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Failure to Advance
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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 spiritual
stupor, the same respect for the opinions of men, the same spirit of
worldliness, the same substitution of human theories for the teach-
ings of God’s Word. Pride and extravagance were fostered under
the guise of religion. The churches became corrupted by allying
themselves with the world. Thus were degraded the great principles
for which Luther and his fellow laborers had done and suffered so
much.
As Satan saw that he had failed to crush out the truth by perse-
cution, he again resorted to the same plan of compromise which had
led to the great apostasy and the formation of the church of Rome.
He induced Christians to ally themselves, not now with pagans, but
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with those who, by their worship of the God of this world, as truly
proved themselves idolaters.
Satan could no longer keep the Bible from the people; it had
been placed within the reach of all. But he led thousands to accept
false interpretations and unsound theories, without searching the
Scriptures to learn the truth for themselves. He had corrupted the
doctrines of the Bible, and traditions which were to ruin millions
were taking deep root. The church was upholding and defending
these traditions, instead of contending for the faith once delivered
to the saints. And while wholly unconscious of their condition and
their peril, the church and the world were rapidly approaching the
most solemn and momentous period of earth’s history—the period
of the revelation of the Son of man.
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