| The accession of the Roman Church to power marked the beginning of the Dark Ages. As her power increased, the darkness deepened. Faith was transferred from Christ, the true foundation, to the pope of Rome. Instead of trusting in the Son of God for forgiveness of sins and for eternal salvation, the people looked to the pope, and to the priests and prelates to whom he delegated authority. They were taught that the pope was their earthly mediator and that none could approach God except through him; and, further, that he stood in the place of God to them and was therefore to be implicitly obeyed. A deviation from his requirements was sufficient cause for the severest punishment to be visited upon the bodies and souls of the offenders. Thus the minds of the people were turned away from God to fallible, erring, and cruel men, nay, more, to the prince of darkness himself, who exercised his power through them. Sin was disguised in a garb of sanctity. When the Scriptures are suppressed, and man comes to regard himself as supreme, we need look only for fraud, deception, and debasing iniquity. With the elevation of human laws and traditions was manifest the corruption that ever results from setting aside the law of God. Great Controversy, page 55.1 |
| The forgiveness of sins and iniquities and transgressions, belongs in a special sense to this time. We are in the anti-typical day of atonement, and every soul should now be humbling himself before God, seeking pardon for his transgressions and sins, and accepting the justifying grace of Christ, the sanctifying of the soul by the operations of the Holy Spirit of Christ; thus the carnal nature is transformed, renewed in holiness after the image of Christ’s righteousness and true holiness. The precious, golden links of truth are not separate, detached, disconnected doctrines; but link after link, form one string of golden truth, and constitute a complete whole, with Christ as its living center. Salvation comes through practical godliness and faith in Jesus Christ. Faith is made perfect through works, and is evidenced in the character. To those who are teaching the truth, whose hearts are impure, and who have not been converted, Christ says, “What hast thou to do to declare my statutes? Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord.” Oh, what truths we have—full of power, and it is not possible to controvert these Bible doctrines. There is no truth in heaven or in earth that would affect some characters, although it might be presented in all power and matchless purity and loveliness, because the heart does not love the practice of these holy sentiments. The truth we have set before us for the past few years, is immense in its importance, reaching into heaven and compassing eternity. Satan and his confederacy of evil have made every effort to cover up, to confuse minds, to make of none effect the precious, glorious truths of God’s word. We are living in strangely solemn times, and at the very time when the people of God should be wide awake, and many are asleep or dead spiritually. There is great need of much work being done. Every individual member of the church should look to the Captain for orders. { PH002 25.2 } |
