The Principle of Catholicism by William Warren Prescott

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 26, 1911

The Principle of Catholicism

By William Warren Prescott

The difference between Christianity and heathenism in its many and varied forms may be expressed thus: Christianity is that system of religion which is Christ revealed—in which Christ is the first, the last, the all and in all; heathenism, in whatever form it may be manifested, is a system of religion in which something else, it matters not what, is substituted for Christ.

In the grosser heathen religions a material object, or a large number of such objects, takes the place of the living Saviour, and receives the homage due to the Creator alone; but a more refined heathenism appeals to the civilized and educated peoples by dispensing with a visible image, which is simply the concrete form of the mental image, and putting in the place of the true Christ their ideal Christ, a mere mental image, and their own works and inventions in place of the works and gifts of Christ. This phase of heathenism is most deceptive, and a great multitude are taken in this snare who would be horrified at the thought of embracing what might be designated as heathenish heathenism.

Whatever is thus substituted for Christ is an idol, whether it be a visible image or a mere mental image, and Christianity is superseded by idolatry when the faith for salvation rests upon something else than Christ and his work for man. In ancient times when the people of God lost their fellowship with the God of

heaven and their sense of his personal presence, they lapsed into gross idolatry; but in modern times the same experience of apostasy and consequent idolatry may be revealed in putting human interpretation or tradition in the place of the Word of God, human ordinances in place of the divine commands, and the supposed efficacy of human rites and ceremonies in place of the atoning work of Christ.

In no modern system has idolatry been reduced to such a perfect science as in the Roman Catholic Church. There we have both the visible image as an object of worship and the most complete and perfect development of human inventions to take the place of the divinely revealed means of salvation from sin. So plain had all this become in the sixteenth century that there came a great uprising against this perversion of the gospel of Christ, and it is important to understand what was the real principle at stake. This has been well stated in these words:—

The protest of the Reformers was directed, not only against the worship of the Virgin and saints, but against the priestly assumptions of the clergy and the principle of sacramental efficacy, and it was the protest against the latter which evoked the chief fury of their persecutors. Their protest, in short, was against the principle of Catholicism, which is idolatry, or the substitution of material and created things for Christ. For whether it is the mediation of the Virgin and saints, or a trust in the guidance of the priesthood and in the spiritual efficacy of the sacraments administered by them, or a belief in the virtue of holy water, holy oil, images, crucifixes, relics, and other material symbols and ritual acts, they all combine to take the place of Christ to the sinner, and keep him from going to Christ for life.

Note that remarkable and striking expression, “the principle of Catholicism, which is idolatry.” This is a serious charge, but it is justifiable; and the more one studies into the essence of Catholicism, the more fully convinced he will become of this. In this “mystery of iniquity” the names and some of the forms of Christianity have been retained, but the vital principle of Christianity has been discarded; the vessels of the house of the Lord have been used from which to drink the wine of Babylon.

But when professed Protestants regard the Word of God as of no more power or authority than the word of man; when they rob Christ of the attributes of Deity, and see in him nothing more than a perfect man; when the results of scientific research are accepted for the foundation of religious belief; and when the development of the good within a man is set forth as the way of salvation,—when the creature is thus put in place of the Creator, and the truth of God is exchanged for a lie, then Protestants have accepted “the principle of Catholicism, which is idolatry.”

The threefold message of Revelation 14 is a message against the principle of Catholicism, wherever and whenever it is revealed, and is therefore a continuance of the protest made by the Reformers against idolatry. Those who profess to believe this message, and those who are commissioned to proclaim it to the world, should remember that if they substitute something else in place of Christ as the basis of their hope of salvation, they have adopted the principle of Catholicism, and have lost the power to make any effective protest against the worship of the beast and his image. Righteousness by faith is the vital principle of the threefold message for this generation, and is the divine protest against “the principle of Catholicism, which is idolatry.” W. W. P.