History Repeated | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 10, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 49.

History Repeated.

These same experiences were repeated in the great Reformation of the sixteenth century. The church had departed from the plain teaching of the Scripture and had placed the authority of man and the traditions of the church above the clearest statements of the word of God. The sole and infallible authority of the word of God was the primary and fundamental principle of the Reformation. Said the Reformers: "The Christians receive no other doctrines than those founded on the express words of Jesus Christ, of the apostles, and of the prophets. No man, no assembly of doctors, has any right to prescribe new ones." "This combat between the Augustine of Wittemberg (Luther) and the Dominican of Rome (Prierio) was waged on the very question that is the principle of the Reformation, namely: 'What is the sole infallible authority for Christians?'" Here is the system of the church as set forth by its most independent organs:—

The letter of the written word is dead without the spirit of interpretation, which alone reveals its hidden meaning. Now, this spirit is not given to every Christian, but to the Church—that is, to the priests. . . . We must therefore understand the sense of the Holy Scriptures as settled by the Church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. . . . In order that we may comprehend the word, the Spirit of God must give understanding, said the Church; and it was right so far. But its error had been in considering the Holy Spirit as a monopoly accorded to a certain class, and supposing that it could be confined exclusively within assemblies or colleges, in a city or in a conclave.

When Luther at the Diet of Worms was asked to retract all that he had written contrary to the traditions and the creed of the church, he appealed to the authority of the Bible, and said:—

For this reason, most serene emperor, and you, most illustrious princes, and all men of every degree, I conjure you by the mercy of God, to prove from the writings of the prophets and apostles that I have erred. As soon as I am convinced of this, I will retract every error, and be the first to lay down my books and throw them into the fire.