The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 299

believed and to live as they had lived. Therefore religion again
degenerated into formalism; and errors and superstitions which would
have been cast aside had the church continued to walk in the light of
God’s word, were retained and cherished. Thus the spirit inspired by the
Reformation gradually died out, until there was almost as great need of
reform in the Protestant churches as in the Roman Church in the time of
Luther. There was the same worldliness and spiritual stupor, a similar
reverence for the opinions of men, and substitution of human theories
for the teachings of God’s word.
The wide circulation of the Bible in the early part of the nineteenth
century, and the great light thus shed upon the world, was not followed
by a corresponding advance in knowledge of revealed truth, or in
experimental religion. Satan could not, as in former ages, keep God’s
word from the people; it had been placed within the reach of all; but in
order still to accomplish his object, he led many to value it but lightly.
Men neglected to search the Scriptures, and thus they continued to accept
false interpretations, and to cherish doctrines which had no foundation
in the Bible.
Seeing the failure of his efforts to crush out the truth by persecution,
Satan had again resorted to the plan of compromise which led to the
great apostasy and the formation of the Church of Rome. He had induced
Christians to ally themselves, not now with pagans, but with those who,
by their devotion to the things of this world, had proved themselves to
be as truly idolaters as were the worshipers of graven images. And the
results of this union were no less pernicious now than in former ages;
pride and extravagance were fostered under the guise of religion, and
the churches became corrupted. Satan continued to pervert the doctrines
of the Bible, and traditions that were to ruin millions were taking deep
root. The church was upholding and defending these traditions, instead
of contending for “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
Thus were degraded the principles for which the Reformers had done
and suffered so much.

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