THE GREAT CONTROVERSY SERMON SERIES
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While the Church of England openly rejected the authority and creed of the Catholic Church, she held on to many of its ceremonies and forms. Those who were uncomfortable with these ceremonies and forms did not want to join in the worship services of the Church of England. Those who wanted to wanted to worship according to their consciences and the Bible were called Puritans. The term comes from the English word pure.
But the king of England was considered the head of the church and other worship was forbidden. Oppression and persecution began and a number of Puritans fled to Holland.
Protestants who had been under papal persecution for centuries did not recognize liberty of conscience in regard to worship when they obtained their freedom. This was one of the worst vestiges of the papacy. True freedom of worship was not yet understood.
Those Puritans who escaped to Holland saw difficult times. Middle aged men who had worked their whole lives at farming now had to take up different trades. They lived as strangers in a country with a different culture and language. They were poor, but happy because they could worship according to their conscience. What they didn’t know was that the Lord was about to do something special for them. Persecution was opening the door for freedom. The Lord had not forsaken His people, just the opposite, He was about to take the Puritans to the New World, that is America.
When these Puritans separated from the Church of England they bound themselves together with a covenant in which they would walk in all the ways of the Lord that He had shown them or that He would show them. This Puritan group’s leader John Robinson was not able to go with them. Before the group was about to launch for America, he spoke to them the following:
"Brethren, we are now erelong to part asunder, and the Lord knoweth whether I shall live ever to see your faces more. But whether the Lord hath appointed it or not, I charge you before God and His blessed angels to follow me no farther than I have followed Christ. If God should reveal anything to you by any other instrument of His, be as ready to receive it as ever you were to receive any truth of my ministry; for I am very confident the Lord hath more truth and light yet to break forth out of His holy word."--Martyn, The Life and Times of Luther vol. 5, p. 70.
"For my part, I cannot sufficiently bewail the condition of the reformed churches, who are come to a period in religion, and will go at present no farther than the instruments of their reformation. The Lutherans cannot be drawn to go beyond what Luther saw; . . . and the Calvinists, you see, stick fast where they were left by that great man of God, who yet saw not all things. This is a misery much to be lamented; for though they were burning and shining lights in their time, yet they penetrated not into the whole counsel of God, but were they now living, would be as willing to embrace further light as that which they first received."--D. Neal, History of the Puritans, vol. 1, p. 269.
"Remember your church covenant, in which you have agreed to walk in all the ways of the Lord, made or to be made known unto you. Remember your promise and covenant with God and with one another, to receive whatever light and truth shall be made known to you from His written word; but withal, take heed, I beseech you, what you receive for truth, and compare it and weigh it with other scriptures of truth before you accept it; for it is not possible the Christian world should come so lately out of such thick antichristian darkness, and that full perfection of knowledge should break forth at once."--Martyn, vol. 5, pp. 70, 71. (These are quoted from the book Great Controversy pages 291 and 292).
I want to highlight a few things from Robinson’s words.
- In general, in the Christian world, people did not accept anything except the truths that their great leaders showed to them. They stayed there. There was no advancement in Bible knowledge. They were stuck there. When the Lord wanted to show them a new truth and its corresponding responsibility, Christians, like the Pharisees, held tightly to the teaching of the elders and did not accept any new truth. They say, “My father and my mother believed like this and I also believe it and will believe it. Nothing else is necessary.” Thus the Pharisees rejected Jesus and thus the Christians reject their Lord.
- Before we accept something new as truth, we must be sure by investigating the other passages of the Bible. This is work. If people are lazy in spiritual matters they can be deceived and apostatize.
How about you? Are you ready to accept new truth?
The pilgrims who went to America were searching for liberty of conscience. To secure this they risked their lives. But these Pilgrim Fathers, although honest and God-fearing did not understand the principle of religious freedom. When they established a colony in America, only church members could have a voice in government. The preacher’s salary was exacted from everyone whether they were a believer or not. Judges could prosecute and fine those colonists according to religious doctrine. Thus the government was in the hand of the church. This was a type of religious state. What was the result? Oppression and persecution.
Later, Roger Williams came to America. He also was searching for religious freedom but he understood what the others didn’t: Religious freedom, regardless of belief, is a fundamental right. For Williams, all opinions were equal before the law. He said:
"The public or the magistrates may decide what is due from man to man; but when they attempt to prescribe a man's duties to God, they are out of place, and there can be no safety; for it is clear that if the magistrates has the power, he may decree one set of opinions or beliefs today and another tomorrow; as has been done in England by different kings and queens, and by different popes and councils in the Roman Church; so that belief would become a heap of confusion."--Martyn, vol. 5, p. 340.
In the colony, it was mandatory to attend church. To not go meant a fine or imprisonment. Williams viewed that to force people of different beliefs to come together was a violation of their natural rights, to drag people who have no faith or the unwilling to worship was nothing more than forcing hypocrisy.
Williams was condemned. To avoid being arrested he fled. His escape was extremely difficult. He found refuge among an Indian tribe that he had previously shared the gospel with. Later, he established the colony of Rhode Island. People settled there who fled religious persecution. People could worship according to their conscience there. These fundamental rights, civil and religious freedom, became the founding principles of the American republic.
In the American Declaration of Independence it says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
And the American constitution gives assurance of the inviolability of conscience: “No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
A person’s relationship with God is above human law. Rights of conscience are inalienable. There is no need for proof/ We know this in our hearts.
By this principle the martyrs resisted human laws. By this principle we preach Jesus Christ.
In twenty years thousands of Pilgrim Fathers went to America. The foundation of their faith was the Bible. Its principles were taught in homes, schools and churches. There was public peace and morality in the colonies. The whole world witnessed how successful a government without a king and a church without a pope can be when the principles of the Bible are upheld. The colonies grew prosperous and in peace in an amazing way.
Unfortunately, as more people went to America their purposes were different. People flocked to America who did not love God and whose purpose was only gain. Although the influence of the religious ones was strong, as the number of people who held to a true faith relatively fell, As it was in the time of Constantine the Great, because church members had greater privileges, people who were not converted in heart joined the church for these privileges. In a short time the churches were composed of people who were not genuine believers. We see again that to expand the church by help from the government brings evil results. Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” When the church unites with the state, it matters not how little or much, it does not bring the world up to the church, on the contrary, it converts the church to the world.
The Protestants abandoned the recommended principle stated by John Robinson and Roger Williams. The principle is this: Truth is progressive. In America and Europe, the Protestants did not advance the reform begun by the reformers. In a short time, superstition began to take the place of true belief in the churches. Formalism replaced fervent activity in the cause of the Lord. The spirit of reform died. The wide distribution of the Bible did not create a reciprocal revival. People either didn’t read the Bible or they embraced wrong teachings. People needed to be born again in the Protestant churches just as much as in the Catholic Church. The same worldliness and the same spiritual stupor was manifest.
What Satan could not accomplish by persecution he accomplished by introducing a spirit of compromise to the church: apostasy. The church became corrupted. But the Lord was about to do something wonderful. A world-wide revival was coming. It is called the Great Advent Awakening. This movement was established on the word of prophecy. Next time we will talk about the signs the Bible gives regarding the last days. These are very interesting. Don’t miss it.