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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/35514.txt b/35514.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ca4c349 --- /dev/null +++ b/35514.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5767 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Great Apostasy, by James E. Talmage + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Great Apostasy + Considered in the Light of Scriptural and Secular History + +Author: James E. Talmage + +Release Date: March 7, 2011 [EBook #35514] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT APOSTASY *** + + + + +Produced by the Mormon Texts Project, +http://bencrowder.net/books/mtp. Volunteers: Benjamin +Bytheway, Jean-Michel Carter, Byron Clark, Ben Crowder, +Meridith Crowder, Tom DeForest, Eric Heaps. + + + + + +THE +GREAT APOSTASY + +CONSIDERED IN THE LIGHT OF +SCRIPTURAL AND SECULAR +HISTORY + + +By JAMES E. TALMAGE +D. Sc. D., Ph. D., F. R. S. E. + + +Press of Zion's Printing and Publishing Company +Independence, Jackson County, Missouri. + + + + +Published by the Missions of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day +Saints in America + +BUREAU OF INFORMATION--Temple Block, Salt Lake City, Utah. +CALIFORNIA MISSION--153 W. Adams St., Los Angeles, Calif. +CANADIAN MISSION--36 Ferndale Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. +CENTRAL STATES MISSION--302 S. Pleasant St., Independence, Mo. +EASTERN STATES MISSION--273 Gates Ave., Brooklyn, N. Y. +HAWAIIAN MISSION--P. O. Box 3228, Honolulu, Hawaii. +MEXICAN MISSION--3531 Fort Blvd., El Paso, Texas, U. S. A. +NORTHERN STATES MISSION--2555 N. Sawyer Ave., Chicago, Ill. +NORTHCENTRAL STATES MISSION--2725 3d Ave.S., Minneapolis, Minn. +NORTHWESTERN STATES MISSION--264 East 25th St., Portland, Ore. +SOUTHERN STATES MISSION--371 E. North Ave., Atlanta. Ga. +WESTERN STATES MISSION--538 East 7th Ave., Denver, Colo. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proclaims the +restoration of the Gospel and the re-establishment of the Church as of +old, in this, the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. Such +restoration and re-establishment, with the modern bestowal of the Holy +Priesthood, would be unnecessary and indeed impossible had the Church +of Christ continued among men with unbroken succession of Priesthood +and power, since the "meridian of time." + +The restored Church affirms that a general apostasy developed during +and after the apostolic period, and that the primitive Church lost its +power, authority, and graces as a divine institution, and degenerated +into an earthly organization only. The significance and importance of +the great apostasy, as a condition precedent to the re-establishment +of the Church in modern times, is obvious. If the alleged apostasy of +the primitive Church was not a reality, the Church of Jesus Christ of +Latter-day Saints is not the divine institution its name proclaims. + +The evidence of the decline and final extinction of the primitive +Church among men is found in scriptural record and in secular history. +In the following pages the author has undertaken to present a summary +of the most important of these evidences. In so doing he has drawn +liberally from many sources of information, with due acknowledgment of +all citations. This little work has been written in the hope that it +may prove of service to our missionary elders in the field, to classes +and quorum organizations engaged in the study of theological subjects +at home, and to earnest investigators of the teachings and claims of +the restored Church of Jesus Christ. + +Salt Lake City, Utah, JAMES E. TALMAGE. + November 1, 1909. + + +PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. + + +The first edition of "The Great Apostasy" was issued by the Deseret +News, Salt Lake City, in November, 1909, and comprised ten thousand +copies. The author has learned, with a pleasure that is perhaps +pardonable, of the favorable reception accorded the little work by the +missionary elders of the Church, and by the people among whom these +devoted servants are called to labor. The present issue of twenty +thousand copies constitutes the second edition, and is published +primarily for use in the missionary field. The text of the second +edition is practically identical with that of the first. + +Salt Lake City, Utah, JAMES E. TALMAGE. + February, 1910. + + + + +CONTENTS. + +CHAPTER I. + + _Introduction: The Establishment of the Church of Christ_. + + Conditions at beginning of Christian era.--Religious systems, + Jewish, Pagan, and Samaritan.--Jewish sects and parties.--Law of + Moses fulfilled and superseded.--Apostles chosen and ordained.-- + Apostolic administration.--The Church established on the western + hemisphere.--The "meridian of time." + +CHAPTER II. + + _The Apostasy Predicted_. + + The Church has not continued in unbroken succession.--Divine + fore-knowledge.--The divine purposes not thwarted.--Apostasy from + the Church compared with the apostasy of the Church.--Specific + predictions concerning the apostasy.--The Law of Moses a temporary + measure.--Isaiah's fateful prophecy.--Predictions by Jesus + Christ.--By Paul.--By Peter.--By Jude.--By John the Revelator.-- + Apostasy on the western hemisphere predicted. + +CHAPTER III. + + _Early Stages of the Apostasy_. + + The apostasy recognized in apostolic age.--Testimony of + Paul.--"Mystery of iniquity."--Summary of Paul's utterances + concerning early apostasy.--Testimony of Jude.--Of John the + Revelator.--Messages to the churches of Asia.--Nicolaitanes + denounced.--Testimonies of Hegesippus.--Early schisms in the + Church.--Declension of the Church before close of first + century.--Apostasy on the western hemisphere.--Destruction of + Nephite nation by the Lamanites. + +CHAPTER IV. + + _Causes of the Apostasy.--External Causes Considered_. + + Causes of the apostasy, external and internal.--Persecution as an + external cause.--Judaism and Paganism arrayed against the + Church.--Judaistic persecution.--Predictions of Judaistic + opposition.--Fulfillment of the same.--Destruction of Jerusalem. + +CHAPTER V. + + _Causes of the Apostasy.--External Causes, Continued_. + + Pagan persecution.--Roman opposition to Christianity, explanation + of.--Number of persecutions by the Romans.--Persecution under + Nero.--Under Domitian.--Under Trajan.--Under Marcus Aurelius.--Later + persecutions.--Persecutions under Diocletian.--Extent of the + Diocletian persecution.--Diocletian boast that Christianity was + extinct.--The Church taken under state protection by Constantine the + Great. + +CHAPTER VI. + + _Causes of the Apostasy.--Internal Causes_. + + Diverse effect of persecution.--Imprudent zeal of some.--Return to + idolatry by others.--"Libels" attesting individual apostasy.--Sad + condition of the Church in third century.--Testimony as to + conditions of apostasy at this period.--Decline of the Church + antedates the conversion of Constantine.--Departure from + Christianity.--Specific causes of the growing apostasy. + +CHAPTER VII. + + _Internal Causes.--Continued_. + + First specific cause: "The corrupting of the simple principles of + the gospel by the admixture of the so-called philosophic systems of + the times."--Judaistic perversions.--Admixture of Gnosticism with + Christianity.--Gnosticism unsatisfying.--New platonics.--Doctrine of + the Logos.--"The World."--Sibellianism.--Arianism.--The Council of + Nice and its denunciation of Arianism.--The Nicene Creed.--The Creed + of Athanasius.--Perverted view of life.--Disregard for truth. + +CHAPTER VIII. + + _Internal Causes.--Continued_. + + Second specific cause: "Unauthorized additions to the ceremonies of + the Church, and the introduction of vital changes in essential + ordinances."--Simplicity of early form of worship ridiculed.-- + Formalism and superstition increase.--Adoration of images, etc.-- + Changes in baptismal ordinance.--Time of its administration + restricted.--Ministrations of the exorcist introduced.--Immersion + substituted by sprinkling.--Infant baptism introduced.--Changes in + the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.--Fallacy of + transubstantiation.--Adoration of the "host."--Proof of apostate + condition of the Church. + +CHAPTER IX. + + _Internal Causes.--Continued_. + + Third specific cause: "Unauthorized changes in church organization + and government."--Early form of church government.--Equality of the + bishops.--Origin of synods or church councils.--Bishops of Rome + claimed supremacy.--Title of Pope assumed.--Secular authority + asserted by the Pope.--Indulgences or pardons.--Infamous doctrine of + supererogation.--The traffic in indulgences.--Tetzel the papal + agent.--Copy of an indulgence.--The sin of blasphemy.-- + Scripture-reading forbidden to the people.--Draper's arraignment of + the papacy. + +CHAPTER X. + + _Results of the Apostasy.--Its Sequel_. + + Revolts against the Church of Rome.--John Wickliffe in England.-- + John Huss and Jerome of Prague.--The Reformation inaugurated.-- + Martin Luther, his revolt; his excommunication; his defense at + Worms.--The Protestants.--Zwingle and Calvin.--The Inquisition.-- + Zeal of the reformers.--Rise of the Church of England.--Divine + over-ruling in the events of the Reformation.--The "Mother Church" + apostate.--Fallacy of assuming human origin of divine authority.-- + Priestly orders of Church of England declared invalid by "Mother + Church."--The apostasy admitted and affirmed.--Wesley's + testimony.--Declaration by Church of England.--Divine declaration of + the apostasy.--The sequel.--The Revelator's vision of the + Restoration.--The Church re-established in the nineteenth century. + +COPYRIGHT +by +JAMES E. TALMAGE. +1909. + + + + +The Great Apostasy. + + +CHAPTER I. + +**Introduction: The Establishment of the Church of Christ**. + + +1. A belief common to all sects and churches professing Christianity +is that Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of the human race, +established His Church upon the earth by personal ministration in the +meridian of time. Ecclesiastical history, as distinguished from +secular history, deals with the experiences of the Church from the +time of its establishment. The conditions under which the Church was +founded first claim our attention. + +2. At the beginning of the Christian era, the Jews, in common with +most other nations, were subjects of the Roman empire.--(See Note 1, +end of chapter.) They were allowed a considerable degree of liberty in +maintaining their religious observances and national customs +generally, but their status was far from that of a free and +independent people. + +3. The period was one of comparative peace,--a time marked by fewer +wars and less dissension than the empire had known for many years. +These conditions were favorable for the mission of the Christ, and for +the founding of His Church on earth. + +4. The religious systems extant at the time of Christ's earthly +ministry may be classified in a general way as Jewish and Pagan, with +a minor system--the Samaritan--which was essentially a mixture of the +other two. The children of Israel alone proclaimed the existence of +the true and living God; they alone looked forward to the advent of +the Messiah, whom mistakenly they awaited as a prospective conqueror +coming to crush the enemies of their nation. All other nations, +tongues, and peoples bowed to pagan deities, and their worship +comprised naught but the sensual rites of heathen idolatry. +Paganism--(See Note 2, end of chapter.) was a religion of form and +ceremony, based on polytheism--a belief in the existence of a +multitude of gods, which deities were subject to all the vices and +passions of humanity, while distinguished by immunity from death. +Morality and virtue were unknown as elements of heathen service; and +the dominant idea in pagan worship was that of propitiating the gods, +in the hope of averting their anger and purchasing their favor. + +5. The Israelites, or Jews, as they were collectively known, thus +stood apart among the nations as proud possessors of superior +knowledge, with a lineage and a literature, with a priestly +organization and a system of laws, that separated and distinguished +them as a people at once peculiar and exclusive. While the Jews +regarded their idolatrous neighbors with abhorrence and contempt, they +in turn were treated with derision as fanatics and inferiors. + +6. But the Jews, while thus distinguished as a people from the rest of +the world, were by no means a united people; on the contrary, they +were divided among themselves on matters of religious profession and +practice. In the first place, there was a deadly enmity between the +Jews proper and the Samaritans. These latter were a mixed people +inhabiting a distinct province mostly between Judea and Galilee, +largely made up of Assyrian colonists who had intermarried with the +Jews. While affirming their belief in the Jehovah of the Old +Testament, they practiced many rites belonging to the paganism they +claimed to have forsaken, and were regarded by the Jews proper as +unorthodox and reprobate. + +7. Then the Jews themselves were divided into many contending sects +and parties, among which the principal were the Pharisees and the +Sadducees; and beside these we read of Essenes, Galileans, Herodians, +etc. + +8. The Jews were living under the Law of Moses, the outward observance +of which was enforced by priestly rule, while the spirit of the law +was very generally ignored by priest and people alike. That the Mosaic +law was given as a preparation for something greater was afterward +affirmed by Paul, in his epistle to the saints at Galatia: "Wherefore +the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ."--(Galatians +3:24.) And the fact that a higher law was to supersede the lower is +abundantly shown in the Savior's own teachings: "Ye have heard that it +was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall +kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, that +whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger +of the judgment: * * * Ye have heard that it was said by them of old +time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you that +whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery +with her already in his heart. * * * Again, ye have heard that it hath +been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but +shall perform unto the Lord thine oaths: But I say unto you, swear not +at all. * * * Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye +and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil. +* * * Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy +neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, +bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for +them which despitefully use you and persecute you."--(Matthew 5:21-44; +read the entire chapter.) + +9. These teachings, based on love, so different from the spirit of +retaliation to which they had been accustomed under the law, caused +great surprise among the people; yet in affirmation of the fact that +the law was not to be ignored, and could only be superseded by its +fulfillment, the Master said: "Think not that I am come to destroy the +law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy but to fulfill. For +verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one +tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."-- +(Matt. 5:17, 18.) + +10. It is very evident the Master had come with a greater doctrine +than was then known, and that the teachings of the day were +insufficient. "For I say unto you, that except your righteousness +shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall +in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."--(Verse 20.) + +11. Jesus Himself was strict in complying with all rightful +requirements under the law; but He refused to recognize an observance +of the letter alone, however rigidly required, as a substitute for +compliance with the spirit of the Mosaic injunction. + +12. The excellent teachings and precepts of true morality inculcated +by the Christ prepared the minds of those who believed His words for +the introduction of the gospel in its purity, and for the +establishment of the Church of Christ as an earthly organization. + +13. From among the disciples who followed Him, some of whom had been +honored by preliminary calls, He chose twelve men, whom He ordained to +the apostleship:--"And He ordained twelve, that they should be with +Him, and that He might send them forth to preach."--(Mark 3:14.) +Again: "And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of +them he chose twelve whom also he named apostles."--(Luke 6:13; +compare Matt. 10:1, 2.) The twelve special witnesses of Him and His +work were sent out to preach in the several cities of the Jews. On +this, their first mission, they were instructed to confine their +ministrations to the house of Israel, and the burden of their message +was "The kingdom of heaven is at hand."--(Matt. 10:7; study the entire +chapter.) They were told to use the power with which they had been +invested by ordination, in preaching, in healing the sick, in raising +the dead even, and in subduing evil spirits; the Master's admonition +was, "Freely ye have received, freely give." They were to travel +without money or provisions, relying upon a higher power to supply +their needs through the agency of those to whom they would offer the +message of truth; and they were warned of the possible hardships +awaiting them and of the persecution which sooner or later would +surely befall them. + +14. At a later date Christ called others to the work of the ministry, +and sent them out in pairs to precede Him and prepare the people for +His coming. Thus we read of "the seventy" who were instructed in terms +almost identical with those of the apostolic commission.--(Luke 10; +compare with Matt. 10.) That their investiture was one of authority +and power and no mere form is shown by the success attending their +administrations; for, when they returned they reported triumphantly, +"Lord, even the devils are subject to us through thy name."--(Luke +10:17.) + +15. The specific commission given unto the apostles at the time of +their ordination was afterward emphasized. They were the subjects of +the particularly solemn ordinance spoken of as the washing of feet, so +necessary that in reply to Peter's objection the Lord said: "If I wash +thee not, thou hast no part with me."--(John 13:4-9.) And unto the +eleven who had remained faithful, the Risen Lord delivered His parting +instructions, immediately before the ascension: "Go ye into all the +world, and preach the gospel to every creature." After our Lord's +departure the apostles entered upon the ministry with vigor: "And they +went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and +confirming the word with signs following."--(Mark 16:14-10; compare +Matt. 28:19, 20.) + +16. These scriptures indicate the authority of the apostles to +administer the affairs of the Church after the ascension of the +Resurrected Messiah. That Peter, the senior member of the apostolic +council, was given a position of presidency, appears from the Savior's +special admonition and charge on the shores of the Tiberian sea.-- +(John 21:15-17.) + +17. That the apostles realized that though the Master had gone He had +left with them authority and command to build up the Church as an +established organization, is abundantly proved by scripture. They +first proceeded to fill the vacancy in the presiding council or +"quorum" of twelve, a vacancy occasioned by the apostasy and death of +Judas Iscariot; and the mode of procedure in this official act is +instructive. The installation of a new apostle was not determined by +the eleven alone; we read that the disciples (or members of the +Church) were gathered together--about a hundred and twenty in number. +To them Peter presented the matter requiring action, and emphasized +the fact that the man to be chosen must be one who had personal +knowledge and testimony of the Lord's ministry, and who was therefore +qualified to speak as a special witness of the Christ, which +qualification is the distinguishing feature of the apostleship. +"Wherefore," said Peter, "of these men which have companied with us +all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning +from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from +us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his +resurrection."--(Acts 1:21, 22; read verses 15-26 inclusive.) We are +further informed that two men were nominated, and that the divine +power was invoked to show whether either, and if so, which, was the +Lord's choice. Then the votes were cast "and the lot fell upon +Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles." + +18. It is evident that the apostles considered their council or quorum +as definitely organized with a membership limit of twelve; and that +the work of the Church required that the organization be made +complete. Nevertheless, we read of none others subsequently chosen to +fill vacancies in the council of twelve. Paul, who previous to his +conversion was known as Saul of Tarsus, received a special +manifestation, in which he heard the voice of the Risen Lord declaring +"I am Jesus whom thou persecutest,"--(Acts 9:5; read verses 1-22) and +thereby he became a special witness of the Lord Jesus, and as such was +in truth an apostle, though we have no definite scriptural record that +he was ever made a member of the council of twelve. As showing the +importance of ordination to office under the hands of duly constituted +authorities, we have the instance of Paul's ordination. Though he had +conversed with the Resurrected Jesus, though he had been the subject +of a special manifestation of divine power in the restoration of his +sight, he had nevertheless to be baptized; and later he was +commissioned for the work of the ministry by the authoritative +imposition of hands.--(Acts 13:1-3.) + +19. Another instance of official action in choosing and setting apart +men to special office in the Church arose soon after the ordination of +Matthias. It appears that one feature of the Church organization in +early apostolic days was a common ownership of material things, +distribution being made according to need. As the members increased, +it was found impracticable for the apostles to devote the necessary +attention and time to these temporal matters, so they called upon the +members to select seven men of honest report, whom the apostles would +appoint to take special charge of these affairs. These men were set +apart by prayer and by the laying on of hands.--(Acts 6:1-7.) The +instance is instructive as showing that the apostles realized their +possession of authority to direct in the affairs of the Church and +that they observed with strict fidelity the principle of common +consent in the administration of their high office. They exercised +their priestly powers in the spirit of love, and with due regard to +the rights of the people over whom they were placed to preside. + +20. Under the administration of the apostles, and others who labored +by their direction in positions of lesser authority, the Church grew +in numbers and in influence.--(See Note 3, end of chapter.) For ten or +twelve years after the ascension of Christ, Jerusalem remained the +headquarters of the Church, but branches, or, as designated in the +scriptural record, separate "churches," were established in the +outlying provinces. As such branches were organized, bishops, deacons, +and other officers were chosen, and doubtless ordained by authority, +to minister in local affairs.--(See Philip. 1:1; compare I Tim. +3:1,2,8,10.) + +21. That the commission of the Lord Jesus to the apostles, instructing +them to preach the gospel widely, was executed with promptness and +zeal, is evident from the rapid growth of the Church in the early +apostolic times.--(Acts 6:7; 12:24; 19:20.) Paul, writing about A. D. +64--approximately thirty years after the ascension--declares that the +gospel had already been carried to every nation--"preached to every +creature under heaven,"--(Col. 1:23; compare verse 6) by which +expression the apostle doubtless means that the gospel message had +been so generally proclaimed, that all who would might learn of it. + +22. Details as to the organization of the Church in apostolic days are +not given with great fulness. As already shown, the presiding +authority was vested in the twelve apostles; and furthermore, the +special calling of the seventies has received attention; but beside +these there were evangelists, pastors, and teachers;--(Eph. 4:11) and +in addition, high priests,--(Heb. 5:1-5) elders,--(Acts 14:23; 25:6; +I Peter 5:1) bishops,--(I Tim. 3:1; Titus 1:7) etc. The purpose of +these several offices is explained by Paul to be:--"For the perfecting +of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the +body of Christ."--(Eph. 4:12; read also verses 13-16.) The Church with +its graded offices and its spiritual gifts has been aptly compared to +a perfect body with its separate organs and its individual members, +each necessary to the welfare of the whole, yet none independent of +the rest. As in the human organism so in the Church of Christ, no one +with propriety can say to another, "I have no need of thee."--(See I +Cor. 12. See note 4, end of chapter.) + +**The Church of Christ on the Western Hemisphere**. + +23. We have seen, on the evidence of the Jewish scriptures, how the +Church was established and made strong in Asia and Europe in and +immediately following the meridian of time. The scriptures cited are +such as appeal to all earnest Christians; the authority is that of the +New Testament. We have now to consider the establishment of the Church +amongst those who constituted another division of the house of +Israel--a people inhabiting what is now known as the American +continent. + +24. For the benefit of those who are unfamiliar with the Nephite +scriptures published to the world as the Book of Mormon, a brief +historical summary is here presented.--(See Note 5, end of chapter.) +In the year 600 B. C., in the reign of King Zedekiah, a small colony +was led from Jerusalem by an inspired prophet named Lehi. These people +were brought by divine assistance to the shores of the Arabian Sea, +where they constructed a vessel in which they crossed the great waters +to the western coast of South America. They landed 590 B. C. The +people were soon divided into two parties, led respectively by Nephi +and Laman, sons of Lehi; and these factions grew into the opposing +nations known in history as Nephites and Lamanites. The former +developed while the latter retrograded in the arts of civilization. +Nephite prophets predicted the earthly advent of the Messiah, and +foretold His ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection. + +25. The record states that the Messiah appeared in person among the +Nephites on the western continent. This was subsequent to His +ascension from the Mount of Olives. A foreshadowing of this great +event was given by Christ in a declaration made while yet He lived on +earth. Comparing Himself to the good shepherd who giveth his life for +the sheep, He said: "And other sheep I have, which are not of this +fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there +shall be one fold, and one shepherd."--(John 10:16; read verses 1-18 +inclusive. Compare III Nephi 15:21.) + +26. According to the Nephite record, certain predicted signs of the +Savior's death had come to pass. Destructive earthquakes and other +dread convulsions of nature had taken place in the west, while the +supreme tragedy was being enacted on Calvary. The people of the land +Bountiful, comprising the northern portion of South America, were +still marveling over the great convulsions that had terrified them a +few weeks earlier, and on a certain occasion, were gathered together +discussing the matter, when they heard a voice as from the heavens +saying: "Behold my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I +have glorified my name: hear ye him."--(III Nephi 11:7; read the +entire chapter.) Looking up, they beheld a man descending. He was +clothed in a white robe, and as He reached the earth He said: "Behold, +I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the +world. * * * Arise and come forth unto me, that ye may thrust your +hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails +in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God of +Israel, and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the +sins of the world."--(Verses 10:14.) + +27. Having thus declared Himself, Christ proceeded to instruct the +people in the plan of the gospel as He had preached it, and in the +constitution of the Church as He had established it in the east. He +visited the Nephite people on subsequent occasions, taught them many +of the precepts previously given to the Jews; emphasized the doctrine +of baptism and other ordinances essential to salvation; instituted the +sacrament in commemoration of His atoning death; chose and +commissioned twelve apostles, on whom He conferred authority in the +Church; explained the importance of designating the organization by +its proper name--the Church of Christ; and announced the fulfilment of +the law of Moses and the fact that it was thenceforth superseded by +the gospel embodied within the Church as established by Himself. In +plan of organization, in doctrine and precept, and in prescribed +ordinances, the Church of Christ in the west was the counterpart of +the Church in Palestine. + +--- + +28. Thus in the meridian of time the Church of God was founded on both +sides of the earth. In its pristine simplicity and beauty it exhibited +the majesty of a divine institution. It is now our saddening duty to +consider the decline of spiritual power within the Church, and the +eventual apostasy of the Church itself. + + +NOTES. + +1. _Conditions at the Beginning of the Christian Era_. "At the birth +of Christ this amazing federation of the world into one great monarchy +had been finally achieved. Augustus, at Rome, was the sole power to +which all nations looked. * * * No prince, no king, no potentate of +any name could break the calm which such a universal dominion secured. +* * * It was in such a unique era that Jesus Christ was born. The +whole earth lay hushed in profound peace. All lands lay freely open to +the message of mercy and love which He came to announce. Nor was the +social and moral condition of the world at large, at the birth of +Christ, less fitting for His advent than the political. The prize of +universal power struggled for through sixty years of plots and +desolating civil wars, had been won at last by Augustus. Sulla and +Marius, Pompey and Caesar, had led their legions against each other, +alike in Italy and the provinces, and had drenched the earth with +blood. Augustus himself had reached the throne only after thirteen +years of war, which involved regions wide apart. The world was +exhausted by the prolonged agony of such a strife; it sighed for +repose." (Cunningham Geikie, "The Life and Works of Christ," New York, +1894; vol. 1, p. 25.) + +"The Roman empire, at the birth of Christ, was less agitated by wars +and turmoils than it had been for many years before. For though I +cannot assent to the opinion of those who, following the account of +Orosius, maintain that the temple of Janus was then shut, and that +wars and discords absolutely ceased throughout the world, yet it is +certain that the period in which our Savior descended upon earth may +be justly styled the 'pacific age,' if we compare it with the +preceding times. And indeed the tranquillity that then reigned was +necessary to enable the ministers of Christ to execute with success +their sublime commission to the human race." (Mosheim, "Ecclesiastical +History," Cent. I, Part I; ch. 1:4). + +2. _Paganism at the Beginning of the Christian Era_. "Every nation +then had its respective gods, over which presided one more excellent +than the rest; yet in such a manner that this supreme deity was +himself controlled by the rigid empire of the fates, or what the +philosophers called 'external necessity.' The gods of the east were +different from those of the Gauls, the Germans, and the other northern +nations. The Grecian divinities differed widely from those of the +Egyptians, who deified plants, animals, and a great variety of the +productions both of nature and art. Each people also had their own +particular manner of worshipping and appeasing their respective +deities, entirely different from the sacred rites of other countries. +* * * One thing, indeed, which at first sight appears very remarkable, +is, that this variety of religions and of gods neither produced wars +nor dissensions among the different nations, the Egyptians excepted. +Nor is it perhaps necessary to except even them, since their wars +undertaken for their gods cannot be looked upon with propriety as +wholly of a religious nature. Each nation suffered its neighbors to +follow their own method of worship, to adore their own gods, to enjoy +their own rites and ceremonies, and discovered no sort of displeasure +at their diversity of sentiments in religious matters. There is, +however, little wonderful in this spirit of mutual toleration, when we +consider that they all looked upon the world as one great empire, +divided into various provinces, over every one of which a certain +order of divinities presided; and that therefore none could behold +with contempt the gods of other nations, or force strangers to pay +homage to theirs. The Romans exercised this toleration, in the amplest +manner. For, though they would not allow any changes to be made in the +religions that were publicly professed in the empire, nor any new form +of worship to be openly introduced, yet they granted to their citizens +a full liberty of observing in private the sacred rites of other +nations, and of honoring foreign deities (whose worship contained +nothing inconsistent with the interests and laws of the republic) with +feasts, temples, consecrated groves and such like testimonies of +homage and respect." (Mosheim, "Eccl. Hist.," Cent. I, Part I; ch. +1:7-8.) + +3. _Rapid Growth of the Church_. Eusebius, who wrote in the early part +of the fourth century, speaking of the first decade after the Savior's +ascension, says: + +"Thus, then, under a celestial influence, and co-operation, the +doctrine of the Savior, like the rays of the sun, quickly irradiated +the whole world. Presently, in accordance with divine prophecy, the +sound of His inspired evangelists and apostles had gone throughout all +the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. Throughout every +city and village, like a replenished barn floor, churches were rapidly +abounding and filled with members from every people. Those who, in +consequence of the delusions that had descended to them from their +ancestors, had been fettered by the ancient disease of idolatrous +superstition, were now liberated by the power of Christ, through the +teachings and miracles of His messengers." (Eusebius, "Ecclesiastical +History," Book I, ch. 3.) + +4. _Divine Instrumentality in the Apostolic Ministry_. "When we +consider the rapid progress of Christianity among the Gentile nations, +and the poor and feeble instruments by which this great and amazing +event was immediately effected, we naturally have recourse to an +omnipotent and invisible hand, as its true and proper cause. For, +unless we suppose here a divine interposition, how was it possible +that men, destitute of all human aid, without credit or riches, +learning, or eloquence, could, in so short a time, persuade a +considerable part of mankind to abandon the religion of their +ancestors? How was it possible, that an handful of apostles, who, as +fishermen and publicans, must have been contemned by their own nation, +and as Jews must have been odious to all others, could engage the +learned and mighty, as well as the simple and those of low degree, to +forsake their favorite prejudices, and to embrace a new religion which +was an enemy to their corrupt passions? And, indeed, there were +undoubted marks of a celestial power perpetually attending their +ministry. Their very language, an incredible energy, an amazing power +of sending light into the understanding and conviction into the +heart." (Mosheim, "Ecclesiastical History," Cent. I, Part 1, ch. 4:8.) + +5. _Nephites and Lamanites_. The progenitors of the Nephite nation +"were led from Jerusalem 600 B. C., by Lehi, a Jewish prophet of the +tribe of Manasseh. His immediate family, at the time of their +departure from Jerusalem, comprised his wife Sariah, and their sons +Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi; at a later stage of the history, +daughters are mentioned, but whether any of these were born before the +family exodus we are not told. Beside his own family, the colony of +Lehi included Zoram and Ishmael, the latter an Israelite of the tribe +of Ephraim. Ishmael, with his family, joined Lehi in the wilderness; +and his descendants were numbered with the nation of whom we are +speaking. The company journeyed somewhat east of south, keeping near +the borders of the Red Sea; then changing their course to the +eastward, crossed the peninsula of Arabia; and there, on the shores of +the Arabian Sea, built and provisioned a vessel in which they +committed themselves to Divine care upon the waters. Their voyage +carried them eastward across the Indian Ocean, then over the south +Pacific Ocean to the western coast of South America, whereon they +landed (590 B. C.) * * * The people established themselves on what to +them was the land of promise; many children were born, and in the +course of a few generations a numerous posterity held possession of +the land. After the death of Lehi, a division occurred, some of the +people accepting as their leader Nephi, who had been duly appointed to +the prophetic office; while the rest proclaimed Laman, the eldest of +Lehi's sons, as their chief. Henceforth the divided people were known +as Nephites and Lamanites respectively. At times they observed toward +each other fairly friendly relations; but generally they were opposed, +the Lamanites manifesting implacable hatred and hostility toward their +Nephite kindred. The Nephites advanced in the arts of civilization, +built large cities, and established prosperous commonwealths; yet they +often fell into transgression; and the Lord chastened them by making +their foes victorious. They spread northward, occupying the northern +part of South America; then, crossing the Isthmus, they extended their +domain over the southern, central, and eastern portions of what is now +the United States of America. The Lamanites, while increasing in +numbers, fell under the curse of darkness; they became dark in skin +and benighted in spirit, forgot the God of their fathers, lived a wild +nomadic life, and degenerated into the fallen state in which the +American Indians,--their lineal descendants,--were found by those who +re-discovered the western continent in later times." (The Author, +"Articles of Faith," Lect. 14:7, 8.) + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +**The Apostasy Predicted**. + + +1. In proceeding with our present inquiry we accept as demonstrated +facts the establishment of the Church of Christ under the Savior's +personal administration and the rapid growth of the Church in the +early period of the apostolic ministry. + +2. A question of the utmost importance is: Has the Church of Christ, +thus authoritatively established, maintained an organized existence +upon the earth from the apostolic age to the present? Other questions +are suggested by the first. If the Church has continued as an earthly +organization, where lies the proof or evidence of legitimate +succession in priestly authority, and which among the multitude of +contending sects or churches of the present day is the actual +possessor of the holy priesthood originally committed to the Church by +the Christ, its founder? + +3. Again, have the spiritual gifts and graces by which the early +Church was characterized and distinguished been manifest on earth +through the centuries that have passed since the meridian of time; and +if so, in which of the numerous churches of these modern times do we +find such signs following the professed believers?--(See Mark 16:17.) + +4. We affirm that with the passing of the so-called apostolic age the +Church gradually drifted into a condition of apostasy, whereby +succession in the priesthood was broken; and that the Church, as an +earthly organization operating under divine direction and having +authority to officiate in spiritual ordinances, ceased to exist. + +5. If therefore the Church of Christ is to be found upon the earth +to-day it must have been re-established by divine authority; and the +holy priesthood must have been restored to the world from which it was +lost by the apostasy of the Primitive Church.--(See Note 1, end of +chapter.) + +6. We affirm that the great apostasy was foretold by the Savior +Himself while He lived as a Man among men, and by His inspired +prophets both before and after the period of His earthly probation. +And further, we affirm that a rational interpretation of history +demonstrates the fact of this great and general apostasy. + +7. Before we take up in detail the specific predictions referred to, +and the evidence of their dread fulfilment, we may profitably devote +brief attention to certain general considerations. + +8. Respecting the foreknowledge of God, let it not be said that divine +omniscience is of itself a determining cause whereby events are +inevitably brought to pass. A mortal father who knows the weaknesses +and frailties of his son may by reason of that knowledge sorrowfully +predict the calamities and sufferings awaiting his wayward boy. He may +foresee in that son's future a forfeiture of blessings that could have +been won, loss of position, self-respect, reputation and honor; even +the dark shadows of a felon's cell and the sight of a drunkard's grave +may appear in the saddening visions of that fond father's soul; yet, +convinced by experience of the impossibility of bringing about that +son's reform, he foresees the dread developments of the future, and he +finds but sorrow and anguish in his knowledge. Can it be said that the +father's foreknowledge is a cause of the son's sinful life? The son, +perchance, has reached his maturity; he is the master of his own +destiny; a free agent unto himself. The father is powerless to control +by force or to direct by arbitrary command; and while he would gladly +make any effort or sacrifice to save his son from the fate impending, +he fears for what seems to be an awful certainty. But surely that +thoughtful, prayerful, loving parent does not contribute to the son's +waywardness because of his knowledge. To reason otherwise would be to +say that a neglectful father, who takes not the trouble to study the +nature and character of his son, who shuts his eyes to sinful +tendencies, and rests in careless indifference as to the probable +future, will by his very heartlessness be benefiting his child, +because his lack of forethought cannot operate as a contributory cause +to dereliction. + +9. Our Heavenly Father has a full knowledge of the nature and +dispositions of each of His children, a knowledge gained by long +observation and experience in the past eternity of our primeval +childhood; a knowledge compared with which that gained by earthly +parents through mortal experience with their children is +infinitesimally small. By reason of that surpassing knowledge, God +reads the future of child and children, of men individually and of men +collectively as communities and nations; He knows what each will do +under given conditions, and sees the end from the beginning. His +foreknowledge is based on intelligence and reason; He foresees the +future as a state which naturally and surely will be; not as one which +must be because He has arbitrarily willed that it shall be. + +10. But, it may be argued that in the illustrative instance given +above--that of the earthly parent and the wayward son,--the father +had not the power to change the sad course of sin whereby his son is +hastening to ignominy and destruction; while the omnipotent Father can +save if He will. In reply this is to be said: The Father of souls has +endowed His children with the divine birthright of free agency; He +does not and will not control them by arbitrary force; He impels no +man toward sin; He compels none to righteousness. Unto man has been +given freedom to act for himself; and, associated with this +independence, is the fact of strict responsibility and the assurance +of individual accountability. In the judgment with which we shall be +judged, all the conditions and circumstances of our lives shall be +considered. The inborn tendencies due to heredity, the effect of +environment whether conducive to good or evil, the wholesome teachings +of youth, or the absence of good instruction--these and all other +contributory elements must be taken into account in the rendering of a +just verdict as to the soul's guilt or innocence. Nevertheless, the +divine wisdom makes plain what will be the result with given +conditions operating on known natures and dispositions of men; while +every individual is free to choose good or evil within the limits of +the many conditions existing and operative..--(See Note 2, end of +chapter.) + +11. Another matter worthy of thought in the present connection is +this: Is the fact of the great apostasy,--the virtual overthrow and +destruction of the Church established by Jesus Christ,--to be regarded +as an instance of failure in the Lord's plans? Is it a case of defeat +in which Satan was victor over Christ? Consider the following. What +mortal has yet measured the standard by which Omniscience gages +success or failure? Who dares affirm that what man hails as triumph or +deplores as defeat will be so accounted when tested by the principles +of eternal reckoning? + +12. The history of the world abounds with instances of the temporary +triumph of evil, of justice seemingly miscarried, of divine plans for +the time being frustrated, of God's purposes opposed and their +consummation delayed. + +13. We read of the Lord's covenant with Israel? Unto Abraham, Isaac, +and Jacob He declared that their descendants should be a people chosen +for His special service among the nations. Through that lineage the +Savior of mankind was to be born; in the posterity of Abraham all +nations of the earth were to be blessed. Blessings beyond the heart of +man to conceive, beyond the mind of man to comprehend, were promised +on condition of loyal allegiance to Him who proclaimed Himself their +God and their King. Moreover the Lord predicted calamity and +suffering, and individual affliction and national disgrace, if Israel +departed from the service of Jehovah and yielded to the enticements of +their heathen neighbors who knew not God. Think you that the Lord was +ignorant of the course His people would choose? Did He fail to foresee +that Israel would follow the evil way, forfeiting the blessings and +reaping the harvest of sorrow? Jehovah's plans failed not, though the +realization of the blessings so abundantly promised has been long +delayed. Equally forceful with the prediction of calamity in case of +sin, was the promise of eventual restoration to favor. The dispersion +of Israel already accomplished, was to be followed by the gathering of +Israel now in progress.--(See the Author's "Articles of Faith," +lectures 17 and 18.) + +14. What would have been the world's verdict as to the success or +failure of the mission of the Christ, had a vote been taken at the +time of the crucifixion? Seemingly His enemies had triumphed; He who +proclaimed Himself the Messiah, the Son of God, the resurrection and +the life, over whom death could not prevail, had suffered the fate of +malefactors, and His body was in the tomb. But the verdict of the +centuries, which is the verdict of the eternities to come, acclaims +that "failure" as the greatest triumph of the ages, the victory of +victories. + +15. Even so with the Church. For a season the powers of evil +triumphed, and the spirit of apostasy ruled. But beyond the darkness +of the spiritual night the glorious dawn of the restoration was seen +in prophetic vision, and both the night with its horrors, and the +awakening day with its splendor, were foreseen and foretold. + +16. In our study of the predictions of the apostasy as embodied in +scripture and of their realization as attested by later history, we +shall recognize two distinct phases or stages of the progressive +falling away as follows: + + (1) Apostasy _from_ the Church; and + (2) The apostasy _of_ the Church. + +17. In the first stage we have to deal with the forsaking of the truth +and severance from the Church by individuals, at times few, at other +times many. Such conditions can scarcely be considered otherwise than +as natural and inevitable. History fails to present any example of +great undertakings upon which multitudes enter with enthusiasm, and +from which many do not desert. Unless such cases of individual +abandonment are so numerous as to show the operation of some vital +cause of disaffection, we would not need the authority of divine +prediction and inspired prophecy to explain the occurrence. We find, +however, that apostasy from the Primitive Church was widespread and +general, and that the causes leading to such a condition were of vital +significance. + +18. In the second of the two stages already specified we are +confronted with conditions of far greater import than those attending +individual secession from the Church; for here we find the Church +sinking to the degraded level of a human institution, with plan of +organization and mode of operation foreign to the constitution of the +original, without priesthood or authority to officiate in spiritual +ordinances, and devoid of the gifts and graces with which the Savior +endowed His Church at the time of its establishment. In short, we find +the Church itself apostate, boasting of temporal power, making its own +laws, teaching its own dogmas, preserving only a form of godliness, +while denying the power thereof.--(See II Tim. 3:1-6.) + +**Specific Predictions of the Apostasy**. + +19. The Lord foresaw the great and general departure from the +principles of righteousness, and from the beginning knew that men +would set up their own forms of worship, wrongfully claiming divine +authority for the same. Through the mouths of His chosen prophets He +has repeatedly predicted the inevitable event.--(See note 3, end of +chapter.) + +20. Among the prophecies antedating the birth of Christ the following +may be noted. Isaiah beheld in vision the condition of the earth in +the era of spiritual darkness, a period in which all classes would be +involved in a general condition of unrighteousness, a time when the +world of mankind would be in a helpless and practically hopeless +condition. He pictures the earth mourning and languishing in +desolation and assigns the reason for the sad condition as follows: +"The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they +have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the +everlasting covenant."--(Isaiah 24:5; read verses 1 to 6 inclusive.) + +21. It may be thought that this prophecy has reference to a violation +of the law of Moses under which ancient Israel lived. Let it be +remembered, however, that the Mosaic law is nowhere called an +everlasting covenant. The covenant between the Lord and Abraham +antedated the giving of the law by four hundred and thirty years, and, +as pointed out by Paul,--(Galatians 3:17; read the entire chapter.) In +his epistle to the Galatians, whom he designates as foolish because of +their confusing the law of Moses and the gospel of Christ, the law +could not nullify the earlier covenant the fulfillment of which could +come only through Christ. The "law," by which the inspired apostle +plainly means the Mosaic statutes, was but a preparation for the +"faith," by which latter expression the gospel as revealed by Christ +is clearly intended. "But before faith came," says Paul, "we were kept +under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be +revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto +Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is +come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are the children +of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been +baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor +Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor +female: for ye are all one in Jesus Christ. And if ye be Christ's then +are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."--(Verses +23-29.) + +22. It is evident from the tenor of the entire chapter, that while the +gospel was preached unto Abraham, and covenant made with him relating +to the coming of the Messiah through his posterity, the gospel did not +abide with Israel, and this because of transgression;--(Verse 19.) but +in lieu thereof the Mosaic law was instituted as a disciplinary +measure, temporary in character, destined to be superseded by the +gospel of Christ, and assuredly not an everlasting covenant. On the +other hand, the blood of Christ, through the shedding of which the +atoning sacrifice was wrought, is distinctively called "the blood of +the everlasting covenant,"--(Hebrews 13:20.) + +23. It is evident then that Isaiah's fateful prophecy relating to the +breaking of the everlasting covenant could have no reference to a +departure from the Mosaic requirements, but must refer to a then +future condition of apostasy following the establishment of the +everlasting covenant. Moreover, part of the great prediction, +referring to the burnings and widespread calamities,--(See Isaiah +24:6.) yet awaits its complete fulfillment. + +24. Another prediction applicable to the period when there should be +no Church of Christ to be found, and when, in consequence there should +be lamentation and suffering, is that of Amos. "Behold, the days come, +saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a +famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of +the Lord: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north +even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the +Lord, and shall not find it."--(Amos 8:11, 12.) + +25. Christ instructed His followers in terms at once direct and +conclusive, as to the apostasy then impending. In reply to certain +inquiries concerning the signs by which His second advent would be +heralded, He said: "Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall +come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many."--(Matt. +24:4, 5.) Then He told of approaching wars and political disturbances, +and added: "And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one +another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall +rise and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the +love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, +the same shall be saved."--(Verses 10-13. See note 4, end of chapter.) + +26. Further specifying the conditions incident to the growing +apostasy, Christ declared to His disciples: "Then shall they deliver +you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of +all nations for my name's sake."--(Verse 9.) And again: "Then if any +man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. +For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall +shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that if it were possible, they +shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. +Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go +not forth; behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it +not."--(Verses 23-26.) + +27. After the departure of Christ from earth His apostles continued to +warn the people of the darkness to come. In that memorable address to +the elders of Ephesus, when, as he told them, they were looking upon +his face for the last time, Paul reminded his hearers of the +instructions he had previously given them, and then charged them with +this solemn warning: "For I know this, that after my departing shall +grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of +your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw +away disciples after them."--(Acts 20:29, 30; read verses 17 to 31 +incl.) + +28. Not only would outsiders ingratiate themselves with the saints for +purposes of selfish gain,--wolves entering in, and not sparing the +flock,--but schisms and divisions were imminent; and these dissensions +were to come through some then present,--men who would aspire to +leadership, and who would set up their own doctrines, thus drawing +disciples away from the Church and unto themselves. + +29. The same apostle warns Timothy of the approaching apostasy, and +refers to some of the erroneous teachings that would be impressed upon +misguided people,--teachings which he calls "doctrines of devils." He +admonishes Timothy to put the brethren in remembrance of these things, +as is becoming in a good minister of Christ, "nourished up in the +words of faith and of good doctrine." Note the inspired prediction: +"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some +shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and +doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their +conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding +to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with +thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth."--(I Tim. +4:1-3. See Note 5, end of chapter.) + +30. In a second epistle to his beloved Timothy, while laboring under +the premonition that his martyrdom was near at hand, Paul urges zeal +and energy in the preaching of the gospel; for the shadows of the +apostasy were gathering about the Church. His admonition is pathetic +in its earnestness: "I charge thee therefore, before God, and the Lord +Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing +and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; +reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the +time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after +their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching +ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be +turned unto fables."--(II Tim. 4:1-4.) + +31. In addressing the Thessalonian saints, Paul warns them against the +error strongly advocated by some that the day of Christ's second +advent was then near at hand. It appears that deception was being +practiced, and that even forgery was suspected, for the apostle +instructs the people that they be not deceived "by word nor by letter +as from us." The admonition is forceful: "Now we beseech you, +brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering +together unto Him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, +neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the +day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for +that day shall not come, except there come a falling away 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, shewing himself that +he is God."--(II Thess. 1:2-14.) We shall see how painfully literal +has been the fulfilment of this prophecy in the blasphemous +assumptions of the apostate church, centuries later. + +32. The Apostle Peter prophesied in language so plain that none may +fail to comprehend, concerning the heresies that would be preached as +doctrine in the period of the apostasy; and he reminds the people that +there were false teachers in olden times, even as there would be in +times then future: "But there were false prophets also among the +people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily +shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought +them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall +follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall +be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned +words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time +lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not."--(II Peter 2:1-3. +Read the entire chapter, noting the description of conditions existing +in the world today.) + +33. Jude, the brother of James, in his general epistle to the saints, +reminds them of earlier warnings: "But, beloved, remember ye the words +which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; How +that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who +should walk after their own ungodly lusts."--(Jude 17, 18.) + +34. John, who is called the Revelator, saw in vision the state of the +world in the days then future. Describing the spirit of +unrighteousness as a hideous beast, and its author, Satan, as the +dragon, he says: "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 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."--(Rev. 13:4,6-9.) + +35. Note another prophecy based on the vision of John the Revelator. +Again referring to latter-day conditions he declares: "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 water."--(Rev. 14:6, 7.) + +36. While it is true that the scripture last quoted does not +specifically predict the apostasy, the breaking up of the Church is +treated as an event actually accomplished. The Revelator looked beyond +the period of disruption and saw the brighter day of the restoration +of the gospel,--a re-establishment of the Church through the ministry +of an angel. It is illogical to assume that the gospel was to be +brought to earth by a heavenly messenger if that gospel was still +extant upon the earth. Equally unreasonable is it to say that a +restoration or re-establishment of the Church of Christ would be +necessary or possible had the Church continued with rightful +succession of priesthood and power. If the gospel had to be brought +again from the heavens, the gospel must have been taken from the +earth. Thus the prophecy of a restoration is proof of an apostasy +general and complete. + +**Apostasy on the Western Hemisphere Predicted**. + +37. In the preceding chapter it was shown that the Church of Christ +was established by the Risen Lord among the Nephites of the western +world. It was foreseen that the powers of evil would be permitted to +prevail in the west as in the east. Consider the fateful words of the +prophet Alma addressed to his son Helaman: "Behold, I perceive that +this very people, the Nephites, according to the spirit of revelation +which is in me, in four hundred years from the time that Jesus Christ +shall manifest himself unto them, shall dwindle in unbelief; Yea, and +then shall they see wars and pestilence, yea, famines and bloodshed, +even until the people of Nephi shall become extinct; Yea, and this +because they shall dwindle in unbelief, and fall into the works of +darkness, and lasciviousness, and all manner of iniquities; yea, I say +unto you, that because they shall sin against so great light and +knowledge; yea, I say unto you, that from that day, even the fourth +generation shall not pass away, before this great iniquity shall +come."--(Alma 45:10-12.) + +38. An earlier prophecy relating to the degradation of the surviving +remnant of Lehi's descendants, was uttered by Nephi, as a result of a +revelation communicated to him through angelic visitation. He thus +describes his vision of the future: "I beheld and saw that the seed of +my brethren did contend against my seed, according to the word of the +angel; and because of the pride of my seed, and the temptations of the +devil, I beheld that the seed of my brethren did overpower the people +of my seed. And it came to pass that I beheld and saw the people of +the seed of my brethren, that they had overcome my seed; and they went +forth in multitudes upon the face of the land. And I saw them gathered +together in multitudes; and I saw wars and rumors of wars among them; +and in wars and rumors of wars, I saw many generations pass away. And +the angel said unto me, Behold these shall dwindle in unbelief. And it +came to pass that I beheld after they had dwindled in unbelief, they +became a dark, and loathsome, and filthy people, full of idleness and +all manner of abominations."--(I Nephi 12:19-23. For other Book of +Mormon predictions of spiritual decline on the western continent, see +II Nephi 27:1; read also II Nephi 26:19-22, and chapter 29.) The +degraded state of the North American Indians,--descendants of a +prophet-father--is a striking realization of this prophetic +declaration. + +39. The scriptures cited are sufficient to show that widespread +apostasy from the Church was foreseen; that the corruption of the +Church itself was likewise foreknown; and that on both hemispheres a +general apostasy was foretold. + + +NOTES. + +1. _The Church, Primitive and Restored_. The Church of Jesus Christ of +Latter-day Saints declares by its name a distinction from the +Primitive Church as established by Christ and His early apostles. The +essential designation of the restored Church is the Church of Jesus +Christ; its authorized name is the Church of Jesus Christ of +Latter-day Saints, the final phrase being added to distinguish the +Church as established in the present dispensation from the Church as +organized by the Savior during the period of His earthly ministry. +This distinction is shown in one of our Articles of Faith: "We (the +Church of today) believe in the same organization that existed in the +Primitive Church." + +2. _Man's Free Agency_. The teachings of the restored Church +respecting individual freedom of action are thus summarized: "The +Church holds and teaches as a strictly scriptural doctrine, that man +has inherited among the inalienable rights conferred upon him by his +divine Father, absolute freedom to choose the good or the evil in life +as he may elect. This right cannot be guarded with more jealous care +than is bestowed upon it by God Himself; for in all His dealings with +man, He has left the mortal creature free to choose and to act, with +no semblance of compulsion or restraint, beyond the influences of +paternal counsel and loving direction. True, He has given +commandments, and has established statutes, with promises of blessings +for compliance and dire penalties for infraction; but in the choice of +these, God's children are untrammeled. In this respect, man is no less +free than are the angels and the Gods, except as he has fettered +himself with the bonds of sin, and forfeited his power of will and +force of soul. The individual has a full measure of liberty to violate +the laws of health, the requirements of nature, and the commandments +of God in matters both temporal and spiritual, as he has to obey all +such; in the one case he brings upon himself the sure penalties that +belong to the broken law; as in the other he inherits the specific +blessings and the added freedom that attend a law-abiding life. +Obedience to law is the habit of the free man; 'tis the transgressor +who fears the law, for he brings upon himself deprivation and +restraint, not because of the law, which would have protected him in +his freedom, but because of his rejection of law. The predominant +attribute of justice, recognized as part of Divine nature, forbids the +thought that man should receive promises of reward for righteousness, +and threats of punishment of evil deeds, if he possessed no power of +independent action. It is no more a part of God's plan to compel men +to work righteousness, than it is His purpose to permit evil powers to +force His children into sin. In the days of Eden, the first man had +placed before him commandment and law, with an explanation of the +penalty which would follow a violation of that law. No law could have +been given him in righteousness, had he not been free to act for +himself. 'Nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is +given unto thee; but remember that I forbid it,' said the Lord God to +Adam. Concerning His dealings with the first patriarch of the race, +God has declared in this day, 'Behold I gave unto him that he should +be an agent unto himself.'" (The Author, "Articles of Faith," Lecture +3:1, 2.) + +3. _The Testimony of Prophecy to the Apostasy_. "What is prophecy but +history reversed? Nothing. Prophecy is a record of things before they +transpire. History is a record of them after they have occurred; and +of the two prophecy is more to be trusted for its accuracy than +history: for the reason that it has for its source the unerring +inspiration of Almighty God; while history,--except in the case of +inspired historians--is colored by the favor or prejudice of the +writer, depends for its exactness upon the point of view from which he +looks upon the events; and is likely to be marred in a thousand ways +by the influences surrounding him,--party considerations, national +interest or prejudice; supposed influence upon present conditions and +future prospects--all these things may interfere with history; but +prophecy is free from such influences. Historians are +self-constituted, or appointed by men; but prophets are chosen of God. +Selected by divine wisdom, and illuminated by that Spirit which shows +things that are to come, prophets have revealed to them so much of the +future as God would have men to know, and the inspired writers record +it for the enlightenment or warning of mankind, without the coloring +or distortion so liable to mar the work of the historian. Thus Moses +recorded what the history of Israel would be on condition of their +obedience to God: and what it would be if they were disobedient. +Israel was disobedient, and historians have exhausted their art in +attempts to tell of their disobedience and suffering; but neither in +vividness nor accuracy do the histories compare with the prophecy. So +with the prophecy of Daniel in respect to the rise and succession of +the great political powers that should dominate the earth, and the +final triumph of the Kingdom of God. So with well-nigh all of the +prophecies."--(B. H. Roberts, "A New Witness for God," pp. 113, 114.) + +4. _Christ's Prediction of the Apostasy_. The forceful prophecy, +couched in terms of vivid description, uttered by our Lord in response +to inquiries by His disciples, has been the subject of diverse opinion +and varied comment, particularly as regard the time to which the +prediction refers. As recorded in the twenty-fourth chapter of +Matthew, a significant sign of the progress of events to precede the +second coming of Christ was stated as follows: "And this gospel of the +kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all +nations; and then shall the end come." (Verse 14.) It is claimed by +many that the "end" referred to in the passage quoted is not +necessarily the close of the final dispensation, not what is commonly +spoken of as the end of the world, but the closing up of the gospel +dispensation then current; and in support of this interpretation it is +urged that following the utterance quoted Christ proceeded to predict +the calamities then awaiting Jerusalem. That during the period covered +by the earthly ministry of the apostles, the gospel was preached in +all the civilized nations of the Eastern hemisphere, is evident alike +from scripture and from the uncanonical writings of repute relating to +that period. Paul speaks of the Gospel as having been carried in his +day to the world, and as having been preached to every creature under +heaven (see Colos. 1:6, 23; compare Romans 10:18; see also Note 3, +following chapter I of this work, page 15.) + +In Joseph Smith's version of the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew the +paragraph relating to the preaching of the gospel in all the world as +one of the signs specified by Jesus Christ, is transposed so as to +apply more directly to the modern or last dispensation. (See Pearl of +Great Price, Writings of Joseph Smith, 1.) The scripture under +consideration has direct application to the conditions characteristic +of present times--the period now current and immediately precedent to +the second advent of the Christ. This fact, however, does not +necessarily nullify its application to the earlier period as well. +History repeats itself in many instances in this, "the dispensation of +the fulness of times;" indeed, the very name is expressive of a +summarizing or gathering together of things past, and this involves +recurrence of earlier conditions and re-enactment of laws. The +prediction of world-wide evangelization is not the only instance of a +general prophecy having more than a single limited horizon of +fulfillment. In the apostolic period the gospel was carried to all +nations known to the Lord's ministers; a similar work is in progress +today, on a scale greatly exceeding that of the past, for the world, +as measured by human occupancy, is vastly greater than of old. + +5. _Scriptures Relating to the Apostasy_. That the application of the +scriptures cited in the text is proof of the predicted apostasy is not +peculiar to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is shown +by the fact that these predictions are similarly interpreted by +theologians of other churches. Thus, in his "Bible Commentary," Dr. +Adam Clarke annotates Paul's admonition to Timothy as below. First +note the passage: "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the +latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing +spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy;" etc. +Dr. Clarke says: + +"_In the latter times_: This does not necessarily imply the last ages +of the world; but any times consequent (subsequent) to those in which +the church then lived." + +"_Depart from the faith_: They will apostatize from the faith, i. e. +from Christianity, renouncing the whole system in effect by bringing +in doctrines which render its essential truths null and void; or +denying and denouncing such doctrines as are essential to Christianity +as a system of salvation. A man may hold all the truths of +Christianity, and yet render them of none effect, by holding other +doctrines, which counteract their influence; or he may apostatize by +denying some essential doctrine, though he bring in nothing +heterodox." + +"_Speaking lies in hypocrisy_: Persons pretending not only to divine +inspiration, but also to extraordinary degrees of holiness, +self-denial, mortification, etc., in order to credit the lies and +false doctrines which they taught. Multitudes of lies were framed +concerning miracles wrought by the relics of departed saints as they +were termed." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +**Early Stages of the Apostasy**. + + +1. As shown in the preceding chapter a general apostasy from the +Primitive Church was both foreseen and foretold. Prophets who lived +centuries before the time of Christ predicted the great event, as did +also the Savior Himself and the apostles who continued the work of the +ministry after His resurrection and ascension. We are now to inquire +as to the fulfillment of these predictions. + +2. Evidence that the apostasy occurred as had been predicted is found +in the sacred scriptures and in the records of history other than +scriptural. From certain utterances of the early-day apostles it is +made plain to us that the great "falling away" had begun even while +those apostles were living. The preaching of false doctrines and the +rise of unauthorized teachers were referred to as conditions then +actually existing in the Church, and not as remote developments of the +distant future.--(See Note 1, end of chapter.) + +3. Scarcely had the gospel seed been committed to the soil before the +enemy came, and by night sowed tares amongst the wheat; and so +intimate was the growth of the two that any attempt to forcibly uproot +the weeds would have threatened the life of the grain.--(Study the +parable of wheat and tares, Matt. 13:24-30. See Note 2, end of +chapter.) + +4. Paul recognized the fact that the people amongst whom he labored +were losing the faith they had professed, and were becoming victims of +the deception practiced by false teachers. In his letter to the +churches of Galatia he wrote: "I marvel that ye are so soon removed +from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: +Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would +pervert the gospel of Christ." And then, to emphasize the sin of those +who thus sought to "pervert the gospel of Christ," he continued: "But +though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you +than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we +said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel +unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed."--(Galatians +1:6-9; read the entire chapter. See Note 3, end of chapter.) + +5. The context of the passages just quoted shows the nature of the +error into which "the churches of Galatia" were in danger of falling. +They were embroiled in a discussion as to whether they were bound by +certain requirements of the law of Moses, notably that respecting +circumcision. The apostle instructs them to the effect that the gospel +of Christ was superior to the law; and that moreover, they were +inconsistent in contending for one item of the law and neglecting the +rest. We have here indication of the effort so persisted in even by +those who had joined the Church, to modify and change the simple +requirements of the gospel by introducing the elements of Judaism. It +must be remembered that even among the apostles some difference of +opinion had existed as to the necessity of circumcision; but this had +been settled by their prayerful efforts to learn the Lord's will in +the matter; and those who sought to foment dissension on this or any +other matter of authoritative doctrine were declared to be enemies to +the Church, seeking to "pervert the gospel of Christ." + +6. In his second epistle to the "church of the Thessalonians" Paul +declares that the spirit of iniquity was then already operative. After +predicting the rise of the apostate church, with its blasphemous +assumptions of power, as a condition antecedent to the second coming +of Christ, the apostle continued as follows: "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."--(II Thess. 2:7, 8.) + +7. The seemingly obscure expression, "he who now letteth will let," +may be more readily understood by remembering that in the older style +of English "let" had the meaning of "restrain" or "hinder."--(An +example of this old-time use of the verb "let" is found in +Shakespeare. Hamlet is made to say, "Unhand me, gentlemen. By heaven +I'll make a ghost of him who lets me," i. e., of him who restrains or +hinders me.) The passage therefore may be understood as a declaration +that the spirit of iniquity was already active though restrained or +hindered for a time; and that later even this restraint would be +removed and the evil one would be in power. In the Revised Version of +the New Testament this passage is rendered thus:--"lawlessness doth +already work: only there is one that restraineth now, until he be +taken out of the way." + +8. Just who or what is referred to as exercising a restraint on the +powers of iniquity at that time has given rise to discussion. Some +writers hold that the presence of the apostles operated in this way, +while others believe that the restraining power of the Roman +government is referred to. It is known that the Roman policy was to +discountenance religious contention, and to allow a large measure of +liberty in forms of worship as long as the gods of Rome were not +maligned nor their shrines dishonored. As Roman supremacy declined +"the mystery of iniquity" embodied in the apostate church operated +practically without restraint. + +9. The expression "mystery of iniquity" as used by Paul is +significant.--(See Note 1, end of chapter.) Prominent among the early +perverters of the Christian faith were those who assailed its +simplicity and lack of exclusiveness. This simplicity was so different +from the mysteries of Judaism and the mysterious rites of heathen +idolatry as to be disappointing to many; and the earliest changes in +the Christian form of worship were marked by the introduction of +mystic ceremonies. + +10. Paul's zeal as a missionary and a proselyter is abundantly shown +in scripture; he was equally zealous in seeking to maintain the faith +of those who had accepted the truth. The Pauline epistles abound in +admonitions and pleadings against the increasing influence of false +doctrines, and in expressions of sorrow over the growth of apostasy in +the Church. His words addressed to Timothy are both emphatic and +pathetic. "Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of +me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. That good thing which +was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost, which dwelleth in us. +This thou knowest, _that all they which are in Asia be turned away +from me_."--(II Timothy 1:13-15; italics introduced; compare 4:10, +16.) + +11. An excellent summary of important utterances by the Apostle Paul +relating to the beginning of the apostasy as a fact in the early +apostolic age, has been made by one of the latter-day apostles, Orson +Pratt. He writes as follows: "The great apostasy of the Christian +Church commenced in the first century; while there were yet inspired +apostles and prophets in their midst; hence Paul, just previous to his +martyrdom, enumerates a great number who had 'made shipwreck of their +faith,' and 'turned aside unto vain jangling;' teaching 'that the +resurrection was already past,' 'giving heed to fables and endless +genealogies,' 'doubting about questions and strifes of words whereof +came envyings, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men +of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is +godliness.' This apostasy had become so general that Paul declares to +Timothy, 'that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me;' and +again he says, 'at my first answer no man stood with me, but all men +forsook me;' he further says that 'there are many unruly, and vain +talkers and deceivers, teaching things which they ought not, for +filthy lucre's sake.' These apostates, no doubt, pretended to be very +righteous; for, says the apostle, 'they profess that they know God; +but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and +unto every good work reprobate.'" + +12. Jude admonished the saints to be on their guard against men who +were in the service of Satan seeking to corrupt the Church. Addressing +himself "to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved +in Jesus Christ," he said: "It was needful for me to write unto you, +and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which +was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in +unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, +ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and +denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ."--(Jude 3, 4. +See Note 5, end of chapter.) It is plain that Jude considered "the +faith which was once delivered unto the saints" as in danger; and he +urges the faithful to contend for it and openly defend it. He reminds +the saints that they had been told "there should be mockers in the +last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts;" and adds +"These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the +Spirit."--(Verses 18, 19.) Clearly he is referring to the apostates of +such time, who, because of sensual appetites and lustful desires, have +separated themselves from the Church. + +13. During the banishment of John the Revelator on the Isle of Patmos, +when nearly all the apostles had been taken from the earth, many of +them having suffered martyrdom, the apostasy was so widespread that +only seven "churches," _i. e._, branches of the Church, remained in +such condition as to be considered deserving of the special +communication John was instructed to give. In a marvelous vision he +beheld the seven churches typified by seven golden candlesticks, with +seven stars representing the presiding officers of the several +churches; and in the midst of the golden candlesticks, with the stars +in his hand, stood "one like unto the Son of Man." + +14. The church at Ephesus was approved for its good works, +specifically for its rejection of the Nicolaitean heresies; +nevertheless reproof was administered for disaffection and neglect, +thus:--"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 will remove thy candlestick out of his +place, except thou repent."--(Rev. 2:4,5.) + +15. To the church at Pergamos John was commanded to write, denouncing +the false doctrines of certain sects and teachers, "which thing I +hate," said the Lord.--(See verses 12-16.) The church of the +Laodiceans was denounced as "lukewarm," "neither hot nor cold," and as +priding itself as rich and not in need, whereas it was in reality +"wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked."--(Rev. 3; +see verses 14-21.) + +16. The foregoing scriptures are ample as proof that even before the +ancient apostles had finished their earthly ministry, apostasy was +growing apace. The testimony of the early "Christian fathers" who +wrote in the period immediately following the passing of the apostles, +is to the same effect. According to the generally accepted chronology, +the prophetic message of John the Revelator to the churches of Asia +was given in the last years of the first century.--(Probably about +A. D. 96; see Oxford Bible, margin.) + +17. Among the historians of that period whose writings are not +regarded as canonical or scriptural, but which are nevertheless +accepted as genuine and reliable, was Hegesippus, who "flourished +nearest the days of the apostles." Writing of the conditions marking +the close of the first century and the beginning of the second, +Eusebius cites the testimony of the earlier writer as follows:--"The +same author, [Hegesippus] relating the events of the times, also says, +that the Church continued until then as a pure and uncorrupt virgin; +whilst if there were any at all that attempted to pervert the sound +doctrine of the saving gospel, they were yet skulking in dark +retreats; but when the sacred choir of apostles became extinct, and +the generation of those that had been privileged to hear their +inspired wisdom had passed away, then also the combinations of impious +error arose by the fraud and delusions of false teachers. These also, +as there were none of the apostles left, henceforth attempted, without +shame to preach their false doctrine against the gospel of truth. Such +is the statement of Hegesippus."--(Eusebius, "Ecclesiastical History," +Book III, chapter 32.) + +18. There can be little doubt that the false teachers referred to in +the testimony last cited, were professed adherents of the Church, and +not outside opponents, inasmuch as they were restrained by the +influence and authority of the apostles, and waited the passing of the +authorized leaders as an opportunity to corrupt the Church by evil +teachings. + +19. A later writer, commenting on the schisms and dissensions by which +the Church was rent in the latter part of the first century--the +period immediately following that of the apostolic ministry, says: "It +will easily be imagined that unity and peace could not reign long in +the Church, since it was composed of Jews and Gentiles, who regarded +each other with the bitterest aversion. Besides, as the converts to +Christianity could not extirpate radically the prejudices which had +been formed in their minds by education, and confirmed by time, they +brought with them into the bosom of the Church more or less of the +errors of their former religions. Thus the seeds of discord and +controversy were easily sown, and could not fail to spring up soon +into animosities and dissensions, which accordingly broke out and +divided the Church."--(Mosheim, "Eccl. History," Cent. I, Part II; +chap. 3:11. See Note 4, end of chapter.) + +20. Another recognized authority on ecclesiastical history, and one +whose avowed purpose was to present the truth respecting the Church in +its most favorable light, is Joseph Milner, author of a comprehensive +"History of the Church of Christ." He comments on the state of the +Church at the close of the first century in this wise: "Let us keep in +view what that [the spirit of the gospel] really is. The simple faith +of Christ as the only Savior of lost sinners, and the effectual +influences of the Holy Ghost in recovering souls altogether depraved +by sin--these are the leading ideas. When the effusion of the Holy +Ghost first took place, these things were taught with power; and no +sentiments which militated against them could be supported for a +moment. As, through the prevalence of human corruption and the crafts +of Satan, the love of truth was lessened, heresies and various abuses +of the gospel appeared; and in estimating them we may form some idea +of the declension of true religion toward the end of the [first] +century." The same writer continues: "Yet a gloomy cloud hung over the +conclusion of the first century. The first impressions made by the +effusion of the Spirit are generally the strongest and the most +decisively distinct from the spirit of the world. But human depravity, +overborne for a time, arises afresh, particularly in the next +generation. Hence the disorders of schism and heresy. Their tendency +is to destroy the pure work of God."--(Milner, "Church History," Cent. +I, ch. 15.) + +21. The purpose of this chapter has been that of demonstrating the +early beginning of the apostasy, so soon to become general, and later, +universal. The specific causes directly contributing to the +degradation of the Church are reserved for future consideration. + +**The Growth of Apostasy on the Western Hemisphere**. + +22. Now let us see what was the condition of the Church established by +the Resurrected Lord among the descendants of Lehi on the American +Continent. In this undertaking we shall not restrict ourselves to the +beginning of the disruption alone. Inasmuch as the course of apostasy +among the Nephites was so rapid, and the period intervening between +the establishment of the Church and the destruction of the nation was +so brief, we shall consider the history of the Church to its close, +and thus obviate the necessity of recurring to the subject in later +chapters. We read that the Church had prospered until about 200 A. D. +Then apostasy became general, as evidence of which note the following: + +23. "And now in this two hundred and first year, there began to be +among them those who were lifted up in pride. * * * And they began to +be divided into classes, and they began to build up churches unto +themselves, to get gain, and began to deny the true Church of Christ. +And it came to pass that when two hundred and ten years had passed +away there were many churches in the land; yea, there were many +churches which professed to know the Christ, and yet they did deny the +more parts of his gospel, insomuch that they did receive all manner of +wickedness, and did administer that which was sacred unto him to whom +it had been forbidden, because of unworthiness. And this church did +multiply exceedingly, because of iniquity, and because of the power of +Satan, who did get hold upon their hearts. And again, there was +another church which denied the Christ; and they did persecute the +true Church of Christ because of their humility, and their belief in +Christ; and they did despise them because of the many miracles which +were wrought among them."--(IV Nephi 1:24-29; read the entire +chapter.) + +24. The Book of Mormon record is definite in its specifications of the +immediate reasons for, or causes of the great apostasy on the western +hemisphere. While the members of the Church remained faithful to their +covenants and obligations, they as individuals and the Church as an +organization prospered; and their enemies were unable to prevail +against them. With prosperity, however, came pride and class +distinctions, the rich dominated the poor, and earthly gain became the +object of life.--(See IV Nephi 1:2-7 and compare with verses 25, 26.) +Secret organizations of evil purpose flourished,--(Verse 42.) the +people were divided into two opposing factions, those who still +professed a belief in Christ being known as Nephites and their enemies +as Lamanites, without regard to actual descent or family relationship. +With the growth of pride and its attendant sins, the Nephites became +as wicked as the non-professing Lamanites;--(Verse 45.) and in their +wickedness these people sought each other's destruction. Consider the +pathos and dire tragedy expressed in the words of Moroni, the solitary +survivor of a once blessed and mighty nation: + +25. "Behold, four hundred years have passed away since the coming of +our Lord and Savior. And behold, the Lamanites have hunted my people, +the Nephites, down from city to city, and from place to place, even +until they are no more; and great has been their fall; yea, great and +marvelous is the destruction of my people, the Nephites. And behold, +it is the hand of the Lord which hath done it. And behold also, the +Lamanites are at war one with another; and the whole face of this land +is one continual round of murder and bloodshed; and no one knoweth the +end of the war. And now behold, I say no more concerning them, for +there are none, save it be the Lamanites and robbers that do exist +upon the face of the land; and there are none that do know the true +God, save it be the disciples of Jesus,--(See III Nephi 28:1-7.) who +did tarry in the land until the wickedness of the people was so great, +that the Lord would not suffer them to remain with the people; and +whether they be upon the face of the land no man knoweth."--(Mormon +8:6-10.) + + +NOTES. + +1. _The Early Apostasy Recognized_. The fact of the early beginning of +the apostasy is generally recognized by theologians and authorities on +biblical interpretation. Clarke's commentary on the declaration of +Paul as to the "mystery of iniquity" then at work (See II Thess. 2:7) +is as follows: + +"_For the mystery of iniquity doth already work_: There is a system of +corrupt doctrine which will lead to the _general apostasy, already in +existence; but it is a mystery_; it is as yet hidden; it dare not show +itself because of that which hindereth or withholdeth. But when that +which now restraineth is taken out of the way, then shall that wicked +one be revealed; it will then be manifest who he is and what he is." + +2. _Early Dissensions in the Church_. As instances of the +disagreements and differences that troubled and disturbed the Church +even in apostolic days Mosheim says: "The first of these +controversies, which was set on foot in the church of Antioch, +regarded the necessity of observing the law of Moses, and its issue is +mentioned by St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles (chap. 15). This +controversy was followed by many others, either with the Jews who were +violently attached to the worship of their ancestors, or with the +votaries of a wild and fanatical sort of philosophy, or with such as, +mistaking the true genius of the Christian religion, abused it +monstrously to the encouragement of their vices, and their indulgence +of the appetites and passions. St. Paul and the other apostles have in +several places of their writings, mentioned these controversies, but +with such brevity that it is difficult at this distance of time to +come at the true state of the question in these various disputes. The +most weighty and important of all these controversies was that which +certain Jewish doctors raised at Rome, and in other Christian Churches +concerning the means of justification and acceptance with God, and the +method of salvation pointed out in the word of God. The apostles, +wherever they exercised their ministry, had constantly declared all +hopes of acceptance and salvation delusive, except such as were +founded on Jesus the Redeemer, and His all-sufficient merits; while +the Jewish doctors maintained the works of the law to be the true +efficient cause of the soul's eternal salvation and felicity. This +latter sentiment not only led to many other errors extremely +prejudicial to Christianity, but was also injurious to the glory of +the divine Savior."--(Mosheim, "Ecclesiastical History," Cent. I, Part +II, 11-12.) + +3. _Unauthorized Writings in the Apostolic Age_. Paul's reference to +"another gospel" in his epistle to the Galatians (1:6) suggested to +Dr. Adam Clarke the following commentary on the passage: + +"_Another gospel_: It is certain that in the very earliest ages of the +Christian Church, there were several spurious gospels in circulation; +and it was the multitude of these false or inaccurate relations that +induced St. Luke to write his own (see Luke 1:1). We have the names of +more than seventy of these spurious narratives still on record, and in +ancient writers many fragments of them remain; these have been +collected and published by Fabricius in his account of the apocryphal +books of the New Testament (3 vols, 8 vo.) In some of these gospels +the necessity of circumcision and subjection to the Mosaic law, in +unity with the gospel, were strongly inculcated."--(Clarke, "Bible +Commentary.") + +4. _Some Authorities on Ecclesiastical History_. Among the authorities +cited in the text are those named below. A brief note as to each may +be of interest. + +_Eusebius_: Eusebius Pamphilus, bishop of Caesarea in Palestine. He +lived from about 260 to about 339 A.D., though there is some +uncertainty as to the exact time of his death. He was an eye witness +of and a participant in some of the sufferings incident to heathen +persecution of the Christians, and has been called the "Father of +Church History." He was the author of several works, among them one of +the earliest on "Ecclesiastical History." The quotations from this +work by Eusebius, as given in the text, are from the version +translated from the Greek by C. F. Cruse. + +_Mosheim_: Dr. J. L. von Mosheim, chancellor of the University of +Gottingen; a German writer, noted for his contributions to church +history. He is the author of an exhaustive work on "Ecclesiastical +History" (6 vols.), dated 1755. The excerpts from Mosheim's +"Ecclesiastical History" given in the text are taken from the version +translated into English by Dr. Archibald Maclaine, dated 1764. + +_Milner_: Rev. Joseph Milner. An English authority on church history, +and author of a comprehensive "History of the Church of Christ" (5 +vols.) from which the excerpts in the text are taken. + +5. _Commentary on the Passage from Jude_:--The passage quoted in the +text--"For there are certain men crept in unawares, _who were before +of old ordained to this condemnation_, ungodly men." etc. (Jude 4), +has given rise to discussion, the question at issue being as to +whether the principles of pre-appointment or fore-ordination is here +involved. A hasty and casual reading of the passage may suggest the +inference that the "ungodly men" referred to had been appointed or +"ordained" in the providence of God to sow the seeds of discord and +dissension in the Church. A careful study of this scripture shows that +no such inference is warranted. The "ungodly men" "who were before of +old ordained to this condemnation" were men who had already, i. e., +previously, been denounced, proscribed and condemned for the very +heresies which now they were endeavoring to perpetuate in the Church, +they having crept in unawares, or in other words, they having become +members of the Church by false pretenses and profession, and being +able because of their membership, to spread their false teachings more +effectively. Dr. Adam Clarke, in his Bible Commentary, thus treats the +passage under consideration: + +"_For there are certain men crept in unawares_." They have got into +the church under specious pretenses, and when in, began to sow their +bad seed. + +"_Before of old ordained_: Such as were long ago proscribed and +condemned in the most public manner; this is the import of the +[original] word in this place, and there are many examples of this use +of it in the Greek writers." + +"_To this condemnation_: To a similar punishment to that about to be +mentioned. + +"In the sacred writings all such persons, false doctrines and impure +practices have been most openly proscribed and condemned, and the +apostle immediately produces several examples, viz., the disobedient +Israelites, the unfaithful angels, and the impure inhabitants of Sodom +and Gomorrah. This is most obviously the apostle's meaning, and it is +as ridiculous as it is absurd, to look into such words for a decree of +reprobation, etc., such a doctrine being as far from the apostle's +mind as from that of Him in whose name he wrote."--(Clarke, "Bible +Commentary," Jude 4.) + +In the Revised Version of the New Testament the passage is rendered +thus: "I was constrained to write unto you exhorting you to contend +earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the +saints. For there are certain men crept in privily, even they who were +of old set forth unto this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the +grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying our only Master and +Lord, Jesus Christ." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +**Causes of the Apostasy.--External Causes Considered**. + + +1. We are now to consider some of the principal causes contributing to +apostasy from the Primitive Church and leading later to the apostasy +of the Church as an earthly institution; and we are to study the +manner in which those causes have operated. + +2. In the scriptures before cited as proof of the early beginning of +the apostasy, many of the contributing causes are indicated, such as +the rise of false teachers, the spread of heretical doctrines, and the +growth of the power of Satan in general. These may be classed as +internal causes, originating within the Church itself. In contrast +with these there were other conditions operating upon the Church from +without; and such may be classed as external causes. For convenience +in study we shall consider the subject in the following order of +treatment: (1) External causes; (2) Internal causes. + +**External Causes of the Great Apostasy**. + +3. External conditions operating against the Church, tending to +restrict its development and contributing to its decline may be +designated by the general term; _persecution_. It is a matter of +history, undisputed and indisputable, that from the time of its +inception to that of its actual cessation, the Church established by +Jesus Christ was the object of bitter persecution, and the victim of +violence. The question as to whether persecution is to be regarded as +an element tending to produce apostasy is worthy of present +consideration. Opposition is not always destructive; on the contrary +it may contribute to growth. Persecution may impel to greater zeal, +and thus prove itself a potent factor of advancement. A proverb still +in favor declares that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the +Church." But proverbs and adages, aphorisms and parables, while true +as generalities, are not always applicable to special conditions. + +4. Undoubtedly the persistent persecution to which the early Church +was subjected caused many of its adherents to renounce the faith they +had professed and to return to their former allegiances, whether +Judaistic or pagan. Church membership was thus diminished; but such +instances of apostasy from the Church may be regarded as individual +desertions and of comparatively little importance in its effect upon +the Church as a body. The dangers that affrighted some would arouse +the determination of others; the ranks deserted by disaffected +weaklings would be replenished by zealous converts. Let it be repeated +that apostasy from the Church is insignificant as compared with the +apostasy of the church as an institution. Persecution as a cause of +apostasy has operated indirectly but none the less effectively upon +the Church of Christ.--(See Notes 1 and 2, end of chapter.) + +5. We have considered briefly the testimony of early church historians +showing that schisms, contention, and perversion of doctrine invaded +the Church immediately after the passing of the apostles; we have seen +how wolves had awaited the departure of the shepherds that they might +the more effectively worry the flock. It cannot be denied that the +early persecutions were directed most particularly against the leaders +of the people; the sharpest shafts were aimed against the officers of +the Church. In the fierce battle between Christianity and its allied +foes--Judaism and heathendom--the strong men who stood for Christ were +the first to fall. And with their fall, the traitors within the +Church, the ungodly and the rebellious, those who had crept in +unawares, and whose sinister purpose it was to pervert the gospel of +Christ, were relieved of restraint, and found themselves free to +propagate their heresies and to undermine the foundations of the +Church. Persecution, operating from without, and therefore essentially +an external cause, served to set in motion the enginery of disruption +within the Church, and therefore must be treated as an effective +element contributing to the great apostasy. + +6. A further purpose in introducing here a brief summary of the +persecutions of which the early Church was the victim, is that of +affording a basis of ready comparison between such and the +persecutions waged by the apostate church itself in later centuries. +We shall find that the sufferings of the Church in the days of its +integrity, are surpassed by the cruel inflictions perpetrated in the +name of Christ. Moreover, a study of the early persecutions will +enable us to contrast the conditions of opposition and poverty with +those of ease and affluence as affecting the integrity of the Church +and the devotion of its adherents. + +7. The persecution to which the Primitive Church was subjected was +two-fold; viz., Judaistic and pagan. It must be remembered that the +Jews were distinguished from all other nations of antiquity by their +belief in the existence of a living God. The rest of the world before +and at the time of Christ was idolatrous and pagan, professedly +believing in a host of deities, yet with no recognition of a Supreme +Being as a living personage. The Jews were bitter in their opposition +to Christianity, which they regarded as a rival religion to their own; +and moreover, they recognized the fact that if Christianity ever came +to be generally accepted as the truth, their nation would stand +convicted of having put to death the Messiah. + +**Judaistic Persecution**. + +(See Note 3, end of Chapter.) + +8. Opposition to Christianity on the part of those who belonged to the +House of Israel was rather Judaistic than Jewish. The conflict was +between systems, not between peoples or nations. Christ was a Jew: His +apostles were Jews, and the disciples who constituted the body of the +Church at its establishment and throughout the early years of its +existence were largely Jews. Our Lord's instructions to the chosen +twelve on their first missionary tour restricted their ministry to the +House of Israel;--(See Matt. 10:5, 6.) and when the time was +propitious for extending the privileges of the gospel to the Gentiles, +a miraculous manifestation was necessary to convince the apostles that +such extension was proper.--(See Acts, chapters 10 and 11.) The Church +was at first exclusively and for a long time pre-eminently Jewish in +membership. Judaism, the religious system founded on the law of Moses, +was the great enemy of Christianity. When therefore we read of the +Jews opposing the Church, we understand that Judaistic Jews are +meant--defenders of Judaism as a system, upholders of the law and +enemies of the gospel. With this explanation of the distinction +between the Jews as a people and Judaism as a system, we may employ +the terms "Jews" and "Jewish" according to common usage, keeping in +mind, however, the true signification of the terms. + +9. Judaistic opposition to the Church was predicted. While Jesus +ministered in the flesh He specifically and repeatedly warned the +apostles of the persecution they would have to meet. In answering +certain inquiries Christ said to Peter and others: "But take heed to +yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils, and in the +synagogues ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers +and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them."--(Mark 13:9; +compare Matt. 10:16-18; 24:9-13; Luke 21:12.) + +10. Shortly before His betrayal the Lord repeated the warning with +solemn impressiveness, citing the persecutions to which He had been +subject, and declaring that His disciples could not escape: "If the +world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye +were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are +not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore +the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The +servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they +will also persecute you."--(John 15:18-20.) + +11. The extreme of depravity to which the bigoted persecutors would +sink is set forth in these further words of the Savior: "They shall +put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever +killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things +will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor +me."--(John 16:2, 3; compare 9:22, and 12:42.) + +12. These predictions had speedy and literal fulfilment. From the time +of the crucifixion, Jewish malignity and hatred were directed against +all who professed a belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ. In the +early stages of their ministry several of the apostles were +imprisoned--(Acts 5:18; compare 4:3.) and the priestly leaders sought +to take their lives.--(Acts 5:33.) Stephen was stoned to death because +of his testimony;--(See Acts 6:8-15; 7:54-60.) and the persecution +against the Church became general.--(See Acts 8:1.) James, the son of +Zebedee, was slain by order of Herod,--(Acts 12:1, 2.) and Peter was +saved from a similar fate only by a miraculous intervention.--(Verses +3:10.) The scriptural record informs us as to the ultimate fate of but +few of the apostles; and secular history is likewise incomplete. That +Peter would be numbered with the martyrs was made known by the +resurrected Lord.--(See John 21:18, 19.) Paul sets forth the fact that +the apostles lived in the very shadow of death--(I Cor. 4:9.) and that +persecution was their heritage.--(Verses 11-13; see also II Cor. 4:8, +9; 6:4, 5.) + +13. Not only did the Jews wage relentless persecution against those of +their number who professed Christ, but they sought to stir up +opposition on the part of the Romans, and to accomplish this end +charged that the Christians were plotting treason against the Roman +government. Even during the personal ministry of the early apostles, +persecution of the saints had spread from Jerusalem, throughout +Palestine and into the adjacent provinces. In this evil work the Jews +sought to incite their own people living in the outlying parts, and +also to arouse the opposition of the officers and rulers of the Roman +dominions. As evidence of this phase of the persecution, partly Jewish +and partly pagan, instigated by Jews and participated in by others, +the following quotation from Mosheim may suffice: + +14. "The Jews who lived out of Palestine, in the Roman provinces, did +not yield to those of Jerusalem in point of cruelty to the innocent +disciples of Christ. We learn from the history of the Acts of the +Apostles, and other records of unquestionable authority, that they +spared no labor, but zealously seized every occasion of animating the +magistrates against the Christians, and setting on the multitude to +demand their destruction. The high priest of the nation and the Jews +who dwelt in Palestine were instrumental in inciting the rage of these +foreign Jews against the infant Church, by sending messengers to +exhort them, not only to avoid all intercourse with the Christians, +but also to persecute them in the most vehement manner. For this +inhuman order they endeavored to find out the most plausible pretexts; +and therefore, they gave out that the Christians were enemies to the +Roman emperor, since they acknowledged the authority of a certain +person whose name was Jesus, whom Pilate had punished capitally as a +malefactor by a most righteous sentence, and on whom, nevertheless, +they conferred the royal dignity."--(Mosheim, "Ecclesiastical +History," Cent. I, Part I, 5:2.) + +15. In the latter half of the first century, the scene of Judaistic +persecution of the church had shifted from Jerusalem to the outlying +provinces; and the cause of this was the general exodus of Christians +from the city whose destruction had been decreed.--(See Note 4, end of +chapter.) Our Lord's predictions as to the fate of Jerusalem and His +warnings to the people--(See Luke 21:5-9, 20-24.) had been very +generally heeded. Eusebius--(Eusebius, "Ecclesiastical History," Book +III, ch. 5.) informs us that the body of the Church had moved from +Jerusalem into the provinces beyond the Jordan, and thus largely +escaped the calamities of the Jews who remained. + + +NOTES + +1. _Persecution in Different Dispensations_. It may be argued that, +judging from the history of the re-established Church in the present +dispensation, may tend to strengthen rather than to weaken the Church, +and that therefore violent opposition in earlier times cannot be +considered a true cause leading to final disruption. In reply it may +be said that the present is the dispensation of the fulness of +times,--a period in which the Church shall triumph, and during which +the powers of evil are limited and restrained in their opposition; +whereas the period of the apostasy was one of temporary victory for +Satan. Our belief in the eventual triumph of good over evil must not +blind us to the fact that evil is frequently allowed a short-lived +success, and a seeming victory. The permanency of the Latter-day +Church has been not less surely predicted than was the temporary +duration of the Primitive Church. Satan was given power to overcome +the saints in former days, and the persecutions he waged against them +and the officers of the Church contributed to his passing success. It +has been decreed that he shall not have power to destroy the Church in +the last dispensation, and his persecution of the saints today will be +futile as a means of bringing about a general apostasy in these latter +times. + +2. _Persecution as a Possible Cause of Apostasy_. "Let it not be a +matter of surprise that I class those persecutions as among the means +through which the church was destroyed. The force of heathen rage was +aimed at the leaders and strong men of the body religious; and being +long-continued and relentlessly cruel, those most steadfast in their +adherence to the Church invariably became its victims. These being +stricken down, it left none but weaklings to contend for the faith, +and made possible those subsequent innovations in the religion of +Jesus which a pagan public sentiment demanded, and which so completely +changed both the spirit and form of the Christian religion as to +subvert it utterly. Let me further ask that no one be surprised that +violence is permitted to operate in such a case. The idea that the +right is always victorious in this world, that truth is always +triumphant and innocence always divinely protected, are old, fond +fables with which well-meaning men have amused credulous multitudes; +but the stern facts of history and actual experience in life correct +the pleasing delusion. Do not misunderstand me. I believe in the +ultimate victory of the right, the ultimate triumph of truth, the +final immunity of innocence from violence. These--innocence, truth and +the right--will be at the last more than conquerors; they will be +successful in the war, but that does not prevent them from losing some +battles. It should be remembered always that God has given to man his +agency; and that fact implies that one man is as free to act wickedly +as another is to do righteousness. Cain was as free to murder his +brother as that brother was to worship God; and so the pagans and Jews +were as free to persecute and murder the Christians as the Christians +were to live virtuously and worship Christ as God. The agency of man +would not be worth the name if it did not grant liberty to the wicked +to fill the cup of their iniquity, as well as liberty to the virtuous +to round out the measure of their righteousness. Such perfect liberty +or agency God has given man; and it is only so variously modified as +not so thwart His general purposes." (B. H. Roberts, "A New Witness +for God," pp. 47, 48.) + +3. _Early Persecutions by the Jews_. "The innocence and virtue that +distinguished so eminently the lives of Christ's servants the +apostles, the purity of the doctrine they taught, were not sufficient +to defend them against the virulence and malignity of the Jews. The +priests and rulers of that abandoned people not only loaded with +injuries and reproach the apostles of Jesus and their disciples, but +condemned as many of them as they could to death, and executed in the +most irregular and barbarous manner their decrees. The murder of +Stephen, of James the son of Zebedee, and of James surnamed the Just, +bishop of Jerusalem, furnished dreadful examples of the truth of what +we here advance. This odious malignity of the Jewish doctors against +the heralds of the gospel, was undoubtedly owing to a secret +apprehension that the progress of Christianity would destroy the +credit of Judaism, and bring on the ruin of their pompous ceremonies." +In a footnote to the foregoing, references appear as follows. "The +martyrdom of Stephen is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles 7:55; and +that of James the son of Zebedee, Acts 12:1, 2, and that of James the +Just, bishop of Jerusalem, is mentioned by Josephus in his Jewish +Antiquities, book XX, chap. 8; and by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical +History, book II, chap. 23."--(Mosheim, "Ecclesiastical History," +Cent. I, Part I, 5:1.) + +4. _Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans_. "A rebellious disturbance +among the Jews gave a semblance of excuse for a terrible chastisement +to be visited upon them by their Roman masters, which culminated in +the destruction of Jerusalem, A. D. 71. The city fell after a six +months' siege before the Roman arms led by Titus, son of the Emperor +Vespasian. Josephus, the famous historian, to whom we owe most of our +knowledge as to the details of the struggle, was himself a resident in +Galilee and was carried to Rome among the captives. From his record we +learn that nearly a million Jews lost their lives through the famine +incident to the siege; many more were sold into slavery, and uncounted +numbers were forced into exile. The city was utterly destroyed, and +the site upon which the temple had stood was plowed up by the Romans +in their search for treasure. Thus literally were the words of Christ +fulfilled, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that +shall not be thrown down.--(Matt. 24:1, 2; see also Luke 19:44.)" (The +Author, "The Articles of Faith," Lecture 17:18.) + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +**Causes of Apostasy.--External Causes, Continued**. + + +1. As already pointed out, it is convenient to study the causes +leading to the great apostasy as belonging to two classes, external +and internal, or (1) causes due to conditions operating against the +Church from without; and (2) causes arising from dissension and heresy +within the Church itself. We have summarized external causes under +the general term persecution; and we have drawn a distinction between +Judaistic and pagan persecution waged against the Church. Having dealt +with the opposition suffered by the early Christians at the hands of +the Jews or through Jewish instigation, we have now to consider the +persecution brought upon the believers in Christ by pagan nations. + +**Pagan Persecution**. + +2. The term "pagan" as here used may be taken as a synonym of +"heathen," and is to be understood as referring to persons or peoples +who did not believe in the existence of the living God, and whose +worship was essentially idolatrous. The motives impelling +non-believing Jews to oppose the establishment and spread of +Christianity may readily be understood, in view of the fact that the +religion taught by Christ appeared as a rival of Judaism, and that the +growth and spread of one meant the decline if not the extinction of +the other. The immediate motive leading to bitter and widespread +persecution of the Christians by heathen peoples is not so easy to +perceive, since there was no uniform system of idolatrous worship in +any single nation, but a vast diversity of deities and cults of +idolatry, to no one of which was Christianity opposed more than to +all. Yet we find the worshipers of idols forgetting their own +differences and uniting in opposition to the gospel of peace,--in +persecution waged with incredible ferocity and indescribable +cruelty.--(See Note 1, end of chapter.) + +3. Unfortunately, historians differ widely in their records of +persecution of Christians, according to the point of view from which +each writer wrote. Thus, in a general way, Christian authors have +given extreme accounts of the sufferings to which the Church and its +adherents individually were subjected; while non-Christian historians +have sought to lessen and minimize the extent and severity of the +cruelties practiced against the Christians. There are facts, however, +which neither party denies, and to which both give place in their +separate records. To make a fair interpretation of these facts, +drawing just and true inferences therefrom, should be our purpose. + +4. Among pagan persecutors of the Church, the Roman empire is the +principal aggressor. This may appear strange in view of the general +tolerance exercised by Rome toward her tributary peoples; indeed, the +real cause of Roman opposition to Christianity has given rise to many +conjectures. It is probable that intolerant zeal on the part of the +Christians themselves had much to do with their unpopularity among +heathen nations. This subject is conservatively summed up by Mosheim +as follows: + +5. "A very natural curiosity calls us to inquire, how it happened that +the Romans, who were troublesome to no nation on account of their +religion, and who suffered even the Jews to live under their own laws, +and follow their own methods of worship, treated the Christians alone +with such severity. This important question seems still more difficult +to be solved, when we consider, that the excellent nature of the +Christian religion, and its admirable tendency to promote both the +public welfare of the state, and the private felicity of the +individual, entitled it, in a singular manner, to the favor and +protection of the reigning powers. One of the principal reasons of the +severity with which the Romans persecuted the Christians, +notwithstanding these considerations, seems to have been the +abhorrence and contempt with which the latter regarded the religion of +the empire, which was so intimately connected with the form, and +indeed, with the very essence of its political constitution. For, +though the Romans gave an unlimited toleration to all religions which +had nothing in their tenets dangerous to the commonwealth, yet they +would not permit that of their ancestors, which was established by the +laws of the state, to be turned into derision nor the people to be +drawn away from their attachment to it. These, however, were the two +things which the Christians were charged with, and that justly, though +to their honor. They dared to ridicule the absurdities of the pagan +superstition, and they were ardent and assiduous in gaining proselytes +to the truth. Nor did they only attack the religion of Rome, but also +all the different shapes and forms under which superstition appeared +in the various countries where they exercised their ministry. From +this the Romans concluded, that the Christian sect was not only +insupportably daring and arrogant, but, moreover, an enemy to the +public tranquillity, and every way proper to excite civil wars and +commotions in the empire. It is probably on this account that Tacitus +reproaches them with the odious character of haters of mankind, and +styles the religion of Jesus as destructive superstition; and that +Suetonious speaks of the Christians and their doctrine in terms of the +same kind. + +6. "Another circumstance that irritated the Romans against the +Christians, was the simplicity of their worship, which resembled in +nothing the sacred rites of any other people. The Christians had +neither sacrifices, nor temples, nor images, nor oracles, nor +sacerdotal orders; and this was sufficient to bring upon them the +reproaches of an ignorant multitude, who imagined that there could be +no religion without these."--(Mosheim, "Eccl. Hist.," Cent. 1, Part 1, +ch. 5:6, 7.) + +7. Persecution of the Church by Roman authority may be said to have +begun in the reign of Nero (A. D. 64) and to have continued to the +close of Diocletian's reign (A. D. 305.) Within this range of time +there were many periods of diminished severity, if not of comparative +tranquillity; nevertheless, the Church was the object of heathen +oppression for about two and a half centuries. Attempts have been made +by Christian writers to segregate the persecutions into ten distinct +and separate onslaughts; and some profess to find a mystic relation +between the ten persecutions thus classified, and the ten plagues of +Egypt, as also an analogy with the ten horns mentioned by John the +Revelator.--(See Rev. 17:14.) As a matter of fact attested by history, +the number of persecutions of unusual severity was less than ten; +while the total of all, including local and restricted assaults, would +be much greater.--(See Note 2, end of chapter.) + +8. _Persecution under Nero_. The first extended and notable +persecution of Christians under the official edict of a Roman emperor +was that instigated by Nero, A. D. 64. As students of history know, +this monarch is remembered mostly for his crimes. During the latter +part of his infamous reign, a large section of the city of Rome was +destroyed by fire. He was suspected by some of being responsible for +the disaster; and, fearing the resentment of the infuriated people, he +sought to implicate the unpopular and much-maligned Christians as the +incendiaries, and by torture tried to force a confession from them. As +to what followed the foul accusation, let us consider the words of a +non-Christian writer, Tacitus, whose integrity as a historian is held +in esteem. + +9. "With this view, he (Nero) inflicted the most exquisite tortures on +those men who, under the vulgar appellation of Christians, were +already branded with deserved infamy. They derived their name and +origin from Christ, who, in the reign of Tiberius had suffered death +by the sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilate. For a while this +dire superstition was checked but it again burst forth; and not only +spread itself over Judea, the first seat of this mischievous sect, but +was even introduced into Rome, the common asylum which receives and +protects whatever is impure, whatever is atrocious. The confessions of +those that were seized discovered a great multitude of their +accomplices, and they were all convicted, not so much for the crime of +setting fire to the city, as for their hatred of human kind. They died +in torments, and their torments were embittered by insults and +derision. Some were nailed on crosses; others sewn up in the skins of +wild beasts and exposed to the fury of dogs; others, again, smeared +over with combustible materials, were used as torches to illuminate +the darkness of the night. The gardens of Nero were destined for the +melancholy spectacle, which was accompanied with a horse-race, and +honored with the presence of the emperor, who mingled with the +populace in the dress and attitude of a charioteer. The guilt of the +Christians deserved indeed the most exemplary punishments, but the +public abhorrence was changed into commiseration, from the opinion +that those unhappy wretches were sacrificed, not so much to the public +welfare as to the cruelty of a jealous tyrant."--(Tacitus, Annals, +Book 15, ch. 44.) + +10. There is some disagreement among historians as to whether the +Neronian persecution is to be regarded as a local infliction, +practically confined to the city of Rome, or as general throughout the +provinces.--(See Note 3, end of chapter.) The consensus of opinion +favors the belief that the provinces followed the example of the +metropolis, and that the persecution was common throughout the Church. + +11. This, the first persecution by Roman edict, practically ended with +the death of the tyrant Nero, A. D. 68. According to tradition handed +down from the early Christian writers, the Apostles Paul and Peter +suffered martyrdom at Rome, the former by beheading, the latter by +crucifixion, during this persecution; and it is further stated that +Peter's wife was put to death shortly before her husband; but the +tradition is neither confirmed nor disproved by authentic record. + +12. _Persecution under Domitian_. The second officially appointed +persecution under Roman authority began 93 or 94 A. D. in the reign of +Domitian. Both Christians and Jews came under this prince's +displeasure, because they refused to reverence the statues he had +erected as objects of adoration. A further cause for his special +animosity against Christians, as affirmed by early writers, is as +follows. The emperor was persuaded that he was in danger of losing his +throne, in view of a reputed prediction that from the family to which +Jesus belonged there would arise one who would weaken if not overthrow +the power of Rome. With this as his ostensible excuse, this wicked +ruler waged terrible destruction on an innocent people. Happily, the +persecution thus started was of but few years duration. Mosheim and +others aver that the end of the persecution was caused by the +emperor's untimely death; though Eusebius, who wrote in the fourth +century, quotes an earlier writer as declaring that Domitian had the +living descendants of the Savior's family brought before him, and that +after questioning them he became convinced that he was in no danger +from them; and thereupon dismissed them with contempt and ordered the +persecution to cease. It is believed that while the edict of Domitian +was in force the Apostle John suffered banishment to the isle of +Patmos. + +13. _Persecution under Trajan_. What is known in ecclesiastical +history as the third persecution of the Christian Church took place in +the reign of Trajan, who occupied the imperial throne from 98 to 117 +A. D. He was and is regarded as one of the best of the Roman emperors, +yet he sanctioned violent persecution of the Christians owing to their +"inflexible obstinacy" in refusing to sacrifice to Roman gods. History +has preserved to us a very important letter asking instructions from +the emperor, by the younger Pliny, who was governor of Pontus, and the +emperor's reply thereto. This correspondence is instructive as showing +the extent to which Christianity had spread at that time, and the way +in which believers were treated by the officers of the state. + +14. Pliny inquired of the emperor as to the policy to be pursued in +dealing with the Christians within his jurisdiction. Were young and +old, tender and robust, to be treated alike, or should punishment be +graded? Should opportunity be given the accused to recant, or was the +fact that they had once professed Christianity to be considered an +unpardonable offense? Were those convicted as Christians to be +punished for their religion alone, or only for specific offenses +resulting from their membership in the Christian Church? After +propounding such queries the governor proceeded to report to the +emperor what he had done in the absence of definite instructions. In +reply the emperor directed that the Christians were not to be hunted +nor sought after vindictively, but if accused and brought before the +judgment seat, and if then they refused to denounce their faith, they +were to be put to death.--(See Note 4, end of chapter.) + +15. _Persecution under Marcus Aurelius_. Marcus Aurelius reigned from +161 to 180 A. D. He was noted as one who sought the greatest good of +his people; yet under his government the Christians suffered added +cruelties. Persecution was most severe in Gaul (now France.) Among +those who met the martyr's fate at that time, were Polycarp, bishop of +Smyrna, and Justin Martyr, known in history as the philosopher. With +reference to the seeming anomaly that even the best of rulers +permitted and even prosecuted vigorous opposition to Christian +devotees, as exemplified by the acts of this emperor, a modern writer +has said: "It should be noted that the persecution of the Christians +under the pagan emperors sprung from political rather than religious +motives, and that is why we find the names of the best emperors, as +well as those of the worst, in the list of persecutors. It was +believed that the welfare of the state was bound up with the careful +performance of the rites of the national worship; and hence, while the +Roman rulers were usually very tolerant allowing all forms of worship +among their subjects, still they required that men of every faith +should at least recognize the Roman gods, and burn incense before +their statues. This the Christians steadily refused to do. Their +neglect of the service of the temple, it was believed, angered the +gods, and endangered the safety of the state, bringing upon it +drought, pestilence, and every disaster. This was the main reason of +their persecution by the pagan emperors."--(General History by P. V. +N. Myers, edition of 1889, p. 322.) + +16. _Later Persecutions_. With occasional periods of partial +cessation, the Christian believers continued to suffer at the hands of +heathen opponents throughout the second and third centuries. A violent +persecution marked the reign of Severus (193-211 A. D.) in the first +decade of the third century; another characterized the reign of +Maximin (235-238 A. D.) A period of unusual severity in persecution +and suffering befell the Christians during the short reign of Decius +known also as Decius Trajan (219-251 A. D.) The persecution under +Decius is designated in ecclesiastical history as the seventh +persecution of the Christian Church. Others followed in rapid +succession. Some of these periods of specific oppression we pass over +and come to the consideration of the + +17. _Diocletian Persecution_, which is spoken of as the tenth, and +happily the last. Diocletian reigned from 284 to 305 A. D. At first he +was very tolerant toward Christian belief and practice; indeed it is +of record that his wife and daughter were Christians, though "in some +sense, secretly." Later, however, he turned against the Church and +undertook to bring about a total suppression of the Christian +religion. To this end he ordered a general destruction of Christian +books, and decreed the penalty of death against all who kept such +works in their possession. + +18. Fire broke out twice in the royal palace at Nicomedia, and on each +occasion the incendiary act was charged against the Christians with +terrible results. Four separate edicts, each surpassing in vehemence +the earlier decrees, were issued against the believers; and for a +period of ten years they were the victims of unrestrained rapine, +spoliation and torture. At the end of the decade of terror the Church +was in a scattered and seemingly in a hopeless condition. Sacred +records had been burnt; places of worship had been razed to the +ground; thousands of Christians had been put to death; and every +possible effort had been made to destroy the Church and abolish +Christianity from the earth. Descriptions of the horrible extremes to +which brutality was carried are sickening to the soul. A single +example must suffice. Eusebius, referring to the persecutions in +Egypt, says: "And such too was the severity of the struggle which was +endured by the Egyptians, who wrestled gloriously for the faith at +Tyre. Thousands, both men, and women and children, despising the +present life for the sake of our Savior's doctrine, submitted to death +in various shapes. Some, after being tortured with scrappings and the +rack, and the most dreadful scourgings, and other innumerable agonies +which one might shudder to hear, were finally committed to the flames; +and some plunged and drowned in the sea, others voluntarily offering +their own heads to their executioners, others dying in the midst of +their torments, some wasted away by famine, and others again fixed to +the cross. Some, indeed, were executed as malefactors usually were; +others, more cruelly, were nailed with the head downwards, and kept +alive until they were destroyed by starving on the cross +itself."--(Eusebius, "Eccl. Hist.," Book 8, ch. 8.) + +19. A modern writer, whose tendency ever was to minimize the extent of +Christian persecution, is Edward Gibbon. His account of the conditions +prevailing during this period of Diocletian outrage is as follows: +"The magistrates were commanded to employ every method of severity +which might reclaim them from their odious superstition, and oblige +them to return to the established worship of the gods. This rigorous +order was extended, by a subsequent edict, to the whole body of +Christians, who were exposed to a violent and general persecution. +Instead of those salutary restraints which had required the direct and +solemn testimony of an accuser, it became the duty as well as the +interest of the imperial officers to discover, to pursue, and to +torment the most obnoxious among the faithful. Heavy penalties were +denounced against all who should presume to save a proscribed sectary +from the just indignation of the gods and of the emperors."--(Gibbon, +"Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," ch. XVI.) + +20. So general was the Diocletian persecution, and so destructive its +effect, that at its cessation the Christian Church was thought to be +forever extinct. Monuments were raised to commemorate the emperor's +zeal as a persecutor, notably two pillars erected in Spain. On one of +them is an inscription extolling the mighty Diocletian "_For having +extinguished the name of Christians who brought the Republic to +ruin_." A second pillar commemorates the reign of Diocletian, and +honors the imperator "_for having everywhere abolished the +superstition of Christ; for having extended the worship of the gods_." +A medal struck in honor of Diocletian bears the inscription "_The name +of Christian being extinguished_."--(Milner, "Church History," Cent. +IV, ch. 1:38.) To the fallacy of these assumptions subsequent events +testify. + +21. The Diocletian oppression was the last of the great persecutions +brought by pagan Rome against Christianity as a whole. A stupendous +change, amounting to a revolution, now appears in the affairs of the +Church. Constantine, known in history as Constantine the Great, became +emperor of Rome A. D. 306, and reigned 31 years. Early in his reign he +espoused the hitherto unpopular cause of the Christians, and took the +Church under official protection. A legend gained currency that the +emperor's conversion was due to a supernatural manifestation, whereby +he saw a luminous cross appear in the heavens with the inscription, +"By this sign, conquer." The genuineness of this alleged manifestation +is doubtful, and the evidence of history is against it. The incident +is here mentioned to show the means devised to make Christianity +popular at the time. + +22. It is held by many judicious historians that Constantine's +so-called conversion was rather a matter of policy than a sincere +acceptance of the truth of Christianity. The emperor himself remained +a catechumen, that is, an unbaptized believer, until shortly before +his death, when he became a member by baptism. But, whatever his +motives may have been, he made Christianity the religion of state, +issuing an official decree to this effect in 313. "He made the cross +the royal standard; and the Roman legions now for the first time +marched beneath the emblem of Christianity." (Myers.) + +23. Immediately following the change there was a great competition for +church preferment. The office of a bishop came to be more highly +esteemed than the rank of a general. The emperor himself was the real +head of the Church. It became unpopular and decidedly disadvantageous +in a material sense to be known as a non-Christian. Pagan temples were +transformed into churches, and heathen idols were demolished. We read +that twelve thousand men and a proportionate number of women and +children were baptized into the Church of Rome alone within a single +year. Constantine removed the capital of the empire from Rome to +Byzantium, which city he re-named after himself, Constantinople. This, +the present capital of Turkey, became headquarters of the state +Church. + +24. How empty and vain appears the Diocletian boast that Christianity +was forever extinguished! Yet how different was the Church under the +patronage of Constantine from the Church as established by Christ and +as built up by His apostles! The Church had already become apostate as +judged by the standard of its original constitution. + + +NOTES. + +1. _Cause of Pagan Opposition to Christianity_. "The whole body of +Christians unanimously refused to hold any communion with the gods of +Rome, of the empire, and of mankind. It was in vain that the oppressed +believer asserted the inalienable rights of conscience and private +judgment. Though his situation might excite the pity, his arguments +could never reach the understanding, either of the philosophic or of +the believing part of the pagan world. To their apprehensions, it was +no less a matter of surprise that any individuals should entertain +scruples against complying with the established mode of worship, than +if they had conceived a sudden abhorrence to the manners, the dress, +or the language of their native country. The surprise of the pagans +was soon succeeded by resentment; and the most pious of men were +exposed to the unjust but dangerous imputation of impiety. Malice and +prejudice concurred in representing the Christians as a society of +atheists, who, by the most daring attack on the religious constitution +of the empire, had merited the severest animadversion of the civil +magistrate. They had separated themselves (they gloried in the +confession) from every mode of superstition which was received in any +part of the globe by the various temper of polytheism; but it was not +altogether so evident what deity or what form of worship they had +substituted to the gods and temples of antiquity. The pure and sublime +idea which they entertained of the Supreme Being escaped the gross +conception of the pagan multitude, who were at a loss to discover a +spiritual and solitary God, that was neither represented under any +corporeal figures or visible symbol, nor was adored with the +accustomed pomp of libations and festivals, of altars and sacrifices." +(Gibbon, "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," chap. XVI.) + +2. _As to the Number of Persecutions by the Romans_. "The Romans are +said to have pursued the Christians with the utmost violence in ten +persecutions, but this number is not verified by the ancient history +of the church. For if, by these persecutions, such only are meant as +were singularly severe and universal throughout the empire, then it is +certain that these amount not to the number above mentioned. And, if +we take the provincial and less remarkable persecutions into the +account, they far exceed it. In the fifth century, certain Christians +(were) led by some passages of the holy scriptures and by one +especially in the Revelations (Rev. 17:14), to imagine that the church +was to suffer ten calamities of a most grievous nature. To this +notion, therefore, they endeavored, though not all in the same way, to +accommodate the language of history, even against the testimony of +those ancient records, from whence alone history can speak with +authority." (Mosheim, "Ecclesiastical History," Cent. I, Part I; ch. +5:4.) + +Speaking on the same subject, Gibbon says: "As often as any occasional +severities were exercised in the different parts of the empire, the +primitive Christians lamented and perhaps magnified their own +sufferings; but the celebrated number of ten persecutions has been +determined by the ecclesiastical writers of the fifth century, who +possessed a more distinct view of the prosperous or adverse fortunes +of the church from the age of Nero to that of Diocletian. The +ingenious parallels of the ten plagues of Egypt and of the ten horns +of the Apocalypse first suggested this calculation of their minds; and +in their application of the faith of prophecy to the truth of history +they were careful to select those reigns which were indeed the most +hostile to the Christian cause." (Gibbon, "Decline and Fall of the +Roman Empire," ch. XVI.) + +3. _Extent of the Neronian Persecution_. "Learned men are not entirely +agreed concerning the extent of this persecution under Nero. Some +confine it to the city of Rome, while others represent it as having +raged throughout the whole empire. The latter opinion, which is also +the most ancient, is undoubtedly to be preferred; as it is certain +that the laws enacted against the Christians were enacted against the +whole body, and not against particular churches, and were consequently +in force in the remotest provinces." (Mosheim, "Ecclesiastical +History," Cent. I. Part I, 5:14.) + +4. _Correspondence Between Pliny and Trajan_. The inquiry of the +younger Pliny, governor of Pontus, addressed to Trajan, emperor of +Rome, and the imperial reply thereto, are of such interest as to be +worthy of reproduction in full. The version here given is that of +Milner as appears in his "History of the Church of Christ," edition of +1810, Cent. II, ch. 1. + +"_Pliny to Trajan, Emperor_: + +"Health.--It is my usual custom, Sir, to refer all things, of which I +harbor any doubts, to you. For who can better direct my judgment in +its hesitation, or instruct my understanding in its ignorance? I never +had the fortune to be present at any examination of Christians, before +I came into this province. I am therefore at a loss to determine what +is the usual object either of inquiry or of punishment, and to what +length either of them is to be carried. It has also been with me a +question very problematical,--whether any distinction should be made +between the young and the old, the tender and the robust;--whether any +room should be given for repentance, or the guilt of Christianity once +incurred is not to be expiated by the most unequivocal retraction;-- +whether the name itself, abstracted from any flagitiousness of +conduct, or the crimes connected with the name, be the object of +punishment. In the meantime, this has been my method, with respect to +those who were brought before me as Christians. I asked them whether +they were Christians: if they pleaded guilty, I interrogated then +twice afresh with a menace of capital punishment. In case of obstinate +perseverance I ordered them to be executed. For of this I had no +doubt, whatever was the nature of their religion, that a sudden and +obstinate inflexibility called for the vengeance of the magistrate. +Some were infected with the same madness, whom, on account of their +privilege of citizenship, I reserved to be sent to Rome, to be +referred to your tribunal. In the course of this business, +informations pouring in, as is usual when they are encouraged, more +cases occurred. An anonymous libel was exhibited, with a catalogue of +names of persons, who yet declared that they were not Christians then, +nor ever had been; and they repeated after me an invocation of the +gods and of your image, which, for this purpose, I had ordered to be +brought with the images of the deities. They performed sacred rites +with wine and frankincense, and execrated Christ,--none of which +things I am told a real Christian can ever be compelled to do. On this +account I dismissed them. Others named by an informer, first affirmed, +and then denied the charge of Christianity; declaring that they had +been Christians, but had ceased to be so some three years ago, others +even longer, some even twenty years ago. All of them worshiped your +image, and the statues of the gods, and also execrated Christ. And +this was the account which they gave of the nature of the religion +they had once professed, whether it deserves the name of crime or +error,--namely--that they were accustomed on a stated day to meet +before daylight, and to repeat among themselves a hymn to Christ as to +a god, and to bind themselves by an oath, with an obligation of not +committing any wickedness;--but on the contrary, of abstaining from +thefts, robberies, and adulteries;--also of not violating their +promise or denying a pledge;--after which it was their custom to +separate, and to meet again at a promiscuous harmless meal, from which +last practice they however desisted, after the publication of my +edict, in which, agreeably to your order, I forbade any societies of +that sort. On which account I judged it the more necessary to inquire, +by torture, from two females, who were said to be deaconesses, what is +the real truth. But nothing could I collect except a depraved and +excessive superstition. Deferring, therefore, any further +investigation, I determined to consult you. For the number of culprits +is so great as to call for serious consultation. Many persons are +informed against of every age and of both sexes; and more still will +be in the same situation. The contagion of the superstition hath +spread not only through cities, but even villages and the country. Not +that I think it impossible to check and correct it. The success of my +endeavors hitherto forbids such desponding thoughts; for the temples, +almost once desolate, begin to be frequented, and the sacred +solemnities, which had long been intermitted, are now attended afresh; +and the sacrificial victims are now sold everywhere, which once could +scarcely find a purchaser. Whence I conclude that many might be +reclaimed were the hope of impunity, on repentance, absolutely +confirmed." + +The emperor's reply follows: + +"_Trajan to Pliny_: + +"You have done perfectly right, my dear Pliny, in the inquiry which +you have made concerning Christians. For truly no one general rule can +be laid down, which will apply itself to all cases. These people must +not be sought after. If they are brought before you and convicted, let +them be capitally punished, yet with this restriction, that if any one +renounce Christianity, and evidence his sincerity by supplicating our +gods, however suspected he may be for the past, he shall obtain pardon +for the future, on his repentance. But anonymous libels in no case +ought to be attended to; for the precedent would be of the worst sort, +and perfectly incongruous to the maxims of my government." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +**Causes of the Apostasy.--Internal Causes**. + + +1. The cruel persecution to which the adherents of Christianity and +the Church as an organized body were subjected during the first three +centuries of our era have been treated as external causes, +contributing at least indirectly to the general apostasy. Details of +Judaistic and heathen opposition have been given with sufficient +fulness to show that the unpopular Church had a troubled existence, +and that such of its members as remained faithful to the tenets and +principles of the gospel were martyrs in spirit if not in fact. + +2. As would naturally be expected, the immediate effect of persistent +persecution on those who professed a belief in the divinity of the +Lord Jesus was diverse and varied; indeed it ranged from unrestrained +enthusiasm expressed in frenzied clamoring for martyrdom, to ready and +abject apostasy with ostentatious display of devotion in idolatrous +service. + +3. Many of the Christian devotees developed a zeal amounting to mania, +and, disregarding all prudence and discretion, gloried in the prospect +of winning the martyr's crown. Some who had been left unassailed felt +themselves aggrieved, and became their own accusers; while others +openly committed acts of aggression with intent to bring resentment +upon themselves.--(See Note 1, end of chapter.) These extravagances +were doubtless encouraged by the excessive veneration accorded the +memories and the bodily remains of those who had fallen as victims in +the cause. The reverential respect so rendered developed later into +the impious practice of martyr worship. + +4. Commenting on the imprudent enthusiasm of the early Christians, +Gibbon says: "The Christians sometimes supplied by their voluntary +declaration the want of an accuser, rudely disturbed the public +service of paganism, and, rushing in crowds round the tribunal of the +magistrates, called upon them to pronounce and to inflict the sentence +of the law. The behavior of the Christians was too remarkable to +escape the notice of the ancient philosophers; but they seem to have +received it with much less admiration than astonishment. Incapable of +conceiving the motives which sometimes transported the fortitude of +believers beyond the bounds of prudence and reason, they treated such +an eagerness to die as the strange result of obstinate despair, of +stupid insensibility or of superstitious frenzy."--(Gibbon, "Decline +and Fall of the Roman Empire," ch. XVI.) + +5. But there is another side to the picture. While imprudent zealots +invited dangers from which they might have remained exempt, others, +affrighted at the possibility of being included among the victims, +voluntarily deserted the Church and returned to heathen allegiances. +Milner, speaking of conditions existing in the third century, and +incorporating the words of Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, who lived at +the time of the incident described, says: "Vast numbers lapsed into +idolatry immediately. Even before men were accused as Christians, many +ran to the forum and sacrificed to the gods as they were ordered; and +the crowds of apostates were so great, that the magistrates wished to +delay numbers of them till the next day, but they were importuned by +the wretched suppliants to be allowed to prove themselves heathens +that very night."--(Milner, "Church History," Cent. III, ch. 8.) + +6. In connection with this individual apostasy of Church members under +the pressure of persecution, there arose among the provincial +governors a practice of selling certificates or "libels" as these +documents were called, which "attested that the persons therein +mentioned had complied with the laws and sacrificed to the Roman +deities. By producing these false declarations, the opulent and timid +Christians were enabled to silence the malice of an informer, and to +reconcile, in some measure, their safety with their religion."-- +(Gibbon, "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," ch. XVI.) A +modification of this practice of quasi-apostasy consisted in procuring +testimonials from persons of standing certifying that the holders had +abjured the gospel; these documents were presented to the heathen +magistrates, and they, on receipt of a specified fee, granted +exemption from the requirement of sacrificing to the pagan gods.--(See +Milner, "Church History," Cent. III, ch. 9.) As a result of these +practices, whereby under favorable circumstances the wealthy could +purchase immunity from persecution, and at the same time maintain a +semblance of standing in the Church, much dissension arose, the +question being as to whether those who had thus shown their weakness +could ever be received again into communion with the Church. + +7. Persecution at most was but an indirect cause of the decline of +Christianity and the perversion of the saving principles of the gospel +of Christ. The greater and more immediate dangers threatening the +Church must be sought within the body itself. Indeed, the pressure of +opposition from without served to restrain the bubbling springs of +internal dissension, and actually delayed the more destructive +eruptions of schism and heresy.--(See Note 2, end of chapter.) A +general review of the history of the Church down to the end of the +third century shows that the periods of comparative peace were periods +of weakness and decline in spiritual earnestness, and that with the +return of persecution came an awakening and a renewal in Christian +devotion. Devout leaders of the people were not backward in declaring +that each recurring period of persecution was a time of natural and +necessary chastisement for the sin and corruption that had gained +headway within the Church.--(See Note 3, end of chapter.) + +8. As to the condition of the Church in the middle of the third +century, Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage, thus speaks: "If the cause +of our miseries be investigated, the cure of the wound may be found. +The Lord would have his family to be tried. And because long peace had +corrupted the discipline divinely revealed to us, the heavenly +chastisement hath raised up our faith, which had lain almost dormant: +and when, by our sins, we have deserved to suffer still more, the +merciful Lord so moderated all things, that the whole scene rather +deserves the name of a trial than a persecution. Each had been bent on +improving his patrimony; and had forgotten what believers had done +under the apostles, and what they ought always to do:--they were +brooding over the arts of amassing wealth:--the pastors and the +deacons each forgot their duty: Works of mercy were neglected, and +discipline was at the lowest ebb.--Luxury and effeminacy prevailed: +Meretricious arts in dress were cultivated: Frauds and deceit were +practiced among brethren.--Christians could unite themselves in +matrimony with unbelievers; could swear not only without reverence, +but even without veracity. With haughty asperity they despised their +ecclesiastical superiors: They railed against one another with +outrageous acrimony, and conducted quarrels with determined +malice:--Even many bishops, who ought to be guides and patterns to the +rest, neglecting the peculiar duties of their stations, gave +themselves up to secular pursuits:--They deserted their places of +residence and their flocks: They traveled through distant provinces in +quest of pleasure and gain; gave no assistance to the needy brethren; +but were insatiable in their thirst of money:--They possessed estates +by fraud and multiplied usury. What have we not deserved to suffer for +such conduct? Even the divine word hath foretold us what we might +expect.--'If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my +judgments, I will visit their offenses with the rod, and their sin +with scourges.' These things had been denounced and foretold, but in +vain. Our sins had brought our affairs to that pass, that because we +had despised the Lord's directions, we were obliged to undergo a +correction of our multiplied evils and a trial of our faith by severe +remedies."--(As quoted by Milner, "Church History," Cent. III, ch. 8.) + +9. Milner, who quotes approvingly the severe arraignment of the Church +in the third century as given above, cannot be charged with bias +against Christian institutions, inasmuch as his declared purpose in +presenting to the world an additional "History of the Church of +Christ" was to give due attention to certain phases of the subject +slighted or neglected by earlier authors, and notably to emphasize the +piety, not the wickedness, of the professed followers of Christ. This +author, avowedly friendly to the Church and her votaries, admits the +growing depravity of the Christian sects, and declares that toward the +end of the third century the effect of the Pentecostal outpouring of +the Holy Spirit had become exhausted, and that there remained little +proof of any close relationship between Christ and the Church. + +10. Note his summary of conditions: "The era of its actual declension +must be dated in the pacific part of Diocletian's reign. During this +whole century the work of God, in purity and power, had been tending +to decay. The connection with philosophers was one of the principal +causes. Outward peace and secular advantages completed the corruption. +Ecclesiastical discipline, which had been too strict, was now relaxed +exceedingly; bishops and people were in a state of malice. Endless +quarrels were fomented among contending parties, and ambition and +covetousness had in general gained the ascendency in the Christian +Church. * * * The faith of Christ itself appeared now an ordinary +business; and here _terminated_, or nearly so, as far as appears, the +first great effusion of the Spirit of God, which began at the day of +Pentecost. Human depravity effected throughout a general decay of +godliness; and one generation of men elapsed with very slender proofs +of the spiritual presence of Christ with His Church."--(Milner, +"Church History," Cent. III, ch. 17.) + +11. If further evidence be wanted as to the fires of disaffection +smoldering within the Church, and so easily fanned into destructive +flame, let the testimony of Eusebius be considered with respect to +conditions characterizing the second half of the third century. And, +in weighing his words, let it be remembered that he had expressly +recorded his purpose of writing in defense of the Church, and in +support of her institutions. He bewails the tranquillity preceding the +Diocletian outbreak, because of its injurious effect upon both +officers and members of the Church. These are his words: "But when by +excessive liberty we have sunk into indolence and sloth, one envying +and reviling another in different ways, and we were almost, as it +were, on the point of taking up arms against each other, and were +assailing each other with words, as with darts and spears, prelates +inveighing against prelates, and people rising up against people, and +hypocrisy and dissimulation had arisen to the greater heights of +malignity, then the divine judgment, which usually proceeds with a +lenient hand, whilst the multitudes were yet crowding into the Church, +with gentle and mild visitations began to afflict its episcopacy; the +persecution having begun with those brethren that were in the army. * +* * But some that appeared to be our pastors, deserting the law of +piety, were inflamed against each other with mutual strifes, +accumulating quarrels and threats, rivalry, hostility, and hatred to +each other, only anxious to assert the government as a kind of +sovereignty for themselves."--(Eusebius, "Ecclesiastical History," +Book VIII, ch. 1. See note 4, end of chapter.) + +12. As further illustrative of the decline of the Christian spirit +toward the end of the third century, Milner quotes the following +observation of Eusebius, an eye-witness of the conditions described: +"The heavy hand of God's judgment began softly, by little and little, +to visit us after His wonted manner; * * * but we were not at all +moved with His hand, nor took any pains to return to God. We heaped +sin upon sin, judging like careless Epicureans, that God cared not for +our sins, nor would ever visit us on account of them. And our +pretended shepherds, laying aside the rule of godliness, practiced +among themselves contention and division." He adds that the "dreadful +persecution of Diocletian was then inflicted on the Church as a just +punishment, and as the most proper chastisement for their +iniquities."--(Milner, "Church History," Cent. III, ch. 17.) + +13. It will be remembered that the great change whereby the Church was +raised to a place of honor in the state, occurred in the early part of +the fourth century. It is a popular error to assume that the decay of +the Church as a spiritual institution dates from that time. The +picture of the Church declining as to spiritual power in exact +proportion to her increase of temporal influence and wealth has +appealed to rhetoricians and writers of sensational literature; but +such a picture does not present the truth. The Church was saturated +with the spirit of apostasy long before Constantine took it under his +powerful protection by according it official standing in the state. +In support of this statement, I quote again from Milner, the avowed +friend of the Church: "I know it is common for authors to represent +the great declension of Christianity to have taken place only after +its external establishment under Constantine. But the evidence of +history has compelled me to dissent from this view of things. In fact, +we have seen that for a whole generation previous to the [Diocletian] +persecution, few marks of superior piety appeared. Scarce a luminary +of godliness existed; and it is not common in any age for a great work +of the Spirit of God to be exhibited but under the conduct of some +remarkable saints, pastors, and reformers. This whole period as well +as the whole scene of the persecution is very barren in such +characters. * * * Moral and philosophical and monastical instructions +will not effect for men what is to be expected from evangelical +doctrine. And if the faith of Christ was so much declined (and its +decayed state ought to be dated from about the year 270), we need not +wonder that such scenes as Eusebius hints at without any +circumstantial details, took place in the Christian world. * * * He +speaks also of the ambitious spirit of many, in aspiring to the +offices of the Church, the ill judged and unlawful ordinations, the +quarrels among confessors themselves, and the contentions excited by +young demagogues in the very relics of the persecuted Church, and the +multiplied evils which their vices excited among Christians. How sadly +must the Christian world have declined which could thus conduct itself +under the very rod of divine vengeance? Yet let not the infidel or the +profane world triumph. _It was not Christianity, but the departure +from it_, which brought on these evils."--(Milner, "Church History," +Cent. IV, ch. 1. The italics are introduced by the present writer. +See also Note 5, end of chapter.) + +14. The foregoing embodies but a few of the many evidences that could +be cited in demonstration of the fact that during the period +immediately following the apostolic ministry--the period covered by +the persecutions of the Christians by the heathen nations,--the Church +was undergoing internal deterioration, and was in a state of +increasing perversion. Among the more detailed or specific causes of +this ever widening departure from the spirit of the gospel of Christ, +this rapidly growing apostasy, the following may be considered as +important examples: + +(1). The corrupting of the simple principles of the gospel by the +admixture of the so-called philosophic systems of the times. + +(2). Unauthorized additions to the ceremonies of the Church, and the +introduction of vital changes in essential ordinances. + +(3). Unauthorized changes in Church organization and government. + +15. We shall consider in due order each of the three causes here +enumerated. It may appear that the conditions set forth in these +specifications are more properly to be regarded as effects or results, +than as causes, incident to the general apostasy,--that they are in +the nature of evidences or proofs of a departure from the original +constitution of the Church, rather than specific causes by which the +fact of apostasy is to be explained or accounted for. Cause and +effect, however, are sometimes very intimately associated, and +resulting conditions may furnish the best demonstration of causes in +operation. Each of the conditions given above as a specific cause of +the progressive apostasy was, at its inception, an evidence of +existing unsoundness, and an active cause of the graver results that +followed. Each succeeding manifestation of the spirit of apostasy was +at once the result of earlier disaffection, and the cause of later and +more pronounced developments. + + +NOTES. + +1. _Inordinate Zeal Manifested by Some of the Early Christians_: "The +sober discretion of the present age will more readily censure than +admire, but can more easily admire than imitate, the fervor of the +first Christians; who, according to the lively expression of Sulpicius +Severus, desired martyrdom with more eagerness than his own +contemporaries solicited a bishopric. The epistles which Ignatius +composed as he was carried in chains through the cities of Asia, +breathe sentiments the most repugnant to the ordinary feelings of +human nature. He earnestly beseeches the Romans that when he should be +exposed in the amphitheatre, they would not by their kind but +unreasonable intercession, deprive him of the crown of glory, and he +declares his resolution to provoke and irritate the wild beasts which +might be employed as the instruments of his death. Some stories are +related of the courage of martyrs who actually performed what Ignatius +had intended: who exasperated the fury of the lions, pressed the +executioner to hasten his office, cheerfully leaped into the fires +which were kindled to consume them, and discovered a sensation of joy +and pleasure in the midst of the most exquisite torture."--(Gibbon, +"Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," ch. XVI.) + +2. _Internal Dissensions During Time of Peace_. As stated in the text, +the early part of Diocletian's reign--the period immediately preceding +the outburst of the last great persecution to which the Christians +were subjected--was a time of comparative freedom from opposition, and +this period was characterized by internal disturbances and dissensions +within the Church. Illustrative of the tolerance shown by the emperor +before he became hostile to the Church, and the accompanying decline +of spiritual earnestness among the Christians themselves, Gibbon says: +"Diocletian and his colleagues frequently conferred the most important +offices on those persons who avowed their abhorrence of the worship of +the gods, but who had displayed abilities proper for the service of +the state. The bishops held an honorable rank in the respective +provinces, and were treated with distinction and respect, not only by +the people, but by the magistrates themselves. Almost in every city +the ancient churches were found insufficient to contain the increasing +multitudes of proselytes; and in their place more stately and +capacious edifices were erected for the public worship of the +faithful. The corruption of manners and principles so forcibly +lamented by Eusebius, may be considered not only as a consequence, but +as a proof, of the liberty which the Christians enjoyed and abused +under the reign of Diocletian. Prosperity had relaxed the nerves of +discipline. Fraud, envy, and malice prevailed in every congregation. +The presbyters aspired to the episcopal office, which every day became +an object more worthy of their ambition. The bishops who contended +with each other for ecclesiastical preeminence, appeared by their +conduct to claim a secular and tyrannical power in the church; and the +lively faith which still distinguished the Christians from the +Gentiles, was shown much less in their lives than in their +controversial writings."--(Gibbon, "Decline and Fall of the Roman +Empire," ch. XVI.) + +3. _The Effect of Peace on the Early Church_. "Disastrous as the +persecutions of the early Christian centuries were, still more +mischievous to the Church were those periods of tranquillity which +intervened between the outbursts of rage which prompted them. Peace +may have her victories no less renowned than those of war; and so, +too, she has her calamities, and they are not less destructive than +those of war. War may destroy nations, but ease and luxury mankind +corrupt--the body and the mind. Especially is peace dangerous to the +church. Prosperity relaxes the reins of discipline; people feel less +and less the need of a sustaining providence; but in adversity the +spirit of man feels after God, and he is correspondingly more devoted +to the service of religion. We shall find the early Christians no +exception to the operation of this influence of repose. Whenever it +was accorded them, either through the mercy or the indifference of the +emperors, internal dissensions, the intrigues of aspiring prelates, +and the rise of heresies, characterized those periods."--(B. H. +Roberts, "A New Witness for God," p. 70.) + +4. _Schisms and Heresies in the Early Church_. Eusebius, whose +writings date from the early part of the fourth century, cites the +writings of Hegesippus, who lived in the first quarter of the second +century, as follows: "The same author [Hegesippus] also treats of the +beginning of the heresies that arose about this time, in the following +words: 'But after James the Just had suffered martyrdom, as our Lord +had for the same reason, Simeon, the son of Cleophas, our Lord's +uncle, was appointed the second bishop [of Jerusalem] whom all +proposed as the cousin of our Lord. Hence they called the Church as +yet a virgin, for it was not yet corrupted by vain discourses. +Thebuthis made a beginning, secretly to corrupt it on account of his +not being made bishop. He was one of those seven sects among the +Jewish people. Of these also was Simeon, whence sprang the sect of +Simonians; also Cleobius, from whence came the Cleobians; also +Dositheus, the founder of the Dositheans. From these also sprung the +Gortheonians from Gortheoeus; and also Masbotheans from Masbothoeus. +Hence also the Meandrians, the Marcionists, and Carpocratians and +Valentinians, and Basilidians, and the Saturnillians, every one +introducing his own peculiar opinions, one differing from the other. +From these sprung the false Christs and the false prophets and false +apostles, who divided the unity of the Church by the introduction of +corrupt doctrines against God and against His Christ."--(Eusebius, +"Ecclesiastical History," Book IV, ch. 22.) + +5. _Early Decline of the Church_: Milner, summing up the conditions +attending the Church at the end of the second century, says: "And here +we close the view of the second century, which, for the most part +exhibited proofs of divine grace, as strong, or nearly so, as the +first. We have seen the same unshaken and simple faith of Jesus, the +same love of God and of the brethren; and--that in which they +singularly excelled modern Christians--the same heavenly spirit and +victory over the world. But a dark shade is enveloping these divine +glories. The Spirit of God is grieved already by the ambitious +intrusions of self-righteous, argumentative refinements, and Pharisaic +pride; and though it be more common to represent the most sensible +decay of godliness as commencing a century later, to me it seems +already begun."--(Milner, "Church History," Cent. II, ch. 9.) + +Mosheim, writing of conditions attending the closing years of the +third century, says: "The ancient method of ecclesiastical government +seemed in general still to subsist, while, at the same time, by +imperceptible steps, it varied from the primitive rule and degenerated +toward the form of a religious monarchy. * * * This change in the form +of ecclesiastical government was soon followed by a train of vices, +which dishonored the character and authority of those to whom the +administration of the Church was committed. For, though several yet +continued to exhibit to the world illustrative examples of primitive +piety and Christian virtue, yet many were sunk in luxury and +voluptuousness, puffed up with vanity, arrogance and ambition, +possessed with a spirit of contention and discord, and addicted to +many other vices that cast an undeserved reproach upon the holy +religion of which they were the unworthy professors and ministers. +This is testified in such an ample manner by the repeated complaints +of many of the most respectable writers of this age, that truth will +not permit us to spread the veil, which we should otherwise be +desirous to cast over such enormities among an order so sacred. The +bishops assumed in many places a princely authority, particularly +those who had the greatest number of churches under their inspection, +and who presided over the most opulent assemblies. They appropriated +to their evangelical function the splendid ensigns of temporal +majesty. A throne, surrounded with ministers, exalted above his equals +the servant of the meek and humble Jesus; and sumptuous garments +dazzled the eyes and the minds of the multitude into an ignorant +veneration of their arrogated authority. The example of the bishops +was ambitiously imitated by the presbyters, who, neglecting the sacred +duties of their station, abandoned themselves to the indolence and +delicacy of an effeminate and luxurious life. The deacons, beholding +the presbyters deserting thus their functions, boldly usurped their +rights and privileges, and the effects of a corrupt ambition were +spread through every rank of the order sacred."--(Mosheim, +"Ecclesiastical History," Cent. III, Part II, ch. 2:3, 4.) + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +**Internal Causes.--Continued**. + + +1. First among the specific causes of disturbance operating within the +Church, and contributing to its apostasy, we have named: "_The +corrupting of the simple principles of the gospel by the admixture of +the so-called philosophic systems of the times_." + +2. The attempted grafting of foreign doctrines on the true vine of the +gospel of Christ was characteristic of the early years of the +apostolic period. We read of the sorcerer Simon, who professed belief +and entered the Church by baptism, but who was so devoid of the true +spirit of the gospel that he sought to purchase by money the authority +and power of the priesthood.--(See Acts 8:9, 13, 18-24.) This man, +though rebuked by Peter, and apparently penitent, continued to trouble +the Church, by inculcating heresies and winning disciples within the +fold. His followers were distinguished as a sect or cult down to the +fourth century; and, writing at that time, Eusebius says of them: +"These, after the manner of their founder, insinuating themselves into +the Church, like a pestilential and leprous disease, infected those +with the greatest corruption, into whom they were able to infuse their +secret, irremediable, and destructive poison."--(Eusebius, +"Ecclesiastical History," Book II, ch. 1.) This Simon, known in +history as Simon Magus, is referred to by early Christian writers, as +the founder of heresy, owing to his persistent attempts to combine +Christianity with Gnosticism. It is with reference to his proposition +to purchase spiritual authority that all traffic in spiritual offices +has come to be known as simony. + +3. Through the mouth of the Revelator, the Lord reproved certain of +the churches for their adoption or toleration of doctrines and +practices alien to the gospel. Notably is this the case with respect +to the Nicolaitanes, and the followers of the doctrines of +Balaam.--(See Rev. 2:15; compare verse 6; see also verse 20. See Note +1, end of chapter.) + +4. The perversion of true theology thus developed within the Church is +traceable to the introduction of both Judaistic and pagan +fallacies.--(See Note 2, end of chapter.) Indeed, at the opening of +the Christian era and for centuries thereafter, Judaism was more or +less intimately mixed with pagan philosophy, and contaminated with +heathen ceremonies. There were numerous sects and parties, cults and +schools, each advocating rival theories as to the constitution of the +soul, the essence of sin, the nature of Deity, and a multitude of +other mysteries. The Christians were soon embroiled in endless +controversies among themselves. + +5. Judaistic converts to Christianity sought to modify and adapt the +tenets of the new faith so as to harmonize them with their inherited +love of Judaism, and the result was destructive to both. Our Lord had +indicated the futility of any such attempts to combine new principle +with old systems, or to patch up the prejudices of the past with +fragments of new doctrine. "No man," said He, "putteth a piece of new +cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up +taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse. Neither do men +put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine +runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new +bottles, and both are preserved."--(Matt. 9:16, 17.) The gospel came +as a new revelation, marking the fulfilment of the law, it was no mere +addendum, nor was it a simple reenactment of past requirements; it +embodied a new and an everlasting covenant. Attempts to patch the +Judaistic robe with the new fabric of the gospel could result in +nothing more sightly than a hideous rent. The new wine of the covenant +could not be bottled in the time-eaten leathern containers of Mosaic +libations. Judaism was belittled and Christianity perverted by the +incongruous association. + +6. Among the early and most pernicious adulterations of Christian +doctrine is the introduction of the teachings of the Gnostics. These +self-styled philosophers put forth the boastful claim that they were +able to lead the human mind to a full comprehension of the Supreme +Being, and a knowledge of the true relationship between Deity and +mortals. They said in effect that a certain being had existed from all +eternity, manifested as a radiant light diffused throughout space, and +this they called the _Pleroma_. "The eternal nature, infinitely +perfect and infinitely happy, having dwelt from everlasting in a +profound solitude, and in a blessed tranquillity produced at length +from itself, two minds of a different sex, which resembled their +supreme parent in the most perfect manner. From the prolific union of +these two beings, others arose, which were also followed by succeeding +generations; so that in process of time a celestial family was formed +in the Pleroma. This divine progeny, immutable in its nature, and +above the power of mortality, was called, by the philosophers, +_Aeon_--a term which signifies, in the Greek language, an eternal +nature. How many in number these Aeons were was a point much +controverted among the oriental sages."--(Mosheim, "Ecclesiastical +History," Cent. I, Part II, 1:7.) + +7. Then one of the Aeons, distinctively called the Demiurge, created +this world, and arrogantly asserted dominion over the same, denying +absolutely the authority of the supreme parent. The Gnostic doctrine +declares man to be a union of the body, which, being the creation of +the Demiurge, is essentially evil, and a spirit, which, being derived +from Deity, is characteristically good. The spirits thus imprisoned in +evil bodies will be finally liberated, and then the power of the +Demiurge will cease, and the earth will be dissolved into nothingness. + +8. Our justification for introducing here this partial summary of +Gnosticism is the fact that early efforts were made to accommodate the +tenets of this system to the demands of Christianity; and that Christ +and the Holy Ghost were declared to belong to the family of Aeons +provided for in this scheme. This led to the extravagant absurdity of +denying that Jesus had a body even while He lived as a man; and that +His appearance as a corporeal being was a deception of the senses +wrought by His supernatural power.--(See Note 3, end of chapter.) + +9. That the doctrines of the Gnostics were unsatisfying even to those +who professed to believe therein is evident from the many cults and +parties that came into existence as subdivisions of the main sect; and +it is interesting to note that in modern times certain free-thinkers +have prided themselves in assuming a title expressing the full +antithesis of the name Gnostics, viz. Agnostics. + +10. The practical effect of the principles of Gnosticism in the lives +of its adherents is strangely diverse. One division of the sect +followed a life of austerity, embracing rigorous self-denial, and +bodily torture, in the vain belief that the malignant body could thus +be subdued, while the spirit would be given added power and increased +freedom. Another cult sought to minimize the fundamental difference +between right and wrong, by denying the element of morality in human +life; and these abandoned themselves to the impulses of the passions +and the frailties of the bodily nature without restraint, on the +assumption that there was no such relation between body and soul as +would cause injury to the latter through bodily indulgences and +excesses. + +11. Another sect or school whose doctrines were in a measure +amalgamated with those of Christianity was that of the New Platonics. +The ancient sects of Platonists or Platonics were allied in some +points of doctrine with the Epicureans, and were rivals if not +opponents of the Stoics. The early Platonics held that unorganized +matter has existed from all eternity, and that its organizer, God, is +similarly eternal. As God is eternal, so also His will or intelligence +is without beginning, and this eternal intelligence existing as the +will or intent of Deity, was called the _Logos_. Such precepts had +been taught long before the Christian era, and the philosophy +professed by some of the contending sects among the Jews in the time +of Christ had been influenced thereby. + +12. As the principles of Christianity became generally known, certain +leaders in the sect of Platonics found in the new doctrine much to +study and admire. By this time, however, Platonism itself had +undergone much change, and the more liberal adherents had formed a new +organization and distinguished themselves by the appellation New +Platonics. These professed to find in Jesus Christ the incarnation of +the Logos, and accepted with avidity the declaration of St. John: "In +the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word +was God. * * * And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among +us."--(John 1:1, 14.) According to the Eclectic or New Platonic +philosophy, the "Word" referred to by St. John was the "Logos" +described by Plato. + +13. The Platonic conception of the Godhead as consisting of the Deity +and the Logos, was enlarged in accordance with Christian tenets to +embrace three members, the Holy Ghost being the third. Thence arose +bitter and lasting dissension as to the relative powers of each member +of the Trinity, particularly the position and authority of the Logos +or Son. The many disputes incident to the admixture of Platonic theory +with Christian doctrine continued through the centuries, and in a +sense may be said to trouble the minds of men even in this modern age. + +14. It is wholly beyond our purpose to classify or describe the hybrid +offspring resulting from the unnatural union of pagan philosophy and +Christian truth; nor shall we attempt to follow in detail the +dissensions and quarrels on theological points and questions of +doctrine. Our purpose is achieved when by statement of fact and +citation of authority, the reality of the apostasy is established. We +shall consider therefore only the most important of the dissensions by +which the Church was troubled.--(See Note 4, end of chapter.) + +15. About the middle of the third century, Sibellius, a presbyter or +bishop of the church in Africa, strongly advocated the doctrine of +"trinity in unity" as characterizing the Godhead. He claimed that the +divine nature of Christ was no distinct nor personal attribute of the +man Jesus, but merely a portion of the divine energy, an emanation +from the Father, with which the Son was temporarily endowed; and that +in like manner the Holy Ghost was a part of the divine Father. These +views were as vigorously opposed by some as defended by others, and +the disagreement was rife when Constantine so suddenly changed the +status of the Church, and brought to its support the power of the +state. Early in the fourth century the dispute assumed a threatening +aspect in a bitter contention between Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, +and Arius, one of the subordinate officers of the same church. +Alexander proclaimed that the Son was in all respects the equal of the +Father, and also of the same substance or essence. Arius insisted that +the Son had been created by the Father, and therefore could not be +co-eternal with His divine Parent; that the Son was the agent through +whom the will of the Father was executed, and that for this reason +also the Son was inferior to the Father both in nature and dignity. In +like manner the Holy Ghost was inferior to the other members of the +Godhead. + +16. Arianism, as the doctrine came to be known, was preached with +vigor and denounced with energy; and the dissension thus occasioned +threatened to rend the Church to its foundation. At last the emperor, +Constantine, was forced to intervene in an effort to establish peace +among his contending churchmen. He summoned a council of church +dignitaries which assembled in the year 325, and which is known from +its place of session as the Council of Nice. This council condemned +the doctrine of Arius, and pronounced sentence of banishment against +its author. What was declared to be the orthodox doctrine of the +universal or Catholic church respecting the Godhead was promulgated as +follows: + +17. "We believe in one God, the Father, Almighty, the maker of all +things visible and invisible; and in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son +of God, begotten of the Father, only begotten, (that is) of the +substance of the Father; God of God, Light of Light; Very God of Very +God; begotten not made; of the same substance with the Father, by whom +all things were made, that are in heaven and that are in earth: who +for us men, and for our salvation, descended and was incarnate, and +became man; suffered and rose again the third day, ascended into the +heavens and will come to judge the living and the dead; and in the +Holy Spirit. But those who say there was a time when he [the Son] was +not, and that he was not before he was begotten, and that he was made +out of nothing, or affirm that he is of any other substance or +essence, or that the Son of God was created, and mutable, or +changeable, the Catholic Church doth pronounce accursed." + +18. This is the generally accepted version of the Nicene Creed as +originally promulgated. In form it was somewhat modified, though left +practically unchanged as to essentials, by the council held at +Constantinople half a century later. What is regarded as a restatement +of the Nicene Creed has been attributed to Athanasius, one of the +chief opponents of Arianism, though his right to be considered the +author is questioned by many and emphatically denied by some +authorities on ecclesiastical history. Nevertheless, the statement +referred to has found a place in literature as the "Creed of +Athanasius," and whether rightly or wrongly named it persists as a +declaration of belief professed by some Christian sects today. It has +a present place in the prescribed ritual of the Church of England. The +"Creed of Athanasius" reads as follows: + +19. "We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither +confounding the persons, nor dividing the substance. For there is one +person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy +Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is all one: +the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal. Such as the Father is, such +is the Son; and such is the Holy Ghost. The Father uncreate, the Son +uncreate and the Holy Ghost uncreate. The Father incomprehensible, the +Son incomprehensible and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible. The Father +eternal, the Son eternal, the Holy Ghost eternal. And yet there are +not three eternals; but one eternal. As also there are not three +incomprehensibles, nor three uncreated; but one uncreated, and one +incomprehensible. So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son +Almighty, and the Holy Ghost Almighty; and yet there are not three +Almighties, but one Almighty. So the Father is God, the Son is God, +and the Holy Ghost is God, and yet they are not three Gods but one +God." + +20. The Council of Nice is known in ecclesiastical history as one of +the most famous and important gatherings ever assembled as an official +body concerned with church administration. Not only was the Arian +dispute disposed of, so far as ecclesiastical decree could dispose of +a question vitally affecting the individual conscience, but many other +subjects of controversy were similarly quieted for the time. Thus the +long-standing dispute as to the time of celebrating Easter was settled +by vote, as was also the question agitated by Novatus and his +followers--as to the propriety of re-admitting repentant apostates to +the Church; and the schism caused by Meletius, a bishop of Upper +Africa, who had refused to recognize the superior authority of the +bishop of Alexandria. From the number and diversity of the questions +brought before the Nicene Council for adjudication, we may safely +conclude that the newly enthroned Church was not characterized by +unity of purpose nor harmony of action. However, compared with the +bitter contentions that follow, the dissensions in the reign of +Constantine were but as the beginnings of trouble. + +21. The moral effect of the potent spirit of apostasy operating +through the first three centuries of the Church's existence and +nourished by the contributions of heathen philosophy, proved, as was +inevitable, highly injurious and evil. Some of the most pernicious of +these effects it becomes our duty to consider. + +22. _Perverted Views of Life_. One of the heresies of early origin and +rapid growth in the Church was the doctrine of antagonism between body +and spirit, whereby the former was regarded as an incubus and a curse. +From what has been said this will be recognized as one of the +perversions derived from the alliance of Gnosticism with Christianity. +A result of this grafting in of heathen doctrines was an abundant +growth of hermit practices, by which men sought to weaken, torture, +and subdue their bodies, that their spirits or "souls" might gain +greater freedom. Many who adopted this unnatural view of human +existence retired to the solitude of the desert, and there spent their +time in practices of stern self-denial and in acts of frenzied +self-torture. Others shut themselves up as voluntary prisoners, +seeking glory in privation and self-imposed penance. It was this +unnatural view of life that gave rise to the several orders of +recluses, hermits and monks. + +23. Think you not that the Savior had such practices in mind, when, +warning the disciples of the false claims to sanctity that would +characterize the times then soon to follow, He said: "Wherefore if +they shall say unto you, Behold he (Christ) is in the desert; go not +forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not."--(Matt. +24:26.) + +24. When the Church came into the favor of the state under Constantine +in the fourth century, there sprang up many orders of recluses who +"maintained that communion with God was to be sought by mortifying +sense, by withdrawing the mind from all external objects, by +macerating the body with hunger and labor, and by a holy sort of +indolence, which confined all the activity of the soul to a lazy +contemplation of things spiritual and external." Mosheim, the author +just quoted, continues: "The Christian church would never have been +disgraced by this cruel and unsocial enthusiasm, nor would any have +been subjected to those keen torments of mind and body to which it +gave rise, had not many Christians been unwarily caught by the +specious appearance and the pompous sound of that maxim of the ancient +philosophy: 'That in order to the attainment of true felicity and +communion with God, it was necessary that the soul should be separated +from the body, even here below; and that the body was to be macerated +and mortified for this purpose.'"--(Mosheim, "Eccl. Hist.," Cent. IV, +Part II, ch. 3:12, 13.) + +25. The fruit of this ill-sowing was the growth of numerous orders of +monks, and the maintenance of monasteries. Celibacy was taught as a +virtue, and came to be made a requirement of the clergy, as it is in +the Roman Catholic church to-day. An unmarried clergy, deprived of the +elevating influences of home life, fell into many excesses, and the +corruption of the priests has been a theme of reproach throughout the +centuries. "The Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be +alone; I will make him an help meet for him,"--(Gen. 2:18.) and again, +"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall +cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh."--(Verse 24.) His +inspired apostle proclaimed: "Neither is the man without the woman, +neither the woman without the man, in the Lord."--(I Cor. 11:11. +Compare I Tim. 4:3.) Nevertheless an apostate church decrees that its +ministers shall be forbidden to follow the law of God. + +26. _Disregard for Truth_. As early as the fourth century, certain +pernicious doctrines embodying a disregard for truth gained currency +in the Church. Thus, it was taught "that it was an act of virtue to +deceive and lie, when by that means the interests of the church might +be promoted."--(Mosheim, "Eccl. Hist.," Cent. IV, Part II, ch. 3:16.) +Needless to say, sins other than those of falsehood and deceit were +justified when committed in the supposed interests of church +advancement, and crime was condoned under the specious excuse that the +end justifies the means. Many of the fables and fictitious stories +relating to the lives of Christ and the apostles, as also the spurious +accounts of supernatural visitations and wonderful miracles, in which +the literature of the early centuries abound, are traceable to this +infamous doctrine that lies are acceptable unto God if perpetrated in +a cause that man calls good.--(See Note 5, end of chapter.) + + +NOTES. + +1. _The Nicolaitanes_. This sect is mentioned specifically in the +divine communication wherein John the Revelator was instructed to +write to the churches of Asia (Rev. 2:6, 15); and the reference proves +the abhorrence with which the Lord regarded the teachings and +practices of the cult. The attempt to corrupt Christianity by the +introduction of Nicolaitan ceremonies was a real danger threatening +the Church. The following extract from Smith's Bible Dictionary is +instructive: + +"The sect itself comes before us as presenting the ultimate phase of a +great controversy, which threatened at one time to destroy the unity +of the Church, and afterward to taint its purity. The controversy +itself was inevitable as soon as the Gentiles were admitted in any +large numbers into the Church of Christ. Were the new converts to be +brought into subjugation to the whole Mosaic law? The apostles and +elders at Jerusalem met the question calmly and wisely. The burden of +the Law was not to be imposed on the Gentile disciples. They were to +abstain, among other things, from 'meats offered to idols,' and from +'fornication' (Acts 15:20, 29), and this decree was welcomed as the +great charter of the Church's freedom. Strange as the close union of +the moral and positive commands may seem to us, it did not seem so to +the synod at Jerusalem. The two sins were very closely allied, often +even in the closest proximity of time and place. The messages to the +churches of Asia, and the later Apostolic Epistles (II Peter, and +Jude,) indicate that the two evils appeared at that period also in +close alliance. The teachers of the Church branded them with a name +that expressed their true character. The men who did and taught such +things were followers of Balaam (II Peter 2:15; Jude II.) They, like +the false prophet of Pethor, united brave words with evil deeds. In a +time of persecution, when the eating or not eating of things +sacrificed to idols was more than ever a crucial test of faithfulness, +they persuaded men more than ever that it was a thing indifferent +(Rev. 2:13, 14). This was bad enough, but there was a yet worse evil. +Mingling themselves in the orgies of idolatrous feasts, they brought +the impurities of those feasts into the meetings of the Christian +Church. And all this was done, it must be remembered, not simply as an +indulgence of appetite, but as part of a system supported by a +'doctrine,' accompanied by the boast of a prophetic illumination (II +Peter 2:1)." + +2. _Imitation of Heathen Mysteries, and the Result_. The worship of +God by the early Christians was decried and ridiculed because of its +simplicity and the absence of mystic ceremonies. True, the zeal of +persecutors soon made necessary a prudent secrecy in religious service +and worshipping assemblies, but aside from such necessity, there was a +voluntary effort to feign a secrecy that was uncalled for. On this +point Gibbon remarks as follows: "The precautions with which the +disciples of Christ performed the offices of religion were at first +dictated by fear and necessity; but they were continued from choice. +By imitating the awful secrecy of the Eleusinian mysteries, the +Christians had flattered themselves that they should render their +sacred institutions more respectable in the eyes of the pagan world. +But the event, as it often happens to the operations of subtle policy, +deceived their wishes and their expectations. It was concluded that +they only concealed what they would have blushed to disclose. Their +mistaken prudence afforded an opportunity for malice to invent, and +for suspicious credulity to believe, the horrid tales which described +the Christians as the most wicked of human kind, who practiced in +their dark recesses every abomination that a depraved fancy could +suggest, and who solicited the favor of their unknown God by the +sacrifice of every moral virtue. There were many who pretended to +confess or to relate the ceremonies of this abhorred society."-- +(Gibbon, "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," chap. XVI.) + +3. _Ebionites and Gnostics._ "Beside the general design of fixing on a +perpetual basis the divine honors of Christ, the most ancient and +respectable of the ecclesiastical writers have ascribed to the +evangelic theologian [St. John] a particular intention to confute two +opposing heresies, which disturbed the peace of the primitive Church. +I. The faith of the Ebionites, perhaps of the Nazarenes, was gross and +imperfect. They revered Jesus as the greatest of the prophets, endowed +with supernatural virtue and power. They ascribed to His person and to +His future reign all the predictions of the Hebrew oracles which +relate to the spiritual and everlasting kingdom of the promised +Messiah. Some of them might confess that He was born of a virgin; but +they obstinately rejected the preceding existence and divine +perfections of the Logos, or Son of God, which are so clearly defined +in the Gospel of St. John. * * * II. The Gnostics, who were +distinguished by the epithet of Docetes, deviated into the contrary +extreme, and betrayed the human while they asserted the divine, nature +of Christ. Educated in the school of Plato, accustomed to the sublime +idea of the Logos, they readily conceived that the brightest Aeon or +Emanation of Deity, might assume the outward shape and visible +appearance of a mortal; but they vainly pretended that the +imperfections of matter are incompatible with the purity of a +celestial substance. While the blood of Christ yet smoked on Mount +Calvary, and the Docetes invented the impious and extravagant +hypothesis that, instead of issuing from the womb of the Virgin, he +had descended on the banks of the Jordan in the form of perfect +manhood; that he had imposed on the senses of His enemies and of His +disciples, and that the ministers of Pilate had wasted their impotent +rage on an airy phantom, who seemed to expire on the Cross, and, after +three days, to rise from the dead."--(Gibbon, "Decline and Fall of the +Roman Empire," ch. XXI.) + +4. _Admixture of Pagan Doctrines With Christianity_. The following +statements by modern writers as to the effect of pagan "philosophy" on +the Church are worthy of attention. Summarizing conditions prevailing +in the latter part of the second century, Milner says: "We have +hitherto found it no hard matter to discover, in the teachers and +writers of Christianity, the vital doctrines of Christ. We shall now +perceive that the most precious truths of the gospel begin to be less +attended to, and less brought to view. Even Justin Martyr, before the +period of eclectic corruption, by his fondness for Plato, adulterated +the gospel in some degree, as we have observed particularly in the +article of free will. Tatian, his scholar, went bolder lengths, and +deserved the name of heretic. He dealt largely in the merits of +continence and chastity; and these virtues, pushed into extravagant +excesses, under the notion of superior purity, became great engines of +self-righteousness and superstition; obscured men's views of the faith +of Christ, and darkened the whole face of Christianity. Under the +fostering hand of Ammonius and his followers, this fictitious holiness +disguised under the appearance of eminent sanctity, was formed into a +system; and it soon began to generate the worst of evils. * * * St. +Paul's caution against philosophy and vain deceit, it appears, was now +fatally neglected by the Christians. False humility, 'Will-worship,' +curious and proud refinements, bodily austerities mixed with high, +self-righteous pretensions, ignorance of Christ and of the true life +of faith in Him, miserably superseded by ceremonies and +superstitions,--all these things are divinely delineated in the second +chapter to the Colossians; and, so far as words can do it, the true +defense against them is powerfully described and enforced."--(Milner, +"Church History," Cent. II, ch. 9.) + +"The schisms and commotions that arose in the church, from a mixture +of the oriental and Egyptian philosophy with the Christian religion +were, in the second century, increased by those Grecian philosophers +who embraced the doctrine of Christ. The Christian doctrine, +concerning the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and the two natures united +in our blessed Savior, were by no means reconcilable with the tenets +of the sages and doctors of Greece, who therefore endeavored to +explain them in such a manner as to render them comprehensible. +Praxeas, a man of genius and learning, began to propagate these +explications at Rome, and was severely persecuted for the errors they +contained. He denied any real distinction between the Father, Son, and +Holy Ghost; and maintained that the Father, sole Creator of all +things, had united to Himself the human nature of Christ. Hence his +followers were called Monarchians, because of their denying a +plurality of persons in the Deity; and also Patropassians, because, +according to Tertullian's account, they believed that the Father was +so intimately united with the man Christ, His Son, that He suffered +with Him the anguish of an afflicted life and the torments of an +ignominious death. However ready many may have been to embrace this +erroneous doctrine, it does not appear that this sect formed to +themselves a separate place of worship, or removed themselves from the +ordinary assemblies of Christians."--(Mosheim, "Ecclesiastical +History," Cent. II, Part II, ch. 5:20.) + +5. _Spurious Writings in the Apostolic Period_. "Not long after +Christ's ascension into heaven, several histories of His life and +doctrines, full of pious frauds and fabulous wonders, were composed by +persons whose intentions, perhaps, were not bad, but whose writings +discovered the greatest superstition and ignorance. Nor was this all: +productions appeared which were imposed upon the world by fraudulent +men, as the writings of the holy apostles. These apocryphal and +spurious writings must have produced a sad confusion, and rendered +both the history and the doctrine of Christ uncertain, had not the +rulers of the church used all possible care and diligence in +separating the books that were truly apostolical and divine from all +that spurious trash."--(Mosheim, "Ecclesiastical History," Cent. I, +Part II, ch. 2:17.) + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +**Internal Causes.--Continued**. + + +1. As one of the effective causes leading to the apostasy of the +Primitive Church we have specified: _Unauthorized additions to the +ceremonies of the Church, and the introduction of vital changes in +essential ordinances_. + +2. The ridicule heaped upon the early Church by the pagans on account +of the simplicity of Christian worship has already received mention. +This cause of reproach was none the less emphasized by Judaistic +critics, to whom rituals and ceremony, formalism and prescribed rites, +figured as essentials of religion. Very early in its history, the +Church manifested a tendency to supplant the pristine simplicity of +its worship by elaborate ceremonies, patterned after Judaistic ritual +and heathen idolatries. + +3. As to such innovations, Mosheim writes as follows, with reference +to conditions existing in the second century: "There is no institution +so pure and excellent which the corruption and folly of man will not +in time alter for the worse, and load with additions foreign to its +nature and original design. Such in a particular manner was the fate +of Christianity. In this century many unnecessary rites and ceremonies +were added to the Christian worship, the introduction of which was +extremely offensive to wise and good men. These changes, while they +destroyed the beautiful simplicity of the gospel, were naturally +pleasing to the gross multitude, who are more delighted with the pomp +and splendor of external institutions than with the native charms of +rational and solid piety, and who generally give little attention to +any objects but those which strike their outward senses."--(Mosheim, +"Eccl. Hist.," Cent. II, Part II, ch. 4.) The author just cited +explains that the bishops of that day increased the ceremonies and +sought to give them splendor "by way of accommodation to the +infirmities and prejudices of both Jews and heathen."--(See Note 1, +end of chapter.) + +4. To more effectually reconcile the gospel requirements with Jewish +prejudice, which still clung to the letter of the Mosaic law, the +officers of the Church in the first and second centuries took to +themselves the ancient titles; thus, bishops styled themselves chief +priests, and deacons, Levites. "In like manner," says Mosheim, "the +comparison of the Christian _oblation_ with the Jewish _victim_ and +_sacrifice_, produced a multitude of unnecessary rites, and was the +occasion of introducing that erroneous notion of the _eucharist_, +which represents it as a real sacrifice, and not merely as a +commemoration of that great offering that was once made upon the cross +for the sins of mortals."--(Mosheim, "Eccl. Hist.," Cent. II, Part II, +ch. 4:4.) + +5. In the fourth century we find the Church still more hopelessly +committed to formalism and superstition. The decent respect with which +the remains of the early martyrs had been honored degenerated or grew +into a superstitious reverence amounting to worship. This practice was +allowed in deference to the heathen adoration paid to deified heroes. +Pilgrimages to the tombs of martyrs became common as an outward form +of religious devotion; and the ashes of martyrs as well as dust and +earth brought from places said to have been made holy by some uncommon +occurrence were sold as sovereign remedies against disease and as +means of protection against the assaults of malignant spirits. + +6. The form of public worship was so changed during the second and +third centuries as to bear little resemblance to the simplicity and +earnestness of that of the early congregations. Philosophic discourses +took the place of fervent testimony bearing and the arts of the +rhetorician and controversial debater supplanted the true eloquence of +religious conviction. Applause was allowed and expected as evidence of +the preacher's popularity. The burning incense, at first abhorred by +Christian assemblies because of its pagan origin and heathen +significance, had become common in the Church before the end of the +third century. + +7. In the fourth century the adoration of images, pictures, and +effigies, had been given a place in the so-called Christian worship; +and the practice became general in the century following. An effort to +check the abuses arising from this idolatrous practice in the eighth +century, actually led to civil war.--(See Mosheim, "Eccl. Hist.," +Cent. VIII, Part II, ch. 3:9, 10.) + +8. In considering such evidences of pagan ceremonial and superstitious +rites taking the place of the simple procedure incident to genuine +worship characteristic of the Church in the days of its integrity, who +can question the solemn and awful fact of actual apostasy?--(See Note +2, end of chapter.) But more important yet, more significant still +than mere additions to the ritualistic ceremonial, are the perversions +and changes introduced into the most sacred and essential ordinances +of Christ's Church. As it is common with ecclesiastical authorities to +consider the most essential ordinances of the gospel originally +established by Christ and maintained by His apostles, as comprising +baptism and the sacrament of the Lord's supper, we shall examine into +these alone as examples of the unauthorized alterations now under +consideration. In this restriction of our illustrative examples we do +not admit that baptism and the sacrament named were the only +ordinances characterizing the Church; indeed, there is abundant proof +to the contrary. Thus, the authoritative imposition of hands for the +bestowal of the Holy Ghost in the case of baptized believers was +equally essential with baptism itself,--(See Acts 8:5-8, 12, 14-17; +also 19:1-7; see also 2:38; Matt. 3:11; and Mark 1:8.) and was +assuredly regarded as a vital ordinance from the first.--(See Matt. +3:11.) Furthermore, ordination in the priesthood, whereby men were +commissioned by divine authority was indispensable to the maintenance +of an organized Church. The examples selected, however, will be +sufficient for the purposes of our present inquiry. + +**The Ordinance of Baptism Changed**. + +9. First, then, as to baptism,--in what did the ordinance originally +consist, as to purpose and mode of administration, and what changes +did it undergo in the course of progressive apostasy through which the +Church passed? That baptism is essential to salvation calls for no +demonstration here; this has been generally held by the Christian +Church in both ancient and modern times.--(For a concise treatment of +this subject, see the author's "Articles of Faith," Lecture 6:8-29.) +The purpose of baptism was and is the obtaining of a remission of +sins; compliance with the requirement has been from the first the sole +means of securing admission to the Church of Christ.--(See Mark 1:4 +and Luke 3:3; also Acts 2:38; I Peter 3:21; and Acts 22:16. Compare II +Nephi 31:17.) + +10. In the early Church, baptism was administered on profession of +faith and evidence of repentance, and was performed by immersion--(See +Note 3, end of chapter) at the hands of one invested with the +requisite authority of priesthood. There was no delay in administering +the ordinance after the eligibility of the candidate had been shown. +As instances we may cite the promptness with which baptism was +administered to the believers on that eventful day of Pentecost;-- +(Acts 2:37-41) the baptism administered by Philip to the Ethiopian +convert immediately following due profession of faith;--(Acts 8:26-39) +the undelayed baptism of devout Cornelius and his family;--(Acts +10:47, 48) and the speedy baptism of the converted jailer by Paul, his +prisoner.--(Acts 16:31-33.) + +11. In the second century, however, priestly mandate had restricted +the baptismal ordinance to the times of the two Church festivals, +Easter and Whitsuntide, the first being the anniversary of Christ's +resurrection, and the second the time of Pentecostal celebration. A +long and tedious course of preparation was required of the candidate +before his eligibility was admitted; during this time he was known as +a _catechumen_, or novice in training. According to some authorities a +three years' course of preparation was required in all but exceptional +cases.--(Schlegel, Book VIII, ch. 32.) + +12. During the second century the baptismal symbolism of a new birth +was emphasized by many additions to the ordinance; thus the newly +baptized were treated as infants and were fed milk and honey in token +of their immaturity. As baptism was construed to be a ceremony of +liberation from the slavery of Satan, certain formulas used in the +freeing of slaves were added. Anointing with oil was also made a part +of the ceremony. In the third century the simple ordinance of baptism +was further encumbered and perverted by the ministrations of an +exorcist. This official indulged in "menacing and formidable shouts +and declamation" whereby the demons or evil spirits with which the +candidate was supposed to be afflicted were to be driven away. "The +driving out of this demon was now considered as an essential +preparation for baptism, after the administration of which the +candidates returned home, adorned with crowns, and arrayed in white +garments, as sacred emblems,--the former of their victory over sin and +the world; the latter of their inward purity and innocence."-- +(Mosheim, "Eccl. Hist.," Cent. III, part II, ch. 4:4.) It is not +difficult to see in this superstitious ceremony the evidence of pagan +adulteration of the Christian religion. In the fourth century it +became the practice to place salt in the mouth of the newly baptized +member, as a symbol of purification, and the actual baptism was both +preceded and followed by an anointing with oil. + +13. The form or mode of baptism also underwent a radical change during +the first half of the third century,--a change whereby its essential +symbolism was destroyed. Immersion,--(See Note 3, end of chapter) +typifying death followed by resurrection, was no longer deemed an +essential feature, and sprinkling with water was allowed in place +thereof. No less an authority than Cyprian, the learned bishop of +Carthage, advocated the propriety of sprinkling in lieu of immersion +in cases of physical weakness; and the practice thus started, later +became general. The first instance of record is that of Novatus, a +heretic who requested baptism when he thought death was near.--(As to +the scriptural doctrine of baptism, the mode of its administration and +the symbolism thereof, see the author's "Articles of Faith," Lecture +7.) + +14. Not only was the form of the baptismal rite radically changed, but +the application of the ordinance was perverted. The practice of +administering baptism to infants was recognized as orthodox in the +third century, and was doubtless of earlier origin. In a prolonged +disputation as to whether it was safe to postpone the baptism of +infants until the eighth day after birth--in deference to the Jewish +custom of performing circumcision on that day--it was gravely decided +that such delay would be dangerous, as jeopardizing the future +well-being of the child should it die before attaining the age of +eight days, and that baptism ought to be administered as soon after +birth as possible.--(See Milner, "Church History," Cent. III; ch. 13.) +A more infamous doctrine than that of the condemnation of unbaptized +infants can scarcely be imagined, and a stronger proof of the heresies +that had invaded and corrupted the early Church need not be sought. +Such a doctrine is foreign to the gospel and to the Church of Christ, +and its adoption as an essential tenet is proof of apostasy.--(For a +discussion of infant baptism, see the author's "Articles of Faith," +Lecture 6. See Note 4, end of chapter.) + +**Changes in the Ordinance of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper**. + +15. The sacrament of the Lord's Supper has been regarded as an +essential ordinance from the time of its establishment in the Church +by Jesus Christ. Yet in spite of its sanctity it has undergone radical +alteration both as to its symbolism and its accepted purpose. The +sacrament, as instituted by the Savior and as administered during the +days of the apostolic ministry, was as simple as it was sacred and +solemn. Accompanied by the true spirit of the gospel, its simplicity +was sanctifying; as interpreted by the spirit of apostasy its +simplicity became a reproach. Hence we find that in the third century, +long sacramental prayers were prescribed, and much pomp was +introduced. Vessels of gold and silver were used by such congregations +as could afford them, and this with ostentatious display. Nonmembers +and members "who were in a penitential state" were excluded from the +sacramental service--in imitation of the exclusiveness accompanying +heathen mysteries. Disputation and dissension arose as to the proper +time of administering the sacrament--morning, noon, or evening; and as +to the frequency with which the ordinance should be celebrated.--(See +Note 5, end of chapter.) + +16. At a later date the doctrine of _Transubstantiation_ was +established as an essential tenet of the Roman Church. This briefly +summarized, is to the effect that the species--i. e., the bread and +wine used in the sacrament--lose their character as mere bread and +wine, and become in fact the flesh and blood of the crucified Christ. +The transmutation is assumed to take place in such a mystical way as +to delude the senses; and so, though actual flesh and actual blood, +the elements still appear to be bread and wine. This view, so strongly +defended and earnestly reverenced by orthodox members of the Roman +Church, is vehemently denounced by others as "an absurd tenet,"-- +(Milner) and a "monstrous and unnatural doctrine."--(Mosheim.) + +17. There has been much discussion as to the origin of this +doctrine,--(See Note 6, end of chapter.) the Roman Catholics claiming +for it a great antiquity, while their opponents insist that it was an +innovation of the eighth or ninth century. According to Milner it was +openly taught in the ninth century;--(Milner, "Church History," Cent. +IX, ch. 1.) was formally established as a dogma of the Church by the +Council of Placentia A. D. 1095,--(The same, Cent. XI, ch. 1) and was +made an essential article of creed, belief in which was required of +all by action of the Roman ecclesiastical court about 1160.--(The +same, Cent. XIII, ch. 1.) An official edict of the pope, Innocent III, +confirmed the dogma as a binding tenet and requirement of the Church +in 1215;--(Mosheim, "Eccl. Hist.," Cent. XIII, Part II, ch. 3:2.) and +it remains practically in force in the Roman Catholic Church today. +The doctrine was adopted by the Greek Church in the seventeenth +century.--(The same. Cent. XVII, Part II, ch. 2:3.) + +18. The consecrated emblems, or "host," being regarded as the actual +flesh and blood of Christ, were adored as of themselves divine. Thus, +"a very pernicious practice of idolatry was connected with the +reception of this doctrine. Men fell down before the consecrated host, +and worshipped it as God; and the novelty, absurdity, and impiety of +this abomination very much struck the minds of all men who were not +dead to a sense of true religion."--(Milner, "Church History," Cent. +XIII, ch. 1.) The "elevation of the host,"--i. e., the presentation of +the consecrated emblems before the congregation for adoration, is a +feature of the present day ritual of worship in the Roman Catholic +Church. The celebration of the mass is taught to be an actual though +mystic sacrifice, in which the Son of God is daily offered up anew as +a constantly recurring atonement for the present sins of the assembled +worshippers. A further perversion of the sacrament occurred in the +administration of bread alone, instead of both bread and wine as +originally required. + +19. Thus was the plain purpose and assured efficacy of the sacrament +hidden beneath a cloud of mystery and ceremonial display. Contrast +such with the solemn simplicity of the ordinance as instituted by our +Lord,--He took bread and wine, blessed them and gave to His disciples +and said, "This do in remembrance of me."--(Luke 22:19, 20; compare +Matt. 26:27, 28.) Of the bread He said, "This is my body;" of the +wine, "This is my blood;" yet at that time His body was unpierced, His +blood was unshed. The disciples ate bread, not flesh of a living man, +and drank wine, not blood; and this they were commanded to do in +remembrance of Christ.--(For a general treatment of the Sacrament of +the Lord's Supper, see the author's "Articles of Faith," Lecture 9.) +The perversion of the sacrament is evidence of departure from the +spirit of the gospel of Christ, and when made an essential dogma of a +church is proof of the apostate condition of that church. + +20. Behold, "_they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, +broken the everlasting covenant_."--(See Isaiah 24:4-6.) + + +NOTES. + +1. _Ceremonies Added as a Compromise_. "Both Jews and heathens were +accustomed to a vast variety of pompous and magnificent ceremonies in +their religious service. And as they considered these rites as an +essential part of religion, it was but natural that they should behold +with indifference, and even with contempt, the simplicity of the +Christian worship, which was destitute of those idle ceremonies that +rendered their service so specious and striking. To remove then, in +some measure, this prejudice against Christianity, the bishops thought +it necessary to increase the number of rites and ceremonies, and thus +to render the public worship more striking to the outward senses. This +addition of external rites was also designed to remove the opprobrious +calumnies which the Jewish and pagan priests cast upon the Christians +on account of the simplicity of their worship, esteeming them little +better than atheists, because they had no temples, altars, victims, +priests, nor anything of that external pomp in which the vulgar are so +prone to place the essence of religion. The rulers of the Church +adopted, therefore, certain external ceremonies, that thus they might +captivate the senses of the vulgar, and be able to refute the +reproaches of their adversaries." (Mosheim, "Ecclesiastical History," +Cent. II, Part II, ch. 4:2, 3.) + +A note appended to the foregoing excerpt by the translator, Dr. +Archibald Maclaine, reads as follows: + +"A remarkable passage in the life of Gregory, surnamed Thaumaturgus, +i. e., the wonder worker, will illustrate this point in the clearest +manner. The passage is as follows: 'When Gregory perceived that the +ignorant multitude persisted in their idolatry, on account of the +pleasures and sensual gratifications which they enjoyed at the pagan +festivals, he granted them a permission to indulge themselves in the +like pleasures, in celebrating the memory of the holy martyrs, hoping +that in process of time, they would return of their own accord to a +more virtuous and regular course of life.' There is no sort of doubt, +but that by this permission, Gregory allowed the Christians to dance, +sport, and feast at the tombs of the martyrs upon their respective +festivals, and to do everything which the pagans were accustomed to do +in their temples during the feasts celebrated in honor of their gods." + +The Gregory referred to in the note last quoted flourished about the +middle of the third century. He acquired the title Thaumaturgus from +his fame as a worker of miracles, the genuineness of which +achievements is disputed by many authorities. He was bishop of New +Caesarea, and a man of great influence in the Church. His sanction of +ceremonies, patterned after pagan rites, was doubtless of far-reaching +effect. + +2. _Church Ceremonial in the Fifth Century_. "The sublime and simple +theology of the primitive Christians was gradually corrupted, and the +Monarchy of heaven, already clouded by metaphysical subtleties, was +degraded by the introduction of a popular mythology, which tended to +restore the reign of polytheism. As the objects of religion were +gradually reduced to the standard of the imagination, the rites and +ceremonies were introduced that seemed most powerfully to affect the +senses of the vulgar. If, in the beginning of the fifth century, +Tertullian or Lactantius had been suddenly raised from the dead, to +assist at the festival of some popular saint or martyr, they would +have gazed with astonishment and indignation on the profane spectacle, +which had succeeded to the pure and spiritual worship of a Christian +congregation. As soon as the doors of the Church were thrown open they +must have been offended by the smoke of incense, the perfume of +flowers, and the glare of lamps and tapers, which diffused, at +noonday, a gaudy, superfluous, and, in their opinion a sacriligious +light. If they approached the balustrade of the altar, they made their +way through the prostrate crowd, consisting for the most part, of +strangers and pilgrims, who resorted to the city on the vigil of the +feast; and who already felt the strong intoxication of fanaticism, and +perhaps of wine. Their devout kisses were imprinted on the walls and +pavements of the sacred edifice; and their fervent prayers were +directed, whatever might be the language of their church, to the +bones, the blood, or the ashes of the saints, which were usually +concealed by a linen or silken veil from the eyes of the vulgar. The +Christians frequented the tombs of the martyrs, in the hope of +obtaining, from their powerful intercession, every sort of spiritual, +but more especially of temporal blessings. * * * The same uniform +original spirit of superstition might suggest, in the most distant +ages and countries, the same methods of deceiving the credulity, and +of affecting the services, of mankind; but it must ingeniously be +confessed that the ministers of the Catholic Church imitated the +profane model which they were impatient to destroy. The most +respectable bishops had persuaded themselves that the ignorant rustics +would more cheerfully renounce the superstitions of Paganism, if they +found some resemblance, some compensation, in the bosom of +Christianity. The religion of Constantine achieved, in less than a +century, the final conquest of the Roman empire; but the victors +themselves were insensibly subdued by the arts of their vanquished +rivals."--(Gibbon, "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," ch. +XXVIII.) + +3. _Early Form of Christian Baptism_. History furnishes ample proof +that in the first century after the death of Christ, baptism was +administered solely by immersion. Tertullian thus refers to the +immersion ceremony common in his day: "There is no difference whether +one is washed in a sea or in a pool, in a river or in a fountain, in a +lake or in a channel; nor is there any difference between those whom +John dipped in Jordan, and those whom Peter dipped in the Tiber. * * * +We are immersed in the water." + +Justin Martyr describes the ceremony as practiced by himself. First +describing the preparatory examination of the candidate, he proceeds: +"After that they are led by us to where there is water, and are born +again in that kind of new birth by which we ourselves were born again. +For in the name of God, the Father and Lord of all, and of Jesus +Christ, our Savior, and of the Holy Spirit, the immersion in water is +performed; because the Christ hath also said, 'Except a man be born +again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.'" + +Bishop Bennet says concerning the practices of the early Christians: +"They led them into the water and laid them down in the water as a man +is laid in a grave; and then they said those words, 'I baptize (or +wash) thee in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost;' then they +raised them up again, and clean garments were put on them; from whence +came the phrases of being baptized into Christ's death, of being +buried with Him by baptism into death, of our being risen with Christ, +and of our putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, of putting off the old +man, and putting on the new." + +"That the apostles immersed whom they baptized there is no doubt. * * +* And that the ancient church followed their example is very clearly +evinced by innumerable testimonies of the fathers."--(Vossius.) + +"Burying as it were the person baptized in the water, and raising him +out again, without question was anciently the more usual +method."--(Archbishop Seeker.) + +"_Immersion_ was the usual method in which baptism was administered in +the early Church. * * * Immersion was undoubtedly a common mode of +administering baptism, and was not discontinued when infant baptism +prevailed. * * * Sprinkling gradually took the place of immersion +without any formal renunciation of the latter."--(Canon Farrar.) + +4. _Historical Notes on Infant Baptism_. "The baptism of infants, in +the first two centuries after Christ, was altogether unknown. * * * +The custom of baptizing infants did not begin before the third age +after Christ was born. In the former ages no trace of it appears; and +it was introduced without the command of Christ."--(Curcullaeus.) + +"It is certain that Christ did not ordain infant baptism. * * * We +cannot prove that the apostles ordained infant baptism. From those +places where baptism of a whole family is mentioned (as in Acts 16:33; +I Cor. 1:16) we can draw no such conclusion, because the inquiry is +still to be made, whether there were any children in the families of +such an age that they were not capable of any intelligent reception of +Christianity; for this is the only point on which the case turns. * * +* As baptism was closely united with a conscious entrance on Christian +communion, faith and baptism were always connected with one another; +and thus it is in the highest degree probable that baptism was +performed only in instances where both could meet together, and that +the practice of infant baptism was unknown at this (the apostolic) +period. * * * That not till so late a period as (at least certainly +not earlier than) Irenaeus, a trace of infant baptism appears; and +that it first became recognized as an apostolic tradition in the +course of the third century, is evidence rather against than for the +admission of its apostolic origin."--(Johann Neander, a German +theologian who flourished in the first half of the nineteenth +century.) + +"Let them therefore come when they are grown up--when they can +understand--when they are taught whither they are to come. Let them +become Christians when they can know Christ."--(Tertullian, one of the +Latin "Christian Fathers;" he lived from 150 to 220 A. D.) +Tertullian's almost violent opposition to the practice of pedo-baptism +is cited by Neander as "a proof that it was then not usually +considered an apostolic ordinance; for in that case he would hardly +have ventured to speak so strongly against it." + +Martin Luther, writing in the early part of the sixteenth century, +declared: "It cannot be proven by the sacred scriptures that infant +baptism was instituted by Christ, or begun by the first Christians +after the apostles." + +"By _tekna_ the Apostle understands, not infants, but posterity; in +which significance the word occurs in many places of the New Testament +(see among others John 8:39); whence it appears that the argument +which is very commonly taken from this passage for the baptism of +infants, is of no force, and good for nothing."--(Limborch, a native +of Holland, and a theologian of repute; he lived 1633-1712.) + +5. _Summary of Changes in the Sacrament as an Ordinance_. "Errors +concerning the sacrament, and its signification, and the manner of +administering it, grew rapidly in the professed Christian churches +during the early centuries of the Christian era. As soon as the power +of the priesthood had departed, much disputation arose in matters of +ordinance, and the observance of the sacrament became distorted. +Theological teachers strove to foster the idea that there was much +mystery attending this naturally simple and most impressive ordinance; +that all who were not in full communion with the Church should be +excluded, not only from participation in the ordinance, which was +justifiable, but from the privilege of witnessing the service, lest +they profane the mystic rite by their unhallowed presence. Then arose +the heresy of transubstantiation,--which held that the sacramental +emblems by the ceremony of consecration lost their natural character +of simple bread and wine, and became in reality flesh and +blood,--actually parts of the crucified body of Christ. Arguments +against such dogmas is useless. Then followed the veneration of the +emblems by the people, the bread and wine--regarded as part of +Christ's tabernacle, being elevated in the mass for the adoration of +the people; and later, the custom of suppressing half of the sacrament +was introduced. By the innovation last mentioned, only the bread was +administered, the dogmatic assertion being that both the body and the +blood were represented in some mystical way in one of the 'elements.' +Certain it is, that Christ required His disciples to both eat and +drink in remembrance of Him."--(The Author, "Articles of Faith," +Lecture 9, Note 4.) + +6. _As to the Antiquity of the Doctrine of Transubstantiation_. As +stated in the text, the date of origin of the Catholic doctrine of +transubstantiation has been debated. The following summary is +instructive. "Protestants combatting the Catholic idea of the real +presence of the flesh and blood in the eucharist--transubstantiation-- +have endeavored to prove that this doctrine was not of earlier origin +than the eighth century. In this, however, the evidence is against +them. Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, writing early in the second +century, says of certain supposed heretics: 'They do not admit of +eucharists and oblations, because they do not believe the eucharist to +be the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, who suffered for our sins.' +(Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrneans.) So Justin Martyr, also writing +in the first half of the second century: 'We do not receive them [the +bread and the wine] as ordinary food or ordinary drink, but as by the +word of God, Jesus Christ, our Savior, was made flesh and took upon +him both flesh and blood for our salvation, so also the food which was +blessed by the prayer of the word which proceeded from Him, and from +which our flesh and blood, by transmutation, receive nourishment, is, +we are taught, both the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made +flesh.' (Justin's Apology to Emperor Antoninus.) After Justin's time +the testimony of the fathers is abundant. There can be no doubt as to +the antiquity of the idea of the real presence of the body and blood +of Jesus in the eucharist; but that proves--as we said of infant +baptism--not that the doctrine is true, but that soon after the +apostles had passed away, the simplicity of the gospel was corrupted +or else entirely departed from."--(B. H. Roberts, "Outlines of +Ecclesiastical History," p. 133.) + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +**Internal Causes.--Continued**. + + +1. Among the controlling causes leading to the general apostasy of the +Church, we have specified as third in the series: _Unauthorized +changes in Church organization and government_. + +2. A comparison between the plan of organization on which the +Primitive Church was founded and the ecclesiastical system which took +its place will afford valuable evidence as to the true or apostate +condition of the modern Church. The Primitive Church was officered by +apostles, pastors, high priests, seventies, elders, bishops, priests, +teachers, and deacons.--(See Luke 6:13 and Mark 3:14; Eph. 4:11; Heb. +5:1-5; Luke 10:1-11; Acts 14:23; 15:6; I Peter 5:1; I Tim. 3:1; Titus +1:17; Rev. 1:6; Acts 13:1; I Tim. 3:8-12.) We have no evidence that +the presiding council of the Church, comprising the twelve apostles, +was continued beyond the earthly ministry of those who had been +ordained to that holy calling during the life of Christ or soon after +His ascension. Nor is there record of any ordination of individuals to +the apostleship, irrespective of membership in the council of twelve, +beyond those whose calling and ministry are chronicled in the New +Testament, which, as a historical record, ends with the first century. + +3. Ecclesiastical history other than the holy scriptures informs us, +however, that wherever a branch, or church, was organized, a bishop or +an elder (presbyter) was placed in charge. There is no doubt that +while the apostles lived, they were recognized and respected as the +presiding authorities of the Church. As they established branches or +churches, they selected the bishops, and submitted their nominations +to the vote of the members. As already stated, the principle of +self-government, or common consent, was respected in apostolic days +with a care amounting to sacred duty. We read that the bishops were +assisted in their local administration by presbyters and deacons. + +4. After the apostles had gone, bishops and other officers were +nominated by, or at the instance of, the existing authorities. The +affairs of each church or branch were conducted and regulated by the +local officers, so that a marked equality existed among the several +churches, none exercising or claiming supremacy except as to the +deference voluntarily paid to those churches that had been organized +by the personal ministry of the apostles. Throughout the first and the +greater part of the second century, "the Christian churches were +independent of each other; nor were they joined together by +association, confederacy, or other bonds but those of charity. Each +Christian assembly was a little state, governed by its own laws, which +were either enacted, or, at least, approved by the society."-- +(Mosheim, "Eccl. Hist.," Cent. II, Part II, ch. 2:2.) + +5. As with the churches, so with their bishops,--there was a +recognized equality among them. Late in the second, and throughout the +third century, however, marked distinctions and recognitions of rank +arose among the bishops, those of large and wealthy cities assuming +authority and dignity above that accorded by them to the bishops of +the country provinces. The bishops of the largest cities or provinces, +took to themselves the distinguishing title of Metropolitans,--(See +Mosheim, "Eccl. Hist.," Cent. II, Part II, ch. 2:3; also Cent. IV, +Part II, ch. 2:3, and compare Cent. I, Part II, ch. 2:14.) and assumed +a power of presidency over the bishops of more limited jurisdiction. + +6. The second century was marked by the custom of holding synods or +church councils; the practice originated among the churches in Greece, +and thence became general. These councils grew rapidly in power, so +that in the third century we find them legislating for the churches, +and directing by edict and command in matters which formerly had been +left to the vote of the people. Needless to say that with such +assumptions of authority came arrogance and tyranny in the government +of the Church. As the form of church government changed more and more, +many minor orders of clergy or church officers arose; thus in the +third century we read of sub-deacons, acolytes, ostiars, readers, +exorcists, and copiates. As an instance of the pride of office, it is +worthy of note that a sub-deacon was forbidden to sit in the presence +of a deacon without the latter's express consent. + +7. Rome, so long the "mistress of the world" in secular affairs, +arrogated to herself a pre-eminence in church matters, and the bishop +of Rome claimed supremacy. It is doubtless true that the church at +Rome was organized by Peter and Paul. Tradition, founded on error, +said that the apostle Peter was the first bishop of Rome; and those +who successively were acknowledged as bishops of the metropolis +claimed to be, in fact, lineal successors of the presiding apostle. +The high but none the less false claim is made by the Catholic Church +in this day, that the present pope is the last lineal successor--not +alone to the bishopric but to the apostleship. + +8. The rightful supremacy of the bishops of Rome, or Roman pontiffs as +they came to be known, was early questioned; and when Constantine made +Byzantium, or Constantinople, the capital of the empire, the bishop of +Constantinople claimed equality. The dispute divided the Church, and +for five hundred years the dissension increased, until in the ninth +century (855 A. D.) it developed into a great disruption, in +consequence of which the bishop of Constantinople, known distinctively +as the patriarch, disavowed all further allegiance to the bishop of +Rome, otherwise known as the Roman pontiff. This disruption is marked +today by the distinction between Roman Catholics. + +9. The election of pontiff, or bishop of Rome, was long left to the +vote of the people and clergy; later the electoral function was vested +in the clergy alone; and in the eleventh century the power was lodged +in the college of cardinals, where it remains vested today. The Roman +pontiffs strove with unremitting zeal to acquire temporal as well as +spiritual authority; and their influence had become so great that in +the eleventh century we find them claiming the right to direct +princes, kings, and emperors in the affairs of the several nations. It +was at this, the early period of their greatest temporal power, that +the pontiffs took the title of _pope_, the word meaning literally papa +or father, and applied in the sense of universal parent. The power of +the popes was increased during the twelfth century, and may be said to +have reached its height in the thirteenth century. + +10. Not content with assumed supremacy in all church affairs, the +popes "carried their insolent pretensions so far as to give themselves +out for lords of the universe, arbiters of the fate of kingdoms and +empires, and supreme rulers over the kings and princes of the +earth."--(Mosheim, "Eccl. Hist.," Cent. XI, Part II, ch. 2:2.) They +claimed the right to authorize and direct in the internal affairs of +nations, and to make lawful the rebellion of subjects against their +rulers if the latter failed to keep favor with the papal power. + +11. Compare this arrogant and tyrannical church of the world with the +Church of Christ. Unto Pilate our Lord declared, "My kingdom is not of +this world."--(John 18:36.) and on an earlier occasion, when the +people would have proclaimed Him king with earthly dominion,--(John +6:15.) He departed from them. Yet the Church that boasts of its divine +origin as founded by the Christ, who would not be a king, lifts itself +above all kings and rulers, and proclaims itself the supreme power in +the affairs of nations. + +12. In the fourth century the Church had promulgated what has been +since designated as an infamy, viz.: that "errors in religion, when +maintained and adhered to after proper admonition, were punishable +with civil penalties, and corporal tortures."--(Mosheim, "Eccl. +Hist.," Cent. IV, Part II, ch. 3:16.) The effect of this unjust rule +appeared as more and more atrocious with the passage of the years, so +that in the eleventh century, and later, we find the Church imposing +punishment of fine, imprisonment, bodily torture, and even death, as +penalties for infraction of church regulations, and, more infamous +still, providing for mitigation or annulment of such sentences on +payment of money. This led to the shocking practice of selling +_indulgences_ or pardons, which custom was afterwards carried to the +awful extreme of issuing such before the commission of the specific +offense, thus literally offering for sale licenses to sin, with +assurance of temporal and promise of spiritual immunity. + +13. The granting of indulgences as exemptions from temporal penalties +was at first confined to the bishops and their agents, and the +practice dates as an organized traffic from about the middle of the +twelfth century. It remained for the popes, however, to go to the +blasphemous extreme of assuming to remit the penalties of the +hereafter on payment of the sums prescribed. Their pretended +justification of the impious assumption was as horrible as the act +itself, and constitutes the dreadful _doctrine of supererogation_. + +14. As formulated in the thirteenth century, this doctrine was thus +set forth: "That there actually existed an immense treasure of +_merit_, composed of the pious deeds and virtuous actions which the +saints had performed _beyond what was necessary for their own +salvation_, and which were therefore applicable to the benefit of +others; that the guardian and dispenser of this precious treasure was +the Roman pontiff, and that of consequence he was empowered to assign +to such as he thought proper a portion of this inexhaustible source of +merit, suitable to their respective guilt, and sufficient to deliver +them from the punishment due to their crimes."--(As cited by Mosheim; +see "Eccl. Hist.," Cent. XII, Part II, ch. 3:4.) + +15. The doctrine of supererogation is as unreasonable as it is +unscriptural and untrue. Man's individual responsibility for his acts +is as surely a fact as is his agency to act for himself. He will be +saved through the merits and by the atoning sacrifice of our Redeemer +and Lord; and his claim upon the salvation provided is strictly +dependent on his compliance with the principles and ordinances of the +gospel as established by Jesus Christ. Remission of sins and the +eventual salvation of the human soul are provided for; but these gifts +of God are not to be purchased with money. Compare the awful fallacies +of supererogation and the blasphemous practice of assuming to remit +sins of one man in consideration of the merits of another, with the +declaration of the one and only Savior of mankind: "But I say unto +you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give +account thereof in the day of judgment."--(Matt. 12:36.) His inspired +apostles, seeing in prophetic vision the day of awful certainty, +solemnly testifies, "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before +God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is +the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which +were written in the books, _according to their works_. And the sea +gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the +dead which were in them: _and they were judged every man according to +their works_."--(Rev. 20:12, 13. Italics intro.) + +16. The scriptures proclaim the eternal fact of individual +accountability;--(For a concise treatment of the doctrine of man's +responsibility see the author's "Articles of Faith," Lecture 3.) the +Church in the days of its degeneracy declares that the merit of one +may be bought by another and paid for in worldly coin. Can such a +Church be in any measure the Church of Christ? + +17. In illustration of the indulgences as sold in Germany in the +sixteenth century, we have the record of the doings of John Tetzel, +agent of the pope, who traveled about selling forgiveness of sins. +Says Milner: "Myconius assures us that he himself heard Tetzel declaim +with incredible effrontery concerning the unlimited power of the pope +and the efficacy of indulgences. The people believed that the moment +any person had paid the money for the indulgence he became certain of +his salvation; and that the souls for whom the indulgences were bought +were instantly released out of purgatory. * * * John Tetzel boasted +that he had saved more souls from hell by his indulgences than St. +Peter had converted to Christianity by his preaching. He assured the +purchasers of them, their crimes, however enormous, would be forgiven; +whence it became almost needless for him to bid them dismiss all fears +concerning their salvation. For, remission of sins being fully +obtained, what doubt could there be of salvation?"--(Milner, "History +of the Church," Cent. XVI, ch. 2.) + +18. A copy of an indulgence written by the hand of Tetzel, the vendor +of popish pardons, has been preserved to us as follows: "May our Lord, +Jesus Christ, have mercy upon thee and absolve thee by the merits of +His most holy passion. And I, by His authority, that of His Apostles +Peter and Paul, and of the most holy pope granted and committed to me +in these parts, do absolve thee, first from all ecclesiastical +censures, in whatever manner they have been incurred; and then from +all the sins, transgressions, and excesses, how enormous soever they +may be, even for such as are reserved for the cognizance of the holy +see; and as far as the keys of the holy church extend, I remit to thee +all the punishment which thou deservest in purgatory on their account; +and I restore thee to the holy sacraments of the church, to the unity +of the faithful, and to that innocence and purity which thou +possessedst at baptism; so that when thou diest, the gates of +punishment shall be shut, and the gates of the paradise of delight +shall be opened; and if thou shalt not die at present, this grace +shall remain in full force when thou art at the point of death. In the +name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost."--(Milner, +"Church History," Cent. XVI, ch. 2.) + +19. By way of excuse or defense, it has been claimed for the Roman +Catholic Church that a profession of contrition or repentance was +required of every applicant for indulgence, and that the pardon was +issued on the basis of such penitence, and not primarily for money or +its equivalent; but that recipients of indulgences, at first +voluntarily, and later in compliance with established custom, made a +material offering or donation to the Church. It is reported, moreover, +that some of the abuses with which the selling of indulgences had been +associated were disapproved by the Council of Trent, about the middle +of the sixteenth century. Nevertheless, the dread fact remains that +for four hundred years the Church had claimed for its pope the power +to remit all sins, and that the promise of remission had been sold and +bought.--(See Note 1, end of chapter.) + +20. The awful sin of blasphemy consists in taking to one's self the +divine prerogatives and powers. Here we find the pope of Rome, the +head of the only church recognized at the time, assuming to remit the +punishment due in the hereafter for sins committed in mortality. A +pope assuming to sit in judgment as God Himself! Is this not a +fulfilment of the dread conditions of apostasy foreseen and foretold +as antecedent to the second advent of Christ? Read for yourselves: +"Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, +except there come a falling away 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 worshipped: so that he as God +sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is +God_."--(Thess. 2:3, 4. Italics introduced. See Note 4, end of +chapter.) + +21. Another abuse perpetrated by the councils through which assemblies +the supreme pontiffs exercised their autocratic powers, is seen in the +restrictions placed on the reading and interpretation of scripture. +The same Council of Trent, which had disclaimed authority or blame for +the acts of church officials regarding the scandalous traffic in +indulgences, prescribed most rigid regulations forbidding the reading +of the scriptures by the people. Thus: "A severe and intolerable law +was enacted, with respect to all interpreters and expositors of the +scriptures, by which they were forbidden to explain the sense of these +divine books, in matters of faith and practice, in such a manner as to +make them speak a different language from that of the church and the +ancient doctors. The same law further declared that the church alone +(i. e., its ruler, the Roman pontiff) had the right of determining the +true meaning and signification of scripture. To fill up the measure of +these tyrannical and iniquitous proceedings, the church of Rome +persisted obstinately in affirming, though not always with the same +imprudence and plainness of speech, that _the holy scriptures were not +composed for the use of the multitude, but only for that of their +spiritual teachers_; and, of consequence, ordered these divine records +to be taken from the people in all places where it was allowed to +execute its imperious demands."--(Mosheim, "Eccl. Hist.," Cent. XVI, +Part I, ch. 1:25. The italics are introduced by the present writer.) + +22. Is it possible that a church teaching such heresies can be the +Church established by Jesus Christ? The Lord Jesus commanded all: +"_Search the scriptures_; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: +and they are they which testify of me."--(John 5:39; compare verse 46; +also Isaiah 8:20; Luke 16:29; and Acts 17:11.) + +23. Surely a pall of darkness had fallen upon the earth. The Church of +Christ had long since ceased to exist. In place of a priesthood +conferred by divine authority, a man-created papacy ruled with the +iron hand of tyranny and without regard to moral restraint. In a +scholarly work Dr. J. W. Draper gives a list of pontiffs who had stood +at the head of the Church from the middle of the eighth to the middle +of the eleventh centuries, with biographical notes of each.--(See Note +3, end of chapter.) And what a picture is there outlined! To win the +papal crown no crime was too great, and for a period of centuries the +immoralities of many of the popes and their subordinates are too +shocking for detailed description. It may be claimed that the author +last cited, and whose words are given below, was an avowed opponent of +the Roman Catholic Church, and that, therefore, his judgment is +prejudiced; in reply let it be said that the attested facts of history +support the dread arraignment. In commenting on the facts set forth, +Dr. Draper says: + +24. "More than a thousand years had elapsed since the birth of our +Savior, and such was the condition of Rome. Well may the historian +shut the annals of those times in disgust. Well may the heart of the +Christian sink within him at such a catalogue of hideous crimes. Well +may we ask, Were these the vicegerents of God upon earth--these, who +had truly reached the goal beyond which the last effort of human +wickedness cannot pass? Not until several centuries after these events +did public opinion come to the true and philosophical conclusion--the +total rejection of the divine claims of the papacy. For a time the +evils were attributed to the manner of the pontifical election, as if +they could by any possibility influence the descent of a power which +claimed to be supernatural and under the immediate care of God. * * * +No one can study the development of the Italian ecclesiastical power +without discovering how completely it depended on human agency, too +often on human passion and intrigue; how completely wanting it was of +any mark of the divine construction and care--the offspring of man, +not of God, and therefore bearing upon it the lineaments of human +passions, human virtues, and human sins."--(Draper, "Intellectual +Development of Europe;" Vol. 1, p. 382.) + +25. By increasing changes and unauthorized alterations in organization +and government, the earthly establishment known as "the Church," with +popes, cardinals, abbots, friars, monks, exorcists, acolytes, etc., +lost all semblance to the Church as established by Christ and +maintained by His apostles. The Catholic argument that there has been +an uninterrupted succession of authority in the priesthood from the +Apostle Peter to the present occupant of the papal throne, is +untenable in the light of history, and unreasonable in the light of +fact. Authority to speak and act in the name of God, power to +officiate in the saving ordinances of the gospel of Christ, the high +privilege of serving as a duly commissioned ambassador of the court of +Heaven,--these are not to be had as the gifts of princes, nor are they +to be bought for money, nor can they be won as trophies of the bloody +sword. The history of the papacy is the condemnation of the Church of +Rome.--(See Notes 2 and 3, end of chapter.) + + +NOTES. + +1. _The Roman Church Responsible for the Traffic in "Indulgences_." In +view of the claim asserted by some defenders of the Roman Church, to +the effect that the shameful traffic in indulgences was not sanctioned +by the church, and that the church cannot be held accountable for the +excesses to which its subordinates may go in their alleged official +acts, the following remarks by Milner, the judicious authority on +Church History (Cent. XVI, chap. 2.), may be of interest: "It does not +appear that the rulers of the hierarchy ever found the least fault +with Tetzel as exceeding his commission, till an opposition was openly +made to the practice of indulgences. Whence it is evident, that the +protestants have not unjustly censured the corruption of the court of +Rome in this respect. * * * The indulgences were farmed to the highest +bidders, and the undertakers employed such deputies to carry on the +traffic as they thought most likely to promote their lucrative views. +The inferior officers concerned in this commerce were daily seen in +public houses enjoying themselves in riot and voluptuousness +(Maimbourg, p. 11). In fine, whatever the greatest enemy of popery +could have wished, was at that time exhibited with the most +undisguised impudence and temerity, as if on purpose to render that +wicked ecclesiastical system infamous before all mankind." + +The author proceeds to comment on the graded prices by which these +indulgences were placed within the pecuniary reach of all classes, and +finds in the wholesale traffic proof of profound ignorance and dire +superstition, and then points out the need of a new gospel +dispensation as follows: "This, however, was the very situation of +things _which opened the way for the reception of the gospel_. But who +was to proclaim the gospel in its native beauty and simplicity? The +princes, the bishops, and the learned men of the times saw all this +scandalous traffic respecting the pardon of sins; but none was found +who possessed the knowledge, the courage, and the honesty, necessary +to detect the fraud, and to lay open to mankind the true doctrine of +salvation by the remission of sins through Jesus Christ." Milner finds +the inauguration of a new era in the "Reformation" during the +sixteenth century. It is sufficient for our present purpose to know +that he recognized the need of preparation whereby the way would be +opened "for the reception of the gospel."--(Milner, "Ch. Hist.," +Cent. XVI, ch. 2; italics introduced.) + +2. _Three Popes at One Time_. "One of the severest blows given both +the temporal and the spiritual authority of the popes, was the +removal, in 1309, through the influence of the French king, Philip the +Fair, of the papal chair from Rome to Avignon, in Provence, near the +frontier of France. Here it remained for a space of about seventy +years, an era known in church history as the Babylonian Captivity. +While it was established here, all the popes were French, and of +course all their policies were shaped and controlled by the French +kings. * * * The discontent awakened among the Italians by the +situation of the papal court at length led to an open rupture between +them and the French party. In 1378 the opposing factions each elected +a pope, and thus there were two heads of the church, one at Avignon +and the other at Rome. The spectacle of _two rival popes_, each +claiming to be the rightful successor of St. Peter, and the sole +infallible head of the church, very naturally led men to question the +claims and infallibility of both. It gave the reverence which the +world had so generally held for the Roman See a rude shock, and one +from which it never recovered. Finally, in 1409, a general council of +the church assembled at Pisa, for the purpose of composing the +shameful quarrel. The council deposed both popes, and elected +Alexander V as the supreme head of the church. But matters, instead of +being mended hereby, were only made worse; for neither of the deposed +pontiffs would lay down his authority in obedience to the demands of +the council, and consequently _there were now three popes instead of +two_. In 1414 another council was called, at Constance, for the +settlement of the growing dispute. Two of the claimants were deposed +and one resigned. A new pope was then elected--Pope Martin V. In his +person the Catholic world was again united under a single spiritual +head. The schism was outwardly healed, but the wound had been too deep +not to leave permanent marks upon the church."--(P. V. N. Meyers, +"Gen. Hist.," pp. 457, 458. Italics introduced.) + +The rupture between the French and Italian factions, referred to by +Meyers in the quotation given above, is known in history as the Great +Schism. It may be regarded as the decisive beginning of decline in the +temporal power of the popes. + +3. _The Papacy Condemns Itself._ The line of succession in the papacy +for a limited period as referred to in the text, is given by Draper as +follows: + +"To some it might seem, considering the interests of religion alone, +desirable to omit all biographical reference to the popes; but this +cannot be done with justice to the subject. The essential principle of +the papacy, that the Roman pontiff is the vicar of Christ upon earth, +necessarily obtrudes his personal relations upon us. How shall we +understand his faith unless we see it illustrated in his life? Indeed, +the unhappy character of those relations was the inciting cause of the +movements in Germany, France, and England, ending in the extinction of +the papacy as an actual political power, movements to be understood +only through a sufficient knowledge of the private lives and opinions +of the popes. It is well, as far as possible, to abstain from +burdening systems with the imperfections of individuals. In this case +they are inseparably interwoven. The signal peculiarity of the papacy +is that, though its history may be imposing, its biography is +infamous. I shall, however, forbear to speak of it in this latter +respect more than the occasion seems necessarily to require; shall +pass in silence some of those cases which would profoundly shock my +religious reader, and therefore restrict myself to the ages between +the middle of the eighth and the middle of the eleventh centuries, +excusing myself to the impartial critic by the apology that these were +the ages with which I have been chiefly concerned in this chapter. + +"On the death of Pope Paul I, who had attained the pontificate A. D. +757, the Duke of Nepi compelled some bishops to consecrate +Constantine, one of his brothers, as pope; but more legitimate +electors subsequently, A. D. 768, choosing Stephen IV, the usurper and +his adherents were severely punished; the eyes of Constantine were put +out; the tongue of the Bishop Theodoras was amputated, and he was left +in a dungeon to expire in the agonies of thirst. The nephews of Pope +Adrian seized his successor, Pope Leo III, A. D. 79, in the street, +and, forcing him into a neighboring church, attempted to put out his +eyes and cut out his tongue; at a later period, this pontiff, trying +to suppress a conspiracy to depose him, Rome became the scene of +rebellion, murder and conflagration. His successor, Stephen V, A. D. +816, was ignominiously driven from the city: his successor, Paschal I, +was accused of blinding and murdering two ecclesiastics in the Lateran +Palace; it was necessary that imperial commissioners should +investigate the matter, but the pope died, after having exculpated +himself by oath before thirty bishops. John VIII, A. D. 872, unable to +resist the Mohammedans, was compelled to pay them tribute; the Bishop +of Naples, maintaining a secret alliance with them, received his share +of the plunder they collected. Him John excommunicated, nor would he +give him absolution unless he would betray the chief Mohammedans and +assassinate others himself. There was an ecclesiastical conspiracy to +murder the pope; some of the treasures of the church were seized; and +the gate of St. Pancrazia was opened with false keys, to admit the +Saracens into the city. Formosus, who had been engaged in these +transactions, and excommunicated as a conspirator for the murder of +John, was subsequently elected pope, A. D. 891; he was succeeded by +Boniface VI, A. D. 896, who had been deposed from the diaconate, and +again from the priesthood, for his immoral and lewd life. By Stephen +VII, who followed, the dead body of Formosus was taken from the grave, +clothed in the papal habilaments, propped in a chair, tried before a +council, and the preposterous and indecent scene completed by cutting +off three of the fingers of the corpse and casting it into the Tiber; +but Stephen himself was destined to exemplify how low the papacy had +fallen: he was thrown into prison and strangled. In the course of five +years, from A. D. 896 to A. D. 900, five popes were consecrated. +Leo V, who succeeded in A. D. 904, was in less than two months +thrown into prison by Christopher, one of his chaplains, who usurped +his place, and who, in his turn, was shortly expelled from Rome by +Sergius III, who, by the aid of a military force, seized the +pontificate, A. D. 905. This man, according to the testimony of the +times, lived in criminal intercourse with the celebrated prostitute +Theodora, who, with her daughters Marozia and Theodora, also +prostitutes, exercised an extraordinary control over him. The love of +Theodora was also shared by John X: she gave him first the +archbishopric of Ravenna, and then translated him to Rome, A. D. 915, +as pope. John was not unsuited to the times; he organized a +confederacy which perhaps prevented Rome from being captured by the +Saracens, and the world was astonished and edified by the appearance +of this warlike pontiff at the head of his troops. By the love of +Theodora, as was said, he had maintained himself in the papacy for +fourteen years; by the intrigues and hatred of her daughter Marozia he +was overthrown. She surprised him in the Lateran Palace; killed his +brother Peter before his face; threw him into prison, where he soon +died, smothered, as was asserted, with a pillow. After a short +interval Marozia made her own son pope as John XI, A. D. 931. Many +affirmed that Pope Sergius was his father, but she herself inclined to +attribute him to her husband, Alberic, whose brother Guido she +subsequently married. Another of her sons, Alberic, so called from his +supposed father, jealous of his brother John, cast him and their +mother Marozia into prison. After a time Alberic's son was elected +pope, A. D. 956; he assumed the title of John XII, the amorous Marozia +thus having given a son and a grandson to the papacy. John was only +nineteen years old when he thus became the head of Christendom. His +reign was characterized by the most shocking immoralities, so that the +Emperor Otho I was compelled by the German clergy to interfere. A +synod was summoned for his trial in the Church of St. Peter, before +which it appeared that John had received bribes for the consecration +of bishops; that he had ordained one who was but ten years old, and +had performed that ceremony over another in a stable; he was charged +with incest with one of his father's concubines, and with so many +adulteries that the Lateran Palace had become a brothel; he put out +the eyes of one ecclesiastic, and castrated another, both dying in +consequence of their injuries; he was given to drunkenness, gambling +and the invocation of Jupiter and Venus. When cited to appear before +the council, he sent word that 'he had gone out hunting;' and to the +fathers who remonstrated with him, he threateningly remarked 'that +Judas, as well as the other disciples, received from his Master the +power of binding and loosing, but that as soon as he proved a traitor +to the common cause, the only power he retained was that of binding +his own neck.' Hereupon he was deposed, and Leo VIII elected in his +stead, A. D. 963; but subsequently getting the upper hand, he seized +his antagonists, cut off the hand of one, the nose, finger, tongue of +others. His life was eventually brought to an end by the vengeance of +a man whose wife he had seduced. + +"After such details it is almost needless to allude to the annals of +succeeding popes: to relate that John XIII was strangled in prison; +that Boniface VII imprisoned Benedict VII and killed him by +starvation; that John XIV was secretly put to death in the dungeons of +the Castle of St. Angelo; that the corpse of Boniface was dragged by +the populace through the streets. The sentiment of reverence for the +sovereign pontiff, nay, even of respect, had become extinct in Rome; +throughout Europe the clergy were so shocked at the state of things, +that, in their indignation, they began to look with approbation on the +intention of the Emperor Otho to take from the Italians their +privilege of appointing the successor of St. Peter, and confine it to +his own family. But his kinsman Gregory V, whom he placed on the +pontifical throne, was very soon compelled by the Romans to fly; his +excommunications and religious thunders were turned into derision by +them; they were too well acquainted with the true nature of those +terrors; they were living behind the scenes. A terrible punishment +awaited the Anti-Pope John XVI. Otho returned into Italy, seized him, +put out his eyes, cut off his nose and tongue, and sent him through +the streets mounted on an ass, with his face to the tail, and a +winebladder on his head. It seemed impossible that things could become +worse, yet Rome had still to see Benedict IX, A. D. 1033, a boy of +less than twelve years, raised to the apostolic throne. Of this +pontiff, one of his successors, Victor III, declared that his life was +so shameful, so foul, so execrable, that he shuddered to describe it. +He ruled like a captain of banditti rather than a prelate. The people +at last, unable to bear his adulteries, homicides, and abominations +any longer, rose against him. In despair of maintaining his position, +he put the papacy up at auction. It was bought by a presbyter named +John, who became Gregory VI, A. D. 1045."--(J. W. Draper, +"Intellectual Development of Europe," Vol. 1, ch. XII, pp. 378-381.) + +4. _Commentary on the Passage from II Thess. 2:3, 4_. It should be +remembered that the application of Paul's declaration as to the +apostasy made in the text, is the one generally made by theologians of +Protestant denominations. It is in no way peculiar to the Church of +Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Let us read the passage again: "Let +no man deceive you by any means: for that day [the day of Christ's +promised advent] shall not come except there come a falling away +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 +worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing +himself that he is God." + +In his Bible Commentary, Dr. Adam Clarke says of this scripture: "The +general run of Protestant writers understand the whole as referring to +the popes and church of Rome, or the whole system of the papacy. * * * +Bishop Newton has examined the whole prophecy with his usual skill and +judgment. * * * The principal part of modern commentators follow his +steps. He applies the whole to the Romish church: the apostasy, its +defection from the pure doctrines of Christianity; and the 'man of +sin,' etc., the general succession of the popes of Rome." An +abridgment of Bishop Newton's interpretation is then added; this, in +part, is as follows: + +"_For that day shall not come except, etc._--The day of Christ shall +not come except there come the apostasy first. The apostasy here +described is plainly not of a civil, but of a religious nature; not a +revolt from the government, but a defection from the true religion and +worship. * * * + +"_So that he as God sitteth in the temple, etc._--By the temple of God +the apostle could not well mean the temple of Jerusalem, because that, +he knew, would be destroyed within a few years. After the death of +Christ, the temple of Jerusalem is never called the temple of God; and +if, at any time, they make mention of the house or temple of God, they +mean the church in general or every particular believer. Whoever will +consult I Cor. 3:16, 17; II Cor. 6:16; I Tim. 3:15; Rev. 3:12, will +want no examples to prove that under the gospel dispensation, the +temple of God is the Church of Christ; and the man of sin's sitting +implies his ruling and presiding there. * * * + +"Upon this survey, there appears little room to doubt of the general +sense and meaning of the passage. The Thessalonians, (as we have seen +from some expressions in the former epistle,) were alarmed as if the +end of the world was at hand. The apostle, to correct their mistake +and dissipate their fears, assures them that a great apostasy or +defection of the Christians from the true faith and worship must +happen before the coming of Christ. This apostasy, all the concurrent +marks and characters will justify us in charging upon the church of +Rome. The true Christian worship is the worship of the only true God, +through the one only Mediator, the man Jesus Christ, and from this +worship the church of Rome has most notoriously departed, by +substituting other mediators, and invoking and adoring saints and +angels; nothing is apostasy if idolatry be not. * * * If the apostasy +be rightly charged upon the church of Rome, it follows, of +consequence, that the 'man of sin' is the pope, not meaning any pope +in particular, but the pope in general, as the chief head and +supporter of this apostasy." + +The opinion of Dr. MacKnight is also cited with approval by Clarke. In +his "Commentary and Notes"--(Vol. III, p. 100, etc.) MacKnight says: +"As it is said, the man of sin was _to be revealed in his season_, +there can be little doubt that the dark ages, in which all learning +was overturned by the irruption of the northern barbarians, were the +season allotted to the man of sin for revealing himself. Accordingly +we know, that in these ages, the corruptions of Christianity, and the +usurpations of the clergy, were carried to the greatest height. In +short, the annals of the world cannot produce persons and events to +which the things written in this passage can be applied with so much +fitness as to the bishops of Rome." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +**Results of the Apostasy.--Its Sequel**. + + +1. The thoroughly apostate and utterly corrupt condition of the Church +of Rome as proclaimed by its history down to the end of the fifteenth +century,--(See Note 1, end of chapter.) was necessarily accompanied by +absence of all spiritual sanctity and power, whatever may have been +the arrogant assumptions of the Church as to authority in spiritual +affairs. Revolts against the Church, both as rebellion against her +tyranny and in protest against her heresies, were not lacking. The +most significant of these anti-church agitations arose in connection +with the awakening of intellectual activity which began in the latter +part of the fourteenth century. The period from the tenth century +onward to the time of the awakening has come to be known as the dark +ages--characterized by stagnation in the progress of the useful arts +and sciences as well as of fine arts and letters, and by a general +condition of illiteracy and ignorance among the masses. + +2. Ignorance is a fertile soil for evil growths, and the despotic +government and doctrinal fallacies of the Church during this period of +darkness were nourished by the ignorance of the times. With the change +known in history as "the revival of learning" came the struggle for +freedom from churchly tyranny. + +3. One of the early revolts against the temporal and spiritual +despotism of the papal church was that of the Albigenses in France +during the thirteenth century. This uprising had been crushed by the +papal autocracy with much cruelty and bloodshed. The next notable +revolt was that of John Wickliffe in the fourteenth century. Wickliffe +was a professor in Oxford university, England. He boldly assailed the +evergrowing and greatly abused power of the monks, and denounced the +corruption of the Church and the prevalence of doctrinal errors. He +was particularly emphatic in his opposition to the papal restrictions +as to the popular study of the scriptures, and gave to the world an +English version of the Holy Bible translated from the Vulgate. In +spite of persecution and sentence, he died a natural death; but years +afterward the Church insisted on revenge, and in consequence, his +bones were exhumed and burned, and the ashes scattered to the winds. + +4. On the continent of Europe the agitation against the Church was +carried on by John Huss and by Jerome of Prague, both of whom reaped +martyrdom as the harvest of their righteous zeal. These instances are +cited to show that though the Church had long been apostate to the +core, there were men ready to sacrifice their lives in what they +deemed to be the cause of truth. + +5. Conditions existing at the opening of the sixteenth century have +been concisely summarized by a modern historian as follows: "Previous +to the opening of the sixteenth century there had been comparatively +few--though there had been some, like the Albigenses in the south of +France, the Wickliffites, in England, and the Hussites, in +Bohemia--who denied the supreme and infallible authority of the bishop +of Rome in all matters touching religion. Speaking in very general +manner it would be correct to say that at the close of the fifteenth +century all the nations of Western Europe professed the faith of the +Latin or Roman Catholic Church and yielded obedience to the Papal +See."--(Myers, "Gen. Hist.," p. 520.) + +**The Reformation**. + +6. The next notable revolt against the papal Church occurred in the +sixteenth century, and assumed such proportions as to be designated +the Reformation. The movement began in Germany about 1517, when Martin +Luther, a monk of the Augustinian order and an instructor in the +University of Wittenberg, publicly opposed and strongly denounced +Tetzel, the shameless agent of papal indulgences. Luther was +conscientious in his conviction that the whole system of church +penances and indulgences was contrary to scripture, reason, and right. +In line with the academic custom of the day--to challenge discussion +and debate on disputed questions--Luther wrote his famous ninety-five +theses against the practice of granting indulgences, and a copy of +these he nailed to the door of Wittenberg church, inviting criticism +thereon from all scholars. The news spread, and the theses were +discussed in all the scholastic centers of Europe. Luther then +attacked other practices and doctrines of the Roman Church, and the +pope, Leo X, issued a "Bull" or papal decree against him, demanding an +unconditional recantation on pain of excommunication from the Church. +Luther publicly burned the pope's document, and thus declared his open +revolt. The sentence of excommunication was pronounced. + +7. We cannot follow here in detail the doings of this bold reformer. +Suffice it to say, he was not long left to fight singlehanded. Among +his able supporters was Philip Melancthon, a professor in Wittenberg. +Luther was summoned before a council or "Diet" at Worms in 1521. There +he openly declared for individual freedom of conscience. There is +inspiration in his words: "I cannot submit my faith either to the pope +or to the council, because it is as clear as the day that they have +frequently erred and contradicted each other. Unless, therefore, I am +convinced by the testimony of scripture, or by the clearest +reasoning--unless I am persuaded by means of the passages I have +quoted,--and unless they thus render my conscience bound by the word +of God, I cannot and will not retract, for it is unsafe for a +Christian to speak against his conscience. _Here I stand, I can do no +other, may God help me! Amen!_" + +8. The religious controversy spread throughout Europe. At the Second +Diet of Spires (1529) an edict was issued against the reformers; to +this the representatives of seven German principalities and other +delegates entered a formal _protest_, in consequence of which action +the reformers were henceforth known as _Protestants_. John, Elector of +Saxony, supported Luther in his opposition to papal authority, and +undertook the establishment of an independent church, the constitution +and plan of which were prepared at his instance by Luther and +Melancthon. Luther died in 1546, but the work of revolution, if not in +truth reformation, continued to grow. The Protestants, however, soon +became divided among themselves, and broke up into many contending +sects. + +9. In Switzerland, Ulrich Zwingle led in the movement toward reform. +He was accused of heresy, and when placed on trial, he defended +himself on the authority of the Bible as against papal edict, and was +for the time successful. The contest was bitter, and in 1531 the +Catholics and Protestants of the region engaged in actual battle, in +which Zwingle was slain, and his body brutally mutilated. + +10. John Calvin next appeared as the leader of the Swiss reformers, +though he was an opponent of many of Zwingle's doctrines. He exerted +great influence as a teacher, and is known as an extremist in +doctrine. He advocated and vehemently defended the tenet of absolute +predestination, thus denying the free agency of man. In France, +Sweden, Denmark, and Holland, leaders arose and the Protestants became +strong in their opposition to the Roman Church, though the several +divisions were antagonistic to one another on many points of doctrine. + +11. One effect of this Protestant uprising was the partial awakening +of the Roman Church to the need of internal reform, and an +authoritative re-statement of Catholic principles was attempted. This +movement was largely accomplished through the famous Council of +Trent--(1545-1563), which body disavowed for the Church the extreme +claims made for "indulgences" and denied responsibility for many of +the abuses with which the Church had been charged. But in connection +with the attempted reform came a demand for more implicit obedience to +the requirements of the Church. + +12. Near the end of the fifteenth century, in the reign of Ferdinand +and Isabella, the court of the Inquisition, then known as the Holy +Office, had been established in Spain. The prime purpose of this +secret tribunal was the detection and punishment of heresy. Of this +infamous institution as operative in Spain, Myers says: "The Holy +Office, as the tribunal was styled, thus became the instrument of the +most incredible cruelty. Thousands were burned at the stake, and tens +of thousands more condemned to endure penalties scarcely less +terrible. Queen Isabella, in giving her consent to the establishment +of the tribunal in her dominions, was doubtless actuated by the purest +religious zeal, and sincerely believed that in suppressing heresy she +was discharging a simple duty, and rendering God good service. 'In the +love of Christ and His Maid-Mother,' she says, 'I have caused great +misery. I have depopulated towns and districts, provinces and +kingdoms.'"--(Myers, "Gen. Hist." p. 500.) + +13. Now, in the sixteenth century, in connection with the attempted +reform in the doctrines of Catholicism, the terrible Inquisition +"assumed new vigor and activity, and heresy was sternly dealt with." +Consider the following as throwing light on the condition of that +time: "At this point, in connection with the persecutions of the +Inquisition, we should not fail to recall that in the sixteenth +century a refusal to conform to the established worship was regarded +by all, by Protestants as well as Catholics, as a species of treason +against society and was dealt with accordingly. Thus we find Calvin at +Geneva consenting to the burning of Servetus (1553) because he +published views that the Calvinists thought heretical; and in England +we see the Anglican Protestants waging the most cruel, bitter, and +persistent persecutions, not only against the Catholics but also +against all Protestants that refused to conform to the Established +Church."--(Myers, "Gen. Hist.," p. 527.) + +14. What shall be said of a Church that seeks to propagate its faith +by such methods? Are fire and sword the weapons with which truth +fights her battles? Are torture and death the arguments of the gospel? +However terrible the persecutions to which the early Church was +subjected at the hands of heathen enemies, the persecutions waged by +the apostate church are far more terrible. Can such a church by any +possibility be the Church of Christ? Heaven forbid! + +15. In the revolts we have noted against the Church of Rome, notably +in the Reformation, the zeal of the reformers led to many fallacies in +the doctrines they advocated. Luther, himself, proclaimed the doctrine +of absolute predestination and of justification by faith alone, thus +nullifying belief in the God-given rights of free agency, and +impairing the importance of individual effort.--(See the Author's +"Articles of Faith," Lecture 5.) Calvin and others were no less +extreme. Nevertheless their ministry contributed to the awakening of +individual conscience, and assisted in bringing about a measure of +religious freedom of which the world had long been deprived.--(See +note 2, end of chapter.) + +**Rise of the Church of England**. + +16. At the time of Martin Luther's revolt against the Church of Rome, +Henry VIII reigned in England. In common with all other countries of +western Europe, Britain was profoundly stirred by the reformation +movement. The king openly defended the Catholic Church and published a +book in opposition to Luther's claims. This so pleased the pope, Leo +X, that he conferred upon King Henry the distinguishing title, +"Defender of the Faith." This took place about 1522, and from that +time to the present, British sovereigns have proudly borne the title. + +17. Within a few years after his accession to this title of +distinction, we find King Henry among the bitterest enemies of the +Roman Church, and the change came about in this wise. Henry desired a +divorce from his wife, Queen Catherine, to give him freedom to marry +Anne Boleyn. The pope hesitated in the matter of granting the divorce, +and Henry, becoming impatient, disregarded the pope's authority and +secretly married Anne Boleyn. The pope thereupon excommunicated the +king from the Church. The English parliament, following the king's +directions, passed the celebrated Act of Supremacy in 1534. This +statute declared an absolute termination of all allegiance to papal +authority, and proclaimed the king as supreme head of the Church of +Britain. Thus originated the Church of England, without regard for or +claim of divine authority, and without even a semblance of priestly +succession. + +18. At first there was little innovation in doctrine or ritual in the +newly formed church. It originated in revolt. Later a form of creed +and a plan of organization were adopted, giving the Church of England +some distinctive features. During the reigns of Edward VI, Queen Mary, +and Queen Elizabeth, persecutions between Catholics and Protestants +were extensive and violent. Several non-conformist sects arose, among +them the Puritans and the Separatists. These were so persecuted that +many of them fled to Holland as exiles. From among these came the +notable colony of the Pilgrim Fathers, who crossed in the Mayflower to +the shores of the then recently-discovered continent, and established +themselves in America. + +19. The thoughtful student cannot fail to see in the progress of the +great apostasy and its results the existence of an overruling power, +operating toward eventual good, however mysterious its methods. The +heart-rending persecutions to which the saints were subjected in the +early centuries of our era, the anguish, the torture, the bloodshed, +incurred in defense of the testimony of Christ, the rise of an +apostate church, blighting the intellect and leading captive the souls +of men--all these dread scenes were foreknown to the Lord. While we +cannot say or believe that such exhibitions of human depravity and +blasphemy of heart were in accordance with the divine will, certainly +God willed to permit full scope to the free agency of man, in the +exercise of which agency some won the martyr's crown, and others +filled the measure of their iniquity to overflowing. + +20. Not less marked is the divine permission in the revolts and +rebellions, in the revolutions and reformations, that developed in +opposition to the darkening influence of the apostate church. Wycliffe +and Huss, Luther and Melancthon, Zwingle and Calvin, Henry VIII in his +arrogant assumption of priestly authority, John Knox in Scotland, +Roger Williams in America--these and a host of others builded better +than they knew, in that their efforts laid in part the foundation of +the structure of religious freedom and liberty of conscience,--and +this in preparation for the restoration of the gospel as had been +divinely predicted. + +21. From the sixteenth century down to the present time, sects +professedly founded on the tenets of Christianity have multiplied +apace. They are now to be numbered by hundreds. On every side the +claim has been heard, "Lo, here is Christ," or "Lo, there." There are +churches named after their place of origin--as the Church of England; +other sects are designated in honor of their famous promoters--as +Lutherans, Calvinists, Wesleyans; others are known from some +peculiarity of creed or doctrine--as Methodists, Presbyterians, and +Baptists; but down to the beginning of the nineteenth century there +was no church even claiming name or title as the Church of Christ. The +only Church existing at that time venturing to assert authority by +succession was the Catholic Church, which as shown was wholly without +priesthood or divine commission. + +22. If the "Mother Church" be without divine authority or spiritual +power, how can her children derive from her the right to officiate in +the things of God? Who dares affirm the absurdity that man can +originate for himself a priesthood which God shall honor and respect. +Granted that men may, can and do, create among themselves societies, +associations, sects, and churches if they choose so to designate their +religious organizations; granted that they may formulate laws, +prescribe rules, and construct elaborate plans of organization and +government, and that all such laws, rules and schemes of +administration are binding upon those who voluntarily assume +membership,--granted all these powers and rights--whence can such +human creations derive the authority of the holy Priesthood, without +which there can be no Church of Christ? If the power and authority be, +by any possibility, of human origin, there never has been a Church of +Christ on earth, and the alleged saving ordinances of the gospel have +never been other than empty forms. + +23. Our review of the Great Apostasy as presented in this treatise, +does not call for any detailed or critical study of the Roman Catholic +Church as it exists in modern times, nor of any of the numerous +Protestant denominations that have come into existence as dissenting +children of the so-called "Mother Church." The apostasy was complete, +as far as actual loss of priesthood and cessation of spiritual power +in the Church are concerned, long prior to the sixteenth century +revolt, known in history as the Reformation. It is instructive to +observe, however, that the weakness of the Protestant sects as to any +claim to divine appointment and authority, is recognized by those +churches themselves. The Church of England, which, as shown, +originated in revolt against the Roman Catholic Church and its pope, +is without foundation of claim to divine authority in its priestly +orders, unless, indeed, it dare assert the absurdity that kings and +parliaments can create and take unto themselves heavenly authority by +enactment of earthly statutes. + +24. The Roman Catholic Church is at least consistent in its claim that +a line of succession in the priesthood has been maintained from the +apostolic age to the present, though the claim is utterly untenable in +the light of a rational interpretation of history. But the fact +remains that the Catholic Church is the only organization venturing to +assert the present possession of the holy priesthood by unbroken +descent from the apostles of our Lord. The Church of England, chief +among the Protestant sects, and all other dissenting churches, are by +their own admission and by the circumstances of their origin, man-made +institutions, without a semblance of claim to the powers and authority +of the holy priesthood. + +25. As late as 1896 the question of the validity of the priestly +orders in the Church of England was officially and openly discussed +and considered, both in England and at Rome. Lord Halifax, chairman of +the English Church Union, conferred with the Vatican authorities to +ascertain the possibility of bringing about closer union between the +Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England. This involved the +question of the recognition of the priestly orders of the Anglican +Church by the pope and Church of Rome. The movement was favored in the +interests of unity and peace by the English premier, Mr. Gladstone. +The pope, Leo XIII, finally issued a decree refusing to recognize in +any degree the authority of the Anglican orders, and expressly +declaring all claims to priestly authority by the Church of England as +absolutely invalid. + +26. Assuredly the Church of Rome could take no other action than this +and maintain the consistency of its own claim to exclusive possession +of the priesthood by descent. Assuredly the Church of England would +have sought no official recognition of its priestly status by the +Church of Rome had it any independent claim to the power and authority +of the priesthood. The Roman Catholic Church declares that all +Protestant denominations are either apostate organizations, or +institutions of human creation that have never had even a remote +connection with the church that claims succession in the priesthood. +In short, the apostate "Mother Church" aggressively proclaims the +perfidy of her offspring. + +**The Apostasy Admitted**. + +27. The fact of the great apostasy is admitted. Many theologians who +profess a belief in Christianity have declared the fact. Thus we read: +"We must not expect to see the Church of Christ existing in its +perfection on the earth. It is not to be found thus perfect, either in +the collected fragments of Christendom or still less in any one of +those fragments."--(Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible.") + +28. John Wesley, who lived from 1703 to 1791 A. D., and who ranks as +chief among the founders of Methodism, comments as follows on the +apostasy of the Christian Church as evidenced by the early decline of +spiritual power and the cessation of the gifts and graces of the +Spirit of God within the Church: "It does not appear that these +extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit--(See I Cor., ch. 12.) were +common in the Church for more than two or three centuries. We seldom +hear of them after that fatal period when the Emperor Constantine +called himself a Christian, and from a vain imagination of promoting +the Christian cause thereby heaped riches and power and honor upon +Christians in general, but in particular upon the Christian clergy. +From this time they almost totally ceased, very few instances of the +kind being found. The cause of this was not, as has been supposed, +because there was no more occasion for them, because all the world was +become Christians. This is a miserable mistake; not a twentieth part +of it was then nominally Christians. The real cause of it was that the +love of many, almost all Christians, so-called, was waxed cold. The +Christians had no more of the spirit of Christ than the other +heathens. The Son of Man, when He came to examine His Church, could +hardly find faith upon earth. This was the real cause why the +extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were no longer to be found in +the Christian church--because the Christians were turned heathens +again, and only had a dead form left."--(John Wesley's Works. Vol. +VII, 89:26-27. See Note 3, end of chapter.) + +29. The Church of England makes official declaration of degeneracy and +loss of divine authority in these words: "Laity and clergy, learned +and unlearned, all ages, sects, and degrees, have been drowned in +abominable idolatry most detested by God and damnable to man for eight +hundred years and more."--(Church of England 'Homily on Perils of +Idolatry,' p. 3.) The "Book of Homilies," in which occurs this +declaration by the Church of England, dates from about the middle of +the sixteenth century. According to this official statement, +therefore, the religious world had been utterly apostate for eight +centuries prior to the establishment of the Church of England. The +fact of a universal apostasy was widely proclaimed, for the homilies +from which the foregoing citation is taken were "appointed to be read +in churches" in lieu of sermons under specified condition. + +30. _The great apostasy was divinely predicted; its accomplishment is +attested by both sacred and secular writ_. + +31. To the faithful Latter-day Saint, a concluding proof of the +universal apostasy and of the absolute need of a restoration of +Priesthood from the heavens will be found in the divine reply to the +inquiry of the boy prophet, Joseph Smith, as to which of all the +contending sects was right: "I was answered that I must join none of +them, for they were all wrong; and the personage who addressed me said +that all their creeds were an abomination in His sight; that those +professors were all corrupt; that 'they draw near to me with their +lips, but their hearts are far from me; they teach for doctrines the +commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the +power thereof.'"--(Pearl of Great Price, p. 85, par. 19.) + +**The Sequel**. + +32. The sequel of the Great Apostasy is the Restoration of the Gospel, +marking the inauguration of the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. +This epoch-making event occurred in the early part of the nineteenth +century, when the Father and the Son manifested themselves to man, and +when the Holy Priesthood with all its powers and authority was again +brought to earth. + +33. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proclaims to the +world this glorious restoration,--at once the consummation of the work +of God throughout the ages past, and the final preparation for the +second advent of Jesus, the Christ. The Church affirms that after the +long night of spiritual darkness, the light of heaven has again come; +and that the Church of Christ is authoritatively established. The +Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stands alone in the +declaration that the Holy Priesthood is operative upon earth, not as +an inheritance through earthly continuation from the apostolic age, +but as the endowment of a new dispensation, brought to earth by +heavenly ministration. In this restoration, divinely predicted and +divinely achieved, has been witnessed a realization of the Revelator's +vision: + +"_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_."--(Rev. 14:6, 7. For treatment of the +Restoration of the Gospel see the Author's "Articles of Faith," +Lecture 11. See Notes 4 and 5, end of chapter.) + + +NOTES. + +1. _Papist Testimony to the Corruption of the Church_. "The judicious +student of ecclesiastical history will observe that I constantly +endeavor to draw my proofs from the most unexceptionable sources. For +example: To prove the corrupt state of the clergy, and the abominable +practices of the Roman See, I would produce the evidence of George of +Saxony, a most bigoted papist, whom the Roman Catholics always reckon +among the most sincere and most active of the holy defenders of their +religion. Now, as with them the assertions of Luther and the other +reformers go for nothing but exaggerations, misrepresentations, or +direct falsehoods, let them listen at least to this duke, their steady +friend and advocate, who generally, in religious concerns, opposed his +relation, the elector of Saxony, and who also entirely approved of +Luther's condemnation at Worms. This George of Saxony exhibited to the +Diet twelve heads of the grievances which called loudly for reform. +Two of these are briefly as follows: 1. Indulgences, which ought to be +obtained by prayers, fastings, benevolence towards our neighbor, and +other good works, are sold for money. Their value is extolled beyond +all decency. The sole object is to gain a deal of money. Hence the +preachers, who are bound to set forth truth, teach men nothing but +lies and frauds. They are not only suffered to go on thus, but are +well paid for their fraudulent harangues. The reason is the more +conviction they can produce among their hearers, the more money flows +into the chest. Rivers of scandalous proceedings arise from this +corrupt fountain. The officials of the bishops are equally attentive +to scrape money together. They vex the poor with their censures for +great crimes, as whoredom, adultery, blasphemy; but they spare the +rich. The clergy commit the very same crimes, and nobody censures +them. Faults which ought to be expiated by prayers and fastings are +atoned for by money, in order that the officials may pay large sums to +their respective bishops, and retain a portion of the gain for +themselves. Neither when a mulct is inflicted, is it done in a way to +stop the commission of the same fault in future, but rather so that +the delinquent understands he may soon do that very thing again, +provided he be but ready to pay. Hence, all the sacraments are sold +for money; and where that is not to be had, they are absolutely +neglected. 2. Another distinct head of the grievances produced by this +zealous duke was expressed thus: 'The scandalous conduct of the clergy +is a very fruitful source of the destruction of poor souls. There must +be a universal reformation; and this cannot be better effected than by +a general council. It is therefore, the most earnest wish of us all +that such a measure be adopted.'"--(Milner, "Church History," Cent. +XVI, ch. 6. Footnote.) + +2. _Extremes Incident to the Reformation_. "What were the reproaches +constantly applied to the Reformation by its enemies? Which of its +results are thrown in its face, as it were, unanswerable? The two +principal reproaches are, first, the multiplicity of sects, the +excessive license of thought, the destruction of all spiritual +authority, and the entire dissolution of religious society; secondly, +tyranny and persecution. 'You provoke licentiousness,' it has been +said to the Reformers: 'you produce it; and, after being the cause of +it, you wish to restrain and repress it. And how do you repress it? By +the most harsh and violent means. You take upon yourselves, too, to +punish heresy, and that by virtue of an illegitimate authority.'"-- +Guizot. + +"The Sectarian dogma of Justification by Faith alone has exercised an +influence for evil since the early days of Christianity. The idea upon +which this pernicious doctrine was founded, was at first associated +with that of an absolute predestination, by which man was foredoomed +to destruction, or to an utterly undeserved salvation. Thus, Luther +taught as follows: 'The excellent, infallible, and sole preparation +for grace, is the eternal election and predestination of God.' 'Since +the fall of man, free-will is but an idle word.' 'A man who imagines +to arrive at grace by doing all that he is able to do, adds sins to +sin, and is doubly guilty.' 'That man is not justified who performs +many works; but he who without works has much faith in Christ.' (For +these and other doctrines of the Reformation see D'Aubigne's 'History +of the Reformation,' Vol. I, pp. 82, 83, 119, 122.) In Milner's +'Church History' (Vol. IV, p. 514) we read: 'The point which the +reformer Luther had most at heart in all his labors, contests and +dangers, was the justification by faith alone.' Melancthon voices the +doctrine of Luther in these words: 'Man's justification before God +proceeds from faith alone. This faith enters man's heart by the grace +of God alone;' and further, 'As all things which happen, happen +necessarily, according to the divine predestination, there is no such +thing as liberty in our wills.'--(D'Aubigne, Vol. III, p. 340.) It is +true that Luther strongly denounced, and vehemently disclaimed +responsibility for, the excesses to which this teaching gave rise, yet +he was not less vigorous in proclaiming the doctrine. Note his words: +'I, Doctor Martin Luther, unworthy herald of the doctrine of our Lord +Jesus Christ, confess this article, that faith alone without works +justifies before God; and I declare that it shall stand and remain +forever in despite of the emperor of the Romans, the emperor of the +Turks, the emperor of the Persians,--in spite of the pope and all the +cardinals, with the bishops, priests, monks and nuns,--in spite of +kings, princes and nobles, and in spite of all the world and of the +devils themselves; and that if they endeavor to fight against this +truth they will draw the fires of hell upon their heads. This is the +true and holy gospel, and the declaration of me, Doctor Luther, +according to the teachings of the Holy Ghost.'"--(See the Author's +"Articles of Faith," Lecture V, Note 2.) + +3. _Diverse Views Concerning Continuance or Decline of Spiritual +Gifts_. "Protestant writers insist that the age of miracles closed +with the fourth or fifth century, and that after that the +extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost must not be looked for. Catholic +writers, on the other hand, insist that the power to perform miracles +has always continued in the Church; yet those spiritual manifestations +which they describe after the fourth and fifth centuries savor of +invention on the part of the priests, and childish credulity on the +part of the people; or else, what is claimed to be miraculous falls +short of the power and dignity of those spiritual manifestations which +the primitive Church was wont to witness. The virtues and prodigies, +ascribed to the bones and other relics of the martyrs and saints, are +puerile in comparison with the healings by the anointing with oil and +the laying on of hands, speaking in tongues, interpretations, +prophecies, revelations, casting out of devils in the name of Jesus +Christ; to say nothing of the gifts of faith, wisdom, knowledge, +discerning of spirits, etc.--common in the Church in the days of the +apostles--(I Cor. 12:8-10). Nor is there anything in the scriptures or +in reason that would lead one to believe that they were to be +discontinued. Still this plea is made by modern Christians--explaining +the absence of these spiritual powers among them--that the +extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were only intended to accompany +the proclamation of the gospel during the first few centuries, until +the Church was able to make its way without them, and they were to be +done away. It is sufficient to remark upon this that it is assumption +pure and simple, and stands without warrant either of scripture or +right reason; and proves that men had so far changed the religion of +Jesus Christ that it became a form of godliness without the power +thereof."--(B. H. Roberts, "Outlines of Ecclesiastical History," Part +II, Sec. 5:6-8.) + +4. _Commentary on the Revelator's Vision of the Restoration_. It is +instructive to inquire into the interpretation given by biblical +students to the prophecy voiced by John the Revelator predicting the +advent of the angel "having the everlasting gospel." Dr. Clarke offers +the following reflections on the passage: "_And I saw another angel +fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel_: Whether +this angel means any more than a particular dispensation of providence +and grace, by which the gospel shall be rapidly sent through the whole +world; or whether it means any especial messenger, order of preachers, +people, or society of Christians, whose professed object it is to send +the gospel of the kingdom throughout the earth, we know not. But the +vision seems truly descriptive of a late institution, entitled 'The +British and Foreign Bible Society,' whose object it is to print and +circulate the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments through all the +habitable world, and in all the languages spoken on the face of the +earth."--(Clarke, "Bible Commentary," Rev. 14:6.) + +The learned commentator is to be commended for his frank avowal as to +uncertainty regarding the precise interpretation of this scripture, +and for the provisional and tentative manner in which he indicates a +possible application to the wide distribution of the Holy Bible +through the efforts of a most worthy and influential society. It is to +be noted that Dr. Clarke wrote his famous commentary on the Bible +shortly before the actual restoration of the gospel through angelic +agency which resulted in the establishment of the Church of Jesus +Christ of Latter-day Saints. Of necessity his search for the +fulfillment of the prediction was unsatisfactory, and, indeed, +unsuccessful, inasmuch as the fulfillment had not then occurred. The +commendable work of the Bible Society was a preparation for the +fulfillment of the momentous prophecy, but not the fulfillment itself. + +5. _Restoration of the Church_. "In the first ten centuries +immediately following the ministry of Christ, the authority of the +priesthood was lost from among men, and no human power could restore +it. But the Lord in His mercy provided for the re-establishment of His +Church in the last days, and for the last time, and prophets of olden +time foresaw this era of renewed enlightenment, and sang in joyous +tones of its coming."--(See Dan. 2:44, 45; 7:27; Matt. 24:14; Rev. +14:6-8.) "This restoration was effected by the Lord through the +prophet, Joseph Smith, who, together with Oliver Cowdery, in 1829, +received the Aaronic Priesthood under the hands of John the Baptist, +and later the Melchizedek Priesthood under the hands of the former-day +apostles, Peter, James and John. By the authority thus bestowed, the +Church has been again organized with all its former completeness, and +mankind once more rejoices in the priceless privileges of the counsels +of God. The Latter-day Saints declare their high claim to the true +Church organization, similar in all essentials to the organization +effected by Christ among the Jews; these people of the last days +profess to have the Priesthood of the Almighty, the power to act in +the name of God, which power commands respect both on earth and in +heaven."--(The Author, "Articles of Faith," Lecture 11:12.) + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Great Apostasy, by James E. 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