248
The Great Controversy
declared: “My kingdom is not of this world.”
John 18:36
. The union
of the church with the state, be the degree never so slight, while it may
appear to bring the world nearer to the church, does in reality but bring
the church nearer to the world.
The great principle so nobly advocated by Robinson and Roger
Williams, that truth is progressive, that Christians should stand ready
to accept all the light which may shine from God’s holy word, was lost
sight of by their descendants. The Protestant churches of America,—
and those of Europe as well,—so highly favored in receiving the bless-
ings of the Reformation, failed to press forward in the path of reform.
Though a few faithful men arose, from time to time, to proclaim new
truth and expose long-cherished error, the majority, like the Jews in
Christ’s day or the papists in the time of Luther, were content to believe
as their fathers had believed and to live as they had lived. Therefore
[298]
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 persecu-
tion, 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