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traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of
God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.”
2
Timothy 3:1-5
. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter
times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits,
and doctrines of devils.”
1 Timothy 4:1
. Satan will work “with all
power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness.” And all that “received not the love of the truth, that
they might be saved,” will be left to accept “strong delusion, that
they should believe a lie.”
2 Thessalonians 2:9-11
. When this state of
ungodliness shall be reached, the same results will follow as in the
first centuries.
The wide diversity of belief in the Protestant churches is regarded
by many as decisive proof that no effort to secure a forced uniformity
can ever be made. But there has been for years, in churches of the
Protestant faith, a strong and growing sentiment in favor of a union
based upon common points of doctrine. To secure such a union,
the discussion of subjects upon which all were not agreed—however
important they might be from a Bible standpoint—must necessarily be
waived.
Charles Beecher, in a sermon in the year 1846, declared that the
ministry of “the evangelical Protestant denominations” is “not only
formed all the way up under a tremendous pressure of merely human
fear, but they live, and move, and breathe in a state of things radically
corrupt, and appealing every hour to every baser element of their nature
to hush up the truth, and bow the knee to the power of apostasy. Was
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not this the way things went with Rome? Are we not living her life
over again? And what do we see just ahead? Another general council!
A world’s convention! Evangelical alliance, and universal creed!”—
Sermon on “The Bible a Sufficient Creed,” delivered at Fort Wayne,
Indiana, Feb. 22, 1846. When this shall be gained, then, in the effort
to secure complete uniformity, it will be only a step to the resort to
force.
When the leading churches of the United States, uniting upon such
points of doctrine as are held by them in common, shall influence
the state to enforce their decrees and to sustain their institutions, then
Protestant America will have formed an image of the Roman hierarchy,
and the infliction of civil penalties upon dissenters will inevitably
result.