THE GREAT APOSTASY

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 16, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 49.

THE GREAT APOSTASY

of the last days, foretold in the Scriptures, and the warning and counsel which God gives to his people in regard to it.

Two great apostasies from the faith are predicted in the word of God. The first one is described in Dan. 7:8, 11, 20-27; 2 Thess. 2:1-8; Rev. 13:1-10; 17:1-6, and is fulfilled in the history of the Church of Rome, as all Protestants agree. The great reformation of the sixteenth century restored the Bible to its place as the rule of faith and practice, and gave to God's people a respite from persecution, and great light shone upon them from the word of God, which in a large degree restored the primitive gospel, and gave rise to the era of Protestantism which has been an eventful one in the history of the world as well as the church.

It may aid us in our study of this subject if we briefly review the steps in the development of the great Romish apostasy. The spirit of the world, love for honor, wealth, position, pleasure, power, and popularity, gradually drove out the Spirit of Christ, and the meekness, humility, and self-denial taught in his gospel. As the church thus forsook her Lord, he withdrew himself from her, and, having lost the Saviour and the power of God which is vested in him, and so left without any power to control or influence the people, the bishops and the clergy sought and secured the power of the State to do this, and thus, by an unholy alliance with the State, that church became Babylon the great, the mother of harlots, and she made herself drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. Rev. 17:1-6. Her history is before us, and there is a lesson to be learned from it.

The Protestantism of to-day is pursuing the same course, she is traveling the same road, and as her history is plainly and clearly foretold in the Scriptures, we know she will do the same work, and share the same fate. She fulfills the last great apostasy, which just precedes the second coming of the Lord in glory. Let us briefly examine some of the prophecies which describe her condition, her work, and her end.

In Isaiah 2 and Micah 4, which is a parallel prophecy, we have the church represented as rich, proud, and popular, prophesying smooth things, no more war, peace and safety, and declaring that the Lord has spoken these things, although the Lord says that the people will say these things in the last days, just before his wrath is visited upon the ungodly. Her position in wealth, popularity, and worldly honor, is set forth in Isa. 2:2, 6-8 and Micah 4:1. Her "peace and safety" cry is found in Isa. 2:3-5 and Micah 4:2-5. Her statement that the Lord says these things is found in Micah 4:4, whereas what the Lord does say is found in Isa. 2:2, 6-22 and Micah 4:6, 7. See also Joel 3:9-16.

Are not the professed Protestant churches of to-day preaching these things, and using these very Scriptures to prove a temporal millennium, a reign of peace and righteousness, and the conversion of the world? Most assuredly they are, and they declare these things will surely come to pass, "for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Micah 4:4. And this is precisely what the Lord said that people would say who in their pride, their wealth, and their popularity exalt themselves above the hills, and establish themselves in the tops of the mountains. Isa. 2:2.

The Saviour in his great prophecy declares that just before he comes again