The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 66
Among the leading causes that had led to the separation of the true
church from Rome was the hatred of the latter toward the Bible Sabbath.
As foretold by prophecy, the papal power cast down the truth to the
ground. The law of God was trampled in the dust, while the traditions
and customs of men were exalted. The churches that were under the rule
of the papacy were early compelled to honor the Sunday as a holy day.
Amid the prevailing error and superstition, many, even of the true people
of God, became so bewildered that while they observed the Sabbath, they
refrained from labor also on the Sunday. But this did not satisfy the papal
leaders. They demanded not only that Sunday be hallowed, but that the
Sabbath be profaned; and they denounced in the strongest language those
who dared to show it honor. It was only by fleeing from the power of
Rome that any could obey God’s law in peace. (See Appendix.)
The Waldenses were among the first of the peoples of Europe to
obtain a translation of the Holy Scriptures. (See Appendix.) Hundreds of
years before the Reformation they possessed the Bible in manuscript in
their native tongue. They had the truth unadulterated, and this rendered
them the special objects of hatred and persecution. They declared the
Church of Rome to be the apostate Babylon of the Apocalypse, and at the
peril of their lives they stood up to resist her corruptions. While, under
the pressure of long-continued persecution, some compromised their
faith, little by little yielding its distinctive principles, others held fast the
truth. Through ages of darkness and apostasy there were Waldenses who
denied the supremacy of Rome, who rejected image worship as idolatry,
and who kept the true Sabbath. Under the fiercest tempests of opposition
they maintained their faith. Though gashed by the Savoyard spear, and
scorched by the Romish fagot, they stood unflinchingly for God’s word
and His honor.
Behind the lofty bulwarks of the mountains—in all ages the refuge
of the persecuted and oppressed—the Waldenses
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