</div> + +<p>The formation of creeds tends to create division and to +perpetuate division. Caesar's maxim illustrates their history: +"Soldiers will raise money, and money will make soldiers." So +creeds will make sects, and sects will make creeds. "A creed or +confession of faith is an ecclesiastical document—the mind +and will of some synod or council possessing authority—as a +term of communion by which persons and opinions are to be tested, +approbated or reprobated." The sect churches are built on their +creeds, although, of course, they affirm that their creeds are +built on the Bible. In this case, however, it is usually apparent +to the careful observer that the Bible is that part of the +foundation which is buried out of sight below the ground. The creed +is the real test applied to persons, the measure by which their +opinions are judged. It is the creed upon which the sect is built +that gives the denominational character and distinctiveness.</p> + +<p>It is a fact of history that the primary purpose of the +historical creeds was not to unite men but to separate them. The +Nicene Creed was made to exclude the Arians. The Decrees of the +Council of Trent were framed to exclude Protestants; the +Westminster Confession, to exclude Arminians; and the Episcopal +Articles, to exclude Catholics and Independents. To ra<a name= +'Page_120'></a>lly around a creed framed by human authority and +make it the basis of union is but to teach a system—a sect +system; but to rally around the person of Jesus Christ and make him +the supreme object of our faith, hope, and love is to contend for +what the Bible terms the faith, the truth, the gospel. This is +infinitely better than any document proceeding from Nicea, Trent, +Dort, Augsburg, or Westminster.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Power of the keys</div> + +<p>Another cause, both for the origin of the sect system and its +perpetuation, is the assumed "power of the keys" which has been +carried over from the Church of Rome. The idea that the +administrative rule and government of the church of Christ has +been, by divine decree, centralized in a self-perpetuating clerical +caste with authority to legislate for the church and then to +enforce its decisions by judicial procedure, is foreign to the +primitive church as recorded in the New Testament. It is a product +of Papalism, and yet it has been, in its essential characteristics, +transferred directly to the sects of Protestantism. The New +Testament recognizes no such human positional authority. It +recognizes only that divine authority which operates through God's +chosen ministers and helpers by virtue of the Spirit-bestowed gifts +and qualifications. The only governmental authority exercised by +the New Te<a name='Page_121'></a>stament ministers was in +cooperation with Christ, the visible head, by putting forth, in +accordance with the Spirit's gifts and qualifications, some portion +of that moral power by which alone Christ governs.</p> + +<p>The idea that to a clerical order has been committed the +exclusive guardianship of the church, with full power to admit to +or exclude from the worship and service of God all except those who +come by way of their priestly mediation, is the basest assumption. +It is a violation of the rights of individual conscience. Yet just +such power has been and still is being exerted as a means of +enforcing acquiescence in matters of opinion and submission to +customs and practises which every unprejudiced man knows, or can +soon see, is no part of the New Testament teaching and +requirements. What a weapon has this ecclesiastical assumption +been! One always ready for use. It makes no difference whether it +is wielded by a Methodist conference, an Episcopal judicatory, a +Presbyterian synod, or a Catholic pope, it is all the same in +principle—"the power of the keys."</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Lack of religious freedom</div> + +<p>This assumed corporate power of the clergy has been one of the +fundamental causes of sect-making. When a general clerical body +assumes the right in its corporate capacity to prescribe rules of +either faith or practise, written or unwritten, and then to enforce +them by judicial action, it is a direct violation of the New +Testament st<a name='Page_122'></a>andard, and of the rights of +individual consciences. It was because of this lordly, unscriptural +rule that many sincere men of God have been forced to sever their +connection with the older sects in order to find a place where a +greater degree of light and truth could be experienced and +proclaimed. In such cases it was not religious liberty that caused +the formation of new movements and new sects, but <i>the lack of +religious liberty</i>.</p> + +<p>That "power of the keys," making and then enforcing the +standards of creeds, has done violence to the conscience of both +the clergy and the laity. Conscienceless persons subscribe to the +creed without any particular hesitation, but the truly +conscientious suffer the greatest embarrassment They must either +refuse altogether and withdraw from all connection, or else +subscribe with a mental reservation amounting practically to +hypocrisy.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Inflexible character</div> + +<p>This inflexible character of the sect institution has been a +most fruitful cause for the production of new sects. No matter how +spiritual the movement at its beginning, when its leaders were not +longing for church power but were earnestly preaching the Word of +the Lord as it came unto them, as soon as the sect machinery was +thoroughly organized and was set in motion the inevitable tendency +has been to throw around the moveme<a name='Page_123'></a>nt a wall +of creedal and ecclesiastical exclusiveness which shut out other +true people of God; and then began a process of crystalization +which ever afterwards precluded the unfolding of new truth. It is a +well-known fact that the high tide of truth-discovery in every +religious movement in Protestantism has been at the time of its +beginning. A fixed law of immobility has ever afterwards prevailed. +The reason is clear: whenever men grasp the reins of government and +assume those prerogatives which belong to God alone, the rule of +the Spirit ends. The unfolding of new truths by the operation of +the Spirit is impossible within the limits of the old order where +human ecclesiasticism reigns. But truth can not be permanently +suppressed. If it can not find room for development within the +existing order of things, God will raise up men who will, +independently, proclaim the Word of the Lord. This he has done +repeatedly, only to have the new movements end in the same +manner—in a rule of human ecclesiasticism.</p> + +<p>Human ecclesiasticism has always been the greatest barrier to +the free spiritual development of the work of Christ. According to +that relic of the papal church, authority and rule is vested in the +clerical corporation and is by them conferred upon other +individuals by the act of ordination. How different the standard of +the Word! In the Old Testament times the office of prophet did not +come in the priestly line, but on whomsoever the spirit of prophecy +descended—whether upon Amos, the herdsman, or David, the +king—he spake as he was moved by the <a name= +'Page_124'></a>Holy Ghost. There has never been a time under the +divine economy when any man to whom the Word of the Lord came was +not divinely authorized to proclaim his message wherever he could +get a hearing, whether in synagog or temple, or out under the broad +canopy of heaven.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;'> +<a name='Page_125'></a> <a name='CHAPTER_IX'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE</h3> + +<br> + + +<p>What about the church of the future? Is the modern sect system +the ultimate goal of Christian attainment in this world? While the +sects contain much truth and many of the people of God, their +ecclesiastical constitutions are foreign to the true church of +Jesus Christ, and it is inconceivable that the great Founder would +make no provision either in his Word or in his plan for the +correction of the evils which have grown up around the Christian +system during the dark ages of the world and which have in a great +measure perverted the gospel itself and lessened its wholesome +efficiency as the universal remedy for human ills.</p> + +<p>Since no sect can make good a claim to being exclusively the +church of God, a general feeling of toleration at least (if not in +all cases of sincere respect) has come to prevail respecting the +different denominational churches. Men have come to look upon the +sects as a mere matter of fact, not to be seriously questioned, and +we are supposed to cover the whole scene with the mantle of +patience and charity and make the best of a bad situation.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The Protestant truce</div> + +<p>Dr. J.M. Sturtevant has expressed this general attitude so well +that I shall quote his own words: "It has long been true in this +country that no Protestant can freely expose the errors and +superstitions of the papal church, especially from the pulpit, +without incurring the charge of intolerance, bigotry, and +uncharitableness. Religious controversy itself has been placed +under the ban, as in its own nature uncharitable. When once any +religious opinion has organized itself into a sect, it is thought +to have acquired a sacredness which, in the name of Christian +charity and in the interest of the tranquility of the community, +defends it from any open assault. We have come into the condition +in which Rome was when she had extended her conquests from the +British Isles to the Euphrates and had transferred to Rome the +divinities of all the countries conquered. People of every +nationality might worship their own divinities, but must +respectfully tolerate the worship of every other. In this way only +could religious conflict be avoided. The chief reason why +Christianity was persecuted was that from its very <a name= +'Page_126'></a>nature it could accept no such truce. It is either a +universal religion or no religion at all. It is, like all other +systems which claim to be the true, in its own nature +exclusive."</p> + +<p>It is because of its universal character that truth can accept +no such truce as has been declared by the modern sects. Truth is +exclusive, and hence can make no compromises. The church of God is +universal or it is no church at all. The whole truth concerning the +church question must and will come out. The times demand it; the +people of God demand it; the Spirit of God demands it; and, as we +shall show, the Scriptures declare it.</p> + +<a name='Page_128'></a><a name='Page_127'></a> + +<div class='sidenote'>A new awakening</div> + +<p>It is very evident that the people of God are not satisfied with +the present sectarian situation. Everywhere there is manifested a +restlessness and uneasiness respecting the arbitrary lines of sect +which separate between those who have a recognized spiritual +affinity—recognized except formally by the ecclesiastical +powers that be. <i>The Christian consciousness is becoming +awakened.</i> Men are coming to see that Christianity is to be +measured, not by sect lines, but by that broader, Scriptural rule +of the divine family embracing all true disciples of +Jesus—those who possess his life and bear the appropriate +fruits of righteousness. This awakening, with its logical +consequences, is what I have termed THE LAST REFORMATION. It will +give form and character to the Church of the Future.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Apologies for sects</div> + +<p>Sectarianism still has its defenders, however. In the midst of +the rising tide of spiritual fellowship and love, there are those +who bring forward a few sickly apologies for sects, apologies which +generally impress the earnest student of the Scriptures with the +thought that the apologist has a hard case to make out. The excuse +most commonly advanced is that the sect system is a useful +arrangement for accommodating the variety of tastes and feelings +found among Christian people. It is assumed that some are +natural-born Episcopalians, with an innate fondness for for<a name= +'Page_129'></a>mal liturgies and ecclesiastical vestments, and that +others are so constituted by nature as to require certain other +particular forms of worship.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Diversity of taste and culture</div> + +<p>If there is any such fundamental demand in human nature for a +variety of sects, as different climates are required to suit +different orders of life on our planet, it is strange indeed that +the apostles overlooked such an important point and failed to +provide for it. Why was not the primitive church constructed so as +to bring into existence at once a variety of human sects to +accommodate the different classes of people then existing? From the +modern point of view they had an excellent excuse for starting with +at least two churches—one for the Jews and another for the +Gentiles; and if these had not been sufficient, before the end of +their personal ministry they could have brought into existence a +whole brood of sects.</p> + +<p>Now, the student of the Scriptures knows that the apostles +proceeded exactly in the opposite direction. They labored earnestly +to bring all classes into love and fellowship <i>in one body</i>. +This course was not in accordance with the wisdom of the world, but +the twentieth century is beginning to see that it was "the wisdom +of God."</p> + +<a name='Page_130'></a> + +<p>The reason why men have a liking for formal liturgies, stately +ceremonies, and ecclesiastical vestments is because of environment. +They have been trained that way. Here again we see the natural +tendency of sects to make sectarians and thus reproduce their kind. +When particular forms and ceremonies, which are not required by +Scripture, are enforced upon men by a self-constituted, +self-perpetuating ecclesiastical authority, the inevitable result +is to stamp the same principles upon succeeding generations and +thus perpetuate the sect system exercising such authority.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The sect spirit</div> + +<p>In a final effort to lessen the odium attaching to what is now +widely recognized as an evil, some assert that the cause of +mischief is the sect spirit. This statement contains truth, but it +does not tell the whole truth. One of the worst evils of human +slavery was the extreme tyranny which some slave-masters exercised. +But the real fact was that the system itself tended to convert good +men and women into tyrants. The special manifestation of evil was +both effect and cause. It was the natural tendency of the system to +make tyrants, and tyrants perpetuated the system. So also with +sectarianism. Though all can realize a theoretical difference +between the sect spirit and simple denominationalism, yet the very +tendency of the system itself is to create party interests and to +introduce party rivalries, which naturally foster the sect spirit. +Without that devotion to party and party interests—a devotion +almost equal to their devotion to the gospel itself—sects +wo<a name='Page_131'></a>uld perish. <i>If sect-members should +become so universal in their love and sympathy as to devote +themselves to the work of Christ alone—forgetting party +interests—sects would die. The sect spirit is, therefore, +essential to the maintenance of the life and individuality of the +sect body.</i></p> + +<div class='sidenote'>What is the remedy?</div> + +<p>The remedy for sectarianism is not a return to imperialism. The +world-church idea as exemplified in the papal church is not the +goal of Christianity. Such might hold dominion over men in the +barbaric ages of the world, but its universal sway has ceased. The +Inquisition will never be reestablished. The unity of the church is +not to be found in an imperial hierarchy.</p> + +<p>Nor is Christian unity to be obtained by adherence to the +historic creeds. These documents may express many noble sentiments +respecting Christ and his truth, and they may express the fullest +knowledge of the truth known in the days when they were written. +But knowledge of the truth is progressive, while creeds are +stationary. No human document, therefore, can serve as a permanent +basis upon which to build our faith. And then, too, we have seen +that creeds are in their very nature divisive. Hence they can not +be made the basis for the realization of unity.</p> + +<p>Nor is the unity of the church to be found in some particular +form of exclusive church polity, as Episcopalianism, Pre<a name= +'Page_132'></a>sbyterianism, or Congregationalism. We have +conclusively proved that that conception of the church patterned +after the forms of political government, in which government and +authority are vested inherently and exclusively in human hands, is +foreign to the original conception of the church as it existed in +the minds of its Founder and his apostles. The government of the +New Testament church is a theocracy. Christ is head. He rules +through his Holy Spirit by moral suasion and spiritual influence, +and the ministers and helpers whom he calls and qualifies share in +that oversight and responsibility to the same extent that they are +able to wield the same moral and spiritual power. <i>This is the +only church authority and government recognized in the New +Testament</i>.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The perpetual theocracy</div> + +<p>Here I shall digress long enough to point out by way of contrast +the true form of divine government. Every one is familiar with the +theocratic government of Israel under the Old Testament +dispensation. God ruled. He who carefully reads the New Testament +can not fail to discern the same type of government in the church +before the rise of human ecclesiasticism. The first preachers of +the gospel spoke with an authority not derived from a human source. +When Peter and John were threatened before the Council and +commanded not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus Christ, they +gave the sublime answer: "Whethe<a name='Page_133'></a>r it be +right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, +judge ye. For we can not but speak the things which we have seen +and heard" (Acts 4: 19, 20). The same principle stands out in bold +relief in the experience of Paul. Although that great apostle was +forward to cooperate with other apostles and ministers of Christ, +one can not fail to see that his whole career exemplified the +principle of theocracy. He "was not disobedient unto the heavenly +vision."</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>An important parallelism</div> + +<p>Permit me to call attention particularly to an important +parallelism between the government of Israel under the theocracy +and the government of the New Testament church before the rise of +ecclesiasticism. God led his people out of Egypt by Moses and +Joshua. These men are a type of Christ, who leads his people. After +the Israelites were settled in Canaan, they had no central +government, but each locality or city was autonomous, having its +local judges or elders. In a time of crisis God raised up a judge +to lead the people in the necessary cooperative efforts to preserve +or regain their liberties. Their miseries Were always the result of +their own sins, not a failure of the divine form of government. +Their appointing a king and thus setting up a centralized human +government was called <i>rejecting God as ruler</i>. And this is +exactly parallel with what ecclesiasticism has done and is doing +with the same results. God's government of the church is set aside +and rejected.</p> + +<a name='Page_134'></a> + +<div class='sidenote'>Not church federation</div> + +<p>Nor will an organic union of all the sects solve the problem of +unity. In the first place, the tendency of such a union is toward +imperialism, the creation on the federation plan of another +world-church. In the second place, such a federation would +strengthen rather than lessen the authority of human rule, while +the compromises necessary to make such a project possible would +lessen in the same degree that freedom of the Spirit by which alone +the full gospel can be given to the world. And in the third place, +such a federation would not be the church of God, for the very +framework on which it would rest, human ecclesiasticism, is foreign +to the original conception of the church. It would be only a human +arrangement patterned after the model of a world-empire. And for +another reason such would not be the church. The divine +<i>ekklesia</i> includes in its membership the whole family of God. +Thousands of men and women who are united to Christ and in +fellowship with all the saved are not members of the formally +organized sects. Therefore the union of all such churches in one +federation would not include the whole family.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Back to the Bible standard</div> + +<p>Thus, the remedy for sects is not church federation, nor a +return to the historic creeds, nor the adoption of one of the +exclusive forms of church polity; neither is it a<a name= +'Page_135'></a>n attempt to hide the sin of the obnoxious sect +system by covering it with a mantle of charity and +patience—as a sort of necessary evil. What, then, is the real +remedy for sects? It is the absolute rejection of every foreign +element that has crept into the Christian system and the return to +that primitive conception of the church as made up of the entire +brotherhood of Christ, organized and controlled by the Holy Spirit. +For true unity we must turn from hierarchies and apostolical +successions and priestly corporations and church synods and human +creeds to THE CHRIST who alone is the head of the church.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>True membership</div> + +<p>Such a movement requires a moral revolution with respect to the +attitude of God's people toward membership in sects. It requires +the obliteration of sect lines and the recognition of no other bond +of union than that of a common brotherhood through union with +Christ. Divine life secured through repentance and faith is the +sole condition of membership in the church of Christ, and this +relationship is maintained by obedience to the commands of Christ +and consistent Christian conduct. "If we walk in the light, as he +is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood +of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John +1:7).</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Elimination <a name='Page_136'></a>of +ecclesiasticism</div> + +<p>Such a movement and such a standard of church relationship +require the elimination of all ideas of priestly ecclesiasticism. +The Christ of the New Testament church is not an absent Christ. He +has never resigned his position as head of the church and vested +the governmental authority in a self-perpetuating clerical caste. +His government is theocratic. He administers it himself through his +Holy Spirit. Hence no men or set of men can confer any power or +authority whatsoever upon any individual to act for Christ. Christ +calls his own assistants, and any man unto whom the Word of the +Lord comes is divinely authorized to proclaim His message. The only +sphere of human operation respecting this administration of divine +government is simple recognition of what God has done, and this +recognition in the last analysis belongs to the whole body of God's +people. The basis of every man's authority and responsibility is, +therefore, not human appointment or official position, but the +divine call, gifts, and qualifications, that he possesses. If, for +example, he is called to apostolic work and endowed with gifts and +qualifications fitting him for such service, he has apostolic +authority and responsibility, and there is nothing for other +ministers or Christians to do but to <i>recognize what God has +done</i>. "Now hath God set the members every one of them in the +body, as it hath pleased him" (1 Cor. 12:18). Such, in short, is +the divine organization and government.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>What of the future?</div> + +<p>The realization of this<a name='Page_137'></a> grand ideal of +the restoration of the New Testament standard of church membership, +government, and authority, is impossible within the sect system. +For the sects to turn all the people of God loose from subjection +to every foreign yoke and make them free to associate without +restriction with all the saved of God, would be an act of suicide. +<i>Only by division and by holding the grasp of ecclesiastical rule +can sects survive.</i> But he is blind to the signs of the times +who can not see that the grip of ecclesiasticism is slipping and +the bonds of true catholicity becoming strengthened. The true +people of God are becoming more and more dissatisfied with present +conditions and are beginning to think in terms of a universal +Christianity. The rising tide of evangelism among such is already +beginning to overflow the lines of sect. What may we expect in the +future?</p> + +<p>Things can not continue as they have been in the ecclesiastical +world. A sweeping reformation is imperative and imminent. In fact, +the vanguard of this great movement is already visible. What will +the future bring forth? Will the sects themselves fade away and +gradually become dissolved? or will the powers that rule in the +ecclesiastical world finally set themselves against the spirit of +catholicity and thus practically force the true people of God to +ignore absolutely all sectarian lines and step out on the broad +platform of truth and universality, united in Christ alone, knowing +no head but Christ and no creed but His truth? Who can tell?</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>A fundamental difference</div> + +<a name='Page_138'></a> + +<p>In the present work I have given a brief historical sketch of +the leading ecclesiastical events, showing the apostasy as it +existed under two phases, the corruption of evangelical faith and +the reign of ecclesiasticism. I have also shown that the +reformations of Protestantism have tended to the correction of that +first phase pertaining to doctrine, but that a complete reformation +requires the elimination of ecclesiasticism. Hence what I have +termed the Last Reformation, if it is to be the <i>last</i>, not +only must include the restoration of pure doctrinal truth but must +also restore the real church of the New Testament. So far as true +doctrine is concerned, such a reformation will differ from other +evangelical movements in degree only—it must ultimately +comprehend the whole truth. But the fundamental difference between +the reformation herein considered and all other preceding +reformations is that it strikes the death-blow to the very root of +error that produced the sect system—<i>human +ecclesiasticism</i>—and substitutes therefor the +administrative authority of the Holy Spirit working in varying +degrees in all the members of Christ throughout the world. The last +reformation therefore must differ from all others, not in degree +only, but <i>also in kind</i>.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The witness of prophecy</div> + +<p>God alone understands the future. During the ages past he has +not left his own work without the witness of prophecy. We<a name= +'Page_139'></a> may rest assured, therefore, that in the prophecy +of the divine Word he has given us an outline of the history of his +church. So I shall ask the reader to patiently follow me through a +brief sketch of ecclesiastical events as described in the +prophecies of the Revelation. Such an examination will throw a +large amount of additional light on the subjects I have already +treated historically, and will also give us a divinely drawn +picture of the church of the future. Such will enable us to +understand better the real character and extent of THE LAST +REFORMATION.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;'> +<a name='Page_140'></a> <a name='PART_III'></a> +<h2>PART III</h2> + +<h3>The Church in Prophecy</h3> + +<hr style='width: 65%;'> +<a name='CHAPTER_X'></a> +<h2><a name='Page_141'></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>INTERPRETATION OF PROPHETIC SYMBOLS</h3> + +<br> + + +<div class='sidenote'>Value of prophecy</div> + +<p>The value of prophecy in establishing the religion of the Bible +as the religion, of God has been generally recognized. Its value, +however, is not limited to the proof of the divinity of Biblical +truth which it furnishes: it serves a definite and most important +purpose in the life and work of God's believing children in all +ages. By it we are better able to understand God's own plan and +purposes in human history, and by it we are made conscious of our +own whereabouts along the pathway of time. The movements of God in +the history of the past that were predicted by earlier prophets +have received their chief inspiration from the conscious knowledge +the leaders had of the prophetic character of their work. It was +Daniel's study of prophecy that stirred his soul for the +restoration of Israel to the favor of God and to their own land +(Dan. 9:2), and at the same time opened his own heart for the +wonderful revelation concerning future events. It was the +consciousness of prophetic fulfilment that gave John the Baptist +his inspiration for work (John 1:23); and in establishing the +truths of the gospel of Christ, the apostles placed leading +emphasis on the fact that these things were written in the law and +in the prophets.</p> + +<p>The love and care that Christ had for his people did not cease +in the beginning of the gospel dispensation; for he gave the +promise, "I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." It +is altogether reasonable, then, that we should receive "the +revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to <i>show +unto his servants</i> things which must shortly come to pass" (Rev. +1:1). Through the varying conditions of time, Christ leads his +people on to certain victory.</p> + +<p>Since the mission of the church was to be world-wide and +perpetual, it is fitting that the church should be described +prophetically in order that we might have definite information +concerning the operations of the divine hand in working out the +great problem of the church's destiny after the close of the sacred +canon.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Prophetic symbols</div> + +<p>Before proceeding with our discussion of those prophecies which +concern the church, let us pause and consider briefly the character +of symbols. The prophecy of the Scriptures is presented to us in +two distinct forms—direct statements in the ordinary language +of life and in symbolic representations, but far the<a name= +'Page_142'></a> greater part is expressed in symbols, as in the +book of Daniel and in the Revelation of John. Without an +understanding of the nature of symbols we can not get a proper +understanding of such prophecies.</p> + +<p>Spoken or written language is a very complicated<a name= +'Page_144'></a><a name='Page_143'></a> affair, but it is in reality +an arbitrary arrangement. The name that we attach to a particular +object could as well be given to a totally different object instead +if we only agreed to make the change. For this reason spoken +language is variable. Changes are constantly taking place. The +language of Bible symbols, on the other hand, is not subject to the +law of change, as we shall see; it is not based on arbitrary +arrangement or mere convenience, but its foundational principles +exist in the very nature of things.</p> + +<p>Webster defines <i>symbol</i> as follows: "The sign or +representation of any moral thing by the images or properties of +natural things. Thus, a lion is the symbol of courage; the lamb is +the symbol of meekness or patience." Horne, in his Introduction to +the Study of the Bible, says: "By symbols we mean certain +representative marks, rather than express pictures; or, if +pictures, such as were at the time <i>characters</i>, and besides +presenting to the eye the resemblance of a particular object, +suggested a general idea to the mind, as when a <i>horn</i> was +made to denote <i>strength</i>, an <i>eye</i> and <i>scepter</i>, +<i>majesty</i>, and in numberless such instances, where the picture +was not drawn to express merely the thing itself, but something +else, which was or was conceived to be, analogous to it."</p> + +<p>According to these definitions, the main idea of a symbol is the +representation of an object or quality, not by exhibition of +itself, but by another object or character analogous to it. Nor are +we limited in the use of symbols to t<a name='Page_145'></a>he +exhibition of moral subjects alone. Any object may be symbolized, +provided a corresponding object can be found.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Analogy the basic law</div> + +<p>Analogy, then, is the fundamental law of symbols. This being +true, it is clear that symbols must be definitely applied. They are +not arbitrary. There is no reason why we could not call a book a +table, and a table it would be, provided we agreed universally to +adopt that designation; but we violate nature if we attempt to +represent the quiet, peaceful, gentle disposition of a child by a +lion or a tiger, or a cruel, vindictive, tyrannical disposition by +a lamb. A polluted harlot may represent an apostate church, but not +the true church. A proper correspondence of character and quality +must be observed. We must follow nature strictly. And this is the +law of symbols.</p> + +<p>Symbols are drawn from different departments—from angelic +life, human life, animal life, and inanimate creation. But in every +case there is in the selection and use of the symbol a proper +correspondence of character and quality.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Twofold object of symbols</div> + +<p>The deciding factor in the original selection of a symbolic +object is the nature of the thing to be symbolized. In the field of +Bible prophecy the general design is in the main twofold—the +representation (1) of the affairs of the church a<a name= +'Page_146'></a>nd (2) of the political history of those nations and +kingdoms which were to exert an important influence on the life and +development of the church. It is evident that in the divine +estimation the church and its welfare is of infinitely greater +importance than the affairs of nations and kingdoms. Therefore we +may reasonably expect that, according to the nature of symbolic +language, symbols designed to represent the church will be found to +be of the most exalted type, whereas those representing political +things will be found to be selected from an inferior department. In +accordance with this fundamental classification we shall find that +symbols drawn from angelic life and human life invariably refer to +the department of ecclesiastical affairs, while those drawn from +animal life or inanimate nature represent political things. The +only apparent exception to this rule is that certain inanimate +objects formerly consecrated to the service of God and thus +associated with the department of the church are sometimes used to +represent spiritual things, because the analogy is obvious. Bearing +in mind this fundamental distinction between the representation of +things political and things ecclesiastical, we are prepared to +understand other shades of distinction.</p> + +<p>Nations may be peaceful or tyrannical and oppressive, and +churches may be good or apostate; but the exact character can be +analogously represented by the symbolic object. A vicious wild +beast stamping and devo<a name='Page_147'></a>uring would naturally +represent a cruel, tyrannical government; and a good woman +represents the true church, while a vile harlot represents the +church apostate. But whatever the nature of the symbol, whether +beast, locust, lion, horse, temple, angel, or man, we may know at +once from the nature of the symbol where to look for its +fulfilment. This important guide in the study of prophetic +truth—a guide overlooked by most of the +commentators—relieves us of much of the uncertainty hitherto +connected with the subject.</p> + +<p>Since, as we have seen, symbolic language is based on analogy, +it is evident that there are some objects whose nature forbids +their symbolization, there being no corresponding object in +existence. God can not be symbolized. "To whom then will ye liken +God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him" (Isa. 40:18). There +may be certain symbols connected with his person setting forth the +dignity, majesty, and eternal splendor of his name, but he himself +appears unrepresented by another. The same is true also of the +person of Jesus, our Redeemer, although in this case we must +distinguish between the Christ incarnate and Jesus in his essential +divinity. Considered as incarnate—both God and man—the +human aspect of his character as manifested in his sacrificial +death may be analogously represented as a Lamb slain. But +considered in his essential divinity, he can not be symbolically +represented. Therefore, whenever the glorified Christ appears on +the symbolic stage, he always appears in his own person proclaiming +his own name. "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am +alive for evermore" (Rev. 1:18). "He hath on his vesture and on his +thigh a name wri<a name='Page_148'></a>tten, King of kings, and +Lord of lords."</p> + +<p>In Rev. 6:9 the souls of the martyrs are represented as crying +unto God for the avenging of their blood on them that dwell on the +earth. There is no object analogous to a disembodied spirit. It is +easy to give them an arbitrary name. Therefore they simply appear +under their own appropriate titles as "the <i>souls</i> of them +that were slain."</p> + +<p>Whenever we attach a literal significance to a symbolic object, +we immediately destroy its character as a symbol. This should not +be done. With the exception of those instances where the nature of +an object forbids its symbolization and where the description must +therefore of necessity be literal, we should always look for the +true fulfilment, not in that department from which the symbol is +drawn, but in another department—that to which the symbol by +analogy refers us.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Field of present inquiry</div> + +<p>The limits and object of the present work preclude an exhaustive +treatment of prophecy in general. Our immediate purpose is to set +forth particularly those prophecies of the divine Word which +clearly portray and outline the character of a world-wide religious +movement in the last days. To do this effectually, however, we must +briefly consider those prophecies which describe the principal +ecclesiastical events in history which form the basis of, or lead +up to, the Last Reformation. The subject as outlined in the +prophecies and as based on the facts of history, naturally divides +into four parts, or epochs, as follows:</p> + +<pre> +I The Apostolic Period +II The Medieval Period +III Era of Modern Sects +IV The Last Reformation +</pre> + +<p>For the sake of brevity, we shall, as far as possible, exclude +from our present inquiry those prophecies pertaining to civil and +political affairs, retaining only such as have an important bearing +on the church subject.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;'> +<a name='CHAPTER_XI'></a> +<h2><a name='Page_149'></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>THE APOSTOLIC PERIOD</h3> + +<br> + + +<div class='sidenote'>The star-crowned woman</div> + +<p>The twelfth chapter of <a name='Page_150'></a>Revelation +introduces an important line of prophetic truth respecting the +church, beginning with these words: "And there appeared a great +wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under +her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: and she being +with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered." +"And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations +with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to +his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath +a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand +two hundred and threescore days" (verses 1, 2, 5, 6).</p> + +<p>As we have already stated and as will be made very clear +hereafter, symbols drawn from human life are used to represent +ecclesiastical affairs. Therefore in the symbol now before us we +have a representation of the church, and from the general +description given we infer that it must be the pure church of God, +for the brightest luminaries of heaven are gathered around her and +no evil thing is said concerning her. That this woman is the +special object of God's care and concern is further shown by the +fact that when she fled into the wilderness, she had "a place +prepared of God, that they should feed her there." That this +interpretation of the woman is correct is also shown by other texts +in Revelation.</p> + +<p>In chapter 21:9 an angel talking with John said, "Come hither, I +will shew thee the <i>bride</i>, the Lamb's wife." And again, in +chapter 19:7, where the church is und<a name= +'Page_151'></a>oubtedly referred to, a great multitude is +represented as saying, "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor +to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his <i>wife</i> +hath made herself ready." In the seventeenth chapter the church +apostate is without doubt described by the symbol of a vile, +polluted harlot.</p> + +<p>The pure woman of chapter 12, then, represents the apostolic +church in all its beauty and glory. She is represented as clothed +with the sun, a striking emblem of the light of the glorious gospel +of Christ which shone forth from the early church. The moon under +her feet is generally understood to designate the typical worship +of the Jewish age, which was a shadow of things to come but which +now stands eclipsed in the superior light and glory of the new and +better dispensation. The moon is the lesser light and derives its +illumination from the sun; so also the Mosaic period was the +moonlight age of the church and reflected a part of the gospel +which, at a later time, was to be revealed in all its glory with +the rise of the "Sun of righteousness."</p> + +<p>The crown of twelve stars adorning the diadem<a name= +'Page_152'></a> of the church is a fit representation of the twelve +apostles of the Lamb, they being in one important sense permanent +fixtures in the church. According to chapter 1:20, stars are +sometimes used to represent Christian ministers, the analogy as +light-givers being obvious. "They that be wise shall shine as the +brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to +righteousness as the stars forever and ever" (Dan. 12:3).</p> + +<p>The prominent position occupied by this woman and the light +which shone forth from the sun with which she was clothed stand out +in marked contrast with the later description given of her flight +into and seclusion in the wilderness. The latter stage of her +experience I shall describe further on, but a brief allusion to it +will make her first appearance more impressive. The wilderness +describes the apostasy which was to envelop the woman and thus +obscure her light. Therefore her first appearance as in the +planetary heavens presents a sublime description of her dignity and +excellence in the morning time of the gospel era. Her light shone +upon all and her glory could be seen by all. She presents that +fundamentally distinct characteristic of the true church of +God—universality; not a mere isolated star shedding its +feeble rays in competition with the other orbs of night; but a +cluster of bright, shining stars and <i>the very sun itself</i>. +The light of the apostolic church was, therefore, all-inclusive in +the sense of reflecting all the truth. It is essential to our +proper understanding of the symbols that follow that we comprehend +the true character of t<a name='Page_153'></a>he church of +God—the bride of Christ.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The man child</div> + +<p>The next object to claim our attention in the vision under +consideration is that of the man child to whom the woman is said to +give birth. A variety of interpretations of this man child have +been given. Some say that it refers to Jesus Christ, but this +application is objectionable for different reasons. First, Jesus is +everywhere represented as the founder of the church, not as its +child. Second, true analogy is lacking: there is nothing about a +mere child to proclaim divinity. Others have identified the child +with the Emperor Constantine; but here again the consistent use of +symbolic language is overlooked; for if the woman, the mother, +represents the church, then the child horn of her can not represent +a single, definite individual, but rather a collection of +individuals or another phase of the church itself. In other words, +if the one single symbol represents a particular individual, the +other must also represent an individual. Thus, if the man child is +identified with Christ, the mother should signify the Virgin Mary; +or if Constantine is intended, then Helena, mother of Constantine, +should be represented by the woman.</p> + +<p>It is clear, however, that the woman signifies, not a single +individual, but the church. Therefore the child born of her must<a +name='Page_154'></a> simply signify another phase of the church but +the same family. By means of this twofold symbol—involving +the closest relationship known—is set forth the fruitfulness +and perpetuity of the church. There is also another reason why a +double symbol should be selected to set forth the true +church—to represent two distinct phases of the church's life +and history, which, in the nature of the case, could not be +represented under a single symbol. According to the description +given, the man child was caught up to God and to his throne, while +the woman remained on earth and fled into the wilderness, where she +had a place prepared of God for 1,260 days. The man child, then, +represents that phase of the church which was caught up from the +earth but ascended to heaven and there lived and reigned with +Christ; while the woman represents that phase of the church which +continued on earth and fled into the wilderness during the period +of the great apostasy.</p> + +<p>There is also direct Scriptural testimony justifying this +interpretation of the man child. In Isaiah 66 we have a sublime +description of Zion, God's church and people, represented as a +woman, a mother. The context shows that this scripture is a +prophetic allusion to the church of the New Testament age. "Before +she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was +delivered of a <i>man child</i>. Who hath heard such a thing? who +hath seen such things? <a name='Page_155'></a>Shall the earth he +made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? +for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children" +(verses 7, 8). Here Zion is represented as a mother bringing forth +a man child, but this is interpreted to be <i>a nation born at +once</i>. According to Heb. 12:22, 23, this Zion, or Sion, +represents the New Testament church. There is no doubt, then, that +the man child of Revelation 12 refers to the great host of new +converts with which the early church was blessed. The scripture in +Isaiah just cited met its fulfilment on the day of Pentecost and +shortly afterwards, when thousands were brought into the church in +a day. The apostle Paul also refers to the great company of Jews +and Gentiles who were reconciled to God as constituting <i>"one new +man" in Christ</i> (Eph. 2:15).</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The great red dragon</div> + +<p>The next object in the vision to which our attention is directed +is introduced in these words: "And there appeared another wonder in +heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten +horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third +part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and +the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, +for to devour her child as soon as it was born" (Rev. 12:3, 4).</p> + +<p>The dragon is the name given by the ancients to a fabulous +monster r<a name='Page_156'></a>epresented as a large winged lizard +or serpent. It was regarded as the enemy of mankind, and its +overthrow is made to figure among the greatest exploits of the gods +and heroes of heathen mythology. The symbol, being drawn from the +natural world, directs us by analogy to persecuting, tyrannical +government. We must not suppose that this is a literal description +of Beelzebub; for there is no proof that the personal devil has any +such appearance as this monster with seven heads and ten horns, and +a tail dragging after him a third part of the stars of heaven.</p> + +<p>In the second verse of the next chapter John describes the rise +of a beast that also had seven heads and ten horns; "and the dragon +gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority." The fact +that the dragon was succeeded by the beast, who reigned in his +stead, is proof that the dragon does not signify the personal +devil; for, as far as we know, the archfiend has never resigned his +position, but is still doing his infernal business at the same +stand.</p> + +<p>In many respects the beast is similar to the dragon. In the +seventeenth chapter the beast appears again, and the explanation +given by the angel will enable us to understand the signification +both of the dragon and of the beast. "The beast that thou sawest +was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the botto<a name= +'Page_157'></a>mless pit, and go into perdition ... and here is the +mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on +which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings: five are +fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he +cometh, he must continue a short space.... And the ten horns which +thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; +but receive power as kings one hour with the beast" (verses +8-12).</p> + +<p>With these facts before us and with our understanding of the +nature of symbols, it is easy to identify the dragon and the beast +as the Roman Empire, first under the pagan form and later under the +papal form. Although the beast was to succeed the dragon, yet in +identifying the heads of the beast, the angel informed John that in +his day five had already fallen, while one then existed and the +other was future. This proves, then, that the same heads served +both for the dragon and for the beast, thus establishing their +essential identity. And it is a fact well known that there is no +essential difference between Rome pagan and Rome papal. The seven +heads of Rome, therefore, signify the distinct forms of government +that ruled successively in the empire, for they are represented, +not as simultaneous powers, but as consecutive powers. The five +that had already fallen when John received the vision were the +regal power, the consular, the decemvirate, the military tribunes, +and the triumvirate. "One is"—the imperial. The seventh, or +future one, was the patriciate.</p> + +<p>It is natural that the pag<a name='Page_158'></a>an Roman Empire +should be represented as a dragon. In the prophecy of Daniel the +Grecian kingdom is represented by a he goat for no other apparent +reason than the fact that the goat was the national military +standard of the Grecian monarchy. So also the dragon was the +principal military standard of the Romans next to the eagle. Arian, +an early writer, mentions the fact that dragons were used as +military standards by the Romans. The dragon of Revelation 12 is +also described as a <i>red</i> dragon. The dragon standards of the +Romans were painted red. Ammianus Marcellinus mentions "the purple +standard of the dragon." By this fabulous beast described as a +great red dragon, then, is symbolically represented the heathen +Roman Empire.</p> + +<p>The ten horns, or kingdoms, which had not yet risen when the +revelation was given, were the ten minor kingdoms that grew out of +the Roman Empire during its decline and fall. These are as follows: +1. Anglo-Saxons; 2. Burgundians; 3. Franks; 4. Huns; 5. Heruli; 6. +Lombards; 7. Ostrogoths; 8. Suevi; 9. Vandals; 10. Visigoths.</p> + +<p>The dragon is described with the horns, although they were not +yet in existence and did not arise until about the time the dragon +became the beast. He is also represented with seven heads, although +he really possessed only one head at a time and five had already +fallen and one was yet to come. He is described with all the heads +and horns he had ever had or was to have<a name='Page_159'></a>. +The reason why the same general power is described under two +forms—first as the dragon and later as the beast—will +appear more clearly hereafter.</p> + +<p>The fact that the dragon was called the devil and Satan has led +some to think that the personal devil himself is meant. The +foregoing explanation concerning the heads and the horns shows +conclusively, however, that by the dragon is meant the pagan Roman +Empire, and not Beelzebub. The Hebrews applied the term "Satan" to +an adversary, or opposer, as can be seen by examining in the +original the following and many other texts: Num. 22:22; 1 Sam. +29:4; 2 Sam. 19:22; 1 Kings 11:25. The term is also thus used in +the New Testament, signifying merely an opposer. "But he turned, +and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, <i>Satan</i>" (Matt. +16:23). "The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to +<i>devils</i>" (1 Cor. 10:20). Paganism was the great opposer of +Christianity; hence was a Satan to it, while the apostle Paul +denominated its religious rites as devil-worship. We must remember +that the text does not say that the dragon was the devil and Satan, +but that he was <i>called</i> the devil and Satan. He partook of +the nature and character of the personal devil, was the chief +instrument through which the devil worked, and was therefore called +by his name.</p> + +<p>The tail of this dragon<a name='Page_160'></a> "drew the third +part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth." This +is not a literal description, for the fixed or planetary stars +never fall to the earth. If they did, they would destroy it. The +stars are doubtless employed as symbols set in the ecclesiastical +firmament, giving light amid the surrounding darkness. Light is so +often used as the representative of gospel truth that the +application of the stars to prominent characters in the church is +obvious. Jesus is the Sun of Righteousness, and his ministers are +bright, shining stars—light-givers. The ministers of the +seven churches of Asia Minor are represented as stars (chap. 1:20). +"They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; +and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and +ever" (Dan. 12:3). The casting down of the third part of the stars, +therefore, signifies the warfare which the dragon power waged +against the early church, in which conflict the ministers of Christ +became the marked objects of heathen wrath.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The war in heaven</div> + +<p>"And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought +against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and +prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. +And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the +Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cas<a +name='Page_161'></a>t out into the earth, and his angels were cast +out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is +come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the +power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, +which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame +him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; +and they loved not their lives unto the death" (Rev. 12:7-11).</p> + +<p>The symbolic scene suddenly changes, and instead of the woman +and the man child, Michael and his angels appear in conflict with +the dragon and his angels. This change of symbols indicates the +introduction of a different phase of thought. From the nature of +the symbols we can quickly ascertain the reason for this change. +The woman represents the true church and is a proper symbol of its +unity, beauty, purity, and glory. But there is another phase of the +church which can not be represented symbolically by a +woman—the militant phase. The church is also an aggressive, +fighting power, ready to wage warfare against the powers of evil. +We would not expect to see the church left helpless like a woman +before a great dragon. We would naturally expect to see divine aid +extended, and this is done by the change of symbolic imagery, +Michael (Christ) and his angels appearing to wage war against the +dragon.</p> + +<a name='Page_162'></a> + +<p>The battle between Michael and the dragon signifies the great +conflict which took place between primitive Christianity and the +powers of paganism enthroned in the Roman Empire. It will be +observed that this scripture has no reference to the origin of +Satan himself, as some people have supposed; for the conflict was +fought in the Christian dispensation, as is proved by the weapons +which the followers of Michael employed—"And they <i>overcame +him by the blood of the Lamb</i>, and by the word of their +testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death." Under +this figure, the followers of Michael are represented as victors, +the dragon being cast down to the earth, or overthrown. It is a +fact of history that primitive Christianity succeeded in its fight +against paganism.</p> + +<p>In the nineteenth chapter of Acts we have an account of the +effect Christianity had on heathenism. Paul went to Ephesus, which +at that time was the chief capital of proconsular Asia, a leading +mart of heathen idolatry, and in which was situated one of the +seven wonders of the ancient world—the temple of Diana. The +preaching of the gospel produced such a mighty effect that the +followers of Diana, fearing lest their magnificent system of +worship should be destroyed, stirred up the people in a tumult +until the city was in an uproar, a great mob shouting, "Great is +Diana of the Ephesians."</p> + +<p>Before the end of the first century, according to the testimony +of the yo<a name='Page_163'></a>unger Pliny, the temples of the +gods of Asia Minor were almost forsaken. Well has Butler said, "The +final victory of Christianity over heathenism and Judaism, and the +mightiest empire of the ancient world, a victory gained without +physical force, by the moral power of faith and perseverance, of +faith and love, is one of the strongest evidences of the divinity +and indestructible life of our holy religion."</p> + +<p>It is a fact worthy of mention that the early Christians +regarded the Roman Empire as a great enemy to the truth, and +described it as a dragon, the victory of Christianity over +heathenism being represented by the overthrow of the dragon. +Constantine and others of his time describe these events thus. Says +Bishop Newton, "Moreover, a picture of Constantine was set up over +the palace gate, with a cross over his head, and under his feet the +great enemy of mankind (who persecuted the church by means of +impious tyrants), in the form of a dragon, transfixed with a dart +through the midst of its body, and falling headlong into the depth +of the sea."</p> + +<p>Verse 11 seems to indicate that many of the followers of Christ +lost their lives in this conflict, and this doubtless is parallel +with the statement that the man child was caught up to God and to +his throne. It may also imply that in the conflict the dragon +employed the arm of civil power in his opposition to the truth. But +Chris<a name='Page_164'></a>tianity increased notwithstanding the +violent opposition. During the reign of the Emperor Septimus +Severus, about the close of the second century, when a violent +persecution of the Christians occurred, Tertullian, the first of +the great Latin Fathers, wrote a notable apology for the Christian +faith, addressed to the Emperor. In this important document this +noble defender of Christianity sets forth so clearly the nature of +the conflict between truth and error that I shall make rather a +lengthy quotation from his writing.</p> + +<p>"Rulers of the Roman Empire," he begins, "you surely can not +forbid the truth to reach you by the secret pathway of a noiseless +book. She knows that she is but a sojourner on the earth, and as a +stranger finds enemies; and more, her origin, her dwelling-place, +her hope, her rewards, her honors, are above. One thing, meanwhile, +she anxiously desires of earthly rulers—not to be condemned +unknown. What harm can it do to give her a hearing?... The outcry +is that the state is filled with Christians; that they are in the +fields, in the citadels, in the islands. The lament is, as for some +calamity, that both sexes, every age and condition, even high rank, +are passing over to the Christian faith.</p> + +<p>"The outcry is a confession and an argument for our cause; for +we are a people of yesterday, and yet we have filled <a name= +'Page_165'></a>every place belonging to you—cities, islands, +castles, towns, assemblies, your very camp, your tribes, companies, +palace, senate, forum. We leave to you your temples alone. We can +count your armies: our numbers in a single province will be +greater. We have it in our power, without arms and without +rebellion, to fight against you with the weapon of a simple +divorce. We can leave you to wage your wars alone. If such a +multitude should withdraw into some remote corner of the world, you +would doubtless tremble at your own solitude, and ask, 'Of whom are +we the governors?'</p> + +<p>"It is a human right that every man should worship according to +his own convictions ... a forced religion is no religion at all.... +Men say that the Christians are the cause of every public disaster. +If the Tiber rises as high as the city walls, if the Nile does not +rise over the fields, if the heavens give no rain, if there be an +earthquake, if a famine or pestilence, straightway they cry, Away +with the Christians to the lions.... But go zealously on, ye good +governors, you will stand higher with the people if you kill us, +torture us, condemn us, grind us to the dust; your injustice is the +proof that we are innocent. God permits us to suffer. Your cruelty +avails you nothing.... The oftener you mow us down, the more in +number we grow; the blood of Christians is seed. What you call our +obstinacy is an instructor. For who that sees it does not inquire +for what we suffer! Who that inquires does not embrace our +doctrines? Who that embraces them <a name='Page_166'></a>is not +ready to give his blood for the fulness of God's grace?"</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The woman's flight</div> + +<p>Under the figure of Michael and his angels, the early church is +represented as victorious in casting down the powers of heathenism; +but under the symbol of the woman, the church is apparently +represented as defeated; for after the casting down of the dragon +it is said, "To the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, +that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she +is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face +of the serpent" (verse 14). This agrees with verse 6, where it is +said that "the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a +place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand +two hundred and three score days."</p> + +<p>The flight of the woman into an obscure place in the wilderness +presents a striking contrast with her first appearance in the +planetary heavens, where she was "clothed with the sun, and the +moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars." By +this sudden change in the symbolic representation of the woman's +position is set forth the ecclesiastical change that took place in +the early part of the church's history. First she appears as the +glorious bride of Christ adorned in beauty and splendor and +radiating the light of his glorious gospel. She wa<a name= +'Page_167'></a>s then "the light of the world." Later we find a +great change taking place. Instead of the church representing all +the truth to the world, we find the beginning of a great apostasy, +which in time was to eclipse and well nigh extinguish the light and +glory of primitive Christianity by substituting in its place the +darkness of the apostasy born in ages of ignorance and +superstition.</p> + +<p>That such a change in the history of the true church should +occur was predicted by Christ and the apostles. Jesus said, "And +because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold" +(Matt. 24:12). Peter said, "There shall be false teachers among +you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies" (2 Pet. 2:1). +Paul said, "Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking +perverse things, to draw away disciples after them" (Acts 20:30). +To the Thessalonians who had been troubled with the report that the +second coming of Christ was then near at hand, Paul said, "Let no +man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except +there come <i>a falling away first</i>, and that man of sin be +revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself +above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as +God sitteth in the temple of God, and showing himself that he is +God.... For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who +now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then +sh<a name='Page_168'></a>all that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord +shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with +the brightness of his coming" (2 Thess. 2:3-8).</p> + +<p>The reader can scarcely consider these texts without perceiving +clearly that change which came over the primitive church resulting +in a transition from her glorious state of innocent beauty to the +full-grown papacy—the "mystery of iniquity."</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;'> +<a name='CHAPTER_XII'></a> +<h2><a name='Page_169'></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD</h3> + +<br> + + +<p>The fact of history pertaining to the true church which Paul +described as a "falling away" is represented by the Revelator by +the symbol of the woman fleeing into the wilderness. The other fact +mentioned by Paul pertaining to the rise and development of the man +of sin is represented in the visions of the Revelation as +follows:</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The ten-horned leopard-beast</div> + +<p>"And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up +out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his +horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the +beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the +feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the +dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I +saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly +wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And +they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they +worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is +able to make war with him? and there was given unto him a mouth +speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him +to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in +blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, +and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make +war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him +over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell +upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in +the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the +world. If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into +captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword +must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith +of the saints" (Rev. 13: 1-10).</p> + +<p>From the nature of the symbol employed, we should naturally +infer that a persecuting, tyrannical kingdom or empire is me<a +name='Page_170'></a>ant. That such an application of the term +"beast," when used in connection with prophetic symbols, is +correct, is shown by a reference to the interpretation given +concerning the fourth beast of Daniel's vision. "The fourth beast +shall be the fourth kingdom upon the earth" (Dan. 7:23). We have +already shown conclusively that by the dragon was meant the pagan +Roman Empire, and the same heads and horns are apparently ascribed +to this leopard-beast, the only difference being that the +crowns—a symbol of sovereignty—have been transferred +from the heads to the horns. This substantial agreement with the +facts of history makes certain the identification of this beast +with the revised western Roman Empire under the papal form, the<a +name='Page_172'></a><a name='Page_171'></a> sovereignty being +vested in the ten minor kingdoms until they chose to "give their +power and strength unto the beast" (Rev. 17:13).</p> + +<p>The symbol of a beast considered merely <i>as a beast</i>, could +not, in the nature of the case, signify anything more than a +temporal kingdom or political empire. It will be noticed, however, +that this particular prophetic symbol is <i>more than a beast</i>; +for, combined with his beastly nature, there are certain +characteristics which unmistakably belong to the department of +human life—a mouth <i>speaking</i> great things; power to +magnify himself against the God of heaven, to set himself up as an +object of worship, to single out the saints of God and kill them, +etc. This combination of symbols from the two +departments—animal life and human life—points us with +absolute certainty to the political-religious system of Rome.</p> + +<p>Every historian knows that <i>pagan</i> Rome was succeeded by +<i>papal</i> Rome. The transfer is expressed thus: "And the dragon +gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority" (verse 2). +The rising papacy succeeded to the power and authority formerly +exercised by pagan Rome; and when the political capital was removed +to Constantinople, the pope was left in possession of the ancient +seat of empire and government. "The beast" therefore refers to Rome +either as a political power or as an ecclesiastical power, the +context determining whether the political or the ecclesiastical +phase is meant in a given instance. It will be observed, however, +that the leading actions ascribed to this beast <a name= +'Page_173'></a>are derived from its human characteristics, pointing +unerringly to the papacy for its fulfilment.</p> + +<p>This beast the world admired. "And they worshiped the dragon +which gave power unto the beast; and they worshiped the beast, +saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with +him?" The expression "<i>worshiped</i> the dragon" shows that +reference is made to the dragon, not as a political power, but as a +religious power. This worship of the dragon by those who worshiped +the beast which succeeded the dragon was fulfilled by the +perpetuation under the papacy of the rites and ceremonies of +paganism. Roman Catholicism is a strange amalgamation of Judaism, +Christianity, and heathenism. The part derived from paganism +occupies such a prominent place in Roman Catholic practise and +worship that we can not fail to observe its close resemblance to, +if not absolute identity with, heathenism. Just to mention a few +points:</p> + +<p>1. The high priest of the pagan religion was called Pontifex +Maximus, and he claimed spiritual and temporal authority over men. +The pope of Rome borrowed the title and made the same claims, even +being clad in the same attire.</p> + +<p>2. The heathen wore scapulars, medals, and images for personal +protection. Romanists wear the same things for the<a name= +'Page_174'></a> same purpose.</p> + +<p>3. Pagans, by an official process called <i>deification</i>, +raised men, after their death, to a dignified position and accorded +them special honors and worship. Papists, by a similar process +called <i>canonization</i>, exalt men after their death to the +dignity of saints and then offer up prayers to them.</p> + +<p>4. Papists' adoration of idols and images was also borrowed +direct from the heathen; for all such practises were absolutely +forbidden by the Mosaic law and had no place in primitive +Christianity.</p> + +<p>5. Their religious orders of monks and nuns were also in +imitation of the vestal virgins of antiquity.</p> + +<p>The beast is described as a blasphemous power. Adam Clarke has +stated that "blasphemy, in Scripture, signifies <i>impious +speaking</i>, when applied to God; and <i>injurious speaking</i>, +when directed against our <i>neighbor</i>." A name of blasphemy +would therefore properly signify the prostitution of a sacred name +to an unholy purpose. An example of this kind is given in Rev. 2:9, +where we read, "I know the blasphemy of them which say they are +Jews, and are not, but are the synagog of Satan." In this case +certain wicked men blasphemed the name by calling themselves Jews, +since according to Scripture 'he <i>only</i> is a Jew who is one +inwardly<a name='Page_175'></a>.' But to prostitute a sacred name +to an unworthy use would be no more impious or blasphemous than +would the assumption by man of those rights and prerogatives which +belong to God alone. This the pope has done for ages. Among the +blasphemous titles which he has assumed are these: "Lord God the +Pope," "King of the World," "Holy Father," "King of kings and Lord +of lords," "Vicegerent of the Son of God." For ages he has claimed +infallibility, and this claim became a dogma of the church when +adopted by the General Council of 1870. Further, he claims power to +dispense with God's laws, to forgive sins, to release from +purgatory, to damn and to save. To call the Roman Catholic Church +the <i>holy</i> church of the Bible is to prostitute a sacred name +to an unworthy institution. And to elevate a man to the place where +"he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that +<i>he</i> is God," by claiming those prerogatives which belong to +God only, is most flagrant blasphemy.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>A persecuting power</div> + +<p>"And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to +overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and +tongues, and nations" (chap. 13: 7). Here we have a direct +prediction of that reign of tyranny in the Dark Ages in which +millions of people suffered martyrdom at the hands of papal +Rome.</p> + +<a name='Page_176'></a> + +<p>I am aware that many Catholics affirm that their church never +persecuted, that it was the civil power that did this dread work of +slaughter. We must remember, however, that the beast of Revelation +13 signifies the imperial and the ecclesiastical power in the +closest union possible; for the beast appears <i>as one</i>, the +two phases being represented by the combination of symbols from the +two distinct departments of life—human and animal. In the +seventeenth chapter we have the same distinct characteristics again +set forth, but in a different combination, the beast appearing +simply as a beast, thus representing the political power of Rome; +while the ecclesiastical power is represented by a corrupt woman +sitting on the beast and directing its course. In that description +it is stated, "And I saw <i>the woman</i> drunken <i>with the blood +of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus</i>" +(verse 6). The Romish church itself is, therefore, represented as +participating in the work of martyrdom.</p> + +<p>Does this divine prediction agree with the facts of history? It +is altogether impossible to compute correctly the number of those +who were in different ways put to death for opposing the corruption +of the Church of Rome. A million Waldenses perished in France. Nine +hundred thousand Christians were slain within thirty years after +the institution of the Jesuits. The Duke of Alva boasted that he +had put to death 36,000 in the Netherlands by the hands of the +common executioner. The Inquisition destroy<a name= +'Page_177'></a>ed 150,000 within thirty years. If it be asserted +that this was accomplished by the secular arm, I reply that +sentence of death was pronounced upon so-called heretics by the +church and that the secular power was simply a tool for carrying +the barbarous sentence into execution. We can not forget that the +pope applauded Charles IX of France and his infamous mother, +Catherine de Medici, for their part in the massacre of St. +Bartholomew, and ordered a medal struck in honor of the event; that +following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, when 300,000 were +cruelly butchered during the reign of Louis XIV, Pope Innocent XI +extolled the king by special letter, as follows: "The Catholic +Church shall most assuredly record in her sacred annals <i>a work +of such devotion toward her</i> and CELEBRATE YOUR NAME WITH +NEVER-DYING PRAISES ... <i>for this most excellent +undertaking</i>."</p> + +<p>Popery has for ages claimed the right to exterminate by death +those who were heretics. Numerous provincial and national councils +have issued cruel and bloody laws for the extermination of the +Waldenses and other so-called heretics. Besides these, at least six +of their <i>General</i> Councils, the highest judicial assemblies +of the Roman Church, with the popes themselves sometimes present in +person, have by their decrees pronounced the punishment of death +for heresy: 1. The Second General Council of Lateran (1139) in its +twenty-third canon. 2. The Third General Council of Lateran (1179), +under Pope Alexander III. 3. The Fourth General Council<a name= +'Page_178'></a> of Lateran (1215), under Pope Innocent III. 4. The +Sixteenth General Council, held at Constance in 1414. This council, +with Pope Martin present in person, condemned the reformers Huss +and Jerome to be burned at the stake, and then prevailed on the +Emperor Sigismund to violate the safe conduct which he had given +Huss and signed by his own hand and in which he had guaranteed the +reformer a safe return to Bohemia; and this inhuman sentence +against Huss was then carried out. 5. The Council of Sienna (1423), +which was afterwards continued at Basil. 6. The Fifth General +Council of Lateran (1514).</p> + +<p>That such teachings and practises were an integral part of +Romanism is easily shown. St. Aquinas, the "angelic doctor," argued +that heretics might justly be killed. Cardinal Bellarmine, in a +Latin work, <i>De Laicis</i>, still extant, entered into a regular +argument to prove that the church has the right of punishing +heretics with death and should exercise that right. Bellarmine was +a nephew of one pope and a close friend and associate of others, a +champion of Romanism, and a defender of its doctrines. In the work +above referred to be declares that "<i>heretics were often</i> +<i>burned</i> BY THE CHURCH." "The Donatists, Manicheans, and +Albigenses were routed and annihilated by arms."</p> + +<p>Many timid-hearted Chri<a name='Page_179'></a>stians in the +present age of religious toleration think that it is almost +unchristianlike for us to bring up and lay to the charge of Rome +such a sweeping indictment for those massacres of Christians in a +barbarous age. Such it would be had Rome ever disavowed these acts +or shown any signs of true repentance. The fact is that it is the +boast of Catholics that "Rome never changes." Well has Charles +Butler said, "It is most true that the Roman Catholics believe the +doctrines of their church to be unchangeable; and that it is a +tenet of their creed, that what their faith ever has been, such it +was from the beginning, <i>such it is now, and such it ever will +be</i>."</p> + +<p>In a copy of the eleventh edition of "The Faith of Our Fathers," +by Cardinal Gibbons, page 95, I read: "It is a marvelous fact, +worthy of record, that in the whole history of the church, from the +nineteenth century to the first, no solitary example can be adduced +to show that any pope or general council ever revoked a decree of +faith or morals enacted by any preceding pontiff or council. Her +record in the past ought to be a sufficient warrant that she will +<i>tolerate no doctrinal variations in the future</i>." So the +doctrine of her inherent right to persecute and slay every one who +disagrees with her, which has been enacted by popes and general +councils and carried out in the past, is still in vogue.</p> + +<p>"And I saw the woman dr<a name='Page_180'></a>unk with the blood +of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus."</p> + +<p>In our study of Revelation 12 and 13 we have observed that Rome +in its twofold form—pagan and papal—is represented by +the dragon and the beast respectively. This has been established so +clearly as to remove well nigh all doubt concerning the +identification. It will be profitable, however, to give brief +consideration to certain parallel prophecies in Daniel; for in +addition to covering the same ground and describing under other +symbols the same general facts of history, they furnish us an +infallible starting-stake, thus establishing definitely the truth +of the interpretation concerning the Roman power, and giving us a +solid basis from which we can proceed with logical certainty to the +interpretation of other symbols in the Revelation.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream</div> + +<p>In the second chapter of Daniel we have the narrative of a dream +which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had during the time of the +Jewish captivity in that city. After the king awoke, he was so +confused that notwithstanding the deep impression made by his +nocturnal experience, he could not recall to mind the dream itself. +He therefore had recourse to the Cha<a name='Page_181'></a>ldeans +and wise men of his realm. They failed to make known his dream, +whereupon he became furious and decreed their death. At this +juncture Daniel came forward and announced that if given time he +would fulfil the king's desire, and shortly afterward he appeared +before the king and addressed him as follows:</p> + +<p>"Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great +image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee: and the +form thereof was terrible. This image's head was of fine gold, his +breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, +his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou +sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the +image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to +pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the +gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the +summer threshing-floors; and the wind carried them away, that no +place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became +a great mountain, and filled the whole earth" (Dan. 2:31-35).</p> + +<p>The interpretation of this dream, as given by the prophet, +particularly concerns and interests us. Said Daniel: "This is the +dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the +king." "Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven +hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And +wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of th<a name= +'Page_182'></a>e field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given +into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art +this head of gold" (verses 36-38).</p> + +<p>At the time of this vision the Chaldean monarchy was in the +height of her power and glory. Babylon, the capital city, was the +chief "pride of the Chaldees' excellency," containing those +magnificent hanging gardens, one of the Seven Wonders of the +ancient world. Nebuchadnezzar was pointed out particularly as the +head of gold in the image, but we should bear in mind that in the +general language of prophecy, "kings" signify not merely individual +monarchs but monarchies under a succession of princes of the same +nation. That the real significance of the head of gold is the +Babylonian Kingdom or Monarchy is shown by the fact that in the +description of the other three divisions of the same image they are +referred to directly as <i>kingdoms</i>. The Babylonian Kingdom +came to an end with the death of Belshazzar, and the overthrow of +his father Nabonadius in 538 B.C.</p> + +<p>"And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee" +(verse 39). This is the explanation given of that part of the image +represented by the breast and arms of silver. This refers to the +Medo-Persian empire, which, under Cyrus the Great, captured Babylon +538 B.C. and terminated the Chaldean empire. The Persian kingdom +was in certain respects inferior to the Chaldean, just as silver is +inferior to gold. It was neither as wealthy nor as prosperous, and +was particularly inferior in the character of its<a name= +'Page_183'></a> kings, for from the death of Cyrus they are said to +have been "as vile a set of men as ever disgraced human +nature."</p> + +<p>"And another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over +all the earth." This refers to the Macedonian, or Greek, empire +founded by Alexander the Great. After subduing Greece and reducing +Egypt, Alexander penetrated into Asia, took Tyre, met and overthrew +Darius the Persian at Arbela, in 331 B.C., thus terminating the +Persian Empire. The Grecian Kingdom had less external magnificence +than those which preceded it and was founded and maintained by +force of arms; but it was more extensive than the others, including +many dominions in Europe, Africa, and regions farther to the east +in Asia than had before been penetrated. It was foretold that this +kingdom should "bear rule over all the earth"; it was the main +boast of Alexander that he had subdued the whole world.</p> + +<p>"And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as +iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that +breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise" (verse +40). This corresponds to the "legs of iron, his feet part of iron +and part of clay," in the dream itself. The reference is to the +Roman Empire, which succeeded the Grecian. Whether or not the two +legs had any special significance is not stated, but commentators +freque<a name='Page_184'></a>ntly refer us to the two divisions +into which the empire of Rome was afterwards divided—East and +West. So also the ten toes of the image are often explained as +signifying the ten minor kingdoms which grew out of the empire. But +we should bear in mind that this is not stated either in the vision +itself or in its inspired interpretation. Only four kingdoms are +referred to as such. The fourth division, representing Rome (in +both its strong and its weak condition), is described simply as +"the kingdom," "the fourth kingdom." The Roman Kingdom was at first +"as strong as iron." No other people have ever made such extensive +conquests through a long period of time as did the Romans.</p> + +<p>If Nebuchadnezzar's dream brought a man into prominence as a +symbolic object, we should think that, in accordance with the +nature of symbols, a religious power or powers only were intended; +but the symbol is not a man, but only the <i>image</i> of a man, +and that image is composed of inanimate materials, which, drawn +from the department of nature, refer to something political. We +therefore have political kingdoms set forth. The very fact that +they are represented as appearing in the form of a man, however, +may at least allude to their being political powers combined with +religious systems. But the combination is not such a one as would +naturally lead us to conclude that reference is made to God's +church.</p> + +<p>The description of Nebu<a name='Page_185'></a>chadnezzar's dream +represented "a stone cut out without hands, which smote the image +upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces" +(verse 34). The interpretation of this event is given as follows: +"And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a +kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not +be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume +all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever" (verse 44).</p> + +<p>The kingdom of God appears as the fifth universal kingdom, +destined to survive and surpass all others. It is of divine origin, +cut out "without hands." The other kingdoms are similar in their +nature and closely connected, in the single image of a man; but the +kingdom of God is altogether different and antagonistic. The +prophecy refers to the establishment of the kingdom of God in the +early days of Christianity; for, <i>be it observed</i>, this stone +struck the image <i>when all its four divisions were yet +standing</i>. Not, only was the iron and the clay broken by the +impact, but "the iron, the clay, <i>the brass, the silver, and the +gold</i>" were "<i>broken to pieces</i> TOGETHER, and became like +the chaff of the summer threshing-floors" (verse 35).</p> + +<p>Here is a most important fact wholly unnoticed by those +millennialists who look to the future of our day for the +establishment of the kingdom of Christ. If the stone ha<a name= +'Page_186'></a>s not yet struck the image, then the chief part of +the prophetic description <i>never can be fulfilled</i>; for there +is no sense in which the advent of the divine kingdom in this late +age of the world can break in pieces the entire image of +Nebuchadnezzar's dream, there being no way in which it can +truthfully be said that its four divisions are yet standing. All +these facts were true in the days of Rome, however, when Christ +appeared. The Roman Kingdom possessed all the distinguishing marks +and characteristics of the preceding empires. This is true not only +of their territorial possession but of their distinctive +characteristics. The opulence of the Babylonians, the splendor of +the Persians, the strength and discipline of the Greeks, were all +merged into the Roman Empire. And more than this, these kingdoms +were all idolatrous, and the religion of the Babylonians was merely +absorbed in the Persian Kingdom (not destroyed); that of the +Persian was perpetuated under the Greek reign; and all these found +recognition in the divers forms of paganism existing under Rome. +<i>In this sense</i> the image, as opposed to the divine kingdom of +Christ, was all standing at the time of the first advent of the +Messiah, and the overthrow of paganism by early Christianity +corresponds with the stroke given by the little stone of Daniel +2.</p> + +<p>Notice how this fulfilment is parallel with the prophecies of +the Revelation. In chapter 12 the Roman Empire under its <a name= +'Page_187'></a>pagan form is represented by the dragon. +Christianity waged warfare with this huge system of false religion +and overthrew it. "And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, +<i>Now</i> is come salvation, and strength, <i>and the kingdom of +our God</i>, and the power of his Christ" (chap. 12:10).</p> + +<p>The kingdom represented in Nebuchadnezzar's dream came in the +day of incarnation and soon smote the kingdoms of heathen darkness +as existing in the embrace of Rome, and broke them in pieces. It +was then in the stage represented by a <i>stone</i>. At a later +time we shall observe the kingdom in its <i>mountain</i> epoch, +when it becomes a great mountain and fills the whole earth.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Vision of four beasts</div> + +<p>The four constituent parts of Nebuchadnezzar's visionary image +were interpreted to signify four successive monarchies, the +Babylonian being the first. In the seventh chapter Daniel records +his own vision of four great beasts that arose out of the violently +agitated sea, and these represent the same four kingdoms described +in Nebuchadnezzar's dream. "These great beasts, which are four, are +four kings, which shall arise out of the earth" (verse 17). To the +worldly, carnal mind of Nebuchadnezzar, empires possessed a show of +grandeur and glory, and they were therefore represented accordingly +in his vision; but to the spiritual-minded Daniel they would +appea<a name='Page_188'></a>r odious and terrible, and they were +therefore represented to him under the symbol of devouring +<i>beasts</i>.</p> + +<p>The kingdoms symbolized by the first three beasts of this vision +have no particular bearing on our subject, aside from assisting us +in fixing the chronology of certain events. The first beast +signifies the Babylonian Empire, corresponding to the head of the +image in Nebuchadnezzar's vision; the second, the Medo-Persian, +corresponding to the breast and arms of silver; the third, the +Grecian, corresponding to the belly and thighs of brass. The +description of these beasts shows that in one sense they are +successive and in another sense simultaneous.</p> + +<p>I have already shown that the entire image of Nebuchadnezzar's +dream was standing in the days of Roman ascendency, when the +kingdom of God came. The same fact is brought out in the chapter +now under consideration. After mentioning particularly the fourth +beast, Daniel says, "As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had +their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a +season and time" (verse 12). When these kingdoms lost their +independent sovereignty, they still continued as provinces, ruled +by another similar power.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The fourth beast</div> + +<a name='Page_189'></a> + +<p>The description of the fourth beast directly concerns our +subject: "After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a +fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it +had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped +the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the +beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns. I considered the +horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, +before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the +roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, +and a mouth speaking great things" (verses 7, 8).</p> + +<p>The interpretation of this beast given by the angel possesses +unusual interest. "Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the +fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all +kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it +down, and break it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom +are ten kings that shall arise" (verses 23, 24). Since the +interpretation given by Daniel identifies the first kingdom with +the Babylonian Empire, we have an infallible starting-stake. +Therefore the "fourth" kingdom represented by the terrible +nondescript beast of chapter 7 is none other than the Roman. The +ten horns of this beast are interpreted to signify ten kings, or +kingdoms, thus representing the ten minor kingdoms into which the +Roman Empire was finally subdivided.</p> + +<p>The description given o<a name='Page_190'></a>f the tyrannical +reign of this fourth beast aptly portrays the history of Rome. By +wars and conquests the Roman power broke down all opposition and +reduced almost every kingdom in the then-known world to a state of +dependence. She drew the spoils of their capitals to enlarge her +own proud metropolis and thus tyrannized over all who did not +quietly yield to her unquestioned obedience.</p> + +<p>The beast considered as a beast, could signify nothing more than +a political power, and the ten horns temporal kingdoms. But in this +connection I wish to call attention to a singular fact; namely, +that, associated with the animal propensities, there are certain +characteristics drawn from human life. "I considered the horns, +and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before +whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: +and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a +mouth speaking great things" (verse 8).</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The marvelous horn</div> + +<p>A horn with the eyes and mouth of a man is a most unusual thing, +and yet it is just such a combination as we might expect when we +possess a correct understanding of the nature of symbols. These +closely united symbols drawn from two departments—human and +animal life—point us with absolute certainty to a temporal +power combined with an ecclesiastical power. The chronology of the +event is fixed by the fact that this eleventh horn came up among +the ten horns, th<a name='Page_191'></a>ree of the original ten +being removed in order to give it room. The ten kingdoms all arose +within two centuries after 356 A.D.; therefore the facts brought +out in the symbol direct us to the period of the downfall of +Western Rome for the rise into prominence of the little horn.</p> + +<p>In giving Daniel the interpretation of the fourth beast, the +angel also described more particularly this little horn and the +nature of its work. First Daniel said: "I would know the truth of +the fourth beast ... and of the ten horns that were in his head, +and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of +that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, +whose look was more stout than his fellows. I beheld, and the same +horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them" (verses +19-21). And the angel explained: "The fourth beast shall be the +fourth kingdom upon earth ... and the ten horns out of this kingdom +are ten kings that shall arise: another shall rise after them; and +he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three +kings. And he shall speak great words against the most High, and +think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his +hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. But the +judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to +consume and to destroy it unto the end" (verses 23-26).</p> + +<p>With the explanation th<a name='Page_192'></a>at the fourth +beast signified the fourth kingdom, it is impossible to evade the +conclusion that the politico-religious power symbolized by the +little horn that came up among the ten horns refers directly to the +papacy. There is no other object that can fulfil the prophecy. The +papacy was just beginning to make itself strongly felt among the +divisions of the Western Roman Empire, and it is a fact of history +that three of the original ten divisions <i>in the territory of +Italy</i> were actually plucked up successively before the rising +papacy as if to give it room for development.</p> + +<p>When the Western Empire was overthrown in A.D. 476, the kingdom +of the Heruli was established in Italy. In 493 this was succeeded +by the Ostrogoths, which continued for sixty years and was +afterwards succeeded by the Lombards. The Lombard Kingdom was +overthrown by Pepin and Charlemagne, who gave a large part of the +conquered territory to the pope, thus favoring the papacy with her +<i>first temporal power</i>. This grant completed the symbol of +Daniel's vision by constituting the papacy a temporal as well as an +ecclesiastical power.</p> + +<p>The description of the great things spoken by the mouth of the +little horn and of the persecution of the true saints of God by +this power corresponds so minutely with the characteristics of the +first beast of Revelation 13 that no further description is here +necessary. It is said that he would also "think to change times and +laws." The language is spoken as if this were a most extraordinary +thing to do. Surely it <a name='Page_193'></a>is no extraordinary +thing for a king to alter <i>secular</i> laws in his own dominion; +and so far as heathen kingdoms are concerned, it would be no +sacrilegious act for them to alter their <i>religious</i> laws and +customs. But the little horn was to set himself up against the Most +High and think to change <i>His</i> times and laws—an act of +unparalleled audacity, impiety, and blasphemy. This description the +papacy has consistently and constantly fulfilled. The pope has +assumed the power to make time holy or unholy as he sees fit; to +command men to abstain from meat and to cease work, contrary to the +demands of God. He has claimed the power to dispense with God's +laws or obedience to them, "forbidding to marry," and through his +indulgences to remit the penalty due to sin.</p> + +<p>The student of prophecy can not fail to see the striking +similarity between the description of the little horn in Daniel 7 +and that of the ten-horned leopard-beast of Revelation 13. The +following parallels prove their identity:</p> + +<p>1. Both are blasphemous powers (Dan. 7:25; Rev. 13:6).</p> + +<p>2. They speak great things and blasphemies (Dan. 7:8, 20; Rev. +13:5).</p> + +<p>3. Both are persecuting powers making war on the saints (Dan. +7:21; Rev. 13:7).</p> + +<a name='Page_194'></a> + +<p>4. The chronology of each shows that the power rose to +prominence about the time of the cessation of the pagan Roman +Empire.</p> + +<p>5. The length of time during which they were to continue is the +same—forty-two months, or twelve hundred and sixty days.</p> + +<p>6. Both are to be gradually but finally destroyed (Dan. 7:26; +Rev. 13:10).</p> + +<p>These powers, then, appear at the same time, in the same +territory, have the same character, do the same work, continue the +same length of time, and meet the same fate. <i>These facts prove +identity.</i> We have, therefore, positive proof drawn from the +parallel prophecies in Daniel that the first beast of Revelation 13 +signifies the politico-religious system of Rome.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Length of papal reign</div> + +<p>The identification of the little horn of Daniel 7 with the +leopard-beast of Revelation 13 is now complete. That both apply to +the papacy has been conclusively shown. We shall now turn our +attention to the length of time that this power was to reign. +Daniel limits the triumph of the little horn to "a time and times +and the dividing of time" (Dan. 7:25). "Time," in the singular, of +course, signifies one time. "Times," plural, <a name= +'Page_195'></a>without a designating number, signifies two times. +"The dividing of time" is rendered in chapter 12:7, also in both +texts in the Revised Version, "a half." So the entire period is +three and a half times.</p> + +<p>The seven-year period of Nebuchadnezzar's insanity is described +as seven <i>times</i> (chap. 4:25). We therefore conclude that the +period of three and a half times signifies three and a half years. +This agrees with the reign of the leopard beast of Revelation 13, +namely, "forty and two months" (verse 5), or according to the +Jewish method of computing time—thirty days to the +month—twelve hundred and sixty days. Notice that this also +agrees both in the manner of statement and in point of duration +with the flight of the woman into the wilderness, as described in +Revelation 12. She was to be nourished for "a time, and times, and +half a time" (verse 14), which period is spoken of in verse 6 of +the same chapter as "a thousand two hundred and threescore +days."</p> + +<p>The terms ordinarily used to measure the duration of time may be +and often are used in a symbolic sense; for time, as well as +anything else, can be symbolized. Thus days may properly symbolize +years; for they are analogous periods of time, the diurnal +revolution of the earth being taken to represent the earth's annual +movement. Other standards of reckoning may also be employed +symbolically, but the one here referred to is doubtless most +frequently employed. Such a system of reckoning time was known +anciently. The Mosaic law recognized two kinds of weeks, the first +of seven days' duration, the <a name='Page_196'></a>last day of +which was a Sabbath; another week of seven years' duration, the +last year being a Sabbath of rest for the land. This fact explains +such expressions as "forty days, <i>each day for a year</i>" (Num. +14:34), and "I have appointed thee each day for a year" (Ezek. +4:6).</p> + +<p>There is no doubt that the year-day method of computing time is +used in the prophecy of Daniel 9, the sixty-nine <i>weeks</i> +reaching from the time of the decree of Artaxerxes in 457 B.C. +until A.D. 26, the year when Christ was baptized and entered on his +personal ministry.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The correct starting-point</div> + +<p>Applying the year-day standard to the period of twelve hundred +and sixty days, we have twelve hundred and sixty years. The next +question to arise is, What date shall we select as the proper time +from which to measure this 1,260-year period? It is important that +we correctly solve this question. Expositors have selected +different dates. They usually point out some particular historical +date having an important bearing on Rome's development; as, for +example, A.D. 606, when Phocas, Emperor of the East, accorded the +Church of Rome special recognition. But the papacy grew up in the +<i>West</i>. If we are to regard as of unusual importance political +recognition of the claims of the papacy, why not give preference to +imperial recognition in the very section that constituted the home +of the papacy?</p> + +<p>Before considering further the relation of the growing papacy to +the impe<a name='Page_197'></a>rial power in the Western Empire, I +must call attention to an important fact generally overlooked or +disregarded by expositors. The 1,260-year period not only marks the +time of triumph by the beast-power, but also <i>measures the period +during which the woman, or true church, was to be secluded in the +wilderness</i>. Two parallel lines of prophetic +truth—respecting the true church and a false church—are +therefore set forth as coexistent and in contrast with each other. +The correct starting-stake can not, therefore, be when the papacy +had obtained complete ascendency, for this would be too late to +consistently begin to measure the decayed state of the true church. +The date selected must be consistent with both lines of prophecy. +The apostasy did not take place suddenly, however, but was a +gradual decline, a "falling away"; and the papacy, on the other +hand, did not rise to great power suddenly, but grew up by degrees. +It was at first "a little horn," but finally his "look was more +stout than his fellows." Paul says that the "mystery of +iniquity"—the seed of apostasy—was already working in +his day and that later "that Wicked" should be revealed in all its +terrible features (see 2 Thess. 2:3-8). We therefore have to deal +with a sliding-scale, a gradual decline on the part of the true +church, and a constant increase of that false, apostate power which +finally culminated in the full-grown papacy.</p> + +<p>Bearing in mind that th<a name='Page_198'></a>e 1,260-year +period measures both phases, we are obliged to select for our +beginning a time about half way between both extremes, a time when, +we might say, the "falling away" from the pure apostolic truth and +standard was about half completed and when the papacy was about +half developed. While the woman was secluded in the wilderness, the +beast-power occupied the public view; and this was exactly the +reverse of apostolic times, when the woman was exalted above all +and before all, "clothed with the sun and with the moon under her +feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars." In other words, +the extreme of darkest night succeeded the light of glorious +day.</p> + +<p>The period of the first apostles was the period of the church's +purity and triumph. In their hands the cause was safe and the pure +truth shown forth in beauty and power. But with the close of the +apostolic era, the apostasy came on at a rapid rate, as the extant +writings of the early church fathers show.</p> + +<p>By the middle of the fifth century the light of the gospel was +eclipsed in the darkness of Romanism. During this century the +papacy secured political recognition of its claims to direct +jurisdiction over all churches. This occurred during the +pontificate of Leo I, who, because of his success in furthering the +interests of the popedom, shares alone with Pope Gregory the title +of "the Great." To quote from the New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, +Leo "entered upon a pontificate which was to be epoch-making for +the centralization of the government of the churc<a name= +'Page_199'></a>h." Political causes combined to advance the claims +of the papacy to universal recognition. Attila, with his fierce +barbarians, invaded Italy and laid waste many of her fairest +provinces and then advanced boldly on Rome, whereupon Pope Leo went +out to the camp of the invaders and secured the evacuation of +Italy. The pope obtained the full support of Valentinian III. In +445 Leo enforced authority in the distant patriarchate of +Alexandria. In 444-446 he was in conflict with the Illyrian +bishops. During this time in a letter addressed to them he laid +down the principle that St. Peter had received the primacy and +oversight of the whole church and that hence all important matters +must be referred to and decided by Rome. He also proceeded to +extend his authority over Gaul. In this effort he obtained from +Valentinian III the famous decree of June 6, 445, which "recognized +the primacy of the Pope of Rome based on the merits of Peter, the +dignity of the city, and the decrees of Nice (in their interpolated +form); ordained that any opposition to this rulings, which were to +<i>have the force of law</i>, should be treated as treason; and +provided for the forcible extradition by provincial governors of +any one who refused to answer a summons to Rome."</p> + +<p>The apostle John was banished to the Isle of Patmos in 95. +Regarding that date as the close of the pure apostolic era, and +445, when the pope received from the emperor of the We<a name= +'Page_200'></a>st official recognition of his claims to universal +supremacy in the church, as representing one other extreme, we have +but to calculate the time half way between these extremes to find +the consistent starting-stake for the beginning of that time +prophecy which is to measure both lines of prophetic truth. From 95 +to 445 is a period of 350 years. Half of this period is 175 years. +Therefore 175 years after 95, or 270, is the correct +starting-point.</p> + +<p>Protestant church historians recognize the decline that came in +the early church. Many of them, as D'Aubigne, Marsh, Rutter, +Waddington, and others, point to the third century, or the latter +half of the third century, as marking an unusual epoch in this +declension. Others, however, who view things almost wholly from the +external point of view, regard the accession of Constantine in the +early part of the following century as marking the important epoch. +With reference to this subject, I quote Joseph Milner, the English +ecclesiastical historian: "I know it is common for authors to +represent the declension of Christianity to have taken place only +after its external establishment under Constantine. But the events +of history have compelled me to dissent from this view of +things."—Ch. Hist., Cent. IV, Chap. I.</p> + +<p>It is also evident from the facts of history that, in addition +to the corruption of evangelical faith, that other phase of the +apostasy—human ecclesiasticism—was also highly +developed b<a name='Page_201'></a>efore the end of the third +century. George P. Fisher says, "The accession of Constantine [A.D. +312] found the church so firmly organized under the hierarchy that +it could not lose its identity by being absolutely merged in the +state."—History of the Christian Church, p. 99.</p> + +<p>In the year A.D. 270 Anthony, an Egyptian, the father of +monasticism, fixed his abode in the deserts of Egypt and formed +monks into organized bodies. Dowling, describing the extravagance +of monkery and the false standard of piety and holiness it created, +declares that monkery "<i>actually affected the church +universal</i>." See History of Romanism, pp. 88, 89. Very few marks +of genuine piety remained. With the decline of evangelical +knowledge came a reign of superstition and ignorance. Milner, +adverting to the institution of monkery in the <i>third +century</i>, expresses his "regret that the faith and love of the +gospel received toward the close of it a dreadful blow from the +encouragement of this unchristian practise."—Century III, +Chap. XX.</p> + +<p>In another place the same historian, speaking of the absence of +truth and the prevalence of error in the third century, says: "It +is vain to expect Christian faith to abound without Christian +doctrine. Moral and philosophical and monastical instructions will +not effect for men what is to be expected from evangelical <a name= +'Page_202'></a>doctrine. And if the faith of Christ was so much +declined (and its decayed state <i>ought to be dated from about the +year 270</i>,) we need not wonder that such scenes as Eusebius +hints at without any circumstantial details, took place in the +Christian world."—Century IV, Chap. I. (Parenthetical clause +is Milner's; italicizing, mine.) In addition to this quotation, and +as if to give emphasis, the historian places prominently in a +side-head the words, "<i>Decay of pure Christianity, A.D. +270</i>."</p> + +<p>Measuring forward from A.D. 270 the alloted period of twelve +hundred and sixty years brings us to A.D. 1530, a year which marked +the beginning of Protestantism in its organized form. The first +Protestant creed, the Confession of Augsburg, was made that +year.</p> + +<p>The description of the papal power under the symbol of the +ten-horned beast of Revelation 13 and the little horn of Daniel 7 +presents a melancholy picture of world-events during the long +period of twelve hundred and sixty years ending with the sixteenth +century reformation.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Principle of parallelism</div> + +<p>Before proceeding to give in chronological order a description +of events following the reign of the beast, I wish to call +attention to an important plan followed in the Biblical +presentation of prophetic truth; namely, that the ev<a name= +'Page_203'></a>ents are taken up by parallel series covering the +same period of time. But in addition to this point, we observe the +principle of <i>contrast</i>. When the history of political events +is described, we have in contrast therewith a description of +ecclesiastical events; and with the representation of a false +church or an apostate state of Christianity, we have in immediate +contrast the history of God's chosen people. Or perhaps the order +is reversed, but the principle remains the same. While, in the +nature of things, these distinct lines can not always be well +represented symbolically as occurring at the same time, they are +presented in parallel series, thus proving that they were to be +fulfilled simultaneously.</p> + +<p>In direct contrast with the power of apostate Christendom +represented by the papacy, which for certain reasons I have +presented first, we have in chapter 11 of the Revelation a brief +history of God's true people that existed during the papal reign. +In this case, however, a description of the apostasy and of the +true church are presented in the same series and in such a way as +to give special emphasis to the point of contrast as well as to +prove their simultaneous fulfilment. Thus we read: "And there was +given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, +and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship +therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and +measure it not; for it is given unto the Ge<a name= +'Page_204'></a>ntiles: and the holy city shall they tread under +foot forty and two months. And I will give power unto my two +witnesses, and they shall prophecy a thousand two hundred and three +score days, clothed in sackcloth" (chap. 11:1-3).</p> + +<p>It is clear that two powers in the Christian era are here +represented, the one continuing "forty and two months" and the +other twelve hundred and sixty days, or years, heretofore explained +as measuring the length of the beast's reign, also of the woman's +seclusion in the wilderness. This similarity naturally suggests +that we have here the same general facts set forth under other +symbols. Jerusalem, the holy city, the temple, and the two +witnesses therefore correspond to the woman of chapter 12. The +crowd of uncircumcised Gentiles and their profanation of the city +of God for twelve hundred and sixty years correspond to the +beast-power of chapter 13.</p> + +<p>Wonderful truth is represented in the vision of this chapter. +The symbols are drawn from Old Testament history, from the +religious life of the Jews—God's chosen people in contrast +with the uncircumcised Gentiles. It is evident, therefore, that the +true church and the false church of the gospel era are +represented.</p> + +<p>Notice carefully the symbols: holy city, temple, altar, +worshipers, and living witnesses, or prophets. These represent the +sum and substance of all divine revelation in the Mosaic age: holy +city, Jerusalem—<i>the place where God set his name</i>; the +temple—<i>divinely authorised, holy, acceptable worship</i> +based on careful adhere<a name='Page_205'></a>nce to God's +commandments formerly given; the altar—<i>the great symbol of +atonement, the reconciliation of humanity with the divinity</i>; +the worshipers in one temple—<i>all of God's people in +unity</i>; the prophets—<i>the divinely commissioned +representatives of God bearing a living message for the people of +their time</i>. These conditions represent the Judaic ideal. +Whether they were ever able to reach their ideal or not, it is +evident that the Jews had the conception of a unified, holy, +acceptable service (see Isa. 4:3; 52:1; 62:1-7). The two witnesses +referred to are clearly represented as prophets; for the work +ascribed to them as attesting their divine commission is a +repetition of the miraculous works of Moses and Elijah by which +they established their claims to be prophetic leaders authorized by +Jehovah. The witnesses seem to be distinguished from the worshipers +simply on account of their power and message.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The two witnesses</div> + +<p>These symbols represent the true apostolic church. It is the +holy city, Jerusalem, his temple, whose holy, united worshipers +obey the commands of God. The application of the "witnesses" +particularly specified as they are in the description, requires +further explanation. It is said, "These are the two olive trees and +the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth" (Rev.<a +name='Page_206'></a> 11:4). Whatever these two witnesses signify in +particular, they are the same as the olive trees and candlesticks +spoken of. It appears that allusion is made to Zechariah 4, where +two olive trees are represented as standing, one on each side of a +golden candlestick, distilling into it their oil for light. When +the angel was asked for an explanation of these two olive trees and +the candlestick, he answered, "This is the <i>Word</i> of the Lord +... by my <i>Spirit</i> saith the Lord" (verse 6). We are to +understand, therefore, that God's Word and Spirit are the "two +witnesses" in his church; that is, they signify the divine element +operating in his church. Just as the mediation of the prophets was +necessary in the olden times to maintain constant contact with God, +without which the religious exercises degenerated to mere +formalism, so the living <i>Word</i> and <i>Spirit</i> of God were +present in the apostolic church to elevate its service above mere +human systems and forms of worship. That the Word of God and the +Spirit of God are special witnesses is proved by many texts. Jesus +said, "Search the scriptures ... they are they which <i>testify</i> +of me" (John 5:39). "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached +in all the world for a <i>witness</i> unto all nations" (Matt. +24:14). "The Holy Ghost also is a <i>witness</i>" (Heb. 10:15). +"The Spirit itself beareth <i>witness</i>" (Rom. 8:16). "It is the +Spirit that beareth <i>witness</i>" (1 John 5:6).</p> + +<p>Of the uncircumcised Gentiles it is said, "The holy city shall +they tread under foot forty and two months." This signifies the +great apostasy that overspread the ear<a name='Page_207'></a>th, +defiling and perverting the true worship of God. The burden of this +series, however, is not to describe the foreign element thus +introduced, but to set forth in greater fulness the fact that +during the same time that the idolatrous multitude of Gentiles trod +down the holy city God preserved his own people. <i>The temple +still remained</i>, and it had devout worshipers; <i>the two +witnesses still prophesied</i>, although clothed in sackcloth, an +emblem of melancholy and mourning. While the visions of the +Revelator describe particularly the power of apostasy and iniquity +reigning during the Dark Ages, they do not fail to give us the +assurance that at the same time God had a people whose names were +written in the book of life (chap. 13:8)—"saints" (chap. +13;10). And these were made the object of the most violent +persecution (chap. 13:17; 17:6).</p> + +<p>It is rather difficult to trace the true work of God during +those times; for his "saints" were either ignored by the professed +multitude or else regarded as heretics. But there existed in +different countries bands of people who opposed the doctrines and +ecclesiastical tyranny of Rome and who claimed adherence to the +simple, primitive faith of Christ as expressed in the gospel. Among +these were the Cathari, Lombards, Albigenses, Waldenses, and +Vaudois. I will not say that all these so-called heretics are to be +regarded as the true people of God, but from the few records that +we have of them, derived chiefly from their enemies, it seems clear +that there were among them many who were truly "sa<a name= +'Page_208'></a>ints" and who clung tenaciously to the true faith of +Christ. God's Word and Spirit were therefore prophesying, although +in an unnatural condition, symbolized by the sackcloth state of the +witnesses. We must also remember that even among the Catholic party +were to be found noble persons whose hearts were true to whatever +truth they had and whose emotions and aspirations at times broke +over the bounds of traditional theology and gave expression to +sentiments Scriptural and sublime.</p> + +<p>The time period first specified in this special scene is the +same twelve hundred and sixty years that marks the reign of the +beast and therefore closes with the reformation of the sixteenth +century. We shall have occasion to return to this series later and +trace its predictions down to our own times.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;'> +<a name='CHAPTER_XIII'></a> +<h2><a name='Page_209'></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>ERA OF MODERN SECTS</h3> + +<br> + + +<div class='sidenote'>Another epoch predicted</div> + +<p>We have seen that the 1,260-year universal reign of the first +beast of Revelation 13 ends with the period of the Reformation. The +exact manner in which this should be accomplished is not definitely +given in the prophecy, aside from the statement, "He that leadeth +into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the +sword must be killed with the sword" (verse 10). This description +would seem to indicate a period of captivity in which the papacy +would be deprived of its great power, after which it would be +finally destroyed; and this agrees with Paul's description of the +papacy in 2 Thessalonians 2, where he speaks of that Wicked "whom +the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall +destroy with the brightness of his coming" (verse 8). And Daniel, +speaking of the end of the 1,260-year reign of the same papal +beast, points out a reformation time when "they shall take away his +dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end" (Dan. +7:26).</p> + +<p>There is no doubt that these references point out the work of +the Reformation which broke the power of Rome's universal supremacy +and her long reign of tyranny over the earth. Humanism, discovery +of the art of printing, the revival of learning, and other causes +contributed to this result. But the real revolt came in 1517, when +Luther in Saxony nailed to the church door in Wittenberg his ninety +five theses against the papal traffic in indulgences. The Reformers +made their appeal from the decisio<a name='Page_210'></a>ns of +Councils to the inspired Word of God, and this was the secret of +their success. With wonderful power and boldness they proclaimed +truth that had been neglected or discredited for ages. The holy +fire spread over Western Europe. Men became agitated as if moved by +a mighty unseen power, until the papacy was shaken from end to +end.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Protestantism in prophecy</div> + +<p>We regret that the true work of reformation did not long +continue. A.D. 1530 marks a new epoch—the rise of organized +Protestantism; marks the end of the 1,260-year period, and the +introduction of another ecclesiastical power. The historian +D'Aubigne recognizes the distinction between the Reformation as +such and organized Protestantism. In his well-known work, History +of the Reformation, he says: "The first two books of this volume +contained the most important epochs of the Reformation—the +Protest of Spires and the Confession of Augsburg.... I determined +on bringing the reformation of Germany and German-Switzerland to +the <i>decisive epochs</i> of 1530 and 1531. The History of the +Reformation, properly so-called, is then in my opinion almost +complete in those countries.<a name='Page_212'></a><a name= +'Page_211'></a> The work of faith has there attained its apogee: +that of conferences, of interims, of diplomacy begins.<br> +<span style='margin-left: 0.5em;'>... The movement of the sixteenth +century</span><br> +has there made its effort. I said from the very first, It is the +History of the Reformation, and not of Protestantism, that I am +relating."—Preface to Volume IV.</p> + +<p>Protestantism, then, is to be distinguished from the +Reformation. Considering its prominence in the ecclesiastical +world, we should naturally expect to find it represented in the +symbols of the Revelation. Strangely enough, few commentators ever +make the least effort to identify Protestantism with any of the +symbols of this book. Mohammedanism is there; Paganism is there; +<i>the true church</i> is there, and, it is universally admitted, +<i>the false church</i> is there. Therefore, whether Protestantism +be true or false, <i>it</i> must be there, but where?</p> + +<p>The application of the first beast of Revelation 13 to the +papacy has been so clearly established that the point is well-nigh +indisputable. The period of its universal supremacy is clearly +limited to the 1,260 years. And everyone knows that it was the +sixteenth century reformation that ended that period of tyranny. We +have shown that that period ends with A.D. 1530. The prophecy +immediately following describes Protestantism in these words:</p> + +<p>[ Sidenote: The two-horned beast]</p> + +<a name='Page_213'></a> + +<p>"And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he +had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he +exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth +the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, +whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that +he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of +men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of +those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; +saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an +image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. +And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the +image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as +would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he +causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to +receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that +no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of +the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that +hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the +number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six" +(Rev. 13: 11-18).</p> + +<p>Protestant commentators generally apply both the ten-horned +beast and the two-horned beast to Rome, the first representing the +political power, and the second the eccl<a name= +'Page_214'></a>esiastical power. But this position, while clearing +Protestantism of any moral stigma, is such a manifest violation of +the laws of symbolic language and the general principles of +Scriptural interpretation that I marvel that any critical thinker +could decide to adopt it. The two beasts are especially +distinguished, and in each case the symbol is complete. The first +beast combines with its beastly characteristics the qualities of +the human, as did the little horn of Daniel 7, thus clearly and +positively representing <i>both the political and the +ecclesiastical dominion</i> of Rome. It is the human +characteristics that constitute the leading feature of the terrible +work ascribed to the first beast; therefore, the papacy <i>as a +religious power</i> is particularly intended. Hence the second +beast can not be intended to represent the ecclesiastical phase of +Rome. Notice, also, that the symbol of the second beast is likewise +complete in itself—animal and human—thus embracing both +the political and the ecclesiastical. <i>Another system totally +distinct from the first is therefore represented.</i></p> + +<p>I call attention to certain distinct points proving that these +two beasts are not identical or simultaneous:</p> + +<p>1. The first is spoken of as "a beast"; the second is called +"another beast."</p> + +<p>2. The first came up from the sea; the second came out of the +earth.</p> + +<p>3. The first was like a leopard; the second was like a lamb.</p> + +<a name='Page_215'></a> + +<p>4. The first had ten horns signifying ten temporal kingdoms; the +second had two horns, referring to but two temporal powers that +supported it.</p> + +<p>5. The first blasphemed God and his tabernacle, and was +therefore antichrist; the second claimed to be the true prophet of +God and brought down "fire from heaven" to attest his claim, but he +was in reality a "false prophet" (chap. 16:13; 19:20).</p> + +<p>6. The first obtained his power and authority from the dragon +which preceded him; while the second derived his power from the +ten-horned beast "before him."</p> + +<p>7. The first caused people to worship the preceding power styled +"the dragon"; while the second caused people to "worship the first +beast."</p> + +<p>8. The first was to continue 1,260 years; while the reign of the +second is not here stated, but is covered in a parallel prophecy to +which we shall refer later.</p> + +<p>The first beast came up out of the sea, which signifies the +empire in an agitated state; and it is a fact of history that the +ten kingdoms came up through great political convulsions. The +empire was in a state of compa<a name='Page_216'></a>rative quiet, +however, when the second beast "<i>came up out of the earth</i>." +This beast stands as the symbol of Protestantism in Europe, +although his power and influence was afterwards to extend to "the +whole world" (chap. 16:14). But this beast existed first on the +same territory occupied by the papacy; therefore the two horns +doubtless signify temporal kingdoms also, and two of the original +ten. The two nations first to turn violently against the papacy and +to become the chief supporters and defenders of Protestantism were +Germany and England.</p> + +<p>It is evident that the second beast of Revelation 13 was not to +be such a terrible power politically as was the first beast, for it +is described merely as having "two horns <i>like a lamb</i>." But +as soon as we enter the department to which <i>speaking</i> by +analogy refers us, we find him to be a great religious power, and +it is in this character alone that he is delineated in the +remainder of the chapter. That his religious power is his leading +characteristic is further proved by the fact that in every +subsequent reference he is styled the "false prophet" (chap. 16:13; +19:20; 20:10). Every reference which I give to the second beast +must therefore be understood as signifying the religious system +known as Protestantism.</p> + +<p>This beast was to exercise great power—"all the power of +the first beast before him." By this expression we are to +understand that Protestantism was to exert a universal influence; +that it was to become a leading factor<a name='Page_217'></a> in +the world's history, as was Romanism before it. This has already +been fulfilled. The leading nations of the world today, the nations +that have contributed most to the development of modern +civilization and to the light and progress of the age, are +Protestant nations. Those countries that have retained the yoke of +Romanism are still withering under its blighting influence.</p> + +<p>It is said that this beast causes people to "worship the first +beast." This is parallel to the statement that during the reign of +the first beast the people "worshiped the dragon," which in reality +preceded it. I have shown that the devotees of Romanism worshiped +the dragon by perpetuating in their religious ceremonies and +worship the practises of paganism. Likewise Protestants have +brought over and incorporated in their religious system doctrines, +rites, and ceremonies that originated in Romanism; and in this +respect they worship the first beast, even in the very act of +rendering service to their own system. Such doctrines as infantile +damnation, sprinkling for baptism, the eternal destruction of all +those who are outside the pales of the church, infant baptism, and +other things are all children of the apostasy originating in Rome. +The Romish Church possesses a human ecclesiastical headship and an +earthly government ruling in the place of Christ, and Protestants +make an "image" to this beast by building their sects in +imitation—sects made and ruled by men. To these they attach +their own names and the distinctive creeds and doctrines of men, +and thus their devotees receive the "mark" and "name" of the +beast.</p> + +<a name='Page_218'></a> + +<p>At this point we must make a distinction which, being true in +the facts of history, must necessarily be intended in the symbolic +representation. This beast was to bring down "fire from heaven." +According to the symbols of chapter 12, the woman, or true church, +"fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, +that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and +threescore days." The time prophecy is the same, and covers the +same period, as the reign of the papal beast. Therefore, just as an +important change in the papacy occurred at the expiration of that +prophetic period, so also a radical change must be expected with +reference to the true church: it must be no longer completely +obscured in the wilderness. Now, as the Reformation and +Protestantism as a religion were the means of ending Rome's +universal spiritual supremacy, so also they must be regarded as +possessing sufficient light and truth to bring into prominence once +more the work of the Spirit and the true people of God. "Fire from +heaven" may therefore be regarded as describing the divine work of +reformation, the unfolding of truth accompanied by the saving power +of God. Such spiritual work has accompanied the origin of various +religious movements during the Protestant era.</p> + +<p>The general description of the two-horned beast, however, makes +prominent an evil characteristic—the disposition to lead the +people into deception by making an image to t<a name= +'Page_219'></a>he beast and then worshiping it. The evil is not +located in the ability to bring down fire from heaven, but in the +deceptive work of image-making and image-worship, for which the +spiritual work simply furnished an occasion. The spiritual work of +reformation is, therefore, to be distinguished from the later work +of creed-and sect-making; and since the beast takes advantage of +the manifestation of spiritual power and deceives men, he becomes a +sort of apostate and is denominated "the false prophet" (see chap. +16:13; 19:20).</p> + +<p>The beast, ecclesiastically considered, stands as the symbol of +the religious system and practise of Protestantism as a +whole—a peculiar combination of truth and error, of good and +bad, of "fire from heaven" and false miracle-working power (chap. +16:14); while the "image to the beast" signifies the sectarian +institution—the man-made and man-controlled unscriptural sect +machinery constructed in imitation of the papal original. To +construct such earth-born churches and lead people to adore and +worship them is but a species of idolatry and the rankest +deception. It is a sad fact, in Protestantism as well as in +Catholicism, that vast multitudes of people are more devoted to +their respective churches than to the Lord Jesus Christ. They can +witness the open rejection of God's precious Word and the vilest +profanation of his holy name without uttering a word of protest; +but let any one say a word against <a name='Page_220'></a><i>their +church</i>, and instantly they are aroused to the highest pitch of +indignation. <i>Beast-worshipers!</i></p> + +<p>The Protestant era has witnessed many wonderful reformations in +which the true fire of God fell upon waiting souls, but this +initial work of the Spirit has in each instance been employed as an +excuse for taking the next step—making an image; and +thousands of honest souls, lacking better light, have been induced +to submit to such human organization. Those of this number who were +truly saved, however, always loved and adored their Lord more than +the human church to which they were attached, and consequently they +should not be regarded as beast-worshipers. They are the ones whom +the Lord denominates <i>his people</i> when the voice calls them +out of Babylon (chap. 18:4).</p> + +<p>The second beast also exhibits the characteristics of a +persecuting power, and in this respect it is similar to the +ten-horned beast. The early history of Protestantism shows that at +that time the principle of religious intolerance brought over from +Romanism manifested itself in the actual putting to death of +numerous dissenters. Thus, we find Calvin, at Geneva, consenting to +the burning of Servetus because of a difference in religious views. +At a convention in Torgau, in 1574, the Lutherans established the +real presence of Christ in the eucharist and then instigated the +Elector of Saxony to seize<a name='Page_221'></a>, imprison, and +banish those who differed from them in sentiment, as a result of +which Peucer suffered ten years of the severest imprisonment and +Crellius was put to death. The Protestant Council of Zurich +condemned Felix Mantz to be drowned because he insisted that infant +sprinkling was not baptism. In England the "Bloody Six Articles" of +Henry VIII are a silent testimony to the intolerant spirit of that +age, when the royal reformer dragged dissenters forth to execution. +Witness also the twelve years' imprisonment of John Bunyan and +hundreds of others confined in jails throughout the country; the +persecution of the Quakers; the relentless opposition to the +Covenanters of Scotland, who were hunted and destroyed like beasts +because they insisted on their right to worship God in their own +way. It was this intolerant spirit that drove the Puritans to the +inhospitable shores of America, where they might have the free +privilege of worshiping God according to the dictates of their own +conscience.</p> + +<p>It is possible that the persecuting principle ascribed to the +two-horned beast may include both the literal and the +ecclesiastical cutting off, reference being made directly to the +spirit of intolerance which manifested itself first in literal +slaughter and later in an unwarranted ecclesiastical +exclusiveness.</p> + +<p>The "number of the beas<a name='Page_222'></a>t" alludes to his +pretentious claims and is probably a symbol of division. The +definite number 666 is said to be also the number of a man, and +since the pope is the most important man connected with the papal +system, it is natural to identify him with the individual referred +to. Paul doubtless pointed out the pope particularly as the "<i>man +of sin</i>," "the son of perdition" (2 Thess. 2:3). In former ages, +before the modern system of notation was introduced, the only +method of denoting numbers was by employing the letters of the +alphabet, certain letters having the power of number as well as of +sound. We still employ the same system for certain purposes. The +number of a name was simply the number denoted by the several +letters of that name.</p> + +<p>The pope has a special title. He wears in jeweled letters upon +his mitre the inscription, <i>Vicarius Filii Dei</i>—Vicar of +the Son of God. Taking from his name all the letters that the +Latins used for numerals, we have just 666.</p> + +<p>The era of modern sects is also covered in other places in +Revelation, for the ecclesiastical history of the Christian +dispensation is described under different parallel series of +symbolism. In the other series, however, the symbols representing +Protestantism stand so closely connected with predictions of the +last reformation that I shall not attempt to enumerate them in this +chapter, but shall consider them briefly in connection with those +symbols describing the great final religious movement toward which +all the prophetic lines of truth converge and which forms the +special subject of the present work.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;'> +<a name='CHAPTER_XIV'></a> +<h2><a name='Page_223'></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>THE LAST REFORMATION</h3> + +<br> + + +<p>The scene changes, and again we have the picture of God's chosen +people set in bright relief against the dark background of +Protestantism and the still darker shades of papal apostasy.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The 144,000 on Mount Zion</div> + +<p>"And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on Mount Sion, and with him +an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name +written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the +voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I +heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: and they sung +as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four +beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the +hundred and forty and f<a name='Page_224'></a>our thousand, which +were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled +with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the +Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, +being the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth +was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of +God" (Rev. 14:1-5).</p> + +<p>What a contrast with the beast powers described in the preceding +chapter of the Revelation! This redeemed company is on Mount Zion, +not hidden in the darkness of the wilderness. They are with the +Lamb, not wandering after the beast. Instead of being oppressed and +overcome by opposers, they are singing the joyful song of +redemption and harping with their harps; and instead of having the +"mark of the beast," they have their "<i>Father's name written in +their foreheads</i>." The manner in which this joyful, redeemed +company is distinguished from the host of beast-worshipers brought +to light under the preceding symbols, proclaims unmistakably the +fact that we have here a description of the true people of God who +have obtained victory over the apostasy. In other words, a distinct +reformation is predicted.</p> + +<p>This sublime scene is not a description of heaven, for the +context shows its direct contact with the forms of apostate +Christianity with which it is placed in contrast on earth. Certain +leading figures in the scene, as Christ the Lamb and a number of +angels, are h<a name='Page_225'></a>eavenly beings; but their +presence simply shows the divine character of the work in contrast +with those other religious powers, one of which came up out of the +sea and the other out of the earth. Besides, we have already shown +that whenever angels figure in the symbolic scene <i>on earth</i>, +they represent distinguished agencies among men, and the message of +good angels, being obviously from heaven, is therefore the message +of God. When different angels, bearing different messages, appear +in the same general symbolic scene, they represent not isolated or +independent<a name='Page_226'></a> movements, but different phases +of the same work.</p> + +<p>The Revelator introduces another phase of the religious movement +under consideration with these words: "And I saw another angel fly +in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach +unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and +kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear +God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: +and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the +fountains of waters" (verses 6, 7).</p> + +<p>In the message of the angel there are set forth a number of +distinct truths. Prominence is given to the call to worship the one +true God. This stands in contrast with the apostasy preceding; for +under the papacy its adherents "worshiped the dragon" and "they +worshiped the beast," while the second beast caused people to +"worship the first beast" and to "worship the image of the beast." +The message of this angel is universal and indicates a world-wide +missionary effort in which the true God and his holy worship alone +will be exalted, and that before the end of time, for the judgment +is set forth as an impending event for which men must speedily +prepare.</p> + +<p>But the description does not end here. An awful revelation, +falling like hail-stones or coals of fire upon the heads of the +devotees of modern churchianity, is proclaimed by divine authority: +"And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is +fallen, t<a name='Page_227'></a>hat great city, because she made +all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. And +the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man +worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his +forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the +wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of +his indignation" (verses 8-10).</p> + +<p>Here we are brought face to face with some of the most solemn +truths contained in the Book of God. The very powers of apostate +Christianity just described under the symbols of two beasts are now +represented <i>by the angel</i> as Babylon; for, be it observed, +the divine message is against those who worship the beast <i>and +his image</i>. The image was made by the second beast. Therefore +Babylon includes both Romanism and Protestantism—the whole +realm of formal churchianity; and beast-worship is here condemned +in one of the most terrible denunciations found in all the Word of +God. All the evils inherent in the false, unscriptural systems of +so-called Christianity are here summed up under the one word +<i>Babylon</i>, of which we shall have more to say later.</p> + +<p>Two things prominently brought out in these symbols should be +remembered, however—first, that even during the reign of the +beast and his image, God had true people who were carefully +distinguished in the pr<a name='Page_228'></a>ophecy as those whose +names were written in the book of life and who would not "worship +the image of the beast"; and second, that the symbolic scene now +being considered represents these saved individuals as gathered out +into one company with the Lamb on Mount Zion, before the end of +time. The illustration is that of the joyful Israelites who made +their return to Zion after the fall of literal Babylon, where they +were long held in captivity. This is the illustration and the +prophetic description; therefore we may rest assured that just as +truly as time revealed the rise of the papal and Protestant +systems, as set forth in the symbols of the Revelation, just so +surely will there come <i>before the end of time</i> a revival of +pure, apostolic Christianity, a reformation in which the true +people of God will take their stand outside of all forms of the +apostasy and carry the full gospel of the Son of God to "every +nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people."</p> + +<p>We have traced in prophetic symbolism the four epochs of the +Christian dispensation represented respectively by the star-crowned +woman, the leopard-beast, the two-horned beast, and the redeemed +company gathered together with the Lamb on Mount Zion. The papal +period, represented by the leopard-beast, continued for 1,260 +years, its universal sway terminating with the sixteenth century +reformation. The length of the Protestant reign following is not +stated in this series.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The two witn<a name= +'Page_229'></a>esses</div> + +<p>Let us now return to the description of the two witnesses given +in Revelation 11. We have already considered the first part of that +symbolic description pertaining to the 1,260 years during which the +holy city was to be trodden under foot and the two witnesses were +to prophesy in sackcloth; and we have shown that this description +is exactly parallel with the prophecy that set forth the period of +the papal supremacy. But the description continues, covering the +era of modern sects and leading up to the work of a final +reformation.</p> + +<p>After describing the 1,260-year prophecy of the two witnesses, +the narrative continues: "And when they shall have finished their +testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall +make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. And +their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which +spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was +crucified. And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and +nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and +shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. And they +that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, +and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets +tormented them that dwelt on the earth" (Rev. 11:7-10).</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The witnesse<a name='Page_230'></a>s +slain</div> + +<p>This intricate picture of symbolical imagery is placed +chronologically just after the 1,260-year reign of Romanism and +hence it was to meet its fulfilment during the Protestant era. It +describes in the most graphic and realistic manner the evil +characteristics and tendencies of the sect-system. I have already +shown that in the primitive church the two witnesses—the Word +and the Spirit of God—were the real vicars of Christ, giving +both character and government to the universal church of God on +earth. We have also seen that with the rise of human +ecclesiasticism the reign of the Word and Spirit ended in so far as +the Church of Rome was concerned. The same is true also of +Protestantism. The establishment of man-made creeds and the +concentration and centralization of church power and governmental +authority in human hands—a church-rule patterned after the +kingdoms of this world—is a <i>rejection of the divine +government of God</i> just as the appointment of a king in the Old +Testament times was a rejection of God's plan of governing Israel. +In this sense God's two witnesses have been openly ignored and +rejected in Protestantism as well as in Romanism and the ancient +churches of the East, and man-made creeds and systems of government +substituted in their stead. They are, therefore, represented as +slain, although of course a certain amount of respect is st<a name= +'Page_231'></a>ill shown them in that they are not suffered to be +wholly put out of sight.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The witnesses resurrected</div> + +<p>"And after three days and an half the spirit of life from God +entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear +fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice from +heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to +heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. And the same hour +was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, +and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the +remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. The +second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly" +(verses 11-14).</p> + +<p>The resurrection of the witnesses doubtless signifies a time of +reformation and implies its true character. If the death of the +witnesses was the result of ecclesiasticism and false teaching, +their resurrection must signify a final triumph over +ecclesiasticism and the restoration of primitive Christianity under +the direct authority and government of God. Even omitting all +details in this complex description, we can scarcely avoid the +conclusion that if the general description given in this chapter +means anything, it means the restoration of Christianity before the +end of time to the condition in which it existed before the +apostasy.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The time prophecy</div> + +<a name='Page_232'></a> + +<p>The time prophecy "three days and a half" is difficult to +explain except in the light of clearly ascertained historical +facts. The term "day" is of itself very indefinite, being used in +the Scriptures to designate periods of different length. In the +description under consideration it evidently can not signify the +ordinary 24-hour day nor yet the year-day; for it covers the +Protestant period following the 1,260-year reign of Romanism and +preceding the Last Reformation—the same period of time +covered by the second beast of Revelation 13.</p> + +<p>The events of the Protestant period naturally divide it into +shorter epochs of about a century each in length. The historian +D'Aubigne, who wrote about 1835, noticed this distinction and +referred to it in his famous History of the Reformation. These are +his words: "It has been said that the three last centuries, the +sixteenth, the seventeenth, and the eighteenth may be conceived as +an immense battle of <i>three days</i>' duration. We willingly +adopt this beautiful comparison ... the first day was the battle of +God, the second the battle of the priest, the third the battle of +Reason. What will be the fourth? In our opinion the confused +strife, the deadly contest of all these powers together TO END IN +THE VICTORY OF HIM TO WHOM TRIUMPH BELONGS."—Book XI, Chap. +9.</p> + +<p>"Three days and a half,"<a name='Page_233'></a> or three hundred +and fifty years, after the formation of the first Protestant creed, +in 1530, God began to reveal special light and truth on his Word +and to cause a great awakening, which is gradually resulting in the +rejection of human ecclesiastical rule, the recognition of the +primitive government of God, and the restoration of all the pure +truths of the Word of God.</p> + +<p>Another point in the prophecy under consideration assists us in +fixing the chronology of the reformation predicted. The "great +earthquake" stands closely associated with the time of the +resurrection and exaltation of the witnesses. The principles of +interpreting symbols would lead us to identify this earthquake as a +mighty political convulsion destructive in its nature, and yet one +that would be overruled for the furtherance of Christ's +kingdom—a convulsion that would also terminate the +destructive reign of the "second woe." I can not here digress to +give proofs, but there is no doubt that the second woe of +Revelation (see chap. 9:13-20) signifies the political dominancy of +the Ottoman Empire. This power, constituting the political backbone +of Mohammedanism, has indeed been a most serious woe upon the +inhabitants of the earth and an obstacle in the path of true +missionary progress. With these facts before us, we can clearly see +that the earthquake was the great European War and that we are now +living in the time when a special reformation is due.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Another important series</div> + +<p>Another parallel series of prophecies covering the same ground +and terminating at the same point will bring the subject <a name= +'Page_234'></a>of the Last Reformation to a grand climax. I have +shown that the religious powers described in Revelation 13 as two +beasts were also termed Babylon. We shall now give a more +particular description of this antitype of the Old Testament +Babylon. The Euphratean city—Babylon—the proud +metropolis of the Chaldean monarchy, combined in itself the +corruptions and wickedness of the world and then filled up the +measure of its sins by destroying the temple in Jerusalem and +leading into captivity the chosen people of God. When John wrote, +however, this ancient city was no more. It had long since been +destroyed, and it has never been rebuilt to this day. Even the Arab +refuses to pitch his tent among its lonely, serpent-infested ruins. +The city to which the apostle alludes in these prophecies must +therefore refer, not to ancient Babylon, but to some other +analogous power which was yet to arise and of which the old Babylon +was a type.</p> + +<h3>OUTLINE OF PARALLEL PROPHECIES SHOWING FOUR ECCLESIASTICAL +EPOCHS</h3> + +<table align='center' border='1' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' +summary='Outline of Parallel Prophecies'> +<tr> +<td align='center'><b>The Apostolic<br> +Period</b> </td> +<td align='center'><b>The Medieval Period</b> </td> +<td align='center'><b>Era of Modern<br> +Sects</b> </td> +<td align='center'><b>The Last<br> +Reformation</b> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align='center'>DRAGON Rev. 12:3, 4<br> +7-17</td> +<td align='center'>LEOPARD BEAST<br> +Rev. 13:1-10</td> +<td align='center'>TWO-HORNED<br> +BEAST<br> +Rev. 13:11-18</td> +<td align='center'>FALL OF<br> +BABYLON<br> +Rev. 14:1-9</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align='center'>PURE WOMAN<br> +Rev. 12</td> +<td align='center'>WOMAN SECLUDED IN<br> +THE WILDERNESS<br> +Rev. 12:6</td> +<td align='center'> </td> +<td align='center'>144,00 ON MOUNT<br> +ZION<br> +Rev. 14:1-6</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align='center'>TEMPLE AND<br> +TRUE<br> +WORSHIP<br> +Rev. 11:1</td> +<td align='center'>HOLY CITY TRODDEN<br> +DOWN<br> +Rev. 11:2</td> +<td align='center'>TWO WITNESSES<br> +SLAIN<br> +Rev. 11:7-10</td> +<td align='center'>WITNESSES<br> +RESURRECTED<br> +Rev. 11:11-14</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align='center'> </td> +<td align='center'>GREAT BABYLON<br> +Rev. 17:1-6</td> +<td align='center'>HARLOT<br> +DAUGHTERS<br> +Rev. 17:5</td> +<td align='center'>GOD'S PEOPLE<br> +CALLED OUT<br> +Rev. 18:1-4</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td align='center'>FOURTH<br> +BEAST<br> +Dan. 9:7, 23,<br> +24</td> +<td align='center'>REIGN OF THE "LITTLE<br> +HORN"<br> +Dan. 7:8, 20-25</td> +<td align='center'> </td> +<td align='center'>CHRIST'S KINGDOM<br> +TRIUMPHANT<br> +Dan. 7:26, 27;<br> +2:34,35</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<div class='sidenote'>Great Babylon</div> + +<p>A more particular description of the antitypical Babylon is +given by the Revelator in the seventeenth chapter, as follows: "And +there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and +talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto thee +the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: with +whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the +inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her +fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the +wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored <a name= +'Page_237'></a><a name='Page_236'></a> beast, full of names of +blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was +arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and +precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of +abominations and filthiness of her fornication: and upon her +forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER +OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw a woman drunken +with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of +Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration" +(verses 1-6).</p> + +<p>The careful student will immediately perceive that we have here +another representation of the same apostate powers already +described under other symbols. The leading figures—a woman +and a beast—combine symbols from human life and animal life, +thus representing clearly the union of civil and ecclesiastical +power. The combination is exactly the same in its essential +characteristics as that presented by the first beast of Revelation +13. And since it is the same seven-headed and ten-horned beast, +representing the same political power, we conclude that the human +characteristics exhibited in this connection symbolize the same +religious power—the Church of Rome. In the present vision, +however, the ecclesiastical phase is singled out and particularly +distinguished and described, thus placing special emphasis on the +papal church itself in contradistinction to the temporal power of +the empire. The political phase of Rome's history has already been +sufficiently described for our present purpose. We shall, +therefore, devote our attention to the ecclesiastical phase as +developed under this particular symbol of the woman.</p> + +<p>The nature of the symbol itself fixes the interpretation. A +woman must of necessity symbolize a church, but we must determine +by the character of the woman whether or not the true church or a +false church is represented. The woman of the vision was splendidly +attired and evidently occupied a prominent place; for she is +represented as riding on the beast, the political empire, thus +directing its course; and she is also represented as sitting upon +many waters, interpreted as "peoples, and multitudes, and nations, +and tongues" (verse 15), denoting her wide influence over distant +nations. She is not simply represented as a prominent person, +however, but <i>as a vile character</i>. She is "a great whore," +"with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication." It +is clear that in Scripture false, idolatrous worship is represented +as <i>whoredom</i> (see 1 Chron. 5: 25; Ezekiel 16 and 23). Hence a +false church is represented.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Mother and daughters</div> + +<a name='Page_238'></a> + +<p>There is only one church that can fulfil the description, and +that is the Church of Rome. Long has she delighted in calling +herself the "mother church," but centuries before she made this +claim, the pen of inspiration affixed to her indelibly the title of +"<i>mother</i>"—"MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE +EARTH." She bore upon her forehead this inscription, together with +the title "Mystery, Babylon the Great." Other false apostate +churches there are, but she heads the list and is the mother of +them all. No wonder the apostle marveled when he saw this professed +church of Jesus Christ defiled by the most abominable wickedness, +in league with all the evil powers of earth, and, above all, +"drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the +martyrs of Jesus." That Rome from the date she became firmly +established in power has ever been a constant persecutor of the +saints, the pages of all history abundantly attest. Even Rome's +ecclesiastical writers and historians themselves admit her use of +force in destroying those whom she denominated heretics.</p> + +<p>Revelation 17 covers the same period chronologically and ends at +the same point of time as did chapter 13. Hence we should naturally +suppose that it would also describe in some manner the power +symbolized by the two-horned beast—Protestantism—as +well as duplicate the d<a name='Page_239'></a>escription of the +ten-horned beast—Catholicism. That the papacy is symbolized +in chapter 17 by the corrupt whore sitting on the ten-horned beast, +is too plain to need any particular demonstration. The other +division of the apostasy is included under the term "harlots," the +daughters of the "mother" church. In our interpretation of chapter +14 we showed that the angel clearly applied the term Babylon to the +worshipers of the second beast—Protestantism—as well as +to those of the first beast. Therefore we must regard Babylon as a +general term denoting the whole city of religious confusion, the +mother and her harlot daughters being simply specific +divisions.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>Testimony of commentators</div> + +<p>Many commentators, even Protestant commentators, have been frank +enough to admit the real application and force of these symbols of +Revelation as applying to both Catholicism and Protestantism. +Auberlen asserts that "'harlot' means, in the Old and New +Testaments, the apostate church of God."—Prophecies of Daniel +and the Revelation, p. 278. Again, he says, "Not simply Rome, but +Christendom as a whole, even as Israel as a whole, has become a +harlot. The true believers are hidden and dispersed."—Ibid., +p. 290. While it may not be exactly in accordance with the +Scriptures to speak of the true church of God as being apostate, +yet in a sense it is true, for a large part of those<a name= +'Page_240'></a> who originally constituted the church of God +actually did apostatize, until a false church assumed almost +universal sway and divers forms of error prevailed, practically +eclipsing, for a long period, the true church of God on earth. +Auberlen stated his conclusion in these words: "Notwithstanding the +universal character of the harlot, it remains true that the Roman +and Greek churches are in a more peculiar sense the harlot than the +Evangelical Protestant."—P. 294.</p> + +<p>In the well-known Commentary by Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, +the Rev. A.R. Fausset, writing on Rev. 17:2, says of the harlot: +"It can not be Pagan Rome but Papal Rome, if a particular seat of +error be meant, but I am inclined to think that the judgment (chap. +18:2) and the spiritual fornication (chap. 18:3), though finding +their culmination in Rome, are not restricted to it, but comprise +the whole apostate church—Roman, Greek, and even Protestant, +so far as it has been seduced from its 'first love' to Christ, the +heavenly Bridegroom, and given its affections to worldly pomps and +idols."</p> + +<p>William Kincaid, in Bible Doctrine, p. 249, says: "I think +Christ has a true church on earth, but its members are scattered +among the various denominations, and are more or less under the +influence of mystery Babylon and her daughters."</p> + +<p>Alexander Campbell said: "The worshiping establishments now in +o<a name='Page_241'></a>peration throughout Christendom, increased +and cemented by their respective voluminous confessions of faith, +and their ecclesiastical constitutions, are not churches of Jesus +Christ, but the legitimate daughters of that mother of harlots, the +Church of Rome."</p> + +<p>Lorenzo Dow says of the Romish Church: "If she be the mother, +who are the daughters? It must be the corrupt, national, +established churches that came out of her."—Dow's Life, +p. 542.</p> + +<p>Again, Hahn in Auberlen says: "The harlot is not Rome alone +(though she is preeminently so), but every church that has not +Christ's mind and spirit. False Christendom, divided into very many +sects, is truly Babylon, i.e., confusion."</p> + +<p>The description of the two forms of the apostasy, Papal and +Protestant, given in the thirteenth chapter of Revelation, was +conveyed under the symbols of two beasts, differing in external +appearance, but in certain respects similar in character. +Immediately following that representation there is, as we have +already shown, a description of a distinct reformatory work set +forth by the 144,000 with the Lamb on Mount Zion, the fall of +Babylon, and the promulgation of the everlasting gospel in all the +world. The term "Babylon" as used in that scripture is applied to +both the worshipers of the beast and the worshipers of the image of +the beast (made by the second beast); therefore it embraces both +forms of the apostasy.</p> + +<a name='Page_242'></a> + +<p>We have just seen that the description of Babylon, given in +Revelation 17 under the symbols of a corrupt woman and her harlot +daughters, represent the papal church and the divisions of +Protestantism. We shall now proceed to show that the two lines of +prophecy (chaps. 13 and 17) are parallel chronologically, for they +both end at the same time and in the same manner.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The last reformation</div> + +<p>As the first of these two series of prophecy ended with the fall +of Babylon and the deliverance therefrom of a people who were with +the Lamb, not wandering after the beast, and who had "the Father's +name written in their foreheads," not the name or the mark of the +beast, so also the second series ends in the same manner. After +describing Babylon under its twofold form, mother and daughters, +the Revelator says: "After these things I saw another angel come +down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened +with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, +Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the +habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage +of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of +the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the +earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the +earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I +heard another voice f<a name='Page_243'></a>rom heaven, saying, +Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, +and that ye receive not of her plagues" (chap. 18:1-4).</p> + +<p>A movement of mighty power is symbolized in these verses. The +language is based on the experience of the ancient Israelites in +literal Babylon, who, when the fall of the city occurred, obtained +release from their enforced captivity, and were permitted to return +to their own land. The real meaning in this case is clear: that +apostate Christianity has been a veritable Babylon in which the +true people of God have been held as in captivity, and that the +time of their deliverance would come, when they would, by divine +authority, be called out. Notice the parallelism in the two +descriptions of the fall of Babylon. In chapter 14 an angel +declares "Babylon is fallen, is fallen" (verse 8), and the next +angel <i>with a loud voice</i> warns that those who "worship the +beast and his <i>image</i> ... shall drink of the wine of the wrath +of God" (verses 9, 10); while in chapter 18 the first angel cries +"mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, +is fallen" (verse 2), and "<i>another voice</i> from heaven" says, +"COME OUT OF HER, MY PEOPLE, that ye be not partakers of her sins, +and that ye <i>receive not of her plagues</i>" (verse 4).</p> + +<p>That this symbolic picture represents a wonderful religious +reformation is almost too clear to need proof, for it succeeded +chronologically, and is placed in direct con<a name= +'Page_244'></a>trast with, the apostasy; hence there can be but one +logical conclusion, namely, that neither Catholicism nor +Protestantism is the last work and that God has authorized a work +that shall gather his true people out of the entire babel of sect +confusion. And that this movement is to be effected before the end +of time is also clearly shown. In the following chapter, after +describing God's judgment on Babylon, and the call of his people +out of her, "a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our +God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and +great" (verse 5). God's servants are called upon to rejoice on +account of their deliverance. Those who are at heart image-makers +and beast-worshipers will oppose this truth, and when they witness +the departure of the faithful followers of the Lord, leaving to +Babylon nothing but the godless, graceless professors, they will +"weep and mourn over her" (chap. 18:16) and cry, "Alas, alas that +great city" (verse 16). But the voice of heaven calls on the saints +for a song of thanksgiving, saying, "Rejoice over her, thou heaven, +and ye holy apostles and prophets" (verse 20). Yea, "praise our +God, <i>all ye his servants</i>, and ye that fear him, both small +and great" (chap. 19:5).</p> + +<p>Are we to expect such a response? Yes. It is true in the +prophecy and will therefore be true in fact before time ends. "And +I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice +of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, +Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be gla<a +name='Page_245'></a>d and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the +marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. +And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, +clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints" +(chap. 19:6-8).</p> + +<p>The scriptures just cited complete another line of symbolic +truth. The primitive church was represented as a pure woman, the +bride (chap. 12:1). During the reign of the papacy a false, immoral +woman reigned over the kings of the earth, while the true woman, or +church, was hidden 'in the wilderness' (chap. 12: 6). Under the +reign of Protestantism her members were scattered in all parts of +the city of Babylon. But, thank God, they are to be called out of +their scattered condition, and as a company are represented in two +forms—first, as a redeemed host with the Lamb on Mount Zion, +bearing the Father's name only (chap. 14:1-5), and second, <i>as +the bride of Christ</i> preparing herself for the soon coming of +the Lord. This is proof positive that the true church is to be +brought out and placed on exhibition <i>before the end of +time</i>.</p> + +<p>Others of the sacred writers describe this same prophetic +movement. Zechariah predicts it thus: "And it shall come to pass in +that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark: but it shall +be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night: +but it shall come to pass, that <i>at evening</i> <i>time it shall +be light</i>" (Zech. 14:6, 7). These verses stand a little c<a +name='Page_246'></a>learer in the Septuagint Version: "And it shall +come to pass in that day [the papal day] that there shall be <i>no +light</i>: and there shall be for one day [the Protestant day] +<i>cold and frost</i>: and that day shall be known to the Lord; it +shall not be day or night [a mixture of light and darkness]: but +<i>towards evening it shall be light</i>."</p> + +<p>We have seen that Daniel predicted the long reign of darkness +and apostasy in the Christian dispensation. Desiring to understand +the matter, he made inquiry, and although the same thoughts are +beautifully expressed in the Authorized Version, I shall, +nevertheless, quote from the Septuagint, which makes the thought +still clearer: "<i>When will be the end</i> of the wonders which +thou hast mentioned? And I heard the man clothed in linen ... swear +by Him that lives forever, that it should be for a time of times +and half a time: when the dispersion is ended they shall know all +these things" (Dan. 12:6, 7).</p> + +<p>"A time, and times, and the dividing of time" is the same +prophetic period of 1,260 years, the reign of the papacy. This was +to be followed by a period of "dispersion," and such Protestantism +has been, for the people of God have been scattered in hundreds of +bodies. But this dispersion was to be "<i>ended</i>" some time, and +then the people of God would "know all these things." "And I heard, +but I understood not: and said I, O Lord, <i>what will be the end<a +name='Page_247'></a></i> of these things? And he said, Go, Daniel: +for the words are closed and sealed up <i>to the time of the +end</i>" (verse 9). At the "time of the end" the dispersal of God's +saints was to cease. This predicts the evening-time reformation, +and the nature of its work is shown in the following verse: "Many +must be CHOSEN OUT, <i>and thoroughly whitened, and tried with +fire, and sanctified</i>" (verse 10).</p> + +<p>The same spiritual movement is also predicted by Ezekiel. In +chapter 34 he describes the people of God as sheep (see verse 31). +These sheep are represented as abused, oppressed, and scattered by +false shepherds. Their gathering in this Last Reformation is +predicted in verses 11 and 12: "For thus saith the Lord God; Behold +I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a +shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his +sheep that are scattered; <i>so will I seek out my sheep, and will +deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in +the cloudy and dark day</i>."</p> + +<p>Reader, this is the work of reformation that God is now +accomplishing in the world. Babylon is spiritually fallen, and God +is calling his people out. In the well-known Jamieson, Fausset, and +Brown Commentary, Rev. A.R. Fausset, commenting on Rev. 18:4, has +well said: "Even in the Romish Church, God has a people; but they +are in great danger; their only safety is in coming out of her at +once. So also<a name='Page_248'></a> in every apostate or +world-conforming church, there are some of God's visible and true +church, who, if they would be safe, <i>must come out</i>."</p> + +<p>When literal Babylon was overthrown, the Jews escaped to their +own land. Likewise God's people in spiritual Babylon are commanded +to come out, and with songs of rejoicing they are to make their way +to Mount Zion, and then lend all their efforts to the one work of +restoring primitive truth, thus making Jerusalem "the joy of the +whole earth." Like the Jews of old, "the ransomed of the Lord +<i>shall return</i> and COME TO ZION with songs and everlasting joy +upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow +and sighing shall flee away" (Isa. 35:10).</p> + +<p>The Psalmist informs us that in Babylon the Jews hung their +harps on the willows and wept when they remembered Zion. When their +captors demanded of them the songs of Zion, they answered +despairingly, "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange +land?" (Psa. 137:1-4). Zion's songs were <i>songs of +deliverance</i>; hence the Jews could not sing them in captivity. +So also has it been in spiritual Babylon. But when the ransomed of +the Lord "return and come to Zion," "songs and everlasting joy" +break forth again.</p> + +<p>The Revelator describes this glorious result after the period of +the apostasy in these words: "And I saw as it were a<a name= +'Page_249'></a> sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had +gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his +mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, +<i>having the harps of God</i>. And they <i>sing the song of +Moses</i> [a song of deliverance] the servant of God, and the song +of the Lamb [a song of redemption]" (Rev. 15:2, 3). Those who have +returned from Babylon have heavenly harps and can sing the songs of +Zion. Praise God!</p> + +<span style='margin-left: 2em;'>"From Babel confusion most gladly I +fled,<br> +</span> <span style='margin-left: 2em;'>And came to the heights of +fair Zion instead;<br> +</span> <span style='margin-left: 2em;'>I'm feasting this moment on +heavenly bread;<br> +</span> <span style='margin-left: 3em;'>I'll never go back, I'll +never go back.</span><br> +<br> +<span style='margin-left: 2em;'>"The beast and his image, his mark, +and his name,<br> +</span> <span style='margin-left: 2em;'>My love or allegiance no +longer can claim,<br> +</span> <span style='margin-left: 2em;'>Though men may exalt them +to honor and fame;<br> +</span> <span style='margin-left: 3em;'>I'll never go back +again."</span><br> +<br> + + +<p>The prophecies already cited make clear a mighty religious +movement before the end of time, a movement designed to triumph +over the apostasy. Since the apostasy was twofold in its nature, +comprehending a corruption of evangelical faith and the development +of ecclesiasticism, it is evident that the Last Reformation must +both restore primitive truth and eliminate ecclesiasticism, thus +bringing back to the wo<a name='Page_250'></a>rld the original +conception of the church as embracing the whole divine family under +the direct moral and spiritual dominion of Christ. It is also +evident from the prophecies that this is to be accomplished by +literally forsaking the systems of man-rule just as ancient Israel +was restored after the captivity by God's people leaving Babylon +and coming home to Zion.</p> + +<p>Zion represents the church in its primitive, unified condition +under the government and law of Christ alone. Babylon represents a +foreign rule and another law. The two systems are fundamentally +different. This difference was true in the type and must therefore +be true in the antitype. In the old days of Israel's glory +foreigners visited Jerusalem, but their presence in the city of God +did not make them Israelites. And at one time the people of God +were carried into captivity in Babylon, but their presence in that +foreign, heathen city <i>did not make them Babylonians</i>.</p> + +<p>This distinction is also clear in the antitypical relation. We +do not have to go to prophetic symbols to find in the New Testament +clear predictions of the rise of a false Christianity in opposition +to the true. They stand out in marked contrast in the prophecy. On +the one side there is a false religious system described as a beast +power reigning. On the other side is placed in contrast a company +that have gotten the victory over the beast and over his image and +over his mark, and they stand on the sea of glass, having the harps +of God. The mother of harlots a<a name='Page_251'></a>ppears, but +in contrast therewith is seen a pure woman, the bride of Christ. In +contrast with Babylon we have Zion.</p> + +<p>The sect system, wherein ecclesiasticism reigns and where the +full truth in all its purity can not be taught and practised, does +not represent the true church, but Babylon. The system is foreign. +It contains, however, many <i>who are not Babylonians</i> but +children of the divine family—Israelites indeed. The awful +judgments of God pronounced against Babylon are directed against +the false system itself and the real beast-worshipers it contains, +not against the true people of God, who love their Lord and are +willing to walk in the light of his Word as fast as they are able +to understand it. When we consider that this sect system has been +the means of deceiving millions—millions who will come up in +that last day and plead their religious profession, only to hear +the awful words, "Depart from me, I never knew you"—when we +consider, I say, these evil results, we can not but repeat the +words of the prophecy concerning the overthrow of Babylon, "True +and righteous are His judgments." The commandment of God is, +"<i>Come out of her</i>, MY PEOPLE, that ye be not partakers of her +sins, and THAT YE RECEIVE NOT OF HER PLAGUES."</p> + +<p>The movement to ignore sect lines and bring the true people of +God into unity is not based upon a mere interpretation of prophecy, +however. The necessity of such a work is being felt by the true +people of God ever<a name='Page_252'></a>ywhere, even those who +make no particular claims to knowledge of prophetic interpretation. +Knowledge that the ecclesiastical systems of the present day do not +represent the real church outlined in the New Testament is all that +is absolutely necessary in order to stir the heart for reformatory +action. Departure from the truth of God carries with it +responsibility on the part of all those who become awakened to that +departure—<i>responsibility to return to the Bible +standard</i>. A final reformation there must and would be even if +it had never been predicted by the prophets of old; for Christ, the +great ever-living head of the church, would at the proper time pour +out upon his servants the spirit of judgment against all +unscriptural systems and forms of worship and demand the +restoration of the pure church of the morning time of our era.</p> + +<div class='sidenote'>The future prospect</div> + +<p>The work of God in the latter days is to be more extensive, +however, than simply calling God's people together from their +scattered condition in sect Babylon. There are indications in the +prophecy already cited that the "everlasting gospel" is to be +carried to the ends of the earth. The movement is to be world-wide. +In our consideration of parallel prophecies in Daniel, we saw that +the kingdom is represented in two phases—first as a +<i>stone</i>, under which symbol it broke down the kingdoms of +heathen darkness; and then as a <i>mountain<a name= +'Page_253'></a></i>, when it <i>is to fill the whole earth</i>. And +again, after describing the 1,260-year reign of the papacy, Daniel +said: "But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his +dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the +kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom <i>under the +whole heaven</i>, shall be given to the people of the saints of the +most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and <i>all +dominions shall serve and obey</i> HIM" (Dan. 7: 26, 27).</p> + +<p>There is abundant evidence to be seen by the careful observer +that there are now at work in the Christian world forces that are +preparing for great changes. Christian charity is refusing to be +confined by sectarian barriers. The Christian consciousness is +becoming aroused to the evils of sectarianism and sectarian systems +as it has never been aroused in any past age. There is a longing +among spiritual people everywhere to escape from the blighting +effect of a divided Christianity. Evangelism is becoming more and +more detached from organized denominations, and the denominational +lines are being ignored in a way that would have astonished the +people of a century ago. Numerous attempts are being made to unite +the various denominations on the mission fields and in the +homeland. While many of these efforts are mere blind groping for a +way out of the fogs of sectarianism, they show unmistakably that +back of and underlying all these ef<a name='Page_254'></a>forts is +a mighty force slowly but surely gathering power that (so far as +God's true people are concerned) shall in time rise to break once +for all the rigorous reign of human ecclesiasticism and reestablish +in power and glory the simple, primitive theocracy, where Christ +shall be exalted as the true and only ruler of his people.</p> + +<p>Ecclesiasticism, however, dies hard. In fact, it is scarcely +correct to say that it will die at all. The churches of men are +largely made up of worldly-minded professors who know not the birth +and life of the Spirit. To such the church will never appear as +anything different from an institution organized and governed after +the pattern of the kingdoms of this world. According to the +prophecy, God's true saints will die to ecclesiasticism by +forsaking the sect system, but the rule of human churchly power +will go right on until the end of time. Furthermore, we may expect +the contrast and the conflict between these two forces to become +more pronounced as the years go by. While the Revelation represents +the call of God's people out of Babylon as the movement that again +brings into prominence the "bride," the true church (chap. 19:1-9), +it also reveals the fact that there will be another great movement +in opposition to the truth.</p> + +<p>"And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the +mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of +the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, +working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and <a +name='Page_255'></a>of the whole world, to gather them to the +battle of that great day of God Almighty" (chap. 16:13, 14). The +nature and purpose of this gathering is described in another place. +"Satan ... shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the +four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together +to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they +went up on the breadth of the earth, and <i>compassed the camp of +the saints about, and the beloved city</i>: and fire came down from +God out of heaven, and devoured them" (chap. 20:7-9).</p> + +<p>Let this be a solemn warning to all, that God's people may +discern between the false and the true. The movement that brings +together in one the real saints of the Lord is effected by the +Spirit of God, while "unclean spirits" operating in the apostate +powers of the ecclesiastical world will effect a totally different +union. The distinction is clear in the prophecy and must therefore +become true in fact.</p> + +<p>The final reformation is on. "Final," I say, because it leaves +nothing to be restored as regards either doctrine, practise, or +spirit. It stands committed to the restoration of the whole truth +and the harmonious unity of all true Christians in one +Christ-ruled, Spirit-filled body. In short, it stands committed to +the restoration of apostolic Christianity in its entirety—its +doctrines, its ordinances, its personal regenerati<a name= +'Page_256'></a>ng and sanctifying experiences, its spiritual life, +its holiness, its power, its purity, its gifts of the Spirit, its +unity of believers, and its fruits. This reformation will continue +until it becomes a great mountain and fills the whole earth, until +"the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under +the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the +Most High."</p> + +<p>Nor is this picture of events a mere dream of fanciful +idealists; for it is already true in part, and the "more sure word +of prophecy" to which we have appealed sustains our hope. The +actual fulfilment of so many predicted events assures us that there +shall not fail one word of all his good promises. Already +multiplied thousands of the Lord's redeemed people have discerned +God's plan of effecting unity and have completely ignored all the +lines of sect and human ecclesiasticism, recognizing as the church +nothing else than the entire brotherhood in Christ, and recognizing +as ecclesiastical authority nothing else than that moral and +spiritual dominion of Christ by which alone he governed his people +in primitive times.</p> + +<p>This reformation is the movement of God. It is not a humanly +organized movement depending for its success on the ability of men +to persuade people to leave other churches and join them. God +himself is breaking down the barriers that divide, and in response +to his call the redeemed are forsaking human sects and creeds,<a +name='Page_257'></a> and their hearts are flowing together. The +center of this movement is not a particular geographical location, +nor is its nucleus a particular set of fallible men: the center and +nucleus of this world-wide movement is OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, and +its operative force is the SPIRIT OF THE LIVING GOD, which draws +the faithful together in bonds of holy love and fellowship. +Multitudes already recognize no other bonds of union than that +moral and spiritual affinity which is the common heritage of all +the disciples of Jesus that know the blessed experience of the +heavenly birth. Multitudes more are beginning to see the light of +this glorious truth, and in due time Christ, the Light, will +illuminate the hearts of all the saved ones. All hail the day that +lies just ahead!</p> + +<span style='margin-left: 2em;'>"Back to the one foundation, from +sects and creeds made free,<br> +</span> <span style='margin-left: 2em;'>Come saints of every nation +to blessed unity.<br> +</span> <span style='margin-left: 2em;'>Once more the ancient glory +shines as in days of old,<br> +</span> <span style='margin-left: 2em;'>And tells the wondrous +story—one God, one faith, one fold."<br> +</span> <br> +<a name='Page_260'></a><a name='Page_258'></a><a name= +'Page_259'></a> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13330 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + |