That there has been a great departure from the doctrines, ordinances
and discipline of the Church as it existed in the days of Christ and
His Apostles, must be evident to every unbiased enquirer into religious
truth. This has been demonstrated to some extent in tracts already
presented to the reader. But the full measure of the apostasy that has
taken place would take volumes to represent in detail. The proofs are
ample that it has been universal
When Jesus Christ commenced His ministry on earth He found the
people who claimed to be the special subjects of divine blessing
and approbation, with all their Priests and ministers and learned
divines, entirely out of the way of life and salvation. None were
acceptable unto God. He denounced the most pious, respectable, devout
and educated among them as hypocrites and "whited sepulchres." Their
foreign missionary enterprises he declared obnoxious to the Almighty,
and informed them that when they compassed sea and land to make one
proselyte they made him "two fold more the child of hell." (Matt.
XXIII; 15). He pronounced them blind guides who made clean the outside,
but within were full of extortion and excess. The spirit of the Lord
had departed from those who honored His name with their lips, but who
had departed from His ways, and who, in place of the word of God,
"taught for doctrine the commandments of men." They were without
authority from God, although they claimed to have it by descent and
ordination through a long line of predecessors and prophets. It should
not be deemed impossible that a similar universal apostasy could take
place after the establishment of the Church of Christ by Him and His
Apostles. But whether so considered or not, the facts are too patent to
be denied when they confront the honest and enlightened mind.
It has been shown that the Gospel as taught and administered by Christ
and His Apostles required first, faith in {228} God and Jesus Christ;
second, repentance, which included reform of conduct; third, baptism
by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, the reception of the
Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands of divinely authorized men;
and that obedience to these brought the gifts of the spirit, including
love, joy, peace, patience, brotherly kindness, charity, healings,
tongues, interpretations, discerning of spirits, miracles, prophecy,
revelation, and the unity in one body of all who were baptized into the
Church, no matter what had been their previous beliefs. Also that the
ordinances of the Gospel were administered by men inspired of God, who
were in communion with Him, and who were ordained to act for and in
behalf of Deity, so that what they performed by that authority on earth
was acknowledged and sealed in heaven. And that in the Church of Christ
there were Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, Teachers, Elders,
and other officers, who were constituent parts of the body of Christ.
This may be further seen by a careful reading of 1st Cor. XII, from
which it clearly appears that God placed these in the Church, that they
were all essential to its existence, and that one of them could not say
to any of the others, "I have no need of thee."
Look at the condition of so-called Christendom today! There are no
inspired Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers,
administering by divine authority and in the power and demonstration
of the Holy Ghost. In their place there are contending Priests and
Teachers guided by the wisdom of men, the learning of the schools and
the traditions of the Fathers, not even claiming that there is any
direct communication between them and God, but persuading mankind that
revelation has ceased, and the voice of prophecy is hushed forever. Not
one of the clashing, jarring and discordant sects of the day proclaim
the Gospel as it was preached by Peter on the day of Pentecost, and
as taught by all the duly authorized servants of God in the primitive
Christian Church. The gifts and signs which Christ promised to true
believers, and which were enjoyed by the members of His Church
according to their needs and their faith, are not only absent from the
churches of these degenerate times, but are pronounced needless and
"done away." There is no "unity of the faith," no actual "knowledge of
the Son of God," no manifestations of His divine acceptance nor of the
power and glory of the Holy Ghost.
What is the reason of this transformation? Has God changed? Is Christ
divided? Is the Holy Spirit dead? Or, have not men changed the order,
ordinances, discipline, doctrines, {229} and spirit of the Church
of Christ? Is not the prediction of Isaiah the Prophet concerning
these times literally fulfilled? "The earth also is defiled under the
inhabitants thereof, because they have transgressed the laws, changed
the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant." He said it should be
"As with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with
his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer,
so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with
the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him." (Isaiah XXIV;
2-5).
The deplorable condition of affairs in modern Christendom was foreseen
and predicted by the Apostles of Jesus Christ, whose forebodings have
come down to us in the New Testament. Paul, writing to Timothy, spoke
in this wise: "This know also, that in the last days perilous times
shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous,
boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful,
unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers,
incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady,
high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form
of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away."
(2nd Tim. III; 1-5). Also: "Now the spirit speaketh expressly, that
in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to
seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy;
having their conscience seared with a hot rod." (lst Tim. IV; 1, 2).
Paul further said: "I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord
Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing
and His kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season, out of season;
reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the
time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after
their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching
ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be
turned unto fables." (lst Tim. IV; 1-4). Paul also said they should be
"ever learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth."
Writing to the Thessalonians he said: "Now we beseech you brethren by
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together
unto Him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled, neither
by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of
Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day
shall not come except there come a falling away first." (2nd Thess. II;
1-3).
The Apostle Peter also foresaw this great apostasy, and {230} spoke of
it in this wise: "But there were false prophets also among the people,
even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall
bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that brought them,
and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow
their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil
spoken of. And through covetousness they shall with feigned words make
merchandise of you, whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not and
their damnation slumbereth not." (II Peter; 1-3.)
The "falling away" commenced in the time of the Apostles, and hence
their numerous warnings and exhortations to the Saints, rebuking
schisms and divisions, and counseling unity, showing that the Spirit
of the Lord promoted union and led people to the knowledge of the
truth, while dissension and strife came from that Evil One, and led to
darkness and death. That the great apostasy commenced at a very early
period is shown by the words of Paul, "for the mystery of iniquity doth
already work. Only He that now letteth will let until he be taken out
of the way." (II Thess. II; 7.) By the time the Apostles were taken
out of the way, most of them slain by the hands of wicked men, the
apostacy had assumed such proportions that only seven of the Churches
were deemed worthy of a divine communication through the Apostle John,
who had been banished to the island of Patmos. And in that revelation
most of them were denounced by the Lord because they had "left their
first love," and were commanded to repent or he would remove them out
of their place. Some of them were "neither cold or hot," others had
given away to seducing spirits, and had committed abominations and
imbibed false doctrines. (See Rev., chapters I, II, and III.) In that
same vision John the beloved saw the Church in the form of a woman,
clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and a crown of twelve
stars on her head taken away into the wilderness, to remain for a
lengthened period, and in her place he saw "a woman sitting upon a
scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy," and though decked
with gold and precious stones, she held in her hand a golden cup full
of abominations, and the name upon her head was Mystery. He saw further
that all nations were made to drink out of that golden cup, by which
they were made drunken. (See Rev. XII; 1-6; XVII; 1-5; XVIII; 2, 3.)
It is clear from these predictions in the New Testament, and others
that might be cited, that the departure from the purity, simplicity
and unity of the Gospel of Christ was to be {231} universal; and that
these prophecies were fulfilled we have the testimony of the Church
of England. In her Homily on the Perils of Idolatry she declares:
"Clergy and laity, learned and unlearned, men, women and children, of
all ages, sects and degrees, of whole Christendom, a most horrible
and dreadful thing to think, have been at once buried in the most
abominable idolatry, and that for eight hundred years or more." That
being true, how is it possible to believe that the Church of Christ
had any existence on earth after that long continued darkness and
apostacy? How could there be any remnant left of the divine authority
held by the Apostles and Priesthood of the original Christian Church?
If the Romish Church, from which the Church of England seceded, had no
divine authority, then the Church of England could have none, for all
she had she obtained from that Church. If the Romish Church possessed
that authority, still the Church of England could have none, for Rome
excommunicated her with all her priests and ministers. The Church of
England being without divine authority, all the various contending
sects that have sprung from her are of necessity in a similar
condition, for none of them even claim to have received any revelation
from God restoring that authority and re-establishing the Church of
Christ.
From the Pope of Rome down to the latest minister presuming to act in
the name of the Lord, there is not and cannot be one who holds the Holy
Apostleship or any portion of that sacred Priesthood which God placed
in the Church, and which Paul declared essential to its existence.
Good men, learned men, devout men, there have been by millions; noble,
pious, and blessed women also, with them, have done the best they
could according to their light and opportunities; but darkness "has
covered the earth and gross darkness the people," and the apostacy from
primitive Christianity, as foretold by its founders, has been awful and
universal!
But thank God, the restoration was also predicted, and it will be a
pleasing task in further tracts to set this forth, as revealed and
brought about by revelation from God the Eternal Father, through Jesus
Christ His Son and the Holy Angels sent from their presence, to usher
in the last and greatest of all dispensations.
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