Which is the True Apostolic Church.
By R. F. Cottrell
A CANDID, intelligent and polite young man, with whom I have the pleasure of an acquaintance, educated in the Roman Catholic Church, in a private letter asks me to tell him "which is the true Apostolic Church." As others, besides my inquiring young friend, may be interested in this inquiry, I make my reply thus public. Dear Friend: I cheerfully comply with your request, and will endeavor to aid you in your inquiries after truth. Religion consists of faith and practice; and when you find a Church whose faith and practice are in perfect harmony with the apostles, you will have found the true apostolic Church. If no such can be found, then there is no Church that does not need reforming; and the true Church will be aiming at reformation and striving to come up to the apostolic standard. I know what text of scripture will here come into your mind. It is the chief text of Roman Catholicism; and you will emphatically ask, Have then the gates of hell prevailed against the Church? I answer, No! God has had a "little flock" through the darkest ages of this dispensation. While apostasy has been the rule, pure Christianity has been the exception. I have read the book you lent me, written by F. X. Weninger, dedicated to the "American People," and published in 1862. I will notice his chief argument in favor of the Roman Church. It is most fully expressed on p. 122, as follows: "The Catholic Church, being the first Church, is the true Church, or else there is no Divine Christian Church." The Lord had a Church in the former or Jewish dispensation; and I have no idea that the gates of hell ever prevailed against it, more than against the Church in the Christian dispensation. Yet there were times of great apostasy. At one time Israel had so far left the worship of the true God and given themselves up to the worship of Baal, that Elijah the prophet thought he was left entirely alone as a servant of the true God—that the gates of hell had prevailed against the true Church in Israel. 1 Kings xix. But the Lord informed him that though apostasy was general and visible, claiming to be the true Church, yet there was a true Church, though hidden to the prophet—there were seven thousand in Israel who had not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Rom. xi, 4. I will only add here, that it is possible that a similar apostasy may have taken place in the gospel dispensation, and that during its prevalence the true Church, though not destroyed was in obscurity—"in the wilderness"—a hidden Church. The Scripture proof that this has actually been the case, I will present in another place. The visible Jewish Church, with its visible head, the high priest, was in a state of apostasy when Christ appeared on earth. But God had a hidden Church, at that time, and it was developed by the preaching of the gospel. Paul speaks of the Jewish Church, notwithstanding its visibility and its high profession as the only true Church, and compares their state to the great apostasy in Elijah's time, to which I have referred, and after speaking of the hidden Church of seven thousand that had not bowed the knee to Baal, draws this conclusion: "Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace." Rom. xi, 5. This remnant of the Jewish Church was the true Church at that time. I will prove bye and bye, that at the second advent there will be a remnant saved from apostasy, developed and united by a special message from Heaven. But let us go back to the days of John the Baptist, and imagine a Jew coming to him and claiming baptism without repentance, on the ground that he already belongs to the only true Church, and using the argument of Roman Catholics to prove it. We hear him say, The Abrahamic Church is the first Church, and "The first Church is the true Church, or there is no Church."—Weninger, p. 119. But listen to the reply of the man of God: "Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance, and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father; for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the tree; therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire." Thus we see, the Baptist did not accept of this kind of logic, but showed that each will be judged by their fruits, that is, their moral character. We are now prepared to examine another quotation from your book. "If all the calumnies ever invented against popes, bishops and priests were true, you could not draw from them a shadow of conclusion against the Church. If every pope, bishop and priest had been a Judas, a Caiaphas, a Pilate, a Herod, and an incarnate demon, all in one, not one of them, nor all of them together, could have vitiated the Church, for Christ has instituted her not for them alone, but for all men and for the salvation of men in all ages." p. 112. Now just think of a Church with its supreme head and all its bishops and priests wholly devoted to the service of the Devil, and at the same time this Church Christ's institution for the salvation of men! What idea could be more blasphemous? There can be no doubt that many calumnies have been circulated against Catholic popes, bishops and priests; but our author would never have used this argument, were it not a historical fact that some of those popes, bishops and priests have been among the most profligate and abandoned characters—the vilest of the vile. Only think! the Church of Christ his spiritual body—with a corrupt, a putrid head! The idea is not only absurd, but blasphemous. And this is the argument used in the nineteenth century to prove that the Roman Church is the only true apostolic Church! If the Lord could inspire the pope with infallibility in matters of faith, could he not inspire him to be a decent man? Can you believe that Christ ever chose a man to be his representative on earth, whose whole course of life was so outrageously criminal as to render him a disgrace to degraded humanity? And such were some of the popes, I do not say all, for there are honorable exceptions. "Ye shall know them by their fruits." The Roman Church claims to be the Catholic, that is, the universal Church. But how happens it that the universal Church, born, as our author says, at Jerusalem, is a Roman Catholic Church? Does not the term Roman deny its universality and show it to be a sect or faction springing up at Rome, far from the place where the original Church was born? Did the apostles call the Church Roman Catholic? As we are inquiring after the true apostolic Church it may be well to ask the apostles, who had the spirit of prophecy, what was to be the history of the Church. The gates of hell were not to prevail against her—the Church was not to be destroyed—there were to be genuine Christians, true witnesses for God, all the way down to the end. But would the Church maintain her integrity and visible unity?—would she remain united and pure?—or was she to be torn by faction, and her course to be marked by apostasy? We shall see. Says Paul to the elders of the Church at Ephesus, "I know this, that 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 xx, 29, 30. The early history of the Church attests the truth of this prediction. Ambitious elders or bishops were soon vieing with each other for power and control, and striving which should draw the most disciples after them. And when we come down to A. D. 533, we find a Roman Emperor, Justinian, addressing a letter to "John, the Most Holy Archbishop of our city of Rome," in which he says, "We hasten to subject, and to unite to your holiness, all the priests of the whole East. . . . For in all things (as had been said98or resolved) we are prompt to increase the honor and authority of your see." I have emphasized the words in this quotation to which I wish to call your especial attention. Here is evidence that the bishop of Rome was the leader of a sect, faction, or division of nominal Christianity, and that from the Emperor's partiality for the ancient seat of the empire, which he calls "our city," he aids the bishop by his civil power to accomplish that increase of honor and authority which hitherto had not been enjoyed by the bishop. Surely the Roman Church was not the catholic, or universal church, till the emperor made her such by subjecting and uniting to her bishops "all the priests of the whole East." Your attention is now called to another passage, in which the same apostle predicts the great apostasy which was to take place in the Church. Speaking of the day of Christ's second coming he says, "Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, 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 worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work; only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming." 2 Thess. ii, 3, 4, 7, 8. Here we have foretold a great apostasy or falling away from true Christianity which would result in the establishment of what he calls the man of sin, a blasphemous power which would usurp the place of God, sitting in His temple, claiming supreme control of the Church, and, we may easily infer, infallibility; in short, setting itself above God's law and claiming to make laws and "command men under sin." And this development was to take place early in the Christian dispensation—the mystery of iniquity, or secret wickedness was already at work in the apostles' days—the seeds of apostasy were already germinating in the Church which would ripen, as soon as permitted, into the bitter fruit of apostasy and usurpation. Now, dear friend, what movement, connected with the history of the Church, has fulfilled this prediction of the inspired apostle? You ought to settle this question. To say it has had no fulfillment, is to set at nought the inspired word. Paul's familiar reference to this wicked power, as "that man of sin," shows that it is something before described in prophecy. By turning to Dan. vii, we find a description of a ruling power so similar that it cannot but apply to the same power. The apostles' argument to the Thessalonians seems to be this: All the prophecies must have their fulfillment; therefore the day of the Lord will not come, till the prophecy of Daniel concerning that blasphemous and persecuting power is fulfilled. If you will carefully compare this language of Paul with the description of the "little horn" of Dan. vii, and that of the beast of Rev. xiii, 1-10, you will be convinced that the three prophecies describe one and the same power. The four beasts of Daniel, we are plainly told, represent four great kingdoms or empires, which would successively bear rule on earth. These can refer to no other than the successive dominions of Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome; for these have exactly fulfilled the prophecies' description, and no others have or can. The ten horns upon the fourth beast represent ten kingdoms into which the fourth was to be divided. This was fulfilled by the breaking up of the old Roman empire into ten parts, between the years 356 and 483. Then comes the little horn, diverse or different from the ten, and before whom three fell, or were plucked up. The Papacy arose by the aid of Justinian, as we have seen, and the third of the three kingdoms that fell, the Ostrogoths, was subdued in A. D. 538; three years after the Emperor had decreed that the bishop of Rome should be the pope or father of all the churches. The distinguishing characteristics of this power are the following: "He shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time." This prophecy must have its fulfillment in some ruling power on earth, and I claim that the Papacy, and no other power that ever existed, has fulfilled every specification given. 1. His great words or blasphemies against the name of the Most High, (compare Rev. xiii,) are strikingly fulfilled in applying the names and titles of Deity to a mortal, sinful man: such as "Universal Father," "Holy Father," "His Holiness," "Supreme Head of the Church on Earth," "The Infallible One," "Lord of lords," "A God on earth," "Lord God the Pope," "King of kings," &c. 2. The wearing out of the saints of the Most High is fulfilled in the cruel persecution of Christians who dissented from the faith and practice of the Roman Church. Many millions were put to death as heretics, during her long and bloody reign. You may have been told by your teachers that it was the civil government, and not the Church, that put those martyrs to death. But you will notice that those civil governments were under the control of the popes and dared not disobey their commands. 3. The little horn was to think to change times and laws. This must refer to the times and laws of God; for his right and ability to change human times and laws would not be questioned. All governments exercise this prerogative, and the changing of human laws would not distinguish one government from another; but the claim of ability to change the Divine times and laws, has been put forth by only one earthly power that I have ever read of; and that power is the papal Church. The ten commandments are the laws of God; and the Sabbath or seventh day is his holy time. If you are as well read in the doctrines of the Church in which you have been educated, as I think you are, you know very well that she professes to have changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week, without any scriptural authority whatever. I will make one quotation however from a Catholic work entitled the "Doctrinal Catechism." "Ques. Have you any other way of proving that the church has power to institute festivals of precept?"
"Ans. Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her; she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which there is no scriptural authority." This is the power then, that has thought itself able to change the times and laws of Him who saith, "I change not." "My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips." 4. This power was to continue its oppressive rule over the saints for a time and times and the dividing of time, or forty-two months. Rev. xiii, 5. A time is a year; and the Bible year consists of twelve months of thirty days each, which are three hundred and sixty days. See Gen. vii, 11, 24; viii, 3, 4. A time then is 360 days. Two times, the smallest plural, 720, and half a time, or a time divided, 180. Add these together and they make 1260 days. Or if we take 42 months and multiply them by thirty, the number of days in a month, the result is the same. Now the papacy was established when the last of the three horns fell, and the decree of Justinian, making the bishop of Rome the supreme head of the Church, could be carried into effect,—the point in the prophecy of Rev. xiii, when the dragon (Rome under the Emperor) gave to the beast (Papal Rome) his power, and his seat, (the city of Rome, the ancient capital of the empire,) and great authority. This took place in A. D. 538. The 1260 days of the prophecy are so many literal years in the fulfillment. Add them to the date 538, and we have A. D. 1798. This brings us to the point of time where it is said, "They shall take away his dominion, to consume and destroy it to the end;" Dan. vii, 26; or as it is expressed in Rev. xiii, 10, "He shall go into captivity." In 1798 the papal dominion was taken away, the pope carried a captive into France, where he died, and Rome was declared a Republic. The papacy was however, afterward partially restored to power, but this power has been gradually consuming away, and will, according to the prophecy, till the end, when it will be destroyed. Says Paul, "When the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming." The present feeble state of the papacy is a proof that the coming of the Lord is at hand. But the question now arises, Where was the true apostolic Church during the bloody reign of the apostate and usurper? She was in the wilderness, in a state of obscurity, having, like Elijah of old, fled away from the face of Jezebel, the lewd and idolatrous woman that had usurped the place of the true Church, and was striving to seduce the Lord's servants to bow down to images and relics, in violation of the commandments of God. See 1 Kings xix, 1-4. Rev. ii, 20. A woman, in prophecy, is a symbol of a Church. Under this symbol, the prophetic history of the true Church is given in Rev. xii, and that of the false Church, in Rev. xvii. The pure apostolic Church is represented as a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars—the twelve apostles. The man child which was given to the woman was the Lord Jesus. He it was that was to rule the nations with a rod of iron. See Ps. ii, 6-8. He was caught up, after the resurrection, his birth from the tomb, to God and to his throne. Consequent upon his resurrection, he received all power in Heaven and on earth. Imperial Rome was the dragon power that slew the infants of Bethlehem, to destroy him at his natural birth; that nailed him to the cross and pierced his side; and guarded his sepulcher to prevent his escape. But he came forth and ascended to the right hand of God. The dragon was foiled; and his rage is now turned against the woman, the Church. But Paganism, the old religion of the dragon empire, soon falls into decay, before the march of nominal Christianity. Paganism, which persecuted the church in the first centuries of the Christian era, could not prevail,—it must fall. The old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan changes his mode of attack. He elevates a corrupt Christianity, which had lowered the standard of truth and purity to seek the friendship of the world. He casts a flood of persecution out of his mouth, by giving power to the papacy, to effect that which he failed to effect through Paganism, namely the extirpation of the true Church. The woman, the true apostolic Church, now flies away into the wilderness. She is in obscurity, while the mother of harlots rides in the high places of power and authority, and drinks and becomes "drunken with the blood of the saints, the martyrs of Jesus." Chap. xvii. All nations have drunken of her wine, (false doctrines), and have not yet become sober. The period of time in which the Church is in the wilderness, is the same period in which the little horn or beast rules over the saints. In verse 6, it is called a thousand two hundred and three score days, and in verse 14, a time times and a half. And here, by the way, is the key to this prophetic period. We here learn that a time and times and a half, and twelve hundred and sixty days are just equal. It commenced, as we have seen, in A. D. 538, and ended in 1798. Here the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood of persecution. Toward the close of this period, kings and princes began to turn against the papacy, and at its close it was completely swallowed up by the power of Napoleon, an earthly ruler. Thus the earth helped the woman. Those wicked kings and rulers who outwardly embraced the doctrines of the Reformation, as a pretext to cast off the cords of the papacy and establish themselves as popes over their own dominions, and in their turn, oppressed and persecuted Catholics, and afterwards, other dissenters, were not the woman, but they helped her, by suppressing that power that had persecuted her so long. But though these worldly men have helped the Church by suppressing persecution unto death, yet they have not been helps, but hindrances to the cause of real religious reform, by establishing national institutions called churches, and by governmental patronage corrupting the clergy and striving to anchor down the ship of Reformation upon a human creed. Thus the mother of corruptions has a whole family of daughters, which bear in some degree, some more and some less, features of the mother. We have followed the persecuted and hidden Church to the close of her wilderness captivity in 1798. Two persecuting powers—Paganism and Papacy—have tried to destroy her; but yet the gates of hell have not99prevailed against her. There is yet another verse in the chapter of her prophetic history, which reveals another persecution still in the future, which I will call the Protestant persecution. The old serpent always uses false and corrupt religionists to persecute the true. The Reformation is begun, but not finished. The wilderness state of the Church has come to an end, but she has not yet recovered from the effects of the great apostasy and consequent darkness of the middle ages. The Reformation has been impeded in its progress all the way. Worldly, unconverted men, as we have said, would still make a profession of religion, and their business has been to block the wheels of the car or slime the track; and the grade has been ascending all the way. But the work will be completed; the high level of primitive Christianity will be attained; the people of God will yet be gathered out of the present babel of confusion, and united in primitive faith and practice. As this work is being accomplished, they that are born after the flesh will make one more effort to persecute those that are born after the Spirit—one more effort to destroy the Church. "And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Verse 17. This remnant of the seed of the woman is the last generation of the true apostolic Church that will live upon the earth; and the dragon will be angry with them because they will have returned to apostolic faith and practice. They will keep the commandments of God as written in his infallible word, and not as they are interpreted by a corrupt and apostate Church, whether Catholic or Protestant. They will have the testimony of Jesus, which is "the spirit of prophecy," Rev. xix, 10; and this will be a better bond of union than any human creed that ever was invented. And for these reasons war will be waged against them. They will be brought to this apostolic ground by the proclamation of the third angel's message—the last merciful warning to mankind. Rev. xiv, 9-12. This is a warning against following the traditions of an apostate Church, which make void the commandments of God. The result of this warning is given in verse 12. "Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." This people will keep more commandments of God and less commandments of men, than other religionists do. It takes the keeping of all the commandments of God, to make a commandment keeper; the breaking of one of them makes a commandment breaker. The agency through which the dragon will persecute this remnant of the apostolic Church, is the image of the beast described in Rev. xiii, 11-17. While the warning message from Heaven threatens the wrath of God against those who worship the beast and receive his mark, the image will decree that unless we do these things, we shall be killed. But will the Church be killed? No; their coming Lord interposes in their behalf, and they are translated to mount Zion, a faithful company having the Father's name, and not the mark of the beast in their foreheads. Rev. xiv, 1-5. And thus the dragon is defeated in his last attempt against the Church. The last message of warning is being given, and the remnant of the seed of the woman are being gathered. I see a people arising to keep all the commandments of God as given in his word. The spirit of opposition is being almost everywhere aroused. Worldly Protestant religionists are opposing the Reformation, and following in the footsteps of their mother in apostasy. They are not, indeed, burning the Bible to keep it from the people; but they are using the greatest efforts to suppress its plainest teachings, while they trample under foot its precepts. The Roman Church claims the power and right to change the law of the Sabbath; Protestants deny her claim, but adhere with tenacity to the change. And rather than return to the commandment of God, many of them are taking the impious ground so justly repudiated by the author of the book you lent me—that the whole ten commandments have been abolished! Mr. Weninger holds that "Christ has abrogated the ceremonies only of the Old Law, not the commandments." This is the truth. He says, "The ten commandments are only an explanation of the natural law: abrogate them, and there is an end of all morality, and we need no longer talk of virtue." This has the ring of the true metal. But if Papists have the right to change a jot or tittle of the Sabbath commandment, Protestants may abolish it entirely, or even the whole ten. The truth is, no man nor combination of men, calling themselves a Church, have a right to change a letter of that law which Jehovah wrote with his own finger on tables of stone. Christ made no change, but confirmed to his disciples the same law. Matt. v, 17-20. Depend upon it, the prince of darkness—the father of lies—is at the bottom of all this meddling with God's law. The true apostolic Church has ever been a "little flock" of strangers and pilgrims on the earth. She has never been the established Church in any national government. As the standard of truth has been lowered to gain the rich, the proud and the great, worldly and ambitious men have outwardly embraced religion to serve their selfish and ambitious purposes, have assumed the control, established a creed and a worldly church; and then woe to those who do not consent to their innovations and corruptions. And while the rich-attired, brazen-faced harlot, apostasy, has rode in the high places of earthly power impudently holding the cup of her abominations in her hand; the children of the true woman have had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, of bonds and imprisonment. They have been afflicted, tormented and slain. They have "wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth." As the effects of apostasy and error, Spiritual Gifts have been withheld and the sheep have been scattered. But the Lord says, "Behold I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand." "As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day." Eze. xxxiv, 10, 12. "Long upon the mountains, weary,
Have the scattered flock been torn;
Dark the desert paths, and dreary,
Grievous trials have they borne.
Now the gathering call is sounding,
Solemn in its warning voice;
Union, faith and love abounding,
Bid the little flock rejoice." Yes, the true apostolic Church, so long hidden and scattered, will again be visible upon the earth. The Lord has spoken it, and he is performing the work. He will be distinguished by keeping the commandments of God, and having the testimony of Jesus Christ. She will be a "glorious Church"—having returned from the wilderness, she will again appear clothed with the sun. She will have a sharp conflict with the "rulers of the darkness of this world," but the Lord will appear for her deliverance; and she will stand with the Lamb upon mount Zion having the harps of God. My dear friend, will you not strive for a membership in this Church? The reproach of Christ is greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt or of the whole world. Those who choose the world to come, in preference to the present, will make a wise choice. Now is the time to make your choice; it is ruinous to delay. Will you give me your hand to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, that you may have right to the tree of life, and enter in, with the Church triumphant, through the gates into the city? Yours, to meet you there.