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Spiritual Darkness in the Early Church
37
The dragon had given the beast “his power, and his seat, and great
authority.”
Revelation 13:2
.
Now began the 1260 years of papal oppression foretold in the
prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation.
Daniel 7:25
;
Revelation
13:5-7
. Christians were forced to choose either to yield their integrity
and accept the papal ceremonies and worship, or to wear away their
lives in dungeons, or to suffer death. Now were fulfilled the words
of Jesus: “Ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and
kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to
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death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.”
Luke
21:16, 17
.
The world became a vast battlefield. For hundreds of years the
church of Christ found refuge in seclusion and obscurity. “The
woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of
God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and
threescore days.”
Revelation 12:6
.
The accession of the Roman Church to power marked the begin-
ning of the Dark Ages. Faith was transferred from Christ to the pope
of Rome. Instead of trusting in the Son of God for forgiveness of sins
and for eternal salvation, the people looked to the pope and to the
priests to whom he delegated authority. The pope was their earthly
mediator. He stood in the place of God to them. A deviation from his
requirements was sufficient cause for severe punishment. Thus the
minds of the people were turned away from God to fallible and cruel
men, nay, more, to the prince of darkness himself who exercised
his power through them. When the Scriptures are suppressed and
man comes to regard himself as supreme, we look only for fraud,
deception, and debasing iniquity.
Days of Peril for the Church
The faithful standard-bearers were few. At times it seemed that
error would wholly prevail, and true religion would be banished
from the earth. The gospel was lost sight of, and the people were
burdened with rigorous exactions. They were taught to trust to works
of their own to atone for sin. Long pilgrimages, acts of penance,
the worship of relics, the erection of churches, shrines, and altars,