The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 385
A Roman Catholic work argues that “if the Church of Rome were
ever guilty of idolatry in relation to the saints, her daughter, the Church
of England, stands guilty of the same, which has ten churches dedicated
to Mary for one dedicated to Christ.”—Richard Challoner, The Catholic
Christian Instructed, Preface, pages 21, 22.
And Dr. Hopkins, in “A Treatise on the Millennium,” declares:
“There is no reason to consider the antichristian spirit and practices
to be confined to that which is now called the Church of Rome. The
Protestant churches have much of antichrist in them, and are far from
being wholly reformed from ... corruptions and wickedness.”—Samuel
Hopkins, Works, vol. 2, p. 328.
Concerning the separation of the Presbyterian Church from Rome,
Dr. Guthrie writes: “Three hundred years ago, our church, with an
open Bible on her banner, and this motto, ‘Search the Scriptures,’ on
her scroll, marched out from the gates of Rome.” Then he asks the
significant question: “Did they come clean out of Babylon?”—Thomas
Guthrie, The Gospel in Ezekiel, page 237.
“The Church of England,” says Spurgeon, “seems to be eaten
through and through with sacramentarianism; but nonconformity
appears to be almost as badly riddled with philosophical infidelity.
Those of whom we thought better things are turning aside one by one
from the fundamentals of the faith. Through and through, I believe, the
very heart of England is honeycombed with a damnable infidelity which
dares still go into the pulpit and call itself Christian.”
What was the origin of the great apostasy? How did the church first
depart from the simplicity of the gospel? By conforming to the practices
of paganism, to facilitate the acceptance of Christianity by the heathen.
The apostle Paul declared, even in his day, “The mystery of iniquity doth
already work.” 2 Thessalonians 2:7. During the lives of the apostles
the church remained comparatively pure. But “toward the latter end of
the second century most of the churches assumed a new form; the first
simplicity
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