prepared of God , that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days ." Revelation 12:6 .
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 . Those were days of peril for the church of Christ . The faithful standard-bearers were few indeed . Though the truth was not left without witnesses , yet at times it seemed that error and superstition would wholly prevail , and true religion would be banished from the earth . The gospel was lost sight of , but the forms of religion were multiplied , and the people were burdened with rigorous exactions . They were taught not only to look to the pope as their mediator , but to trust to works of their own to atone for sin . Long pilgrimages , acts of penance , the worship of relics , the erection of churches , shrines , and altars , the payment of large sums to the church--these and many similar acts were enjoined to appease the wrath of God or to secure His favor ; as if God were like men , to be angered at trifles , or pacified by gifts or acts of penance !
Notwithstanding that vice prevailed , even among the leaders of the Roman Church , her influence seemed steadily to increase . About the close of the eighth century , papists put forth the claim that in the first ages of the church the bishops of Rome had possessed the same spiritual power which they now assumed . To establish this claim , some means must be employed to give it a show of authority ; and this was readily suggested by the father of lies . Ancient writings were forged by monks . Decrees of councils before unheard of were discovered , establishing the universal supremacy of the pope from the earliest times . And a church that had rejected the truth greedily accepted these deceptions . ( See Appendix ). The few
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