History

Lessons on Reformation, part 1

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“Determined men, inspired and urged on by the first great rebel, would have resisted any interference with their plans or their evil course. In the place of the divine precepts they would have substituted laws framed in accordance with the desires of their selfish hearts, in order that they might carry out their purposes.” Review and Herald, December 10, 1903.

God is love.’ 1 John 4:16. His nature, His law, is love. It ever has been; it ever will be. ‘The high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity,’ whose ‘ways are everlasting,’ changeth not. With Him ‘is no variableness neither shadow of turning.’ Isaiah 57:15; Habakkuk 3:6; James 1:17.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 33.

Long before the creation of this earth and long before sin entered the courts of heaven, the Father and the Son made a covenant to meet and solve the sin problem. Christ offered to become man’s substitute and to die in his place, paying the penalty of eternal death demanded by the law.

The moment rebellion arose, the plan of salvation was placed in motion. In this and future articles we will trace the reformations that were instituted throughout history—God’s attempt to purify a people so they may be restored to the original condition as they came from His hand. It has been said that, “God will purify the church.” We will look at some of the recorded incidents where reform was begun and trace them to their conclusion to ascertain whether the reformation begun was successful or not.

“The plan for our redemption was not an afterthought, a plan formulated after the fall of Adam. It was a revelation of ‘the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal.’ Romans 16:25, R. V. It was an unfolding of the principles that from eternal ages have been the foundation of God’s throne. From the beginning, God and Christ knew of the apostasy of Satan, and of the fall of man through the deceptive power of the apostate. God did not ordain that sin should exist, but He foresaw its existence, and made provision to meet the terrible emergency. So great was His love for the world, that He covenanted to give His only-begotten Son, ‘that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ John 3:16.” The Desire of Ages, 22.

The great love of God was manifested in the creation of “heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is.” Exodus 20:11. Lucifer complained that Christ was honored above him, therefore, God was unfair and a tyrant. “Little by little Lucifer came to indulge the desire for exaltation. The Scripture says, ‘Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness.’ Ezekiel 28:17. ‘Thou hast said in thine heart, . . . I will exalt my throne above the stars of God . . . I will be like the Most High.’ Isaiah 14:13, 14. Though all his glory was from God, this mighty angel came to regard it as pertaining to himself. Not content with his position, though honored above the heavenly host, he ventured to covet homage due only to the Creator.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 35.

The result of his rebellion was exclusion from the heavenly host. Lucifer, along with one third of the angels who had made their decision to follow him, was cast out of heaven. We humans have the same problem that Lucifer had. We think that we are important and wish for exaltation of self, just as he did, and if we do not recognize our pride and surrender our will to God, we will end up in the same lake of fire with the devil. Pride gets in the way so that God cannot use us as He wishes to. We tend to defend our position, because we are right and the other person is wrong.

“Satan’s rebellion was to be a lesson to the universe through all coming ages—a perpetual testimony to the nature of sin and its terrible results. The working out of Satan’s rule, its effects upon both men and angels, would show what must be the fruit of setting aside the divine authority. It would testify that with the existence of God’s government is bound up the well-being of all the creatures He has made. Thus the history of this terrible experiment of rebellion was to be a perpetual safeguard to all holy beings, to prevent them from committing sin, and suffering its penalty.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 42, 43.

Lucifer continued his rebellious actions by coming to earth and tempting Eve with great success, in spite of the fact that she and Adam had been warned about him. She in turn induced Adam to partake of the forbidden fruit. As sinful human beings, Adam and Eve each began to blame the other for their problem. When sin is pointed out in the church, immediately people become defensive and accuse the person who pointed out the errors as being critical and divisive. Due to their sin, Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden and the earth was cursed. But before they were put out, they were given the promise of a way of escape from the final retribution demanded by the Law. A Saviour was promised who would redeem the fallen human race.

Immediately after the fall of man, a reformation was begun by God to restore man to his rightful position. “The plan of redemption was arranged in the councils between the Father and the Son. Then Christ pledged Himself to render an account for man if he proved disloyal. He pledged Himself to make an atonement, which would unite every believing soul to God. He who lays His sins upon the substitute and surety, thus becoming a partaker of the divine nature, can unite with the apostle in saying: ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.’ ‘That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.’ In His infinite love Christ devised the plan of salvation. This plan He stands ready to fulfill in behalf of all who will co-operate with Him. In their behalf He says to the Father, Do not impute their sins to them, but lay them on Me. Be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities remember no more. They have accepted My merits, and made peace with Me; and they shall make peace with Me. My righteousness is theirs, and for My sake bless them with all spiritual blessings.” Review and Herald, May 28, 1908.

 

Man Must Cooperate

 

In order for the plan of salvation to be successful, man must cooperate with God by complete submission to His will. Jesus said, “I can of Mine own self do nothing . . . I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent Me.” John 5:30. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.” John 15:5.

Seth and Enoch are two men who submitted their wills to the will of God. In spite of the prevailing iniquity that abounded in their time, these men maintained a close connection with God. They had a holy mission to accomplish, that is, to develop a righteous character and to teach the lesson of godliness to men of their time, as well as to future generations. They were reformers of the highest order. Enoch reproved sin and proclaimed that judgments would be poured out upon those who refused to obey the commands of God. His servants are to bare a similar message in the last days. “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” Isaiah 58:1. “Satan with all his angels has come down with great power, to work with every conceivable deception to counterwork the work of God. The Lord has a message for His people. This message will be borne, whether men will accept or reject it.” Manuscript 36, 1897.

God is trying to reform His church, but He cannot bring this about unless we individually surrender fully to Him and follow Jesus, allowing the Holy Spirit to direct our lives. It does not pay for man to attempt to do things his way or to lean on the arm of flesh. Jeremiah warns us, “Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.” Jeremiah 17:5. Paul said, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 11:1.

There are many examples of men who think to fulfill God’s commands their own way. Cain is one example. God said to bring a lamb as an offering, but Cain decided to bring the offering he thought was best. His offering was not accepted and because of that he became angry and ultimately slew his brother. God attempted to reach Cain’s heart and bring about a reform in his life, but he refused to submit to the requirements of Divinity. God will not force us to obey Him, but we will suffer the consequences of our decisions if we choose our way. Cain lost his soul because of his choice to “do it his way.”

In sparing the life of Cain, it was demonstrated what the end result would be of allowing the unrepentant sinner to live forever. It was revealed that the sentence of death pronounced upon the transgressor of God’s law was both just and merciful. “It will be seen that all who have forsaken the divine precepts have placed themselves on the side of Satan, in warfare against Christ. When the prince of this world shall be judged, and all that have united with him shall share his fate, the whole universe as witnesses to the sentence will declare, ‘Just and true are thy ways, Thou King of saints.’ Revelation 15:3.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 79.

Even though the world was in its infancy, the heart of man had become so degraded and evil that God could not allow these men to continue to live. “He said, ‘I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth.’ He declared that His Spirit should not always strive with the guilty race. If they did not cease to pollute with their sins the world and its rich treasures, He would blot them from His creation, and would destroy the things with which He had delighted to bless them.” Ibid., 92.

Before He does anything to correct a bad situation, God always warns people ahead of time. “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets.” Amos 3:7. God sent Noah to warn the world of a coming flood upon the earth. He spent the next one hundred and twenty years not only warning the world of what was coming, but he also built an ark inviting all to enter with him into the ark to escape the judgments of God upon an unrepentant generation. Unfortunately, all that were alive when the flood came refused to listen and repent, and continued their round of pleasure and merriment until the flood came and swept them all away.

Are we so busy with our everyday duties that we do not have time to stop and take a look at where we are and what we are doing? It is necessary that we arrange our priorities making God first in our lives. We need to get serious about our lives and where we are headed. What is more important, eternal life on the earth made new, or the pleasures of sin for a season? God is waiting for a people that will reflect perfectly His character, and then He will come and take us home.

After the flood God started over again. He told Noah to “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.” Genesis 9:1. The Lord made a covenant with Noah by setting a bow in the clouds, indicating that there would never again be a universal flood. It was the Divine purpose that man would take dominion of the earth once again and fulfill God’s plan for the peopling of this world by those who would obey His Law and live without sin. The Lord waits for the same kind of people today to represent Him to the world.

 

Downward Trek

 

Alas, the inhabitants of this planet followed in the footsteps of the antediluvians in their downward trek on the broad path to destruction. “But no sooner was the earth repeopled than men resumed their hostility to God and heaven. They transmitted their enmity to their posterity, as though the art and device of misleading men, and causing them to continue the unnatural warfare, was a sacred legacy.” Letter 4, 1896.

We come now to another people who desired to have their way. Nimrod and his descendants would make a name for themselves by building a tower and a city. “And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth.” Genesis 11:4. “This confederacy was born of rebellion against God. The dwellers on the plain of Shinar established their kingdom for selfexaltation, not for the glory of God. Had they succeeded, a mighty power would have borne sway, banishing righteousness, and inaugurating a new religion. The world would have been demoralized. The mixture of religious ideas with erroneous theories would have resulted in closing the door to peace, happiness, and security. These suppositions, erroneous theories, carried out and perfected, would have directed minds from allegiance to the divine statues, and the law of Jehovah would have been ignored and forgotten. Determined men, inspired and urged on by the first great rebel, would have resisted any interference with their plans or their evil course. In the place of the divine precepts they would have substituted laws framed in accordance with the desires of their selfish hearts, in order that they might carry out their purposes.” Review and Herald, December 10, 1903.

The Lord had told men to scatter over the earth, but mankind disobeyed the word of God. Once again God intervenes to stop man in his determination to have his own way. Only this time there was not a universal destruction, only the knocking down of a part of the tower and confounding of the language.

When Jesus comes the second time, He will destroy the wicked from off the face of the earth by the brightness of His coming. But the righteous will be preserved from the destruction that takes place all around them. God will be their refuge. “Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee.” Psalm 91:9, 10. May we make Christ our refuge and strength in the days that lie ahead.

 

Lessons on Reformation, part 3

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The promise made to Abraham concerning a son was fulfilled in the birth of Isaac and it was through his descendants that the Savior was to come. We pick up the narrative of God’s continuing attempts at reformation in His followers. Isaac has grown into manhood and married Rebecca who gave him two sons, Esau and Jacob. It was God’s plan that the firstborn receive the birthright, but Esau was too self-centered to submit himself to such a restriction on his activities. Coming home one day, tired and hungry, he sold his birthright to Jacob for a “mess of pottage.” “‘Thus Esau despised his birthright.’ In disposing of it he felt a sense of relief. Now his way was unobstructed; and he could do as he liked.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 179. Jacob, later named Israel, at the insistence of his mother, practiced deception on his father to gain that birthright for himself.

As the result of this deviousness, Jacob paid a heavy price. Laban, his father-in-law, deceived him with regard to Leah and Rachel, and changed his wages many times during the years he spent working for him. In addition, he never saw his mother again, and his sons lied to him about their treatment of Joseph. But God did not reject Jacob and blessed him throughout his life. He lived long enough to see Joseph and his sons and be reunited with them in Egypt where Joseph was the governor.

After Joseph’s death, “there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.” As this king viewed his kingdom, he saw that the Israelites were growing in number. He feared they would become strong, join the enemies of Egypt in a war and leave the country, depriving the Egyptians of their workforce.

At first the king tried to keep the Israelites from increasing in number by issuing a decree that all male babies were to be destroyed at birth. This cruel law failed and Israel continued to increase. He also made them work under severe conditions. The hard work only made the Israelites grow stronger and continue to increase.

 

Moses, a Reformer

 

It was under these circumstances that Moses now appeared upon the scene. Having grown up in the house of Pharaoh, he was to be the next ruler of Egypt. The time had come for Israel to be delivered from bondage, and Moses decided that since he was chosen by the Lord to deliver his people, he would proceed to do it. When he saw an Egyptian attacking an Israelite, he put into motion the only method he knew to carry out that deliverance. He killed the Egyptian. This was not God’s plan for the deliverance of His people, and Moses had to flee to Midian. There he spent the next forty years herding sheep and learning the lessons of humility and patience.

“Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” 1 Corinthians 10:11. These are lessons that we are to learn; lessons of truthfulness and openness, of maintaining a humble spirit and exercising patience at all times under all circumstances. With that kind of spirit the Lord can use us to bring the message of salvation to a lost world.

Moses came back to Egypt ready to lead his people out to the Promised Land. Now God could use him to bring reformation to His people. Moses did not know it, but there was a long, arduous and frustrating journey ahead of him. There would be many occasions where his patience would be severely tried. When asked to go before Pharaoh and demand that he let Israel go into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord, he hesitated, giving the excuse that he had a speech impediment. The Lord was patient with Moses and consented to have Aaron,his brother, speak for him to the Egyptian ruler.

It was at Sinai that the attempt at the reformation of Israel was begun in earnest. The Ten Commandments were given to Moses on the mount to help the children of Israel understand God’s character as well as His requirements for their salvation and work. The people promised to obey every word spoken by God. However, they failed to realize their own shortcomings and inability to do as they had promised. They were tested many times before arriving at the borders of the Promised Land. Most of the time they failed those tests, but the Lord continued to work with His people in spite of these failures. He wanted them to evangelize the world in order to save lost humanity.

At Kadesh-barnea Israel refused to go into Canaan. Because of unbelief and insubordination they spent the next forty years wandering in the wilderness until all those who had been twenty or older at the Exodus from Egypt had passed off the scene of action. “It was not the will of God that the coming of Christ should be thus delayed. God did not design that His people, Israel, should wander forty years in the wilderness. He promised to lead them directly to the land of Canaan, and establish them there a holy, healthy, happy people. But those to whom it was first preached, went not in ‘because of unbelief.’ Their hearts were filled with murmuring, rebellion, and hatred, and He could not fulfill His covenant with them . . . We may have to remain here in this world because of insubordination many more years, as did the children of Israel; but for Christ’s sake, His people should not add sin to sin by charging God with the consequence of their own wrong course of action.” Evangelism, 696.

In the history of the Advent Movement there have been several occasions when we have come to a Kadesh-barnea experience and have refused to go into the Promised Land. The most notable of these events occurred in 1888 at the refusal by many at that conference to accept the messages of righteousness by faith. We turned into the wilderness and have been there ever since.

“How sad, how deeply regrettable, it is that this message of righteousness in Christ should, at the time of its coming, have met with opposition on the part of earnest, well-meaning men in the cause of God. The message has never been received, nor proclaimed, nor given free course as it should have been in order to convey to the church the measureless blessings that were wrapped up within it. The seriousness of exerting such an influence is indicated through the reproofs that were given.” Christ Our Righteousness, 47. By A. G. Daniels, 1941.

At the close of the forty years of wandering in the wilderness, Israel once again came to the borders of Canaan. The devil was working furiously to frustrate God’s plans for Israel. He was successful once more and seduced the Israelites into idolatry and infidelity. Through the efforts of some that stood for principle, this problem was solved and Israel finally entered the Promised Land.

“God had placed His people in Canaan as a mighty breastwork to stay the tide of moral evil, that it might not flood the world. If faithful to Him, God intended that Israel should go on conquering and to conquer. He would give into their hands nations greater and more powerful than the Canaanites. The promise was: ‘If ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, . . . then will the Lord drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves.’ Deuteronomy 11:22–25.

“But regardless of their high destiny, they chose the course of ease and self-indulgence; they let slip their opportunities for completing the conquest of the land; and for many generations they were afflicted by the remnant of these idolatrous peoples, that were, as the prophet had foretold, as ‘pricks’ in their eyes, and as ‘thorns’ in their sides. Numbers 33:55.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 544.

 

Israel Desires a King

 

“Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” 1 Samuel 8:5. Israel desired to be like the heathen nations around them. This was one of the consequences of not driving out the inhabitants of Canaan when Israel first entered that land. Up to this point God had been their king, but they were not satisfied with that arrangement. They wanted a king to rule over them the way the other nations were ruled. The Lord sent a warning to them regarding the consequences of having an earthly king, but they refused to listen and demanded a king. The Lord granted their wishes and Israel was led down the path into idolatry.’

The principle of becoming changed into that which we behold is one of the reasons we have been counseled to get out of the cities into a country setting. Our children would be contaminated with the lifestyle of the inhabitants of the cities and as a result would be lost. And we as adults are not immune to the influences of city life. The devil uses such settings to cause us to become so engrossed in our daily living that we lose sight of our purpose for being, that is giving the Three Angels’ Messages to the world.’

It seems that we, as modern Israel, have come to the same place as they. We desire to be like the churches around us. Two Union Conferences and one mission have joined the Council of Churches as guest members in their respective areas. That requires payment of dues. The two Unions are the North and South German Unions and the Mission is Vanuatu. Seventh-Day Adventists in the Solomon Islands have also joined as guest members. Both the German and South Pacific Councils are arms of the World Council of Churches. Will we ever learn the lessons that Old Testament history attempts to teach us? We are to be a separate and peculiar people, peculiar in that we have a unique message for fallen man.

God says, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6:14–18.

 

Results of Kingly Power

 

Because of this demand for an earthly king, the ten tribes were led deeper and deeper into idolatry and eventually were scattered over the earth and lost to history. Judah fared better but they too were finally taken captive to Babylon for seventy years. After returning to Jerusalem, rebuilding the city and temple, they failed to continue their reformation and were almost lost sight of, for the next four hundred years, until the time Jesus was born.

When Christ arrived as a babe in Bethlehem, the Jews were looking for a messiah but not as the one portrayed by the prophets. They were expecting a great general to free them from the Roman yoke and establish Jerusalem as the leading city of the world. Because Jesus did not fulfill their desires, He seemed to them to be a usurper of the throne of David. So they decided to eliminate Him. He interfered with their plans. His gospel included humility, which hurt their pride. Caiaphas said, “Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.” John 11:50.

The Messiah had come to bring salvation and greatness to the children of Israel and they crucified Him. Yet the Spirit of God continued to plead with them until the stoning of Stephen. Then the Lord accepted Israel’s rejection of Him, and He rejected them as a people and turned to the Gentiles. Will we as a people suffer the same experience as they did and be rejected also? God is waiting for a people that will finish the Reformation that was begun in the fourteenth century with Wycliffe. He will use people; will it be you and me? If not, then who will it be?

The disciples and apostles did their best to fulfill the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18–20and they were able to reach the whole world. (See Romans 10:18.) But there came a falling away even before Paul died. He said: “the mystery of iniquity doth already work.” 2 Thessalonians 2:7.

The work Jesus had begun while he was upon the earth reached a plateau of development at the death of John and then began a steady slide down into a paganistic religion.

This descent into a false religion continued until the evils of paganism once more entered the church, leading to the establishment of the Papacy by the year 538 A.D. For the next one thousand years, that papal power ruled the consciences of men all over the world. However, there were, in various parts of the earth, groups of people that remained untainted by the false doctrines of the Papacy. These faithful souls stood steadfast and loyal to God’s Ten Commandments, including the fourth commandment.

Throughout the period known as the Dark Ages, when the Papacy was in control of most of the world, there were those who refused to be obedient to the papal demands. In many areas of the world there were people that not only obeyed the Commandments of God but also propagated the Gospel message any way they could. Because of extreme persecution by the papal power, the spread of the Gospel was limited as long as Roman Catholicism was in control. But the time was approaching when this control was to be broken. There were signs of disintegration of Papal supremacy, visible at different times and various places in the earth, revealing that God was moving upon the hearts of people. When the break came, it was like a thunderbolt to the Papacy and was to shake the Triple Crown upon the heads of the popes at Rome.

In our next article we will pick up this story of the broken shackles, and follow its movement in the world and in the hearts of men.

 

Lessons on Reformation, part 2

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” After the flood the people once more increased on the earth, and wickedness also increased. Idolatry became well-nigh universal, and the Lord finally left the hardened transgressors to follow their evil ways, while He chose Abraham, of the line of Shem, and made him the keeper of the law for future generations.” Manuscript 65, 1906.

Following the flood men decided, against the express wishes of God, to build a city and a tower in order to make a name for themselves. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9. While the tower was in the process of being built, the Lord came down, destroyed it and confused their language. The effect was to scatter them over the face of the earth. Having done this He left them to their own designs.

After the flood, God had told Noah, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” Genesis 9:1. The sons of men decided that their plan was better than God’s plan and so they congregated and refused to scatter over the earth. Have we not as professed followers of the Lord fallen into the same trap that Satan laid for the men of Babel, that is, acting as though our plans are better than God’s plans? God’s instruction is, “Be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? 2 Corinthians 6:14.

We cannot follow our own wishes in the building and operation of institutions. One of our large university churches is expending three million, nine hundred thousand dollars to expand its facilities. The Lord has warned us over and over not to congregate: “No one is to make an urgent appeal for means with which to erect large and expensive buildings for sanitariums, colleges [college churches], or publishing houses, so absorbing means that the work in other places is crippled. Let our brethren be careful lest by drawing largely from our people for the erection of large buildings in one place, they rob other parts of the Lord’s vineyard. Unduly to invest means and exalt this work in one part of the field when there is city work to be done in many places, is not the right thing. It is selfishness and covetousness. The Lord especially condemns such a manifestation, for by it His sacred work is misrepresented before the world. He would have His work controlled and guided by equity, justice, and judgment. He does not call for the erection of immense institutions. One corner of the vineyard is not the whole world. In many places throughout the world memorials for God are to be established to represent His truth.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 13, 406, 407.

Some may argue that we need to meet the needs of the students who attend the university. If this requires such a large outlay of funds then the whole institution is too large. The goal of most students is to obtain the best education, in order to make the most money possible, in the shortest time. Our educational institutions were intended to train young people for service to mankind, not service of self.

“It is a mistake for our people to crowd together in large numbers. It is not in harmony with God’s plans. It is His will that the knowledge which we receive of the truth should be communicated to others; that the light which shines upon us should be reflected upon the pathway of those walking in darkness, so that we may lead others to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. But where a large number are congregated together in one church, this work in a large measure is neglected, and the light of truth is often only reflected back and forth upon the church-members; the world is left in darkness, the alarm is not sounded, the warning message from Heaven is not given.” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, July 9, 1895.

There is another problem area that needs to be addressed ,and that is the infatuation with church growth. An SDA church we attended in the state of Washington had a Pentecostal church next door. Both churches started with 300 members. Our pastor remarked to the congregation one Sabbath that the church next door now had a membership of fifteen hundred, while we had only five hundred members. He suggested that we talk to them and find out how they were able to maintain such a large membership.

More recently, in September 1997, a seminar was held at Andrews University on church growth.

The instructor was Dr. Robert Logan, vice-president of New Church Development of Church Resource Ministries, headquartered in Anaheim, California.

We have definite instruction from the Lord about utilizing the methods of the world in our work. “The divine commission needs no reform. Christ’s way of presenting the truth cannot be improved upon. The worker who tries to bring in methods that will attract the worldly minded, supposing that this will remove the objections that they feel to taking up the cross, lessens his influence. Preserve the simplicity of godliness.” Evangelism, 525.

 

We Have Sinned

 

Israel went into captivity time and time again because of disobedience to the commands of God. From the time they asked for a king to rule over them so that they could be like the other nations around them, they were determined to have their own way. We have been admonished that we are following the same path trod by ancient Israel. Should we not, pray like Daniel did, when Israel was in captivity in Babylon?

“And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love Him, and to them that keep His commandments; We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from Thy precepts and from Thy judgments: Neither have we hearkened unto Thy servants the prophets, which spake in Thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land . . . Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. Yea, all Israel have transgressed Thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey Thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against Him.” Daniel 9:4–6, 10,11.

We must follow the example of Daniel and bring ourselves to the throne of God confessing our sin against Him, admitting our self-centeredness and turn back to Him for complete guidance in carrying out the great commission. Until we depend fully upon the Lord for direction, He cannot, will not, bless our efforts. Like Daniel we must plead for guidance at every step so the work may be completed in God’s way.

God told Noah’s descendants to scatter and replenish the earth, not to congregate in one area. We are told to establish many small institutions. “Instead of large establishments bringing great numbers together, let there be small institutions in different places.” Welfare Ministry, 230.

“In the centers that are formed in some places, there is constant temptation to carry the work after worldly methods. I have had presented before me the dangers before us in the future. This light I have tried to present with pen and with voice. Let the work be carried forward intelligently by men and women of sound faith and strict religious principle.” The Publishing Ministry, 63.

 

God’s Methods, Not Our Own

 

“At the ordination of the Twelve the disciples had greatly desired that Judas should become one of their number, and they had counted his accession an event of much promise to the apostolic band. He had come more into contact with the world than they, he was a man of good address, of discernment and executive ability, and, having a high estimate of his own qualifications, he had led the disciples to hold him in the same regard. But the methods he desired to introduce into Christ’ work were based upon worldly principles and were controlled by worldly policy. They looked to the securing of worldly recognition and honor—to the obtaining of the kingdom of this world.” Education, 93.

We cannot ignore God’s plan for His work and introduce our ideas, thinking they are better. The Lord has shown us plainly in His word how He desires the propagation of the Gospel to be carried forward. If we insist on doing the Lord’s work our way and refuse to heed His admonitions, we will receive the same condemnation that God gave to the wicked men after the flood. We will be left to our own devising and suffer the same fate they did. We are here to bring reformation to the world, not to join in its policies. God has placed us here as witnesses, not as attorneys, judges or juries. It is our duty and privilege to testify to the world of what God has done in our lives, thus revealing the character of Jesus to our neighbors. Then, we will not only be instruments used by God in the salvation of others, but we will save our own souls as well.

In the process of time, God called Abraham who, despite the wickedness around him, remained a worshipper of the true God. This man would be an instrument in the hand of the Lord to bring reformation to the society in which he lived. In the call to leave his home there was a promise given of a Savior that would come through his descendants.

The experiences that Abraham went through were not only for his spiritual growth but also for the benefit of all future generations. God had a problem that needed to be solved, and that problem was sin. Man cannot continue to disobey God’s expressed commands without suffering the consequences.

When years passed after the promise of a son, Abraham and Sarah became impatient and determined to take measures into their own hands. As a result there has been conflict between the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac in the Middle East ever since. It does not pay to ignore the commands of God. Our work is clearly laid out for us in the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy. We are to be His servants, not His board of directors.

The great Second Advent Movement was raised up by the Lord for the purpose of proclaiming to the world the full Three Angel’s Messages. He gave specifid instructions regarding the educational, publishing, evangelistic and health work. We have been blessed with a blueprint showing how to fulfill the great commission. But, like Abraham and Sarah, we have decided that the blueprint is outdated, and we will use the world’s methods to accomplish the great objective of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. Our rationale is that we must keep up with the times in order to reach people. In reality, we need to get back to the primitive gospel, using God’s methods so that He can use us in His work.

 

Perfect Obedience

 

“Christ came to the world to counteract Satan’s falsehood that God had made a law which men could not keep. Taking humanity upon Himself, He came to this earth, and by a life of obedience showed that God has not made a law that man cannot keep. He showed that it is possible for man perfectly to obey the law. Those who accept Christ as their Saviour, becoming partakers of His divine nature, are enabled to follow His example, living in obedience to every precept of the law. Through the merits of Christ, man is to show by his obedience that he could be trusted in heaven.” The Faith I Live By, 114.

While Abraham was traveling south, in Palestine, a famine came upon the land. To escape it and yet be close by the Promised Land, God sent him down into Egypt where he stayed until the famine passed. “The Lord in His providence had brought this trial upon Abraham to teach him lessons of submission, patience, and faith—lessons that were to be placed on record for the benefit of all who should afterward be called to endure affliction. God leads His children by a way that they know not, but He does not forget or cast off those who put their trust in Him. He permitted affliction to come upon Job, but He did not forsake him. He allowed the beloved John to be exiled to lonely Patmos, but the Son of God met him there, and his vision was filled with scenes of immortal glory. God permits trials to assail His people, that by their constancy and obedience they themselves may be spiritually enriched, and that their example may be a source of strength to others. ‘I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil.’ Jeremiah 29:11. The very trials that tax our faith most severely and make it seem that God has forsaken us, are to lead us closer to Christ, that we may lay all our burdens at His feet and experience the peace which He will give us in exchange.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 129.

The greatest trial that Abraham had to endure was when God commanded him to sacrifice his son Isaac. What made this command more puzzling to Abraham was that a Savior had been promised that would come through Isaac’s descendants. But in spite of this seeming impossibility, Abraham obeyed without questioning God. The Lord was preparing this man to bring reformation and revival to a dying generation, and He needed someone whom He could depend upon to do the job. The effects of Abraham’s test went beyond him and his generation to future generations and to unfallen worlds: “The sacrifice required of Abraham was not alone for his own good, nor solely for the benefit of succeeding generations; but it was also for the instruction of the sinless intelligences of heaven and of other worlds. The field of the controversy between Christ and Satan—the field on which the plan of redemption is wrought out—is the lesson book of the universe. Because Abraham had shown a lack of faith in God’s promises, Satan had accused him before the angels and before God of having failed to comply with the conditions of the covenant, and as unworthy of its blessings. God desired to prove the loyalty of His servant before all heaven, to demonstrate that nothing less than perfect obedience can be accepted, and to open more fully before them the plan of salvation.” Ibid., 154, 155.

Next month we will return to our story with the raising up of Moses and God’s attempt to once again bring reformation to a lost and dying world.

 

John Wesley, An English Reformer, part 2

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John Wesley’s conversion in May of 1738, was a change from a mere intellectual belief in salvation to one of the heart. Because of this experience at Aldersgate, Wesley was truly converted. As a result, many people began to experience the same thing at his meetings. From this point on, Wesley’s preaching was marked with a zeal and enthusiasm that was not seen before.

As a result of this heart conversion, Wesley now determined to put his whole energy into laboring for the salvation of lost humanity. He spent the rest of his life preaching for the sole purpose of saving lost sinners for Jesus Christ.

Last month we left Wesley leaving for Germany to visit and observe the Moravians. He was received cordially by Count Zinzendorf, the leader of the Moravians, and spent three months observing these God-fearing people. He recorded some of their practices that he would later utilize in his own work as an evangelist.

Returning to England in August, he began preaching, uniting with a group of like-minded members of the Church of England. He also spent some time reading, studying, praying and preaching to those who were in prison, offering them free salvation and celebrating Holy Communion. The next few weeks were spent preaching at various churches in London and making a trip to Oxford.

John and his brother Charles preached wherever they had the opportunity, but the opportunities to preach in churches were rapidly diminishing. By the end of 1738 most of the churches in London were closed to the Wesleys because of their enthusiastic preaching of the doctrine of mystical conversion.

While preaching around London when the opportunities opened up, Wesley received an invitation from George Whitefield to participate in open field preaching.

Whitefield had returned to England from America in December of 1738, but because of some things he had written and published in his journal, he had lost favor with the English ministry. Consequently, all Church of England churches were closed to him. As a result he turned to preaching wherever he could. Thus began the preaching in open fields or on street corners. This was to be Wesley’s mode of preaching for the rest of his life.

“Wesley became an itinerant evangelist, preaching in the open, because only in this way could he reach those who were out of touch with God. His congregations were made up largely of those who were beyond the range of the usual ministrations of the Church. This in itself was an indictment of the Church’s failure to fulfil its proper function, for, considered in terms of the New Testament, it exists primarily for the purpose of bringing Christ to the people and the people to Christ. That this should be regarded as at all abnormal in the eighteenth century was an indication of how far the contemporary Church had fallen from its original standards. Unless the Church is an outgoing society, it is untrue to its own nature.” A.S. Wood, The Burning Heart, 137.

In the spring of 1739, Wesley traveled to Bristol and on April 2 he preached to about three thousand in a field outside the city. Wesley’s quiet manner of preaching was often enlivened. This caused him to be accused of being “enthusiastic” which was anathema to the Church of England. By actual test, Wesley’s voice was found to be heard over four hundred feet away.

Wesley’s mission was largely to the laboring class of people but he was not indifferent to all other classes. His “audiences included farmers, lawyers, clergymen and nonconformist ministers, university undergraduates and civic leaders” as well as “those from foreign lands—especially the Germans in Newcastle.” Ibid., 145.

The success of the Methodist meetings may be attributed to the singing as much as to the preaching of the Wesleys. Charles Wesley was a prolific hymn writer and many of his hymns were sung by those who attended the meetings.

Whitefield left for America in August, 1739, and the Wesleys continued their field preaching for the next three years with their headquarters located in London and Bristol.

The preaching of Whitefield moved thousands to repentance and faith, but no separate structure was provided to nurture the converts. John Wesley decided that some sort of organization was needed to take care of those who were brought to a knowledge of salvation and accepted Christ as their Savior.

He organized “society” groups patterned after the Oxford Holy Club and the Moravian groups in which he had participated. It was not his intention to establish a new church but to develop these “societies” as a part of the Church of England. These “societies” were divided into classes made up of about a dozen persons who met once a week with a leader for spiritual discussions and guidance. They enumerated their temptations, confessed their faults and shared their concerns testifying to the working of God in their lives.

These societies flourished under the direction of the leaders, most of whom were women. As Methodism grew, Wesley encouraged laymen to become his helpers and assistants as preachers. Some of these were full time itinerant preachers and served the societies by encouraging and counseling with them.

 

A New Career

 

In May of 1742, Wesley’s work was expanded to the north of England as far as Newcastle. On May 30, He walked into the poorest part of town and, introducing himself, sang the hundredth Psalm. After preaching a sermon, he announced that he would preach again at five in the evening. Thus began a career of itinerant field preaching that was to last for the next fifty years. Although his territory was mainly the triangle made up of Bristol, London and Newcastle, he journeyed into Scotland, Ireland and Wales exercising his control of the “societies” located in these lands. Until he was seventy years of age his mode of travel was almost always by horseback.

In 1744, the Annual Conferences were begun where Wesley met with his preachers each year to discuss theology, the mission of Methodism and appoint to preachers their areas for the coming year.

“Opposition to the new religious movement was inevitable. Both the conditions of the country and the character of the Methodist revival made opposition certain. The invasion of Methodist preachers was resented by high and low alike, but while the bishops replied with quartos; the mob resorted to clubs and stones. The whole story throws a flood of light on social and intellectual conditions in the middle of the century.” Umphrey Lee, The Lord’s Horseman, 92.

In the 1740’s, England was made up of isolated communities with virtually no communication between any of them. At the same time there was the fear of invasion by the French, with anticipation far worse than the event when it happened. Even the slightest suspicious act made a person liable to arrest. An uprising by the Catholics was dreaded because their cause was supposed to be the same as that of the Pretender then living in Rome.

Wesley met many kinds of opposition while he was preaching. Especially in the early years of his open air ministry he was harassed by mobs that pelted him with rocks and dirt. Cattle were driven through the audience and loud noises were emitted in an attempt to drown out the voice of the preacher. Many times Wesley and some of his preachers were threatened with physical harm. But all of the opposition they experienced did not have any lasting effect upon Wesley’s work. During the later years of his ministry the mob violence virtually ceased.

Wesley made sure that none of his preachers misinterpreted his motto, “I look upon the world as my parish,” as giving them the freedom to go wherever they chose. In the Methodist church one of the gravest mistakes is for one preacher to invade the parish of another. However, Wesley considered that he had the calling to go anywhere the Lord directed him.

Opposition to Methodism took many forms. There were a number of anti-Methodist publications including those by playwrights and novelists as well as those published by the clergy. In answer to the objections of the clergy Wesley responded by saying, “He had a mission to fulfill, and if existing protocol stood in the way then it would have to be set aside. ‘I would observe every punctilio of order, he told George Downing, chaplain to the Earl of Dartmouth, “except where the salvation of souls is at stake. There I prefer the end before the means.’” The Burning Heart, 102.

“He was determined not to be restricted by ecclesiastical barriers. Hervy had inquired how Wesley could justify the invasion of other men’s parishes upon catholic principles. It was a characteristic of Anglican Evangelicals like Hervy to adhere to the parochial system. Wesley’s reply is a classic one. ‘Permit me to speak plainly. If by catholic principles you mean any other than scriptural, they weigh nothing with me. I allow no other rule, whether of faith or practice, than the Holy Scriptures; but on scriptural principles I do not think it hard to justify whatever I do. God in Scripture commands me, according to my power, to instruct the ignorant, reform the wicked, and confirm the virtuous. Man forbids me to do this in another’s parish: that is, in effect, to do it at all; seeing I have now no parish of my own, nor probably ever shall. Whom, then, shall I hear, God or man? If it be just to obey man rather than God, judge you. A dispensation of the gospel is committed to me; and woe is me if I preach not the gospel. But where shall I preach it, upon the principles you mention?” Ibid., 105, 106.

Uniformity of opinion was not required by the Methodist Societies but uniformity of conduct was according to the following: First, by doing no harm; by avoiding evil of every kind. . . Secondly, By doing good. . . Thirdly, by attending upon all ordinances of God.

John was finally married in February of 1751 to a widow named Mary Vazeille. The marriage was a rocky one from the first because he refused to stop his itinerant preaching tours. Also he was not an attentive husband, devoting his time and energy to the Methodist work. Becoming discouraged by John’s continual absence and jealous of his correspondence with the many women in the Methodist movement, Mary separated from him many times until her death in 1781. Wesley was out of town and did not hear of her death until after the funeral.

On February 8, 1750, an earthquake struck London. A second occurred a month later creating a frenzy among the people. Charles preached a sermon on “The Cause and Cure of Earthquakes” followed by a pamphlet of hymns suitable for calamities such as this. Both John and Charles considered earthquakes as instruments of God to punish sinners. John announced publicly that he was thankful that God had so lightly warned the people by the first shocks.

 

Untiring Labor

 

The year 1753 finds John Wesley often ill, but he refused to slow down. On October 22 he went to Canterbury even though he was sick. All week he complained of sickness but had no time for treatment as he met with classes from morning to night. This was typical for the whole year.

During the fifties He visited Ireland and Scotland (twice), traveling extensively around the two countries preaching and sightseeing.

In the years 1755 and 1756 the great issue was the question of separation from the Church of England. Charles was convinced that all the preachers in the north were for separation and he agreed with them. John on the other hand refused to see the inevitable separation coming and remained a staunch supporter of the Church of England.

In 1757, Charles retired from itinerant preaching and settled down with his wife in Bristol, leaving John to continue his superintending of the Societies and itinerant preaching. Two years later, in November 1759, John preached two sermons and observed the general thanksgiving for the success of the British armies in capturing Canada from the French.

In spite of his bad experience in Georgia, Wesley maintained a lively interest in America and the American colonies. From 1768 he had preachers in the colonies. In 1769, two missionaries were sent with fifty pounds, as a gift, to the work in America.

As conflict began brewing between England and the American colonies, Wesley instructed his preachers to labor for peace. He wrote to his preachers stating, “You were never in your lives in so critical a situation as you are at this time. It is your part to be peace-makers, to be loving and tender to all, but to addict yourselves to no party. In spite of all solicitations, of rough or smooth words, say not one word against one or the other side. Keep yourselves pure, do all you can to help and soften all; but beware how you adopt another’s jar.” The Lord’s Horseman, 185.

Being a High Churchman, Wesley was loyal to the crown. However, he eventually overcame his prejudice against the colonies in their desire for freedom, but he would not condone armed rebellion and said, “If a blow is struck, I give America for lost, and perhaps England too.” Ibid., 189. In spite of this he retained his faith in the American cause.

John Wesley’s attitude on the American question was making it difficult for him to retain control over the Methodist work in America. It was becoming evident that American Methodism would be independent of Wesley or the Church of England. In 1779, some Methodist preachers took it upon themselves to administer the sacraments without being ordained. He was faced with the fact that fifteen thousand Methodists “would not be content to be members of a religious society—they would have nothing less than a church.” Ibid., 197.

In February of 1784, John Wesley met with his preachers to consider sending missionaries to the East Indies, but it was decided that the time was not right because there was no “providential opening.”

In March he started out on a seven months journey to west England, Scotland and Wales. He preached continually, reproving the people for not attending the early services. The intense cold made him sick and he said, “I shall pay no more visits to new worlds, till I go to the world of spirits.”

In the meantime, pressure for secession was building to a high pitch. The American Methodist preachers clamored for ordination that they might ordain their own successors to the ministry. Wesley finally gave in to them but stipulated that he would ordain them only for the work in America. This did not satisfy other preachers in other lands. He was persuaded to ordain for Scotland, where they had no chance to receive the sacraments as those in the American colonies.

Charles, after a lingering illness, died on March 29, 1788. John did not hear of his death until after the funeral, thus he could not attend.

“On June 28, 1782, Wesley wrote in his Journal: ‘I entered my eightieth year; but, blessed by God, my time is not labour and sorrow. I find no more pain or bodily infirmities than at five-and-twenty. This I still impute (1) to the power of God fitting me for what He calls me to; (2) to my still traveling four or five thousand miles a year; (3) to my sleeping, night and day, whenever I want it; (4) to my rising at a set hour; and (5) to my constant preaching, particularly in the morning.” Ibid., 198.

For the next nine years John Wesley continued to travel and preach until July 16, 1790. That day he made his last entry in his expense book and his diary ended on the same day. On that day he also wrote a letter to William Wilberforce encouraging him in his fight for the abolition of slavery.

At ten o’clock in the morning Wednesday, March 2, 1791, John Wesley, the greatest of the English reformers, died “without a groan or a sigh.”

“The men who survived to fight the battle of Methodism were good men, many of them capable and intelligent; and within a few years they had built a church—built, it must be said on foundations laid by John Wesley himself. But the catholic minded man, who had dreamed of a new world in which men might adventure in the spirit without clash of creed or order, was dead; and what he would have thought and said of the works of his successors, no one will ever know.” Ibid., 214.

 

A Light in the Darkness

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It is hard to determine whether it was in the first century that these apostolical men planted the Christian religion at Milan, and the diocese there-unto belonging; or whether it were done in the second century; forasmuch as Milan was a considerable city in those primitive times, and we find that the Church es of Lyons and Vienna were already famous in the second age, by reason of their martyrs, apostolic men having first of all preached in the capital cities, that the Gospel from thence, as the head spring, might diffuse itself throughout the whole diocese, and so facilitate the propagation thereof.

I do not think any man can precisely define the time of their preaching, those first disciples having been much more careful to preach the Gospel, than to write the history of it.

Concerning the state of the Christian religion in the diocese of Italy, until the end of the fourth century. [It will be recognized by the reader that the church in Italy was in more or less a state of apostasy even in the second century, but nonetheless, several ancient customs still remained as follows]

Neither did they, without doubt, own any other tradition, besides that of St. Irenaeus, that nothing ought to be laid down for certain truth, but what Jesus Christ hath taught, or the Apostles written, and left to the apostolical Churches as a sacred depositum.

They had Deacons, who expounded also the Gospel, who distributed the Eucharist, who carried it to those that were absent, who baptized, and who sometimes, in less considerable places, had the oversight of Churches. They were ordinarily those that visited the sick and prisoners, and that took care of the temporal concerns of the Church.

The Diaconesses, who were of apostolical institution, and received the imposition of hands, and who, together with the virgins and widows, made, as it were, a part of the Clergy, were employed to instruct the women in their houses, to visit the prisoners, and to prepare and dispose those of their own sex for the reception of Baptism.

In the fourth century images began to be introduced into some churches, viz. The pictures of martyrs: but they knew nothing yet of painting the Deity, or of giving the images any religious worship.

In the fourth century they consecrated churches but to God alone, they read only in the churches the canonical Scriptures, with the respect due unto the word of God; to which they afterwards joined some hymns composed by some men of great renown.

They celebrated fasts that were very different as to their duration. Some of these fasts were kept every week, on Wednesday and Friday; the church of Rome fasted also on Saturday. These days of fasting having not been instituted by the authority of the Apostles, according to the general consent of ancient Christians, and every one using them with great liberty.

The body of Christian Churches continued united together by the bond of one and the same faith, and by the mutual care which every Bishop took to keep up the same zeal for the purity of manners, as for that of faith. If there happened any difference, the Bishops and the Priest of the same province assembled, and determined the matter, without any appeal: and it was not till the midst of the fourth century, when the dioceses were better formed, that the Council of Sardica granted to Pope Julius, Bishop of Rome, the privilege of examining afresh all causes that had been determined in the provincial synods; which however never took full effect, all the Greeks, and a great part of the Latins having rejected that Canon. The Bishops of Rome endeavored to attribute and preserve to themselves this authority, though they could never bring it about, but by means of the favor of the Emperors Gratian at the end of the fourth age, and of Valentinian the Thire in the midst of the fifth age.

This was the general state of the Church, whilst under the heathen persecutions, and after having endured the furies of Arianism, which almost wholly laid her waste, during the fourth century.

The opinions amongst the ancient Christians upon many questions of divinity being very different, they made use of great forbearance one with another, as long as they did but agree in matters of faith.

Every diocese was looked upon as being independent of all other authority: so that what respect soever they might have for apostolical Churches, [churches founded by one of the apostles] yet did not they think themselves obliged to follow them, in case they were persuaded that they had violated the purity of the faith.

[In the early part of the ninth century a great reformer arose in Turin by the name of Claudius, who was made bishop of Turin. He wrote voluminous commentaries on various parts of the Bible. He is referred to by Ellen White. She said, “The first question which arises in my mind as we enter one after another of these large cities, is, Would not this be a good place to present the truth? But here, [Turin] as in Milan, we are told that the people are nearly all Catholics. The time was, however, when this was not the case. It was here in the ninth century that Claudius contended so valiantly for the doctrines of the Christian Church. The mantle of Ambrose, archbishop of Milan, descended upon him, and, grasping the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, he waged a battle which did much to delay, although it could not prevent, the final overthrow of his church. The influence of his pen was felt where his voice could not be heard, and was a mighty instrumentality in preserving, even in the Waldensian valleys, then a part of his diocese, the first principles of the Christian religion.” Review and Herald, June 1, 1886.]

[Claudius Bishop of Turin] overthrows the doctrine of merits, pronounces anathema’s against traditions in matter of religion: maintains, that faith alone saves us, holds the church to be subject to error, denies, that prayers after death may be of any use to those that have demanded them; broke down images throughout his diocese, and [wrote a defense] against the adoration if images, the worship of saints, pilgrimages, the worship of relics, with other such like superstitions.

God commands us to bear our cross, and not to worship it.

He only is apostolic, who is the keeper and guardian of the Apostle’s doctrine, and not he who boasts himself to be seated in the chair of the Apostle, and in the mean time doth not acquit himself of the charge of the Apostle; for the Lord saith, that the Scribes and Pharisees sat in Moses chair.

Ellen White writes, “Our visit to the Waldensian Valleys was one of special interest on account of the close connection which this locality has with the history of the people of God in past ages. It was in the friendly shelter of the surrounding rocky peaks that they found protection when the fierce persecutions of the Roman church drove them from the fertile plains of Northern Italy. In these plains they had succeeded in maintaining their independence of Rome many years after others had yielded to her power.

Indeed, up to the eleventh century, the diocese of Milan is said to have greatly exceeded in extent that of Rome. But the very fact that her authority was disregarded on what might be called her own territory, was very humiliating to a power to whom all the world was then bowing down; and, after repeated unsuccessful attempts to induce the bishops of Milan to yield their independence, they were finally forced to submit.

“The submission, however, was by no means universal. Many refused to yield their rights, and fled, some to one country, some to another, while many retired to the Piedmontese Alps. ‘Behind this rampart of mountains, Which Providence, foreseeing the approach of evil days, would seem to have reared on purpose, did this remnant of the early apostolic church of Italy kindle their lamp, and here did that lamp continue to burn all through the long night which descended upon Christendom.’ ” Historical Sketches, 239.

Excerpts from Some Remarks upon the Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Church of Piedmont, (The Waldenses) by Peter Allix (1821) (First edition published in 1690.)

John Wesley, An English Reformer, part 1

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The little village of Epworth lies between the Trent, the Don and the Idle Rivers, on the Isle of Axholme, in northern England. This became the home of John Wesley who was born on June 17, 1703.

His father, Samuel, was born a gentleman and made himself a scholar. He went to school at Stoke Newington with Daniel Defoe and received instruction from Charles Morton, who later became vice-president of Harvard College in New England. He was raised a dissenter from the Church of England. He eventually served as chaplain on a man-of-war and as a curate in London. His final home was in Epworth as the rector of that village. Besides his scholarship, Samuel Wesley was noted as a poet and was one of the editors of the Athenian Mercury.

He served several terms as a representative of the diocese of Lincoln to the legislative body of the Church of England and fought for the independence of the lower house from the dominantly Whig house of bishops.

John was the second son and the fifteenth child, his elder brother Samuel was thirteen when John was born.

The rectory was burned when John was six years old and he was barely saved by the help of some neighbors. His father had given his son up for lost, so when he received him back he said that John was “a brand plucked from the burning.” The father took this as a sign that God intended great things for the boy.

Samuel was very unpopular with the people of the village due to his being a clergyman and a Tory. Also Nathaniel Reading, an attorney and collector of taxes, was a friend of his. In addition to this, he was a strict disciplinarian asking about the private lives of his parishioners and enforcing the rules of the church. Besides burning his house down, the “resentful Islonians” stabbed his cattle and maimed his sheep. The family lived in poverty as a result of the rectors running into debt and he had to appeal to his patrons to help pay his creditors.

“Unable to associate with the villagers, whom they regarded as clods and worse, cut off from the great world by miles of sullen, turgid waters, living in poverty galling to their gentility, the Wesley household was a world unto itself. And the Wesley children bore to their graves marks of their isolation, of their confinement to the weary, monotonous fen lands, of their resentment of poverty and suffering. They were all more or less eccentric; at least four of the girls made unhappy marriages; one of them brought shame on the country rectory.” Umphrey Lee, The Lord’s Horseman, 19.

The life of the Wesley family was not all gloom. The mother, Susannah, had the marvelous ability to manage her brood, teaching them to cry softly and fear the rod. The children spent six hours a day in the home school where the mother taught them the Lord’s prayer as soon as they could speak. After the age of five she taught them to read, and at the end of the day the older children read to the younger ones.

John was an exasperating child, demanding a reason for everything. His father, having been provoked to anger remarked to his wife, “I profess, sweetheart, I think our Jack would not attend to the most pressing necessities of nature unless he could give a reason for it.” Ibid., 20.

At the age of eleven, in 1714, the boy was nominated by the Duke of Buckingham to Charterhous, a school in London. At the age of seventeen, John entered Christ Church, Oxford College. He was a normal schoolboy, dabbling in verse and enjoying tennis and river sports. During his academic days his health was not always the best, so he turned to the medical field. He read many books on health and one especially which “recommended temperance and exercise forbidding highly seasoned meats, and advised drinking two pints of water and one pint of wine each twenty-four hours.” Ibid., 28.

On September 19, 1725, he was ordained deacon. Following this, in 1726, he was elected Fellow of Lincoln. This election, which included a stipend, gave him financial independence. With this independence John did not remain idle, but continued his academic studies and received a master’s degree in 1727.

 

Special Leave

 

He took special leave, twice in the next three years, to help his father by preaching at Epworth and Wroote. Wesley kept a detailed diary of his daily activities giving us a clear picture of a man well bred, interested in the souls of his parishioners, while at the same time unmindful of his own soul and body.

By this time Wesley had become acquainted with the writings of William Law, especially his latest book, Christian Perfection. The works of this man awakened his passion for the pursuit of holiness, first for himself and then for others. John attempted to introduce Law’s discipline into the Wesley family with tragic results. The father ordered him out of the house if he continued with his “apostolical nostrums.”

In 1729, Wesley received a call to return to Oxford. He lectured on Greek, Philosophy and Logic. As a teacher he was faithful and thorough. But other interests were beginning to develop in the heart of this teacher. Charles had founded a club at Oxford while John was in Epworth with his family.

John joined this club and soon became the leader. Under his leadership it became “one of the most famous in modern religious history.” Ibid., 33. George Whitefield, who later became famous as an open field preacher, joined the club. Benjamin Ingham, another well known man, joined the club. He later left the Church of England and took up with the Moravians.

The activities and philosophy of the club included attending church services and partaking of the Lord’s supper. In addition they met together in John Wesley’s room for devotions and careful study of the Greek New Testament. They also visited the sick and prisoners and organized classes for poor children. Their own funds, along with solicited money, were used to relieve the poor and occasionally to obtain freedom for a man imprisoned for debt. Wesley continued to study vigorously and read a formidable list of books, all the while carrying on a large correspondence that took a whole day each week.

By now John’s father was coming to the end of his life and he appealed to his son to come take his place in the rectory. John’s reply was that he considered that he was better able to promote holiness in himself and others at Oxford.

James Oglethorpe, a distinguished soldier and apostle of prison reform, called John Wesley in 1732 to go as a missionary to the Georgia colony he had set up. Wesley wrote, on October 10, 1735, that his main reason for going was for his own soul’s salvation. He hoped to learn the truth of the gospel by preaching to the “heathen.” Charles Wesley was also hired along with Benjamin Ingham, for the colony.

During the voyage (December 10 to February 5), they encountered at least three storms. One of these storms was so violent that the English screamed out in fear while the German Moravians sang a psalm showing no fear. Wesley was impressed by the calmness of these people.

Wesley hoped to be a missionary to the Indians, but he had agreed to take care of the parish of Savannah until another minister should arrive. A few days after his arrival John Wesley was visited by an Indian Chief named Tomo-chachi whom he called “king” of the Savannah nation. The king came with a request that the white priests feed the Indians with milk for they were only children. The king complained to Wesley that the Spanish and French were building forts and the English traders were liars.

The people in the Georgia colony became disenchanted with Wesley because of his high church leanings and his insistence that his parishioners adhere to the rigid discipline of the church. Then something happened which added fuel to the fire of opposition to him.

He had become involved emotionally with Sophia Hopkey, who at one point wished that John would ask for her hand. He solicited advice from his Moravian friends, but they did not give him any encouragement. Because of his hesitancy, the young lady ran off with another man. As a result of that action, Wesley refused to admit her to Communion because she did not communicate her intentions.

Along with all the other unhappiness, Sophia’s husband brought suit against Wesley. The Grand Jury indited him on ten counts, nine of which related to ecclesiastical usages, such as refusing to baptize a child but by immersion and refusing to read the burial service over the body of a dissenter. Wesley refused to plead on the ecclesiastical charges stating that the court had no jurisdiction in these matters. He asked for an immediate trial on the tenth point, which was regarding the charges of Sophia. The trial never occurred.

 

Disappointment

 

Disappointed with the hostility of the parishioners of Savannah and the fact that the Indians were not interested in being instructed in Christianity, Wesley left Georgia in December of 1737 and returned to England. He said, “I went to America, to convert the Indians, but oh, who shall convert me?” Ibid., 61.

Upon his return, he gave a report as to the condition of the colony stating that many had left and that the colony was in critical condition. He was cleared of the charges against him and his resignation was accepted. He looked back on his experience in Georgia and his passion for Sophia as a victory over his lower nature.

There were four advantages Wesley had realized from his time in Georgia. 1. He had learned to read German, French, Spanish and Italian. 2. That he had to leave the direction of his affairs with the Lord. 3. He had lost his fear of the sea. 4. He had become acquainted with the Moravians whom he found to be model Christians.

“Looking over this characteristic summary of personal losses and gains in Georgia, one can understand the way which Wesley was going. His search for Christian perfection through self-discipline, by good works, by a strict adherence to what he believed to be the practice of the Primitive Church, his discouragement as the result of his experiences in the New World, all prepared Wesley for a rearrangement of his life pattern. He was ready for a mystical conversion of the type recorded by Luther and Paul—although not of the type recorded by Augustine.” Ibid., 64.

The following experience occurred and was recorded by Wesley on Wednesday, May 24, 1738. “I think it was about five this morning, that I opened my Testament on those words, . . . ‘there are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, even that ye should be partakers of the divine nature.’ . . . Just as I went out, I opened it again on those words, ‘Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.’ In the afternoon I was asked to go to St. Paul’s. The anthem was, ‘Out of the deep have I called unto Thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice. O let Thine ears consider well the voice of my complaint. If Thou, Lord, wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss, O Lord, who may abide it? For there is mercy with Thee; therefore shalt Thou be feared. O Israel, trust in the lord for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his sins.’

“In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.” Ibid., 65.

Following this, Wesley began a program of attempting to persuade others to have the same conversion he himself had experienced. His brother Charles had been converted a few days before and he supported John in his efforts to influence others. In later years John would change his mind regarding the necessity of others having the same inner change that had developed in his own heart and life.

“John . . . was now all aflame with the ambition to visit Herrnhut, in Saxony, the home of the Moravians. He had embarked for Georgia hoping to learn the true gospel by studying the reactions of the ‘noble savage’ to his preaching; disappointed there, he now believed that Herrnhut would prove his spiritual El Dorado. He had now, he thought, learned the first lesson of the gospel; he hoped that ‘conversing with those holy men who were themselves living witnesses of the full power of faith, and yet able to bear with those that are weak’ would be a means of ‘establishing’ his soul. He plunged at once into plans for this new pilgrimage and on the twelfth of June left for Germany.” Ibid., 66, 67.

 

Hus the Heretic

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One of the most heart-moving books you will ever read, Hus the Heretic by Poggius the Papist, is new from the press. Reprinted from very old book, and translated into English for this printing, it tells the inspiring story of one of the greatest reformers, as seen through the eyes of Poggius, the papist. Poggius delivered the summons to John Hus to appear at the council of Constance, and participated as a voting member on the council. As the trial unfolds, so potent is John Hus’ humble testimony contrasted with the amazing rudeness and injustice of priests and cardinals, even some of his ardent foes become his defenders. Even Poggius himself is profoundly affected.

The following is taken from Hus the Heretic by Poggius the Papist, 71–75:

Great shouting silenced the noble martyr. They tore the priestly garb from his body and ripped it to pieces, which they tied to their clothes as a remembrance of their victory over Hus. After that, they fought and argued among themselves whether they should disfigure his head with shears or razor, until they procured shears and pressed his head downward, cutting a star into his hair, while they were deriding him. This displeased many and caused remonstrating. A majority was glad about it and they raised their weapons against Hus’ protectors. There were only a few Bohemians, whom it had been forbidden to bring weapons into the church and they were searched at the door. The Bohemian Knight von Meneczesch, who had hidden a long dagger in the leg of his boot, was in the midst of the crowd and when he perceived his friend’s distress, he drew the dagger and plunged it between the ribs of the man who held Hus’ head, so that he dropped without a sound. Immediately Hus’ enemies turned upon Meneczesch with their knives and tried to kill him, but he was a courageous man, defended himself well and escaped without a scratch, through the small door in the choir. Hus, however, cried and clasped his hand above his shorn head and prayed God for a blissful end.

When Hus stood thus shorn before his enemies, they ridiculed him, threw clumps of earth, moistened by saliva, at him and found it funny when they hit his face. Despite this derision, the poor man remained without hate and consoled himself with the thought of his redeemer, who had borne in silence the scourge and the fists of his enemies. “Why do you mock me? Your shouting cannot destroy the triumph of my heart! I hear sweet music above the heights of Golgotha and the sounds of joyful Hallelujah, so that Jerusalem’s foolish battle cry cannot hurt me at all!” Such praise-worthy words spoke Hus, while they cast him out, half-naked, from the temple of the Lord. Outside the church, the bishop of Constance placed a paper cap, upon which three ugly devils had been painted, on his head, saying: “Now we deliver you to the worldly courts and your soul we turn over to the devil and his disciples!”

Hus answered to this terrible curse by folding his hands and by praying: “O Lord, Jesus Christ, into thine hands I deliver my soul, which thou hast redeemed by thy blood. Father in Heaven, do not hold against them the sins which my enemies commit against me, and let mine eyes see them blissfully with thee, when their souls fly to they throne after an easy death. O Holy Ghost, enlighten their deceived hearts, so that the truth of the holy gospel may open their eyes and its praise be spread everywhere, for ever and ever, Amen” The town soldiers had formed a wide circle in front of the church portal, into which the expulsed man was being led. A small fire was lit and several books by Wycliffe and Hus were cast into it, with a lot of shouting. A red-garbed jester moved the books about with a long poker, while he executed peculiar and comical jumps over the fire, so that his feather-tail caught fire and he ran about, crying in feigned distress, for water. These shameless doings lasted for an our, during which Hus was often brushed with this feather-tail, from which water was dripping. The sun was high in the skies and sent down much heat. This made many people thirsty and they drank very much of the wine, which was distributed free. They drank so much that they began to be unsteady on their feet, rioted and sang, without regard for Hus’ feelings, like barbarians.

These event put off the last moments of the unhappy priest for several hours. During this time there was a kirmess, everybody feasted with viands and drink and they were eager for the coming spectacle for the evening, young and old, boys and girls and especially the Latin papists, among whom were several who had never seen the roasting of an heretic before. Meanwhile the wood pile had been decorated with motley hangings, tassels, flags, stars and other tinsel, and many women believed it to be good handiwork to burn pieces of their underwear or clothing with the condemned, to atone for their sins or for the sins of those who roast in purgatory. “Give me a drink of water,” asked Hus of his guard, “so that I might refresh my tongue and not die from thirst, lest your joy, to see me at the stake, might be taken from you. I would regret this for the sake of those who have come here to see me burn and have spent much money on my account.”

Full of pity a soldier offered his filled goblet to Hus, but he did not drink from it and asked for pure water, which was given to him at once. This equanimity and pity shown by Hus impressed the heart of the guard. He rose, approached his sergeant and resigned from the service with these words: “I have fought many a battle in my day and I have seen many a brave man die at Raefels in the Glarner lands, at Buergen, Niedau, Unterfern and in the lands of Appenzell, but my old eyes have never seen such courage and fearlessness in the face of certain death. Therefore I think that this Bohemian is a just man, suffering in innocence and I have no wish to serve masters who persecute the feeble and protect the lewd papists. Take back my spear and my sword, for I shall leave Constance today, before the smoke rises to smother Hus and the fires blaze, which will consume his bones.”

And so the hour of five of the afternoon came, when the procession started, with Hus, for the Bruehl gate, where, on the left side, the woodpile had been erected and had been splendidly decorated. Three trumpeters upon black horses rode in advance and their loud trumpeting called together the people from afar and drew everybody from the chambers of the houses to the windowsills.

There were only few streets in Constance through which the procession did not wind its way and its duration was longer than two hours. Many cried, many made fun and many prayed for Hus. He sang the praise of God in Latin songs; called out many times with Job the Visited: “My harp also is turned to mourning and my pipe into the voice of them that weep. Doth not he see my ways and count all my steps? If I have walked with vanity or if my foot hath hastened to deceit; if my step hath turned out of the way and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved mine hands; if I rejoiced because my wealth was great and because mine hand had gotten much; and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand; this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge; for I should have denied the God that is above? I would be joyous like a King although I go to my death.” Then he sang in verse, with elated voice, like the psalmist in the thirty-first psalm, reading from a paper in his hands:

“In thee, O Lord, I put my trust,

Bow down thine ear to me.”

With such Christian prayers, Hus arrived at the stake, looking at it without fear. He climbed upon it, after two assistants of the hangman had torn his clothes from him and had clad him in a skirt drenched with pitch. At this moment the elector of Palatinate, Ludewig, rode up and prayed Hus with fervor to recant, so that he might be spared a death in the flames. But Hus replied: “Today you will roast a lean goose, but a hundred years from now you will hear a swan sing, whom you will leave unroasted and no trap or net will catch him for you.” Full of pity and filled with much admiration, the Prince turned away . . .

You may order your copy of Hus the Heretic by Poggious the Papist from Steps to Life.

The Reformation in Scotland

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“The Reformation in Scotland seems to have been accompanied by greater violence than elsewhere in Europe. It has been stated that the corruption of the Catholic Church had reached a greater height in Scotland than in any other country, unless it was Italy.” Gideon D. Hagstoz, Heroes of the Reformation, 85.

The Reformation in England dealt with the freedom of the throne from the supremacy of the pope, whereas in Scotland the reform movement was concerned primarily with the religious center.

“The more prominent outcome of the Reformation in England was a free state; the more immediate product of the Reformation in Scotland was a free Church. But soon the two countries and the two Reformations coalesced: common affinities and common aims disengaged them from old allies, and drew them to each other’s side; and Christendom beheld a Protestantism strong alike in its political and in its spiritual arm, able to combat the double usurpation of Rome, and to roll it back, in course of time, from the countries where its dominion had been long established, and over its ruins to go forward to the fulfillment of the great task which was the one grand aim of the Reformation, namely, the evangelising and civilising of the earth, and the planting of pure churches and free governments.” J. A. Wylie, The History of Protestantism, Book 24, 466.

Scotland, before the ninth century, was inhabited by savage tribes who practiced the rites and worshipped the same gods as the Assyrians. This country had no harbor where ships could put into port. Because of this no mariner visited this land, ensuring that Scotland would remain a backward country for many years.

Caesar had attempted to conquer Scotland without success. He was followed by missionaries who were more successful in gaining a foothold. Columba, born in 521, began evangelizing the northern and western parts of Scotland, as well as England, from the island of Iona off the Scottish coast.

 

Catholicism Enters Scotland

 

In the twelfth century, the light of Iona was waxing dim, paving the way for Roman Catholicism to establish itself in Scotland. This did not come about as the result of the conversion of the inhabitants of that land, but by the power of the king. The men, as well as the system, came from another land.

The limits imposed upon ecclesiastics of other countries, such as France, were not set up in Scotland. “Bishops and abbots filled all the great posts at court, and discharged all the highest offices in the state.” Ibid., 467.

“Scotland had no centralized government. The prince bishops owned about one half of the land, and the secular nobility owned or controlled the other half. The king had very little power. He had no standing army of his own and no personal body-guard, but had to depend on the feudal militia for protection and support.” Lars Qualben, A History of the Christian Church, 312.

Darkness covered the land, but there was a glimmer of light, and Pope John XXII complained that there were heretics in the land. The first martyr John Resby, was burned in 1406. He was an Englishman and a follower of Wycliffe. Others followed him to the stake in the next few years. In the same year, the University of St. Andrews was founded. A requirement for the Master of Arts degree was that the applicant must agree to defend the Roman Church against all accusers.

Because the writings of Luther were so eagerly read, the Parliament, in 1525, prohibited the printing and distribution of his literature. The two most prominent men to be burned at the stake were Patrick Hamilton, who was arrested by order of Cardinal Beaton in 1528, and George Wishart in 1546. Their teaching of the reform faith came to the attention of the Cardinal whose only goal was to completely control all Scotland. His efforts to destroy the heretics only added fuel to the fire. For every martyr who perished, a little company of followers arose to fill his place. From this time on, the Reformation in Scotland was dependent upon the political power in control.

It can be said that the Reformation in Scotland began with the entrance of Tyndale’s New Testament into that country, the circulation of Luther’s and Reformed writings, and by returning students from universities on the Continent and in England. By Act of Parliament, March 15, 1543, all the people had access to the Bible in their own tongue.

When Margaret, the daughter of Henry VII of England, married James IV, King of Scotland, the Scottish nobility feared that Scotland would come under the control of England. To prevent this happening, they made alliances with France against England. James V married Mary of Lorraine, sister of the Duke of Guise, who was violently opposed to Protestantism.

At the death of James V the crown was left to his infant daughter, Mary Stuart. The Queen, Mary of Guise, was made the Queen-regent until her death in 1560. It was her policy to suppress Protestantism. Mary Stuart was sent to France for her education and while there she married Francis II, King of France. She made an agreement with Francis that Scotland would be controlled by France at her death, when she left no heirs.

 

Defenders of Scottish Freedom

 

The defenders of Scottish freedom, and the friends of Protestant reform merged to form a strong party which was friendly toward England. The secular nobility saw that the Reformation would aid them in crushing the power of the detested prince bishops. A large number of the prominent noble families openly accepted Protestantism.

It was at this point that John Knox enters the picture. By 1546 he was well known as a powerful preacher. In his preaching he proclaimed that the Roman Catholic Church was the Synagogue of Satan and that the Pope was the anti-Christ. In 1547, Knox was captured by the French and made a galley slave for nineteen months. On his release he spent some years in England and in Europe, but always wrote to his countrymen encouraging and instructing them. Knox returned to Scotland in 1556, preaching against the mass, and made a petition to Mary of Guise begging her to support the Gospel. The petition was refused by the Queen-regent. This refusal forced Knox to flee to Europe. In 1559, when Elizabeth became Queen of England, he returned to Scotland.

Mary Stuart, Queen of the Scots, denounced Elizabeth as an illegitimate usurper, and proclaimed herself as the rightful queen of England. This claim by Mary threatened to bring both Scotland and England under the control of France. Knox began preaching powerful sermons, proclaiming that Scotland must be free and upholding the idea that the secular power was not to control the religious. “Wherever Knox went, his preaching was like a match set to kindling wood.” Ibid., 315. He was supported militarily and politically by John Erskine, the leader of the First Scottish Covenant. This Covenant was formed by a number of Scottish nobles on December 3, 1557, stating that the signatories would “stand by one another with life and fortune to ‘establish the most blessed Word of God and His Congregation.’ ” Ibid.

The Scottish people revolted against the Catholic Church, breaking images, storming and looting monasteries, and commanding priests to cease saying mass. The result of all this “rebellion” on the part of the people was that the Queen ordered French troops to put it down. Knox encouraged the people to meet force with force and the combat ended in a draw. France then sent reinforcements in order to maintain her hold on Scotland.

John Knox appealed to Queen Elizabeth to send a fleet to resist the French. She sent both an army and a fleet to help the Protestants in Scotland. Knox worked as chaplain and liaison officer negotiating with the English government that the cause of Protestantism might continue to be victorious. The presence of an English army induced the French to withdraw and leave the government of Scotland under the control of the Council of Lords. The treaty was signed on July 6, 1560, shortly after the death of Mary of Guise, the Queen-regent. The Treaty stipulated that all foreign troops and arms should be removed from Scotland and that no Frenchman could hold any important office of state.

Following this treaty, the most important parliament met on July 1, 1560. It was attended by a large number of barons, nobles, and lords—Knox being among them—and it abolished the celebration of the mass and the jurisdiction of the pope. The law against the mass was so strong that any offender was threatened with the death penalty on the third conviction.

Knox became the church leader in Scotland and at the request of Parliament he prepared a Confession of Faith, the Confessio Scoticana, which was adopted on August 17, 1560. The following week the Parliament passed the Laws of the Estate resulting in the complete rupture with Rome. In January, 1561, the Parliament adopted the “First Book of Discipline” which had been written by Knox. “The system worked out by Calvin was applied to the entire nation. In each parish the pastor and the presbyters constituted an administrative and disciplinary board. The presbyters were elected by the congregation. In the larger centers meetings for discussion were held which later developed into ‘presbyteries.’ Pastors and congregations within specified regions were governed by synods, and over all was the ‘General Assembly’.” Ibid., 316.

 

Knox and Mary, Queen of Scots

 

“Knox had still another battle to fight. Mary, Queen of Scots, the unfortunate Mary who by her own unwise acts lost her crown and later her life, returned from France as a widow at eighteen, in August, 1561. She was determined to restore Scotland to the Catholic Church.

“The most dramatic period of Knox’s life doubtless falls during her reign as he tilted and sparred verbally with Mary when she repeatedly summoned him into her presence. The first such skirmish resulted when Knox condemned the mass which she had celebrated her first Sunday after arriving in Scotland. He had said that one mass was more terrible to him than 10,000 armed invaders. Five times, some say six, she called him before her.

“The second occasion was Knox’s sermon against the persecution of the Huguenots in France, an event Mary celebrated with a ball at Holyrood. The next also concerned the mass. The fourth, which left an aftermath of peril, resulted when Knox had vehemently spoken against her proposed marriage to a Catholic, the son of the king of Spain. This time she dissolved in tears and sobs as she railed against him; but Knox maintained that he was not preaching his own words, but the words that were given him out of the Scriptures.” Heroes of the Reformation, 86.

Knox was charged with treason among other things, and brought to trial before Queen Mary. The future of Knox and the Reformation in Scotland hung in the balance at this trial. The great Scottish Reformer was acquitted and the Queen, because of her indiscretions, was imprisoned and removed from the throne. John Knox died in 1572 and his work was ably carried on by Andrew Melville who died in 1622. When Queen Elizabeth of England died in 1603, England and Scotland were united under one crown.

“It would have but little availed Scotsmen in the nineteenth century if Knox had wrought up their fathers to a little political enthusiasm, but had failed to lead them to the Bible, that great awakener of the human soul, and bulwark of the rights of conscience. If this had been all, the Scots, after a few abortive attempts, like those of misguided France, to reconcile political freedom with spiritual servitude, would assuredly have fallen back under the old yoke, and would have been lying at this day in the gulf of ‘Papistrie.’ Discarding this narrow visionary project, Knox grasped the one eternal principal of liberty, the government of the human conscience by the Bible, and planting his Reformation upon this great foundation stone, he endowed it with the attribute of durability.” The History of Protestantism, 515.

The void left by the death of Knox was more than ably filled by Andrew Melville (1545–1622). Melville was one of the greatest teachers and administrators of his day. It was under his guidance that the educational system in Scotland was established, and in fact made it one of the most noted systems anywhere in the western world. In 1572 the system of episcopacy, which was not in reality episcopacy, for it had no authority and exercised no oversight over the churches in Scotland, was introduced into that country. Knox had opposed the introduction and work of the Tulchan bishops and Melville continued the fight to his dying day. (A tulcan is a calf’s skin stuffed with straw, set up to make a cow give her milk freely. The Tulcan bishops, known only in Scotland, were introduced into the Presbyterian Church by some nobles wishing to take a portion of the churches income through appointment to rich benefices.)

Melville carried on a running battle for the firm establishment of the Presbyterian form of church government free of all secular control. He not only opposed the Roman prelates in Scotland but he also had to deal with the king, James VI. For it was this James whose first goal was to obtain the throne of England, which he did upon the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, and then to make the Roman Catholic Church supreme in both countries. This war for supremacy he waged to his death in 1625.

Melville’s fight was an uphill battle for the people and ministers were not strong enough to establish sufficient power in the Parliament and other ruling bodies to completely eliminate the Roman prelates from maintaining a firm control over the secular arm of the government.

Melville, after spending some years in Paris and Geneva, pursuing his studies and teaching, returned to Scotland in 1574 and began his battle against the Tulchan episcopate, which was joined onto the Presbyterian church. He was successful in getting the General Assembly of 1580 to unanimously declare, by resolution, “‘the office of a bishop, as then used and commonly understood, to be destitute of warrant from the Word of God, and a human invention, tending to the great injury of the Church, and ordained the bishops to demit their pretended office simpliciter, and to receive admission as ordinary pastors de novo, under pain of excommunication.’ ” Ibid., 518.

“The first part of the mighty task which awaited Protestantism in the sixteenth century was to breathe life into the nation . . . The second part of the great task of Protestantism was to make the nations free . . . It was not the State in Scotland that gave freedom to the Church: it was the Church that gave freedom to the State.” Ibid., 530, 531.

We will leave the story of the Reformation in Scotland at this point for it was to be a continuing struggle between Episcopacy and Presbyterianism on the one hand and the King of England and Roman Catholicism on the other which was to be waged even to the present day. The light continued to shine at times brighter, then dimmer, but never extinguished. The Great Controversy continues to go on in that land.

“Thus the Scottish Vine, smitten by the tyranny of the monarch who had now gone to the grave, was visited and revived by a secret dew. From the high places of the State came edicts to blight it; from the chambers of the sky came a ‘plenteous rain’ to water it. It struck its roots deeper, and spread its branches yet more widely over a land which it did not as yet wholly cover. Other and fiercer tempests were soon to pass over that goodly tree, and this strengthening from above was given beforehand, that when the great winds should blow, the tree, though shaken, might not be overturned.” Ibid., 536.

 

John Knox the Reformer

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Many, many years ago, about the year 1505, a man was born in Scotland in whose hands rested the continuation and success of the Reformation. His name was John Knox. The parents of Knox were well off financially enough to give him a liberal education.

He first entered grammar school in Hadington where he learned the principles of the Latin language. From there his father, in 1524, sent him to St. Andrews to the University of Glasgow, the most celebrated seminary in Scotland. The curriculum in this institution of learning consisted of the philosophy of Aristotle, scholastic theology, along with canon and civil law, and the study of Latin.

The studies in scholastic philosophy were not satisfying, so he turned to the study of Divine truth and the labor of the ministry. At the end of his studies he received the Master of Arts degree. He then taught philosophy for a time, and his abilities excelled those of his master in the dialectic art. In 1530, at the age of 25, he was ordained a priest before he had reached the age required by the canons of the church.

Not satisfied with the things he was reading from the excerpts of the ancient authors, he decided he would go to the authors themselves. Jerome and Augustine appealed to him. Jerome led him to read the Scriptures in their original language. In the works of Augustine he discovered sentiments quite opposite to the Papal church. “Augustine and Jerome led Knox to the feet of a Greater. The future Reformer now opens the Sacred Oracles, and he who had once wandered in the dry and thirsty wilderness of scholasticism finds himself at the fountain and well-head of Divine knowledge.” J. A. Wylie, The History of Protestantism, 483. As a result of this study, Knox in 1535, turned from scholastic theology to evangelical religion. He renounced the Roman Catholic church and commenced his career as a Reformer.

The corruptions within the Roman church reached greater heights in Scotland than any where else within the western church. “Superstition and religious imposture, in their grossest forms, gained an easy admission among a rude and ignorant people. By means of these, the clergy attained to an exorbitant degree of opulence and power; which were accompanied, as they always have been, with corruption of their order, and of the whole system of religion.” Thomas M’Crie, The Life of John Knox, 20.

Half of the wealth of Scotland belonged to the clergy, although most of it was in the hands of a few who had control of the larger body, because they had taken advantage of the ignorance and superstition of the masses. “The ignorance of the clergy respecting religion was as gross as the dissoluteness of their morals. Even bishops were not ashamed to confess that they were unacquainted with the canon of their faith, and had never read any part of the sacred Scriptures, except what they met with in their missals.” Ibid., 21.

 

Reforms Begin

 

A light was beginning to shine in Scotland, and, before Knox had embraced the Reform doctrine, a young man by the name of Patrick Hamilton was moved by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the Reformed doctrine. He went to Germany and spoke with Martin Luther, then went to the Protestant university in Marburg to study the Scriptures.

After completing his studies, Hamilton had an irresistible desire to return to Scotland where he exposed the corruption of the popish clergy. Because of this work he soon came to the attention of the Roman Catholic authorities. He was condemned as a heretic and burned at the stake in 1528.

Knox began his career as an educator at the seminary of St. Andrews in 1547, which lasted only a short time. A call came to him from the Protestant ministers of Scotland to join them as a public speaker. He at first declined, saying that he had not been called to that employment, but shortly accepted. His preaching was so successful that many at St. Andrews, and in the towns surrounding the university, were won to the Protestant cause.

In June of that year, a French fleet appeared and captured the Castle of St. Andrews, and Knox was taken prisoner and confined to the galleys for the next two years. The Reformation in Scotland seemed to came to a standstill with Knox out of the country.

He was released in 1549, and he repaired to England where he preached for a time in Berwick. It was here he met and married Marjory Bowes who bore him three children before her death. From Berwick, Knox went to London and busied himself with preaching against the corruption within the church as well as nurturing the followers of the reform.

Because of the anger he aroused in the leadership of the Roman church, Knox left England in 1554, and sailed to Dieppe in France. He remained there for a time before going to Geneva, Switzerland, meditating, preaching, studying and writing letters of encouragement to those reformers remaining in Scotland.

In 1555, Knox returned to Scotland for a brief visit, but it was long enough to consolidate and advance the Reformation in that land. He left Scotland in 1556 because he felt his continued presence would draw strong persecution upon this young community of believers. He went to Geneva once more to pastor an English church.

In April of 1557, two men from Edinburgh arrived with a letter of invitation to return to Scotland and continue the work of reform. They told him that the followers of the reform doctrine remained steadfast, and their adversaries were rapidly losing credibility among the Scottish people. He accordingly secured a replacement for himself in the church, set his affairs in order, and returned to Dieppe, in preparation for sailing to Scotland.

However, before he sailed, further news arrived of a different nature from the first intelligence he had received, telling him the Roman church had gained new power in Scotland and things were not as good as first related to him. Therefore, Knox spent some time traveling in France and preaching.

In December, he returned to Geneva. During the following year he was engaged, along with several other men, in translating the Bible into English. Their Bible became known as the Geneva Bible.

In January of 1559, Knox left Geneva for the last time. “The nation had now found what it needed, a man able to lead it in the great war in which it was entering.” J. A. Wylie, The History of Protestantism, 490.

 

Battles and Victories

 

Mary, the Queen regent, was a strong supporter of the Roman Catholic church and did all she could to stop the Reformation in Scotland. She used everything within her power to gain her ends, not excluding deceit, flattery, and force. She would stop at nothing to get what she wanted. Knox met with her on several occasions to answer the charges laid against him, but he felt no fear because he knew that he stood on the banner of truth.

On one occasion the queen arrived before the city of Perth with an army of 8000 men, but the reformers were so well prepared that she readily saw that any attempt to take the city was useless. She offered to make a peace settlement with them which they accepted, and the queen entered Perth without any resistance.

Knox preached a sermon describing the corruptions which had been introduced into the church by the papacy, using the story of Christ cleansing the temple. “When he had ended, and sat down, it may be said that Scotland was Reformed.” Ibid., 493.

Following this famous sermon, Knox spent the next year in incessant labor. He spent the days in preaching and the nights in writing. By this means he aroused and kept the country awake. “His voice like a great trumpet rang through the land, firing the lukewarm into zeal, and inspiring the timid into courage.” Ibid., 494.

On August 24, 1560, Parliament abolished the Pope’s jurisdiction, abolished the mass, and rescinded the laws in favor of the Romish church.

“Knox’s idea of the church was, in brief, a divinely originated, a divinely enfranchised, and a divinely governed society. Its members were all those who made profession of the Gospel; its law was the Bible, and its king was Christ.” Ibid., 496.

August of 1561, Mary Stuart, queen of Scotland, arrived and took the reins of government in her hands. She proceeded to consolidate her power and establish the Roman Catholic religion as supreme in the land. In December of 1563, Knox was put on trial, before the council and queen Mary, for treason. He was acquitted by a unanimous vote.

By the year 1567, a new monarch, the infant James, came to the throne of Scotland with the Earl of Murray, a close friend of Knox, as regent. The parliament ratified all the acts that had been passed in 1560, accepting the Protestant faith as the religion of the country, and abolishing the Papal jurisdiction. “From this point Knox could look back over the battles he had waged, and the toils he had borne, and contemplate with thankfulness their issue in the overthrow of the Papal tyranny, and the establishment of a Scriptural faith in Scotland.” Ibid., 511.

The years 1568 and 1569, were the happiest years in the life of the reformer and the most prosperous for his beloved country in that century. All was going well for the church, and she was enlarging her borders. His last years were spent in opposing the introduction into the Presbyterian church of the Tulchan bishops, which were unique to Scotland.

He objected to the institution of this new order of ecclesiastics into the church because he believed it to be a robbery of the patrimony of the church, and because it was an invasion of the Presbyterian equality which had been settled in the Scottish Kirk. His opposition delayed the introduction of this arrangement until the year of his death.

In 1570, Knox, never enjoying a strong constitution, became very feeble. A stroke of apoplexy affected his speech and necessitated his removal to St. Andrews where he had to be lifted up into the pulpit to preach. He continued preaching until he could no longer do so due to weakness. On the 24th of November, 1572, John Knox breathed his last and was laid to rest.

“From the time that he embraced the Reformed doctrines, the desire of propagating them, and of delivering his countrymen from the delusions and corruptions of popery, became his ruling passion, to which he was always ready to sacrifice his ease, his interest, his reputation and his life. An ardent attachment to civil liberty held the next place in his breast, to love of the reformed religion. ” Thomas M’crie, The Life of John Knox, 207.

“His ministerial functions were discharged with the greatest assiduity, fidelity, and fervour. No avocation or infirmity prevented him from appearing in the pulpit. Preaching was an employment in which he delighted, and for which he was qualified by an extensive acquaintance with the Scriptures, and the happy art of applying them, in the most striking manner, to the existing circumstances of the Church, and of his hearers.” Ibid., 208.

“The two master-qualities of Knox were faith and courage. The fundamental quality was his faith; courage was the noble fruit that sprang from it.” The History of Protestantism, 514.

 

The Church In the Wilderness, Part 3

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“The Waldenses stand apart and alone in the Christian world. Their place on the surface of Europe is unique; their position in history is not less unique; and the end appointed them to fulfill is one which has been assigned to them alone, no other people being permitted to share it with them.” The Waldenses, by J.A. Wylie, 19.

The testimony of the Waldenses carries a two-fold message. In the first place their teachings and lives are in direct contrast to the apostasy of the papal church resulting in that power’s attempt to eradicate the hated “heretics.” In the second place their witness strengthened the position of the Protestant reformers. This is another reason why the Roman church persecuted the Waldenses.

The first incident we will describe occurred on Christmas of 1400. It took place in the Valley of Pragales in the Alps of northern Italy. The people felt safe because the snow lay very deep around them. An inquisitor named Borelli had previously caught 150 men as well as women and children and burned them alive. His army came suddenly, at night, upon those living in this valley. The Waldenses fled in the icy cold. Some lost hands and feet to frostbite, while others froze to death.

In 1487, Pope Innocent VII issued a bull denouncing the Waldenses as a “malicious and abominable sect of malignants.” He appointed Albert Canteneo, Archdeacon of Cremona, to carry out the bull and destroy the “venomous snakes.”

The plan of attack was to approach the Valley of Angrogna from two directions. The army was made up of two divisions, one French and the other Italian. One was to approach from the French side of the Alps while the Piedmontese from the Italian side were to converge in the valley. As the inhabitants of the Loyse valley saw the French coming, they retreated to a cavern nearly six thousand feet up a mountainside. This cave became their graves as the soldiers built a fire at the entrance, suffocating all within.

The people in other cities and valleys realized their only recourse was to resist and they prepared to defend themselves. The magnitude of the defenses set up discouraged the French army from attacking, so they continued on their way to Angrogna pillaging and burning as they went. Pragales was once more attacked and obliterated.

Cataneo led his Italian division on various excursions in an attempt to bring his mission to a victorious end. But it was not to be so. As he entered the Valley of Angrogna, the inhabitants prepared themselves for battle. They had tried to obtain a peace settlement with Cataneo, but were unsuccessful. Therefore, they decided to fight for their very lives.

The Waldenses moved further up the valley to a place that was easily defended. The papal army had to traverse a narrow defile with steep mountains on one side and a precipice on the other. The people climbed up the mountain so they were looking down on the path the army was to follow. As Cataneo moved along, a fog descended and enshrouded them. The Waldenses rolled rocks down on the soldiers, killing many of them, and followed by attacking and killing most of the remaining men; few escaped alive. These godly people now enjoyed a short respite from persecution.

The sword was sheathed for a time but the artful plots of the papal power continued. To secure their peace, the persecuted ones compromised themselves by attending the Romish mass and having their children baptized by the priests. The church in the wilderness appeared to fall but it did not, for the Reformation had already begun. Most of the countries of Europe had been stirred by the reformers before the tidings reached the Waldenses. “The blessed God hath never left Himself without witnesses in the world; and even during the reign of Antichrist—a period of the most general and awful defection from the purity of His worship, He had reserved to Himself thousands and tens of thousands of such as kept His commandments and the faith of Jesus. Nor is there any thing in this to occasion our surprise. The real followers of Christ are subjects of a kingdom that is not of this world.” The History of The Christian Church, 234, 235.

We have arrived at the time of the opening of the Reformation. Upon hearing of this the Vaudois were ecstatic. Eager to know what was happening, they sent a Pastor Martin of the Lucerna valley on a mission to discover the extent of the reform. He returned in 1526 revealing that the yoke of Rome had been cast off in Germany, Switzerland, and France and that every day many were being added to those who openly professed the same faith as the Waldenses. To prove that what he said was true, he brought back books he received in Germany containing the teachings of the Reformers. Later, two more pastors were sent from the French side of the Alps to Germany and Switzerland. The reformers were overjoyed to hear from these two men the voice of the primitive, apostolic gospel. The Alpine confessors had believed they were the only people who kept the true faith of the Bible, and they were very happy to find there were many others who believed and taught the same truth.

 

Peace and War

 

In 1532, a Synod was called and representatives from both sides of the Alps, attended along with deputies from churches in Switzerland and Bohemia. A confession was drawn up which contained seventeen articles with the main ones being: “Moral inability of man; election to eternal life; the will of God, as made known in the Bible, the only rule of duty; and the doctrine of two Sacraments only, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.” Ibid., 60. A resolution was passed to translate the Bible into French making it available to the churches of the Reformation. It was printed in Switzerland in 1535.

Near this time, a quarrel occurred between Francis I of France and the Duke of Savoy, resulting in Francis gaining control of both sides of the Alps. The Waldensian people enjoyed a twenty-eight year time of partial peace with incidents of persecution and destruction here and there. Then persecution once again broke out on a large scale. The Inquisition continued to do its terrible work selecting individuals—one here and another there for extermination. A man named Bersour attacked the Valley of Angrogna but was repulsed. He then turned to the Vaudois living around his residence in Turin, seizing many of them and putting them in prison, and burning others.

Then there came a change in the politics of Europe that brought peace to the valleys. A treaty was signed in 1553 restoring Piedmont to the House of Savoy and a new monarch was placed on the throne. In 1560, he issued an edict forbidding his subjects to hear Protestant preachers on pain of death. There followed, shortly, another edict demanding all to attend mass under pain of death. Carignano was the first town to feel the tempest. The wealthy were dragged to the flames resulting in the rest of the people being scattered to various places including Turin. Wherever a Vaudois congregation existed there the persecutor turned. Rumors of confiscation, arrest, cruel tortures, and horrible deaths preceded the coming of the armies of destruction into the Waldensian Alps. The Waldenses decided to appeal to the throne. They sent a petition in the hands of M. Gilles, Pastor of Bricherasio, to the king’s Counsel, asking that they be allowed to live in peace and enjoy liberty of conscience.

The pastor was well received by the Duke of Savoy, but the requirements that the Duke made were not acceptable. In October of 1560, he declared war against the Vaudois. They determined to depend upon God for their defense. On October 31, as the Papal army appeared at Burbiana, the entrance to the Waldensian Valleys, the population humbled themselves in a public fast and partook of the Lord’s supper. They packed their belongings, and singing psalms as they traveled, made their way to the Pra del Tor. It was here they made their stand and successfully defeated the enemy in a number of battles and skirmishes, resulting in a considerable slaughter of the Papal army.

The leader of the Papal forces, Count La Trinita, recognizing the futility of pursuing the use of force, turned to diplomacy to achieve his ends. He made promises that if the Waldenses would compromise a little here and a small amount there, the persecutions would cease. But, having acceded to the wishes of La Trinita, they discovered, as had occurred so many times before, that the promises were empty. The terrible torture and murder continued unabated, their houses and lands were pillaged and destroyed.

Once more the Alpine churches determined to stand firm for truth and to defend themselves to the death. The Waldenses of Italy made a pact with those on the French side of the Alps to assist each other at all costs. An order from the Duke had been issued on January 20, 1561, that all people of the valleys were to attend mass or die. La Trinita knew he had to control the Pra del Tor in order to conquer the Waldenses. His attempt to accomplish this was completely defeated and his forces nearly destroyed. A treaty of peace was signed between the deputies of the valleys and the Duke of Savoy on June 5, 1561. Seedtime and harvest had been hardly restored when another calamity struck. In August of 1629, a flood occurred, wiping out the villages of Bobbio and Prali, followed by an icy dry wind in September, destroying all crops.

Yet another tragedy took place in the same year, even worse than persecution. The plague was brought into the valleys by members of the French army who had contracted the disease. Nearly half of the population of the valleys died from the plague.

Another settlement was signed and peace reigned for fifteen years. Then the valleys were invaded by a swarm of Capuchin monks sent to convert the heretics. As long as the people had their pastors to keep them on the true path, the monks had little success in their endeavors. To accomplish their goal, the pastors and leaders of the Vaudois were banished and driven into exile. The population was forbidden to go outside their territory, on pain of death. Even then, the conversion of the people moved ahead very slowly, so the Waldenses were commanded to leave and go to other areas where they were welcomed by the Vaudois of other valleys.

 

Deception and Death

 

Again the appeal was made to the House of Savoy for relief, and once again they were ignored. On April 15, 1655, an army of 15,000 men led by the Marquis de Pianeza, invaded the valleys only to meet total disaster time and time again. Recognizing the uselessness of carrying out any more forays into the valleys, the Marquis used craft and deceit to gain his objective. He made an agreement with the Vaudois that if they would allow a regiment of soldiers to be stationed in each valley for a few days, peace would come. On the Sabbath of April 24, at four in the morning, the blow fell upon the unsuspecting populace. The assassins did their work of murder and torture. “ ‘Our valley of Lucerna,’ exclaims Leger, ‘which was like a Goshen, was now converted into a Mount Etna, darting forth cinders and fire and flames. The earth resembled a furnace, and the air was filled with a darkness like that of Egypt, which might be felt, from the smoke of towns, villages, temples, mansions, granges, and buildings, all burning in the flames of the Vatican.’ The soldiers were not content with the quick dispatch of the sword. They invented new and hitherto unheard-of modes of torture and death. No man at this day dare write in plain words all the disgusting and horrible deeds of these men; their wickedness can never be all known, because it never can be all told.” Ibid., 142, 143.

Following this massacre, the Waldenses were relatively free from persecution for thirty years, though it never completely ceased. They still suffered annoyances and harassment at the hands of the papacy.

As Louis XIV came to the close of his life, he asked his confessor what he might do to atone for his sins. The reply was that he must extirpate Protestantism from France. A treaty was signed between the king of France and the Duke of Savoy in which the king promised to aid the Duke in eliminating the Vaudois. On January 31, 1686, an edict was issued containing the following:

  1. Vaudois to cease practicing their religion.
  2. No religious meetings under pain of death.
  3. All ancient privileges removed.
  4. All churches and religious buildings to be destroyed.
  5. All pastors and schoolmasters to embrace Romanism or be banished.
  6. All children to be raised as Roman Catholics.
  7. All Protestant foreigners to leave the country or become Roman Catholics within fifteen days.
  8. Persons who had acquired property in Piedmont were to sell it to Roman Catholics.

The Vaudois sent delegates to Turin seeking redress for their grievances from the Duke. The Protestants of Switzerland, Germany, and Holland interceded with the Duke on behalf of the Alpine populace to no avail. The Swiss counseled the Waldenses to leave their country to save their lives and to carry the torch of truth elsewhere. They chose rather to remain and defend themselves. They were attacked by a force of 15,000 men, who, at first, were defeated with a loss of 500 to two Vaudois. Then the army fell upon less strongly fortified villages and valleys and murdered and pillaged unmercifully. Wherever the army met a strongly fortified area, they told the defenders their neighbors had capitulated. The unsuspecting people believed this lie and they surrendered. The result of giving up resulted in a wholesale massacre with the loss of 3,000 persons, and the remaining 12,000 were imprisoned. The land of the Waldenses stood empty for the first time in its history.

In December of 1686, when the prisoners were released at the intervention of the Swiss Protestants—only 3000 were left alive. They were commanded to leave the country in the depth of winter. Many lost their lives on this journey. Small parties were released at intervals so that the last to leave arrived in Geneva in February of 1687. They were invited by some German princes to settle in their estates, but the influence of Louis XIV was too strong for them to remain at peace, so they had to move from place to place.

The Vaudois yearned to return to their valleys, and so on June 10, 1688, they made their way toward their homeland. But, they were discovered by the French forces and were then scattered throughout Germany. Then war broke out between France and Holland, drawing the attention of their enemies away from the Waldenses. They saw the hand of God intervening in their behalf and decided to once more return to their homeland. The return began on August 16, 1689, with Henry Arnaud leading 800 men. On their journey they met the enemy many times, but without defeat. Their last battle was at the crossing of the Dora River where they met 2500 French soldiers. In the battle that followed, 500 French died, while only fifteen Vaudois died and twelve wounded. Twelve days after leaving Switzerland they reached the borders of their land having lost only 100 men. “This great exploit is called the ‘Glorious Return.’ By the time the 1260-year period had run out, this faithful branch of the Church in the Wilderness had secured religious toleration.” Truth Triumphant, by Benjamin G. Wilkinson, 266.

The Waldenses still had many a battle to fight to regain their homeland, but they were successful in the end. However, it was not until 1870, with the disappearance of the French empire and the establishment of Germany and Italy, that they had complete freedom from harassment and persecution. Now, even the city of Rome was open to the Waldensian colporteur.

“The persecutions visited for many centuries upon this God-fearing people were endured by them with a patience and constancy that honored their Redeemer. Notwithstanding the crusades against them, and the inhuman butchery to which they were subjected, they continued to send out their missionaries to scatter the precious truth. They were hunted to death; yet their blood watered the seed sown, and it failed not of yielding fruit. Thus the Waldenses witnessed for God centuries before the birth of Luther. Scattered over many lands, they planted the seeds of the Reformation that began in the time of Wycliffe, grew broad and deep in the days of Luther, and is to be carried forward to the close of time by those who also are willing to suffer all things for ‘the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.’ Revelation 1:9.” The Great Controversy, 78.

A lesson to be learned from these experiences of the Waldenses is succintly revealed in the writings of St. Hilarius against Auxentius. “Of one thing I must carefully warn you, beware of Antichrist! It is ill done of you to fall in love with walls. It is ill done of you to reverence the church of God in buildings and stately edifices; it is wrong to rest in these things. Can you doubt that it is on these Antichrist will fix his throne? Give me mountains, forests, pits, and prisons, as being far safer places; for it was in these that the prophets prophesied by the Spirit of God.” The History of the Christian Church, by William Jones.