Have Changed Their Minds by C. A. Hansen

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 6, 1913

Have Changed Their Minds

By C. A. Hansen

C. A. HANSEN

It is an astonishing fact that the Protestant churches, which have contended with one another so earnestly for many years in order to maintain their peculiar views, have now suddenly and without any apparent reason changed their minds, turned about, and to a large degree cast away their differences in order to unite; and not only so, but have also paved the way for union with the Roman Church. Such a movement could not have been foreseen by the most optimistic of men, and yet it was definitely foretold by the seer of Patmos nearly twenty centuries ago. This is a further illustration of the fact that when God has spoken, there is nothing to do but to get ready for the fulfilment.

Simultaneous with this peculiar development the federation of churches purposes to unite religion and the state by the passing of religious laws, which fulfils that prophecy relating to the making of “an image to the beast.” Rev. 13: 14. That word beast designates that principle, or power, which stood for the union of church and state in the days of Rome, and which resulted in the establishment of the Roman Catholic Church. One of the points on which that union was effected was the making and enforcing of Sunday laws, and we hear that one of the strong hopes of the newly formed federation is the securing of a strict Sunday law. We then begin to discern in this movement the rise of the “image.”

A new doctrine has come with all this, that “it makes no difference what a man believes.” How strange that sounds to a Bible student or to a reader of church history! Jesus Christ himself could not have belonged to that organization, for he said, “In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Martin Luther could never have started a reformation, nor could any new sect ever have arisen.

Satan’s Aim in This

Now the main aim of the great deceiver in spreading this soul-destroying theory is to make it unpopular to preach the present truth. Even now in many communities when the servant of God preaches the message that God bids him speak, we hear this cry: “We don’t believe in running on other churches.” But God himself makes the declaration that “Babylon is fallen.” It can not be wrong, then, for the servant of God to warn Babylon of its fallen condition and the necessity of repentance. And Jesus did not err when he told the Pharisees their true condition, that, knowing it, they might turn from their course and be saved. The world was then and is now full of churchianity without Christianity—the shadow without the substance.

And John Wondered

When John saw the workings of the beast, he wondered with great admiration (Rev. 17: 6, 7), and indeed we all wonder at the strange way that all these things are brought about; but we know with all assurance that in a short time the prophecy concerning the beast and his image will be fulfilled, and we shall see that power manifesting its character and carrying on its work as only God could have described it, “with all deceivableness of unrighteousness.”

Now is the time for the honest in heart to come out of Babylon, to believe and practise and teach the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. While it will mean trial and tribulation, it will mean everlasting triumph when the saints possess the kingdom.

Nashville, Tenn.