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Liberty of Conscience Threatened, Part 3
Catholicism & Protestantism—More Similar Today?
The Roman Church now presents a fair front to the world,
covering with apologies her record of horrible cruelties. She has clothed
herself in Christlike garments; but she is unchanged. Every principle of the
papacy that existed in past ages exists today. The doctrines devised in the
darkest ages are still held. Let none deceive themselves. The papacy that
Protestants are now so ready to honor is the same that ruled the world in the
days of the Reformation, when men of God stood up, at the peril of their lives,
to expose her iniquity. She possesses the same pride and arrogant assumption
that lorded it over kings and princes, and claimed the prerogatives of God. Her
spirit is no less cruel and despotic now than when she crushed out human
liberty and slew the saints of the Most High.
The papacy is just what prophecy declared that she would be, the
apostasy of the latter times. 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4. It is a part of her
policy to assume the character which will best accomplish her purpose; but
beneath the variable appearance of the chameleon she conceals the invariable
venom of the serpent. “Faith ought not to be kept with heretics, nor persons
suspected of heresy” (Lenfant, volume 1, page 516), she declares. Shall this
power, whose record for a thousand years is written in the blood of the saints,
be now acknowledged as a part of the church of Christ?
It is not without reason that the claim has been put forth in
Protestant countries that Catholicism differs less widely from Protestantism
than in former times. There has been a change; but the change is not in the
papacy. Catholicism indeed resembles much of the Protestantism that now exists,
because Protestantism has so greatly degenerated since the days of the Reformers.
As the Protestant churches have been seeking the favor of the
world, false charity has blinded their eyes. They do not see but that it is
right to believe good of all evil, and as the inevitable result they will
finally believe evil of all good. Instead of standing in defense of the faith
once delivered to the saints, they are now, as it were, apologizing to Rome for
their uncharitable opinion of her, begging pardon for their bigotry.
A large class, even of those who look upon Romanism with no
favor, apprehend little danger from her power and influence. Many urge that the
intellectual and moral darkness prevailing during the Middle Ages favored the
spread of her dogmas, superstitions, and oppression, and that the greater
intelligence of modern times, the general diffusion of knowledge, and the
increasing liberality in matters of religion forbid a revival of intolerance
and tyranny. The very thought that such a state of things will exist in this
enlightened age is ridiculed. It is true that great light, intellectual, moral,
and religious, is shining upon this generation. In the open pages of God’s Holy
Word, light from heaven has been shed upon the world. But it should be
remembered that the greater the light bestowed, the greater the darkness of
those who pervert and reject it.
A prayerful study of the Bible would show Protestants the real
character of the papacy and would cause them to abhor and to shun it; but many
are so wise in their own conceit that they feel no need of humbly seeking God
that they may be led into the truth. Although priding themselves on their
enlightenment, they are ignorant both of the Scriptures and of the power of
God. They must have some means of quieting their consciences, and they seek
that which is least spiritual and humiliating. What they desire is a method of
forgetting God which shall pass as a method of remembering Him. The papacy is
well adapted to meet the wants of all these. It is prepared for two classes of
mankind, embracing nearly the whole world—those who would be saved by their
merits, and those who would be saved in their sins. Here is the secret of its
power.
A day of great intellectual darkness has been shown to be
favorable to the success of the papacy. It will yet be demonstrated that a day
of great intellectual light is equally favorable for its success. In past ages,
when men were without God’s word and without the knowledge of the truth, their
eyes were blindfolded, and thousands were ensnared, not seeing the net spread
for their feet. In this generation there are many whose eyes become dazzled by
the glare of human speculations, “science falsely so called;” they discern not
the net, and walk into it as readily as if blindfolded. God designed that man’s
intellectual powers should be held as a gift from his Maker and should be
employed in the service of truth and righteousness; but when pride and ambition
are cherished, and men exalt their own theories above the word of God, then
intelligence can accomplish greater harm than ignorance. Thus the false science
of the present day, which undermines faith in the Bible, will prove as
successful in preparing the way for the acceptance of the papacy, with its
pleasing forms, as did the withholding of knowledge in opening the way for its
aggrandizement in the Dark Ages.
The Great Controversy, pp. 571-573
Next part: Liberty of Conscience Threatened, Part 4:
The Church’s Efforts to Enforce Sunday Worship
All Scriptures are quoted from the New King James Version,
including those originally quoted by Ellen White from the King James
Version.—Editors
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