Catholicism and the Weakness of Protestantism

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 6, 1906

Catholicism and the Weakness of Protestantism

THE weakness of an apostate Protestantism is being recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, and its failure to fulfil its mission is being charged up to a refusal to accept the authority of the self-constituted interpreter of the Scriptures — the papacy. Thus The Catholic Mirror says:—

The breaking up of dogmatic religion outside the Catholic Church has been more rapid, possibly, of late years, but the seed was sown in the sixteenth century when the acceptance of an ultimate teaching authority was refused. Since then Protestantism has gone from bad to worse until at the present time the most dictatorial of its sects dares not, for fear of internal dissensions, condemn or ex-communicate its heterodox ministers. . . . The Protestantism of to-day has not cohesive power enough to retain its own members, let alone vitality and growth, and hence its members turn to political economy and sociology only to be disappointed, for however excellent these are, they are no substitute for religion. The religious struggle of the future will not be between Catholicism and Protestantism, as in the past, but between Catholicism and irreligion.

In this weakness of Protestantism, due to the departure from its own principles, Roman Catholicism will find its opportunity to reassert itself. There is, however, a message against both the beast and his image which will have the seal of divine power, and which will bring deliverance to those who accept it. Let the light and the power of this message be revealed.