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Waldenses Defend the Faith
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themselves arrived at truth in opposition to the dogmas of the apos-
tate church. Their religious belief was their inheritance from their
fathers. They contended for the faith of the apostolic church. “The
church in the wilderness,” and not the proud hierarchy enthroned in
the world’s great capital, was the true church of Christ, the guardian
of the treasures of truth which God committed to His people to be
given to the world.
Among the leading causes that had led to the separation of the
true church from Rome was the hatred of the latter toward the Bible
Sabbath. As foretold by prophecy, the papal power trampled the law
of God in the dust. Churches under the papacy were compelled to
honor Sunday. Amid the prevailing error many of the true people
of God became so bewildered that while they observed the Sabbath,
they refrained from labor also on Sunday. But this did not satisfy
the papal leaders. They demanded that the Sabbath be profaned, and
they denounced those who dared to show it honor.
Hundreds of years before the Reformation the Waldenses pos-
sessed the Bible in their native tongue. This rendered them the
special objects of persecution. They declared Rome to be the apos-
tate Babylon of the Apocalypse. At the peril of their lives they
stood up to resist her corruptions. Through ages of apostasy there
were Waldenses who denied the supremacy of Rome, rejected image
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worship as idolatry, and kept the true Sabbath.
Behind the lofty bulwarks of the mountains the Waldenses found
a hiding place. Those faithful exiles pointed their children to the
heights towering above them in majesty and spoke of Him whose
word is as enduring as the everlasting hills. God had set fast the
mountains; no arm but that of Infinite Power could move them. In
like manner He had established His law. The arm of man could as
readily uproot the mountains and hurl them into the sea, as change
one precept of the law of God. Those pilgrims indulged no repining
because of the hardships of their lot; they were never lonely amid
the mountain solitudes. They rejoiced in their freedom to worship.
From many a lofty cliff they chanted praise, and the armies of Rome
could not silence their songs of thanksgiving.