The Church, False and True, since Christ
By J. A. L. Derby
We turn to our libraries for a history of the Church; we find only histories of denominations. The history of the true Church has never been written by man. Its records are in heaven. Altho there have been times when God chose a certain people to preserve His truth, to represent His character, and to proclaim His salvation, yet there have been long periods when no such organization or people could be pointed to. The Israelitish nation was at one time the visible Church. Its mission definitely ended when Christ organized the Gospel Church. But where is the Church of Jesus Christ to-day? and where has it been during the ages since His ascension? If worldly prestige and power constitute the mark of the true Church, then probably the Roman Catholic Church comes nearest to it. If apostolic succession be the seal of genuineness, then we shall have to decide not so much whether the founders of the Greek and Anglican Churches were regularly ordained, as whether they had as good authority to anathematize and exclude from salvation the Latin Church as it had to excommunicate and exclude them. If we decide that their rights in this respect were equal, but that consisted in having no right at all to do anything of the sort, then whether the true Church is coextensive with any physical organization or not will not bother us. The question resolves itself practically into the simple one whether God can or will save a man not visibly connected with some society called a church. That He can do such a thing, perhaps no one will deny. Whether He will, we shall not be able so easily to get all to acknowledge, especially our friends of the Roman persuasion. But this point is easily determined by any one disposed to be reasonable. There is a general principle laid down by Paul, in 2 Cor. 8:12, which, tho there used as illustrated by our giving of our means to charity, yet covers the whole case. "For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not." This is true of all our service to God. We are saved, in the visible Church or out of it, by our faithfulness to the light we have. Tho men are responsible for what they might know of the plan of salvation but will not, still they are not responsible for what they have never had a chance to know. The thief on the cross became a member of the true Church. If a man honestly seeking the truth believes any denomination to be God's Church, he must unite with it. The person willing to live up to all the truth he can get, to accept in Jesus Christ the power to do this, is a Christian. This is the clew which helps us to trace the Church of Christ thru the ages. But we can know only its character; the individual names are found only in the book of life. There are, then, two churches—the nominal and the real. These have never been wholly coextensive; not all persons whose names have at any one time been on the roll of a church on earth have been inscribed in the books of heaven. Nor can man decide (this side of the great day when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed) whether any particular individual is of the true Israel of God or not. Must Depend upon Conviction.
But there is another sense in which we may use the term "the true Church." We may by it refer to the denomination, sect, or particular religious society, to which it can be shown God has especially committed the duty and privilege of being the preservers, bearers, and exponents of His truth. Unless it can be determined which one this is, by a person looking for the true Church, he can only unite with the one with which he has the greatest sympathy. He will find many denominations very much alike; if none of these seem truly to represent God's chosen people, he can with perfect safety to his soul endeavor to be the true Church himself. This was exactly what Luther did; this was what Wesley did; this, we believe, is what others have done and rightly. But we have the mournful records of those that have feared of displeasing God less by withdrawing from the visible church, and even opposing it, than by remaining in it. When this has been done by a people earnestly praying God for His guidance, and seeking His word for truth, our sympathy must be with them, however mistaken or crude in their opinions they may have been. On the other hand, whenever we find the ostensible church opening its doors for the influx of pride, worldliness, oppression, or cruelty, it must receive our reprehension, no matter on how many doctrinal points it may be orthodox. Now, if we turn to the prophecies concerning the true catholic Church, we shall be compelled with sorrow to admit that they disclose a people scattered and peeled, torn and persecuted, hated, abused, despised, unpopular, small in numbers—a "little flock," a "remnant." And the saddest aspect of it is that the nominal church, or churches, have done more to make bitter the lot of the elect than have all other instrumentalities combined. The Prophecies Concerning the Church.
How this was to come about, in part, was foretold by the apostle Paul. In his second letter to the Thessalonians he records a dire course which the "apostolic" church was to take. There he states that iniquity, by its mysterious working in the church, would bring about a fearful apostasy; not an open apostasy from the truth, but a subtle apostasy in the name of truth. "Only he who now letteth [restraineth, hindereth] will let [hinder], until he be taken out of the way." 2 Thess. 2:7. It was a tradition current in the early Church, and now we know concordant with prophecy and history, that objectively the restraining power was Paganism reenforced by the Roman Empire. When this should fall, they believed the antichrist would arise, in accordance with the further words of Paul in this chapter: "Except there come a falling away, . . . and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped." Verses 3, 4. This was to be in the nominal church, for "he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." Writes Cyprian in the third century: "We are now in the end and consummation of the world; the fatal time of antichrist is at hand." Tertullian likewise: "Who is he that letteth? Who but the Roman Empire? the breaking up and dispersion of which among ten kings shall bring on antichrist." To these we may add Lactantius, in the fourth century: "This, the predicted antichrist, shall come when the time of the Roman Empire shall be fulfilled." How this was accomplished, let the papal Allocation of 1866 answer: "By a singular arrangement of divine Providence, as we have said on a former occasion, it happened that the Roman Empire having fallen and being divided into many kingdoms and divers States, the Roman pontiff in the midst of such great variety of kingdoms, and in the actual state of human society, was invested with civil authority." How long this antichristian power, masking with the guise of the sanctuary, was to continue, is shown by the 8th verse: "Then shall that wicked [one] be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming"—the second advent of Jesus Christ. Thus we have an outline of the false church since Christ. The antichrist is not an individual, it is an institution; for it was to exist from the time of the fall of Rome till the return of the Son of Man. No person has lived that long. But how has this apostate church proved itself to be anti-Christ, against Christ? By openly repudiating Christian doctrine and principle?—Not at all. Listen: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me." It follows that not only what kindness we show to any, especially to those humbly seeking to be loyal to Jesus Christ, but what indignities we subject them to are reckoned by the Lover and Judge of men as done to Himself. What has antichrist been doing for ages?—Torturing men into being re-5ligious! Has he disclaimed religion?—Never. He is the greatest zealot for religion. He wants men to be religious. He is determined that men shall be religious. He will force them to be religious. Abomination unspeakable! But have people been so unwilling to be religious? Were the Waldenses, the Albigenses, the Hussites, the Wyclifites godless people? On the contrary, they were mostly sincerely pious. But they felt it necessary in the light God gave them from His word to protest against the horrible iniquities which the false church practised in the name of Christianity. Thus the once true Church became Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth. "And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies. . . . And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints." Thus we have the antithesis between the false church and the true. Any church that persecutes is to that extent a false church. And the contest is not over, as many ignorant of the Bible truth imagine. The last great conflict lies just before us. If ever there was a time when it was necessary for men to know where the true Church may be found, it is now. Not to know this will soon mean eternal loss. And we may know. God grant we shall.