Now the rise out of apostasy was expressed by a series of
reformations, not by gradual ascent corresponding to the decline.
The "mystery of iniquity," which crystallized in the blasphemous
"man of sin," had already begun to _work_ in Paul's day, and the
drift into spiritual darkness on the part of the professing church
was without specific opposition. But, on the other hand, to break
away from conditions apostate always means war with infernal powers.
The wrong is endured until a rising sentiment of protest breaks out
with stern denunciation. God raises up instruments for this purpose.
John Wyclif, in the fourteenth century, denounced the errors of the
so-called church and the conduct of the monks and also had sufficient
light to see the papacy as the "man of sin" foretold by the apostle
Paul. His reform efforts, however, centered mostly in the translation
of the Bible into English, which work, in spite of the attempt by
Rome to destroy it, God graciously caused to be preserved.
John Huss, a little later, took Wyclif's attitude against the
corruptions of the church and was burned at the stake as a heretic.
His martyrdom furnished the occasion for him to utter this
prophecy: "You are now going to burn a goose [Huss meaning goose
in the Bohemian language], but in one hundred years there will
arise a swan whom you can neither roast nor boil." True to this
prophecy, in one hundred years came the intrepid Luther, under whose
leadership history records the great reformation of the sixteenth
century. Church and state were at this time united, which gave this
reformation a political prominence, as it resulted in the change to
Protestantism of two strong nations, Germany and England. What the
sixteenth century reformation accomplished spiritually was, among
other things, the bringing to light of the Scriptural doctrine of
justification by faith in Christ instead of by priestly absolution.
It could not have been expected that all the Scriptural truths and
principles should at any time or by any one reformer be recovered
from the rubbish under which they had been buried for a thousand
years. There have been numerous reforms, bringing out various truths
that had been obscured by the apostasy. Thus Truth in her progress
upward to the Scriptural level, has arisen only by successive steps,
God having to use human instrumentalities that were limited by
the prevailing tendencies and beliefs of the times. Each reformer
naturally dealt with conditions that were most conspicuous from
his view-point and was exercised in questions of truth that
applied only to such conditions. His reform work was not final in
character, inasmuch as it left some errors still uncorrected. Hence
the progress upward was by a succession of reforms, each, as a
general thing, springing from a higher level of truth and spiritual
attainment than those preceding. With the great decline into apostasy
now in the past, the church of God was disposed to rise out of
confusion, her destiny being the attainment of her original standing,
when it could be said that her sun should "no more go down."