“Then in the providence of God the Reformation arose.”
The Conflict of the Church Foretold
By A. R. Bell
The Contest Between Christ and Satan—The Twice Defeated Foe—Prophetic Supremacy of Rome—Persecutions of the Dark Ages—The Struggle Before the Remnant Church
By A. R. BELL.
This is the first of some nine articles by A. R. Bell on that interesting portion of the book of Revelation which speaks particularly of the religious despotism to come into renewed life and power away throughout the world just before the second coming of Christ. His article this week shows the struggle of the church as represented in the life work of Christ when He was here in person, and in the conflict through which she passed in stemming the tide of apostasy during the Dark Ages.
Next week will appear the first of three articles on the thirteenth chapter of Revelation. That article will deal particularly with the phase of the prophecy which has to do with the image to be formed to the papal beast. It will tell the nation that will take the lead in this work, and it will lay the foundation for the article the week following, which will tell how the Protestant power is organizing to support and aid the papacy in its persecuting and despotic work.
EDITOR.
The great crisis of a woman’s life, the most critical in her experience, is brought to our attention in Rev. 12:1-5 as a figure by which we may understand the travail of the church in the dark trial through which she was passing; and then her joy that a Man, the One upon whom her every hope was centered, “was born into the world.”
The expectation of the centuries was realized. To the church a Child was born, to the woman a Son was given. The Christ of God was manifested in the flesh for the purpose of unmasking the devices and plans of Satan and of unfolding the love of God to men.
INSPIRED TO DESTROY HIM
The machinery of hell was put into operation. The power through which Satan was working in the earth was inspired to raise its hand to destroy the Son of man as soon as He should be born. But He “who was to rule all nations” was not brought forth for destruction; and though Satan finally succeeded in accomplishing His death through the priests and the Roman power, yet neither death nor the grave could hold Him. Christ came forth from the grave in triumph, and “was caught up unto God, and to His throne.”
The host of heaven broke forth with gladness of heart in the cry, “Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.” Verse 10.
Christ met Satan as a man, in all the frailty and weakness known to sinful human flesh; and by the grace of God, through faith, and the coöperation of heaven (see Heb. 1:14 and Luke 22:42, 43), which is open to every son and daughter of Adam, He prevailed against the great adversary.
A TWICE DEFEATED FOE
It is encouraging to know, in our conflict with this same adversary, that we are fighting a twice defeated foe. God overthrew him in the heavenly courts, and cast him out; and Christ, in our flesh, overthrew him in the earth. He came and dwelt in our sinful human flesh, and overcame sin and Satan, that by His indwelling in our sinful human flesh, we might overcome sin and Satan.
Failing in his efforts to destroy the Son of God, Satan now seeks the total destruction of His followers, the church. In Rev. 12:6, 14, she is represented as fleeing from the persecution of the evil one.
SATAN’S CHANNEL OF OPERATIONS
It is ever through the human agent Satan operates. Following the ascension of Christ, came great persecution to the church. The instruments of Satan, apostate Judaism and paganism, sought to stamp out the followers of Jesus; but it was a hopeless task. Failing also in this by persecution, he turned the world into the church. He seduced the woman into changing her robe of white for the scarlet and the purple.
Christianity was making its impress upon the world. The church at Rome, which in Paul’s day was preeminent in faith (see Rom. 1:8), became the special object of Satan’s effort. He seduced her into leaning upon the arm of flesh, and her heart departed from the Lord. She lost the favor and power of the living God, and courted the favor and power of the state. She lorded it over all her sister churches throughout the world. She mounted the throne of the Cæsars; and through her illicit relationship with the state, her bishop became “the head of all the churches,” and “the corrector of heretics.” The church that had been preeminent in faith, became preeminent in apostasy; and a dark night of woe settled down upon the world.
MARKED THE PROPHETIC SUPREMACY OF ROME
History and prophecy mark the year A. D. 538 as the time when the Church of Rome began to rule supreme. The conquest of Rome by Justinian’s forces under the leadership of Belisarius was practically the winding up of the history of the ancient city, and the beginning of the Middle Ages. See “Greece Under the Romans,” George Finley, London, 1844, page 295.
In the year A. D. 538, Vigilius was seated in papal supremacy under the military protection of Belisarius. See “History of the Christian Church,” Schaff, volume 3, page 327.
Another historian writes, “If the papacy were blotted out from the world’s chronicle, the Middle Ages would vanish with it.”—“The Papal Monarchy,” Dr. Barry, page 4.
THE MIDDLE AGES BEGAN
Grouping these statements together, we see that with the overthrow of ancient Rome, A. D. 538, the history of the Middle Ages began. If there were no papacy, there would be no Middle Ages. The papacy was seated in world supremacy on the throne of Rome in 538, by Belisarius, the satellite of the emperor Justinian.
The year A. D. 538 therefore surely marks the time when the Church of Rome, in her apostasy an instrument in the hands of Satan for the accomplishment of his purposes, connects with the prophecy in verses 6 and 14.728
The twelve hundred sixty prophetic days, or literal years, bring us down through the centuries from A. D. 538 to A. D. 1798. For twelve hundred sixty years, the papacy practically ruled the world. We shall not dwell upon the fearful experiences of the Dark Ages. Suffice it to say that Jesus, when He was on earth, speaking of that “great tribulation,” said, “Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved.” Matt. 24:21, 22.
THE CHURCH BECOMES A PERSECUTOR
Standing before the world as the true church of Christ, yet proving false to every principle dear to the heart of Christ, the papacy is an object lesson of the possibilities of sin in the human heart. Satan could not destroy the Christ of God, but he lays hold upon the dearest thing on earth to Christ, His church, and by his superhuman craft and cunning, leads it to deny the God whom it professes to serve, and to persecute and torture, even to the death, any one who will not recognize its arrogant claims.
With prophetic eye, the apostle Paul looked beyond his time when he declared: “After my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” Acts 20:29, 30.
The story of all apostasy from Christ is revealed in that utterance. When the church turned from leading souls to Christ, and followed after men, it turned from its God-appointed work; and in that turning, it surrendered every right and title to its place as God’s agent in the world for the saving of men. The sad story reveals the professed church going deeper and deeper into apostasy, and away from God, until the prophecy of 2 Thess. 2:1-4 reaches fulfillment, and the “man of sin,” “the son of perdition,” is developed, who is a living contradiction of every characteristic of the Christ whom he professes to represent.
GOD’S POWER BROKE THE PERSECUTIONS
But God watches over His own. We read, “The earth helped the woman.” Rev. 12:16. Though persecution “as a flood” (verse 15) swept almost every faithful soul off the earth, God patiently waits. Every avenue to God’s great grace must remain open until man himself shall close it. Until Rome had “judged herself unworthy” to the very last detail, God bore with her. Then, in the providence of God, the Reformation arose, the power of the great apostasy was broken, relief came to the honest in heart, and persecution for conscience’ sake was stayed.
Finally the year 1798 was reached—the end of the twelve hundred sixty days—and Rome’s power over the nations ceased. When the clock of God struck the hour reached in the prophecy, Rome fell by the bayonets of France, and her temporal power vanished with her overthrow.
A SPECIAL WAR FROM SATAN
In verse 17, however, we find that Satan has not given up the fight. He is still angry with “the woman.” In this verse, we have reached the time of the end—the time when God’s last people, His remnant, are seen. With this “remnant” Satan makes war.
From the reading of the text, the remnant are seen to be the special objects of his malice. And why? Ah, the lives of that people are the answer. In spite of the fact “that in the last days . . . evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived,” and the professed people of God are marked as again “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof” (2 Tim. 3:1-13), and that in the time of the end, “iniquity shall be multiplied” (Matt. 24:12), a remnant will be saved who will render to God a loyal, loving service of obedience. They have learned that the gospel “is the power of God unto salvation” from sin (Rom. 1:16; Matt. 1:21), and that sin, of whatever sort, is the transgression of God’s holy law (1 John 3:4). They have learned that the call of faith is to the keeping of God’s commandments (Rev. 14:12), and that the call of God to eternal life is by the pathway of obedience (Rom. 16:25, 26); and according to Rev. 12:17, they are found obedient to every divine requirement.
WHAT THEIR OBEDIENCE INVOLVES
This being true, their obedience must include the acknowledgment of the fourth commandment Sabbath—the seventh day—and the keeping of it as the practice of their lives.
And we read that they “have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” This, we are told in Rev. 19:10, “is the spirit of prophecy.”
From 1 Cor. 1:5-8, we learn that God’s people who are “waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” shall “come behind in no gift.” All the gifts of the Spirit of God are to be manifested in God’s remnant church. Among these gifts is prophecy (see 1 Cor. 12:8-10; Eph. 4:11); and 1 Cor. 1:6, 7 shows that “the testimony of Christ,” “the spirit of prophecy,” is confirmed in God’s remnant people so that they “come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
In other words, the spirit of prophecy given is God’s pledge to His commandment-keeping remnant church that every other gift of the Holy Spirit will be theirs before the coming of Him for whom they are waiting.
THE TEST OF COMMANDMENT KEEPING
Thus Sabbath keeping (for that is practically the test of commandment keeping) and the spirit of prophecy become God’s own distinguishing marks of His remnant church.
In the days long past, when Israel listened to God’s prophets, they prospered. 2 Chron. 20:20. So to-day, under the same counsel, God’s work is going forward by leaps and bounds over the whole wide harvest field; and men and women are found in every land and clime, who are turning, in spite of every opposition and persecution, in full obedience, and with absolute surrender to God.
SATAN WILL SUFFER ANOTHER DEFEAT
This is why Satan, the dragon, is “wroth.” This is why he makes war. But as surely as God lives and His word is true, Satan will suffer another defeat. In spite of all his efforts, notwithstanding all his malice and infernal hate manifested in a last supreme attempt to destroy utterly the worship of God and the church of God, he will miserably fail. A faithful remnant will spoil his plans. He will not be able to turn the whole human race to sin and apostasy. A remnant church will stand against every device of the enemy of all righteousness, and will demonstrate in their lives the power of God to save, and His power to keep.
