PROGRESS, DECLINE, AND FINAL LOSS OF THE SCIENCE OF THEOLOGY AMONG THE
GENTILES--FORESHADOWINGS OF ITS RESTORATION FOR THE USHERING IN OF THE
MILLENNIUM.
Oh Mystic Babel, long has been thy reign!
What direful evils follow in thy train!
The veil is rent--thy mystery revealed,
Angels cry wo! and God thy doom has sealed.
The nations, from thy long and dreary night,
Are waking now to everlasting light.
Returning to the Gentile Church, we find the science of Theology, with
all its miraculous powers of visions, dreams, angels, revelations,
prophecy, healings, &c., everywhere enjoyed. It had abated none of its
powers, in its transition from Jew to Gentile. The wild branches,
being engrafted into the good old stock, immediately partook of the
root and fatness of the tame olive tree, and thus was produced the
natural fruit.
But Paul, the great Apostle of the Gentiles, in his writings to the
Romans, cautioned them to beware lest they should fall away after the
same example as the Jews had done before them.
Said he--"_If God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he
also spare not thee_."
John the Apostle also predicted the rise and universal sway of a
certain mystical power, a Babel of spiritual or religious confusion,
in short--"_Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and
abominations of the earth_."
This power should bear rule among all nations. The kings and rulers of
the earth should be drunken with the wine of her fornication. The
merchants of the earth should become rich through the abundance of her
delicacies.
This power should, according to the Prophet Daniel and the Apostle
John, "_wear out the Saints of the Most High_;" "_change times and
laws_;" "_be drunken with the blood of the Saints, and with the blood
of the martyrs of Jesus_;" "_destroy the mighty and the holy people_;"
"_make war with the Saints, and overcome them_" until a set time.
All these predictions, and many others, foretell the doom of the
Gentile Church--its destruction from the earth, and the consequent
decline and cessation of the science of Theology, and of its powers
and blessings in the Gentile world.
Connected with these predictions, we have the most positive prophetic
declarations of Holy Writ concerning the overthrow and entire
destruction of this same mystical power, which had made war with the
Saints.
Its judgments are set forth as far more terrible than those which
befell Jerusalem. Plague, pestilence, sword, earthquake, and the flame
of devouring fire will cause her to cease to be.
Then will usher in the kingdom of our God, and the power of His
Christ. Then will the Saints of the Most High take the kingdom, and
the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven.
Thus are to be revived the ancient powers and blessings, the knowledge
and wisdom, of the science of Theology.
In the fulfilment of the foregoing predictions, the science of
Theology declined, and passed away from among the Gentiles, just in
proportion as the Church, or the Saints of the Most High, were warred
against and overcome.
For years, centuries, ages, there has been no voice from heaven among
the Gentiles, any more than among the Jews. They have fallen "_after
the same example of unbelief_," notwithstanding the caution of their
great Apostle.
No Gentile Prophet has arisen and uttered his voice.
No kind angel has ministered to them.
No vision from the Lord.
No answer.
No inspired dream.
No voice.
No sound from the heavens.
No revelation has burst upon the silence of midnight darkness which
has brooded over the nations.
Or, if such voice, such vision, such Prophet has occasionally burst
forth with the testimony of Jesus, the spirit of prophecy, his
testimony has been unheeded by the mass of the people called
Christians, his voice silenced in death, or himself and his followers
have been banished from society, to wander in the mountains, forests,
caves, or deserts of the earth; or, on the other hand, compelled to
drag out an existence in the solitude of the dungeon.
Ages, centuries have passed, and Oh! what suffering! what torture!
what rivers of tears! what oceans of blood! what groanings! what
strong crying and tears on the earth! what prayers in heaven!
"How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our
blood, on them that dwell on the earth?"
The fire consumed.
The sword devoured.
Hell's artillery bellowed.
Devils hugely grinned.
Widows and orphans mourned.
Heaven wept.
Saints prayed.
Justice stood aghast.
Mercy, retiring, dropped a tear of blood.
Angels, starting, half-drew their glittering swords.
And the Gods, in solemn council, decreed a just vengeance.
Protest upon protest! reforms and re-reforms; revolutions, struggles,
exertions of every kind, of mere human invention, have been tried, and
tried in vain. The science of Theology, with all its keys and powers,
once lost, could never, consistent with the ancient Prophetic
testimony, be restored to either Jew or Gentile, until the full time
should arrive--"_The times of restitution of all things, which God
hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets, since the world
began_."
The time for _a mighty angel to fly in the midst of heaven, having the
everlasting Gospel to preach to them who dwell on the earth; to every
nation, kindred, tongue, and people_. (See John's revelation.)
The time of judgment for "_Mystery Babylon_."
The times of "_the fulness of the Gentiles_."
The times for the grafting in again of the Jews, and all the natural
branches of Israel.
Then, and not till then, could the science, the keys, the powers of
Theology, be restored to man.
No individual or combined human action could obtain or restore again
these keys--this science.
A mighty angel held the keys of this science for the last days. A
mighty angel was to restore the keys of the ancient Priesthood,
Apostleship, power and blessings. A voice from heaven was to reveal
the time, and send forth the cry--"_Come out of her my people, that ye
be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her
iniquities_."
All the darkness of the middle ages; all the priestcraft or kingcraft
of every age, since the slaughter of the Apostles; all the
oppressions, persecutions, or abuses of power; all the extravagancies
and idleness on the one hand, and all the sufferings and miseries of
the toiling millions for want of the comforts of life, on the other;
all the ignorance, superstitions, errors, divisions and contentions
which have transpired in the name of "_Christianity_" down to the
present time; have been the results of the decline, and loss of the
keys and powers, of the science of Theology, or for want of attention
to them when existing on the earth.
Nor will the "_Christian_" world ever attain to any considerable
degree of knowledge, power, or union in religious progress, until they
discover their loss of this science, become sensible of the need of
its restoration, and humble themselves as in the dust, and welcome a
messenger who comes in the name of the Lord, with a commission from
heaven, and with keys committed by the Angels of God--a new Apostolic
commission, a restoration of the Kingdom and Church, and power and
gifts of God; a new dispensation, universally proclaimed in all the
world, with power and signs following; and the whole consummated by
the glorious restoration of Israel and Judah to their own land and
nationality, and to the true fold of God; together with the second
advent of Messiah and all his Saints with him, to overthrow "Mystery
Babylon," and reign on the earth.
Such are the events, such is the remedy for the past and present
evils.