The European Union in Prophecy The EU in Prophecy I | Page 195

The European Union in Prophecy
Said Mary: "Ye interpret the Scriptures in one manner, and they [the Roman
Catholic teachers] interpret in another; whom shall I believe, and who shall be judge?"
"Ye shall believe God, that plainly speaketh in His word," answered the Reformer;
"and farther than the word teaches you, ye neither shall believe the one nor the other.
The word of God is plain in itself; and if there appear any obscurity in one place, the
Holy Ghost, which is never contrary to Himself, explains the same more clearly in
other places, so that there can remain no doubt but unto such as obstinately remain
ignorant."--David Laing, The Collected Works of John Knox, vol. 2, pp. 281, 284. Such
were the truths that the fearless Reformer, at the peril of his life, spoke in the ear of
royalty. With the same undaunted courage he kept to his purpose, praying and
fighting the battles of the Lord, until Scotland was free from popery.
In England the establishment of Protestantism as the national religion
diminished, but did not wholly stop, persecution. While many of the doctrines of Rome
had been renounced, not a few of its forms were retained. The supremacy of the pope
was rejected, but in his place the monarch was enthroned as the head of the church.
In the service of the church there was still a wide departure from the purity and
simplicity of the gospel. The great principle of religious liberty was not yet understood.
Though the horrible cruelties which Rome employed against heresy were resorted to
but rarely by Protestant rulers, yet the right of every man to worship God according
to the dictates of his own conscience was not acknowledged. All were required to
accept the doctrines and observe the forms of worship prescribed by the established
church. Dissenters suffered persecution, to a greater or less extent, for hundreds of
years.
In the seventeenth century thousands of pastors were expelled from their
positions. The people were forbidden, on pain of heavy fines, imprisonment, and
banishment, to attend any religious meetings except such as were sanctioned by the
church. Those faithful souls who could not refrain from gathering to worship God were
compelled to meet in dark alleys, in obscure garrets, and at some seasons in the woods
at midnight. In the sheltering depths of the forest, a temple of God's own building,
those scattered and persecuted children of the Lord assembled to pour out their souls
in prayer and praise. But despite all their precautions, many suffered for their faith.
The jails were crowded. Families were broken up. Many were banished to foreign
lands. Yet God was with His people, and persecution could not prevail to silence their
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