Birth of a Reformation; Or, The Life and Labors of Daniel S. Warner

by A. L. Byers

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."

HUMAN RULE INSTEAD OF DIVINE

The apostasy of the church, as one writer has expressed it, came by "ecclesiastical ambition and degeneracy." The human element got in the way where there should have been only the divine. There is necessarily the human element in the work of God, for Christian work is God and man working together; but in the true relation man is God's instrumentality and is altogether in subjection to the divine Head, who rules over all. When the human element supplants, gets in the way of, or acts in the place of, the divine, we have a fundamental error that always results in apostasy. This human ecclesiasticism, always more or less intolerant, reached its autocratic perfection in the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church and constituted the "man of sin" who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God "sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God" (2 Thess. 2:3,4).

The spirit of human government in church affairs has shown itself in, or has followed in the wake of, every reform movement of the past. The Spirit of God worked in the movement to accomplish good, but was always checked by this baleful element. Luther meant well but was himself dogmatic and intolerant. He held to many doctrines of Catholicism whose wrongs he could not see. He did not make proper allowance that others besides himself might be right, or at least have some truth. Neither did he or his associates or followers leave the way open for God to lead into more truth, much less the whole truth. Thus the reformation of the sixteenth century, while it recovered from the debris of apostasy the doctrine of justification by faith, became the occasion for Protestant sects, human-ruled institutions, and these were succeeded by other sects. Some of these have been as intolerant, inflexible, and as unlike primitive Christianity as the Roman Catholic Church itself.

Church government, as humanized in the sects, has taken forms other than the hierarchic. We have the episcopal, or rule by bishops; the presbyterian, or rule by presbyters; the congregational, or rule by the local brotherhood. Our object here is, not to discuss which of these forms most nearly resembles or is most different from the Scriptural, but merely to show that man rule has manifested itself in various ways.

CHARACTERISTICS OF TRUE CHURCH

The true church of God, comprising all Christians, has in her normal state under her divine head certain essential characteristics which make her exclusively the church, the whole and not a part. These might be expressed as follows:

1. Possession of divine spiritual life. If the church does not possess this she is not Christ's body and therefore not the church. She must know the Spirit of God.