FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
‘HERETICS’ KEPT FLAME OF TRUTH BURNING THROUGH THE DARK AGES
“And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the WILDERNESS, into HER PLACE, where she is nourished for A TIME, and TIMES, and HALF A TIME, from the face of the serpent.” Rev. 12.14, K.J.V.
“While Constantine’s purchased converts, and the superficial-minded multitude followed the popular [Romish] church, there were many honest, God-fearing Christians, who resented this sinful compromise with PAGANISM; and when they saw that all their protests [the compromise] were useless, they withdrew to PLACES where they could more freely follow their CONSCIENCES and bring up their CHILDREN away from the contamination of the fallen church which they looked upon as the ‘Babylon’ of Revelation 17. Several hundred SABBATH-KEEPING Christian churches were established in southern India, and some were even found in China. Likewise the original Celtic Church in England, Scotland, and Ireland KEPT THE SEVENTH-DAY SABBATH, as will be shown in the following:
“The majority of these Christians settled, however, in the ALPS, a PLACE naturally suited for their protection, being situated where SWITZERLAND, FRANCE, and ITALY join. They could, therefore, more easily get [nature’s] PROTECTION in one or another of these COUNTRIES, as it would be harder for the PAPACY to get JOINT ACTION of all these [three] countries in case of PERSECUTION. Then, too, these MOUNTAINS were so STEEP and HIGH, the VALLEYS so NARROW, and the PASSES into these so NARROW so DIFFICULT, that it would seem as though God had PREPARED THIS HIDING PLACE for His TRUE CHURCH AND TRUTH during the Dark Ages! William Jones says:
‘Angrogna, Pramol and S. Martino are strongly fortified by nature on account of their many passages and bulwarks of rocks and mountains: as if the all-wise Creator, says Sir Samuel Morland, had, from the beginning, designed that place as a CABINET, wherein to put some INESTIMABLE JEWEL, or in which to preserve MANY THOUSAND SOULS, which would not bow the knee to Baal [ancient Phoenician sun-god].’- ‘History of the Christian Church,’ Vol. I, p. 356, third edition, London: 1818.” – C. Edwardson, ‘Facts of Faith,’ p.118.
Know who the Waldenses, Vaudois, Albigenses are and what they were persecuted and died for. They are included in the Biblical Hall of Faith of Hebrews chapter 11, verses 35-40. They were the martyrs and saints, together with the later Protestants, of Jesus who preserved the truth with their lives and blood which we received as it were in a silver platter. Hence, we take it for granted because we hardly sacrificed anything to obtain it. I often think to myself, Those godly men, women, youth and even children deserve the reward of eternal life. How about me? My faith, loyalty, trust and obedience to God, His truth and law have not yet been tested and tried as theirs!
Lord have mercy and patience on me! NMF.
