The Remnant Church - The Falling Away

THE FALLING AWAY

When Christ declared, “I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18), he did so to create an organization to extend his ministry during his life and perpetuate it after his ascension. The church had definite organization (I Cor. 12:28; Eph. 4:11; Luke 10:1; I Tim. 3:12, 13; James 5:14; Heb. 5:4); it ministered definite doctrine (John 7:16, 17; Matt. 15:9; Heb. 6:1, 2); it was commissioned to carry a message of grace and power to mankind (Matt. 10:7, 8; Luke 10:3-10; 11:9-13; Matt. 11:28-30).

For a time it seemed as though this purpose might be thwarted, for it was only after the solemnity of the Last Supper, the shock of betrayal, the horror of the Crucifixion, and the despair of the Sabbath that the joyful news of the Resurrection rallied the scattered and dismayed disciples. Jesus purposefully regathered them and prepared them for the great commission of carrying the gospel into all the world (Matt. 28:18-20). However, they were told to remain in Jerusalem until heavenly power would be given to assist them in this staggering task.

The Church in Action

On the day of Pentecost the Spirit of God descended like the rushing of a great wind; cloven tongues of fire appeared above the heads of the chosen disciples; the gift of tongues enabled the disciples to address the mixed multitude in language each nationality understood (Acts 2:6). From the visual evidence which they saw, from the convincing power that burned conviction into their hearts, the multitude so sensed the reality of God and the Lordship of Jesus Christ that they cried out to the disciples: “What shall we do?” In harmony with the doctrine of Christ (Heb. 6: 1,2) repentance–a ceasing to do evil things, a willingness to do righteous things (Isa. 1:16, 17)–was demanded (Acts 2:38). At the same time baptism (Acts 2:38)–a dramatic ordinance symbolizing the burial of the old ways of life and the resurrection to the new ways of Christ–was commanded. Power from heaven was promised to those willing to obey these requirements (Acts 2:39).

Three thousand of the assembled multitudes obeyed and under the direction of the officers of the church the two great laws previously taught (“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart . . . Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”–Matt. 22:37-39) were implemented in a new social order of equity and justice. In this demonstration “neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own” (Acts 4:32). Recognizing the Lord as giver of all things, they also recognized themselves as their brother’s keeper and the law of brotherhood was implemented. Surplus property was sold and through the divinely established church “distribution was made unto every man according as he had need” (Acts 4:35). In this beautiful unity of spiritual and material things, “with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all” (Acts 4:33). The church was moving under spiritual power; redemption from sin and from social inequality was dynamically demonstrated. But how short this demonstration was to last!

The Apostasy in Prophecy

Almost immediately persecutions broke out against the church (Acts 5:17, 18; 6:9-12). Some of the inspired leaders were killed (Acts 7:58-60; 12:1-3), and the church as a group was scattered (Acts 8:1). This scattering made it impossible to continue the close-knit pattern of life exemplified after the experience at Pentecost. Christ had warned of such persecutions (Matt. 23:34, 35) prior to his death. Paul, too, in the continuing experience of the church foresaw further persecutions:

“For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.”–Acts 20:29.

However bad this might be, a worse fate lay ahead of the church–the distortion of the truth of Christ by those within its ranks:

“Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.

“Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn everyone night and day with tears.”–Acts 20:30, 31.

Paul knew that altered laws, corrupted teachings, and twisted practices would rob the church of the divine blessings that come from perfect obedience to perfect law. Knowing this he wrote Timothy:

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

“And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” –II Tim. 4:3, 4.

Battle as he might against this force of perversion, Paul knew that the tide would not be stemmed:

“That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.

“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first.”–II Thess. 2:23.

The Almighty cannot permit the mutilation of the doctrines that he had sent Christ to preach (John 7:16) and his servants to perpetuate (Matt. 28:20). Paul, viewing divisions creeping into the church at Galatia, firmly censured the dissenters:

“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:

“Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”–Gal. 1: 6-8.

Paul, in the stead of our Lord, is saying that there is but one gospel, and any alteration of it is inspired by the enemy of souls, the Devil. When men heed this enemy and alter that which Christ came to reveal, they are no longer serving God but evil. A penalty is set against those who thus pervert the life-giving doctrines of Christ:

“Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God.”–II John 1:9.

The prophets of old had warned of the loss of spiritual power that follows when men speak perverse things, heap to themselves teachers, manufacture fables, and thus fall away from the truth of God:

“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:

“And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.”–Amos 8:11, 12.

Micah also foresaw this condition of apostasy, rejection, and the darkness:

“Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.

“Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.”–Mic. 3: 6, 7.

This prophecy covers a time of complete apostasy; “all” were under the ban; the experience of revelation was to cease; there was to be “no answer of God.”

John Wesley describes the time of, and reason for, the fulfillment of this prophecy:

“We seldom hear of them (manifestations of the gifts) after that fatal period when the Emperor Constantine called himself a Christian. . . .From this time they almost totally ceased. The cause of this was not (as has been vulgarly supposed), ‘because there was no more occasion for them,’ because all the world was become Christian. The real cause was, ‘the love of many,’ almost of all Christians, so-called, was ‘waxed cold.’ The Christians had no more of the Spirit of Christ than the other heathens. . . . This was the real cause, why the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were no longer to be found in the Christian church, because the Christians were turned heathen again, and had only a dead form left.”–John Wesley, Sermon 94.

In the conditions that arose in the Dark Ages can we not discern these times that the holy prophets have foreseen? Baptism, which was always by immersion (Matt. 3:16; John 3:23; Acts 8:38; Rom. 6:4), had been altered to sprinkling. The prequisites for this ordinance–faith and repentance (Matt. 28:19, 20; Acts 8:12; 2:38)–were now ignored: infants, incapable of either faith or repentance, were now being sprinkled. The ordinance of the blessing of children by the laying on of hands (Matt. 19:13-17; Mark 10:13-16) was completely set aside. Disregarding the warning of Paul (Gal. 1:6-8) the church boldly taught “another gospel,” one which varied from the pure truth of Christ who said of little children, “Of such is the kingdom of heaven.” No longer were men being “called of God as was Aaron” (Heb. 5:4). (In Aaron’s day a living prophet had received revelation by which the office of Aaron was designated, as well as God’s choice of this man to function in this office. This is recorded in Exodus 28: 1, 2.)

Men had “heaped to themselves teachers” such as monks, nuns, friars, and cardinals–officers never mentioned in any Scripture. “Fables,” such as described by the historian Mosheim, now replaced the pure teachings of Christ:

“During this (seventh) century true religion lay buried under a senseless mass of superstition, and was unable to raise her head. The earlier Christians had worshiped only God and His Son; but those called Christians in this century worshiped the wood of a cross, the image of Holy men, and bones of dubious origin.”–Mosheim’s Ecclesiastical History, Fourth American Edition, p.250.

Surely men had “transgressed the laws” and “changed the ordinance”; surely there could be “no answer of God” to an organization in such conditions of superstition and rebellion and willfulness!

Reformation: a Partial Solution

As tragic as the Dark Ages were with their conditions of rebellion and rejection, a bright time appeared. About the beginning of the fifteenth century a number of men arose who began to examine the Scriptures. They were astounded at the distorted teachings and superstitions such as described, and began attempts to cleanse the church from within and restore it to primitive Christian teachings. Of such men Martin Luther is perhaps typical.

Luther was a priest of the dominant church; but when he saw the errors and malpractices, he vigorously protested to higher officials. So great, however, were the forces of entrenched indifference that his protests and appeals were disregarded for a time. As Luther became bolder, and his protests became more public, censure was heaped upon him and he was harassed by the church. Increasing numbers of men and women followed him rather than remain and support the errors which they now recognized. These numbers soon swelled beyond Luther’s personal ability to minister to them; other ministers were ordained to assist him. In this way a new church was brought into existence.

Not only was this Luther’s experience but this was the experience of other reformers who arose about the same time. While we must admire the sacrifice of these fearless men and acknowledge the good that they did, we must also recognize the fact that they did not see eye to eye with each other: a multiplicity of conflicting churches and creeds appeared. Such conditions of confusion and division are out of harmony with the prayer of our Lord:

“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

“That they all may be one ; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.”–John 17:20, 21.

Mr. Alexander Campbell (a reformer of the early 1800's), for example, noted the failures and imperfections in the existing churches and pointed to the perfect goal, when he wrote:

“We argue that all Christian sects are more or less apostatized from the institutions of the Savior: that by all the obligations of the Christian religion, they that fear and love the Lord are bound to return to the ancient order of things, in spirit and truth.”–Alexander Campbell, The Christian Baptist, Vol. 5, p. 402.

Few of the reformers had claimed divine authority for their work. Mr. Campbell again confesses, and his confession is typical of others, that such human efforts cannot be satisfactory:

“We have to pattern after the first church as well as we can. But we can never equal it. With all our efforts, the great disparity will ever remain. And could the Apostles and primitive Christians be here, they would doubtless weep at beholding it.”–Alexander Campbell, Millennial Harbinger, Vol. 5, p. 40.

With such human failures apparent, Mr. Campbell expressed a hope for:

“. . . some new revelation, or some new development of the revelation of God . . . .We want the old gospel back, and sustained by the ancient order of things.”–Alexander Campbell, The Christian System, p. 250.

Others, too, saw the failures of “Reformation.” Mr. Roger Williams, the founder of the first Baptist church to be established in America, believed that a direct restoration of divine authority was needed. Of him it is written:

“On his return from England he refrained from fellowship with the church, and lived in an isolated religious condition, preaching the gospel to the Indians, as he found opportunity, but refusing to participate in the ordinances. He had embraced a singular notion, which is thus stated by one of his biographers: ‘He denied that any ministry now exists which is authorized to preach the gospel to the impenitent, or to administer the ordinances.’ ”–J. M. Cramp, Baptist History, p. 461.

Long before, in apostolic days, Paul had written:

“And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.”–Heb. 5:4.

God is unchangeable, Mr. Williams believed, and divine revelation to a living prophet is as much needed today as it was at that ancient time. If the church of Jesus Christ is needed, then it is needed in its perfection. Thus it is written of him that:

“He conceived that the apostasy of Antichrist hath so far corrupted all, that there can be no recovery out of that apostasy, till Christ shall send forth new apostles to plant churches anew.”–Struggles and Triumphs of Religious Liberty, pp. 238, 239.

Charles Wesley, the great hymn writer of the Methodist movement, saw the need for divine guidance and the re-establishment of Christ’s church. In one of his beautiful prayer hymns he pleads:

Almighty God of love,

Set up the attracting sign,

And summon whom thou dost approve

For messengers divine.

From favored Abraham’s seed

The new apostles choose,

In isles and continents to spread

The soul-reviving news.

His brother, John Wesley, shared his hopes and believed that the time was nearing when such a restoration would take place. He asked:

“What could God have done which he hath not done, to convince you that the day is coming, that the time is at hand, when he will fulfill his glorious promises; when he will arise and maintain his own cause, and to set up his kingdom over all the earth?”–John Wesley, Wesley’s Sermons, Vol. 2, p. 98.

The Reformation movement fulfilled the prophetic prediction of Amos (8:12), for surely its leaders did “wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east.” These men did “run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord,” but true to God’s warning they did “not find it.” They could not find the truth for it was not upon the earth. As many of these good men recognized–only God could restore it!

The Assurance of Prophecy

All of the leaders of the Reformation were students of the Scriptures, and although they acknowledged the failures of their human efforts, they knew the promises of God of restoration:

“For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.”–Isa. 60:2.

They knew that in their day these events had not been accomplished, but they looked forward to the time when:

“. . . it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left. . . .

“And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.”–Isa. 11:11, 12.

Other promises equally as clear had not been fulfilled: a reformation had been accomplished by their effort; a restoration was to take place by divine initiative:

“And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred and tongue, and people.”–Rev. 14:6.

Those reformers knew a complete apostasy had taken place: no nation, kindred, tongue, or people possessed the fullness of the gospel; hence an angel had to restore this to earth. No reformer claimed such authority for the organization of his church, but the promise of such a restoration by angelic ministry is clear.

The prophecies of the Bible clearly state that there was to be a falling away, a transgressing of the laws, a changing of the ordinance, a heaping to themselves of teachers, a turning to fables. The record of history clearly shows that these prophecies were fulfilled in the Dark Ages. The reformers played their part by clearing away some of the debris of apostasy, but they did not claim a restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Lamenting their feeble efforts they looked forward to a time of glorious restoration of the gospel, a hope that was inspired by prophetic promise but a hope that was not fulfilled in their day. Should it be our lot to find this church of Jesus Christ, restored of heaven as promised of God and anticipated by these good men, humble though it may be in its commencement, may it be our choice to enter it and, laboring with God, assist him in the consummation of all his righteous purposes.

____________

For additional information and literature, contact:

Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

700 West Lexington Avenue

Independence, MO 64050

Tele (816) 461-7215

FAX (816) 461-7278