A Lesson from History

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 6, 1902

A Lesson from History

THE principles which were the foundation of the Reformation of the sixteenth century were genuine gospel principles. Truths which had either been obscured or wholly lost sight of during that time of darkness when the Word of God, the light of the world, had been shut away from the people, were reaffirmed with great power, and an effort was made to call the people back again to a genuine Christianity. In this effort the authority of God was recognized instead of that of man, the Word of God was accepted in place of the traditions of men, and spiritual power was depended upon in the propagation of the gospel instead of looking to civil power. In describing these events and what came of them, the historian, D’Aubigné, says:—

The Reformation was accomplished in the name of a spiritual principle. It had proclaimed for its teacher the Word of God; for salvation, faith; for king, Jesus Christ; for arms, the Holy Ghost; and had by these very means rejected all worldly elements. Rome had been established by the law of a carnal commandment; the Reformation, by the power of an endless life.

If there is any doctrine that distinguishes Christianity from every other religion, it is its spirituality. A heavenly life brought down to man—such is its work; thus the opposition of the spirit of the gospel to the spirit of the world, was the great fact which signalized the entrance of Christianity among the nations. But what its Founder had separated, had soon come together again; the church had fallen into the arms of the world; and by this criminal union, it had been reduced to the deplorable condition in which we find it at the era of the Reformation.

Thus one of the greatest tasks of the sixteenth century was to restore the spiritual element to its rights. The gospel of the Reformers had nothing to do with the world and with politics. While the Roman hierarchy had become a matter of diplomacy and a court intrigue, the Reformation was destined to exercise no other influence over princes and people than that which proceeds from the gospel of peace.

If the Reformation, having attained a certain point, became untrue to its nature, began to parley and temporize with the world, and ceased thus to follow up the spiritual principle that it had so loudly proclaimed, it was faithless to God and to itself.

Henceforward its decline was at hand. It is impossible for a society to prosper if it be unfaithful to the principles it lays down. Having abandoned what constituted its life, it can find naught but death.

It was God’s will that this great truth should be inscribed on the very threshold of the temple he was then raising in the world; and a striking contrast was to make this truth stand gloriously prominent.

One portion of the reform was to seek the alliance of the world, and in this alliance find a destruction full of desolation.

Another portion, looking up to God, was haughtily to reject the arm of flesh, and by this very act of faith secure a noble victory.

If three centuries have gone astray, it is because they were unable to comprehend so holy and so solemn a lesson. —“History of the Reformation,” Vol. IV, pages 103, 104.

Three centuries have gone astray. The descendants of the Reformers, while holding to the names and forms of Protestantism, have really repudiated the principles of the Reformation, and themselves need to be reformed. The work to be done now in preparing the way of the Lord is to re-establish the principles of the Reformation, and carry them to their full development. And in doing this work we ourselves need to guard against making the same mistake which was made before. The successors of Luther began to accept what Luther taught as final authority, rather than follow his method of dealing directly with the Word of God, and consequently they became Lutherans. The same tendency has characterized the other movements for reform under Wesley and other religious leaders. As a result the vital power of these reformation movements was soon lost, and they have crystallized into so many denominations, struggling merely to maintain a denominational existence.

Let us learn the lesson of history. We are not to inquire after the teaching of the fathers, as though that were final authority. “To the law and to the testimony.” We honor the fathers for their faithful work, and whatever of their teaching was in harmony with the Scripture will stand, not because they taught it, but because it is the truth, and “the truth of the Lord endureth forever.” Let the sons of the fathers follow the principles of the fathers, and we shall soon experience more of the power which was manifested in the teaching of the fathers.