1. Seven Steps in the Apostasy of the Jewish Church
Foreword—We teach that the symbolic "woman" (or church) of Revelation fled into the "wilderness," where she remained for 1260 years, i. e., from 538 to 1798 A. D. Where, however, was she from 34 to 538 A. D.? Did she exist among the three hundred heretical sects that sprang out of the mother church during those five centuries, or is she to be sought within the ancient apostolic church? Did she have an organization, holding synods and councils of her own, separate from the Catholic Church, during that five-hundred-year period? What distinction should be made between the Ancient Apostolic Catholic Church and the later Roman Catholic Church? Is the temporal sovereignty of the pope a subject of prophecy? Is the supremacy of the pope of the Papacy a subject of prophecy? Is the supremacy of the Papacy as a system of union of church and state a subject of prophecy? What were the successive steps in the apostasy of the early Christian church that led eventually to the Infallibility Decree of the Vatican Council of 1870?
These, and other important questions will receive consideration in the following articles:
In harmony with the promise made to Abraham, God delivered His people from the Egyptian bondage precisely at the expiration of the prophetic time. (See Ex. 12:40, 41.) He placed them on the highway between two continents, that they might be a shining light, radiating God's eternal truth to the surrounding nations. God made the commonwealth of Israel the depositary of His laws and ordinances, declaring that if they would obey His laws and keep His statutes, the people of_ other nations would be convinced of the divine leadership of Israel, and would bear witness that no other nation had such a government as the children of Israel and none were so righteous as they. (See Deut. 4:5-8.)
In order to preserve the Hebrews as a separate nation, the Lord imposed restrictions upon them which would constitute a safeguard just as long as obeyed. The first and most important of these restrictions, naturally, was that under no circumstances were they to form a covenant, or league, with any other nation, nor to intermarry with their peoples. (See Deut. 7:1-7.) This statute, if observed, would forever keep them a distinct nation, with a pure pedigree throughout each tribe of the commonwealth, for neither were the tribes to intermarry. (See Num. 36:1-13.)
1. Seven Steps in the Apostasy of the Jewish Church.
2. The Sevenfold Foundation of the Christian Church.
3. The Ancient Apostolic Catholic Church From Pentecost to 321 A. D.
4. The Roman Catholic Church From 321 to 538 A. D., and Onward.
5. Steps in Apostasy That Led to the Elevation of the Pope of the Papacy.
6. History of the "Woman," or True Church, From Pentecost to 538 A. D.
7. The Western Empire and the Temporal Sovereignty of the Pope.
8. The Golden Era of Papal Supremacy.
9. The Reformation.
10. History of the "Woman," or True Church, From 538 to 1798 A. D.
The historical materials to be furnished in these articles will be drawn from original sources, and authors who quote the sources. The aim of the author is to furnish our workers with irrefutable proofs that substantiate our prophetic interpretation.—EDITORS.
The next important statute given was to regulate business and possession of property. Every fiftieth year was to be a year of jubilee, in which property acquired through buying and selling during the preceding forty-nine years, would return to the original owner in each family. As soon as the year of jubilee was over, buying and selling of real estate and other commodities began again, the prices being regulated by the number of years intervening between the stated years of jubilee. Note the instruction:
"According to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbor, and according unto the number of years of the fruits [crops] he shall sell unto thee: according to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits [crops] doth he sell unto thee." Lev. 25:15, 16. (Read also verses 8-14.)
This was the most effectual law possible against covetousness and extortion. No law enacted in any nation since can be compared to it. The enforcement of that law would serve as a barrier to all monopolies, trusts, or combines. The prices of land and commodities were not regulated by gamblers in stock exchanges, but by the value of the purchased possession, dependent upon the number of crops that could be harvested before the next year of jubilee.
Had the children of Israel kept the commandments of God, religious and civil, and remained separate from the other nations, God would have established them as the foremost nation of the world. (See Deut. 11:20-25.) The government of Israel was a theocracy. That is to say, it was a union of church and state, God making His will known directly through prophets, with divinely appointed religious laws enforced by the state.
First Step.—For about five hundred years, including the sojourn in the wilderness, the people were ruled by judges whom God appointed, but among whom was at least one chosen by the people. During this period they had a checkered experience with the other nations surrounding them. Bondage and freedom alternated. The record says, "The Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan." Judges 4:2. And again, "The Lord raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them." Judges 2:16. Thus we reach the time of Samuel, who was a just judge and well beloved by the people. When, however, he became old, he appointed his sons judges over Israel; but they did not walk in their father's steps in administering justice without fear or favor, but perverted justice by taking bribes, accepting lucre.
In consequence of such a course of action, the people lost confidence in the government, and the elders assembled themselves before Samuel in Ramah, asking him to make them a king who would judge them as the other nations were judged. Samuel received instruction from the Lord to accede to the demand of the people and give them a king, for said He, "They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them." 1 Sam. 8:7. Accordingly, in due time, Saul was anointed by Samuel. David succeeded Saul, and Solomon succeeded David.
It was in the days of Solomon that the prediction came true, which was given to the people by Samuel,—that their kings would make them a military nation,—for the record states that Solomon had a great standing army, and that he gathered silver in Jerusalem as plentiful as the stones in the city. Gold abounded. Solomon also married the daughter of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, thereby transgressing the direct command of God. He also married many women from other nations, who turned his heart from God. Yet, notwithstanding this, the word of God says, "Then Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord as king instead of David his father, and prospered; and all Israel obeyed him." 1 Chron. 29:23. Although the choosing of a king was the first step in apostasy, yet the Lord was still the power behind the throne. (For history of this episode, see 1 Samuel 8; 1 Kings 10 and 11.)
Second Step.—After the death of King Solomon the kingdom was divided between Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, who received two tribes, namely, Judah and Benjamin, and Jeroboam, who became the ruler of ten tribes, called the kingdom of Israel. This happened about 975 B. c. Altogether there were nineteen kings of Israel, covering a period of 253 years, or down to 722 B. c., when that kingdom was carried captive by Sargon into Assyria. The kingdom of Judah still existed. But because of a complete surrender to the worship of paganism, its people were carried captive by Nebuchadnezzar into Babylon in the year 606 B. c. A few years later another contingent went into Babylon, and finally the scepter was removed from Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, about the year 595 B. c. (See Eze. 21:25-27.) The second step was therefore a division of the kingdom, which in turn ended in captivity for both nations.
Third Step.—After they had remained in captivity for seventy years, God restored them to their native land, and a strong company returned to rebuild the city of Jerusalem and the temple of the Lord, in the year 536 B. c. They made slow progress in rebuilding the temple because they were more interested in building their own houses and attending to their own business than in establishing the Lord's work. Messages were sent to them by the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, and after a few years of toil the temple was finished, and later on the city of Jerusalem. However, they had started on their downward course, and the admonitions given to them by the prophets were not heeded; hence the Lord withdrew the gift of the Spirit of prophecy, and with Malachi, the last prophet, the divine voice ceased to give direct instruction to the people. Such was the third step in apostasy.
Fourth Step.--From the death of the last prophet to the time of Christ, about four centuries intervened. This was an era of transition momentous in its consequences. It was an age of intense materialistic, intellectual development. In it were produced the Apocryphal or pseudepigraphic writings. One of the writers of the first-named group of books, the Apocrypha, claimed that his visions were an interpretation of the visions of Daniel the prophet. (See 1 and 2 Esdras.) The pseudepigraphic books were a mixture of pagan, so-called Sibyline, visions and revelations, mingled with human philosophy, borrowed largely from the Grecian oracles, especially as found in the "Book of Enoch," and the "Sibyline Oracles."
This was also an age of apparent religious progress. Schools were established in which a system of Bible interpretation was introduced that was founded upon human authority and tradition. The school of Shammai was conservative, while the school of Hillel was liberal. The nation was divided into different sects, of which the Pharisees and Sadducees and Essenes were the most prominent. From the time of Malachi—about 400 B. c.—to Christ, there was a gradual substitution of human thought and scholarship in the interpretation of the word of God, for the interpretation of the Scriptures as given through the prophets by divine revelation. In other words, human tradition took the place of divine revelation and interpretation. This was the fourth step in apostasy.
Fifth Step.—The Jews suffered severely under the invasions of Antiochus the Great and Antiochus Epiphanes. About the year 163 B. c., under Judas Maccabeus, the Jews made a league with the Romans for mutual protection against further invasions by the enemies of either Rome or of the Jews. The articles of that league were engraved on tablets of brass in Rome, and sent to the Jews in Jerusalem. In these articles, ratified by both nations, the Romans bound themselves to help the Jews in time of war, and the Jews promised to do the same for the Romans. The treaty was renewed at least twice in later years. The forming of this league with Rome was a transgression of God's explicit instruction that they should not make leagues with other nations for help against their enemies. The substitution of human protection for divine protection was therefore the fifth step in apostasy. (For history sources, see 1 and 2 Maccabees.)
Sixth Step.—This league with Rome lasted about one hundred years. But because of political intrigue, the Roman general Pompey deemed it necessary to conquer the Jews, and make the nation a tributary state of Rome. So in the year 63 B. c. they lost their national independence and civil liberty to the Romans. This was the sixth step in apostasy. (See Josephus: "Antiquities," Book 14, chaps. 3, 4.)
Seventh Step.—One event was rapidly following another, and the final step was taken when the Sanhedrin, or council, passed the death sentence upon the Saviour, and later proclaimed, in answer to Pilate's question, "Shall I crucify your King?" "We have no king but Cwsar." John 19:15. When they said, "We have no king but Csar," they formally separated themselves from God, for it was not the voice of single individuals, but the expression or voice and decision of the Jewish church and government, which had the approval of the populace. Thus, in the year 63 B. c. the Jews were conquered by Rome, and in 31 A. D. the Jews rejected Christ, their lawful King, and publicly acknowledged the Roman Cwsar as their king. This was the seventh and final step in Jewish apostasy. (See Matthew 26; John 19.)
Reflections
First.—Notwithstanding the gradual decline in spirituality for a thousand years, the organization—the government of Israel—was still God's acknowledged institution until the government, supported by the vast majority of the people, definitely renounced its allegiance to God and accepted Cwsar as king.
Second.—Notwithstanding the spiritual decline of the nation, there were loyal individuals who served God in purity of heart. For example, in the days of Elijah there were 7,000 who had not bowed to Baal. What the Jews as a nation and as a church failed to do, was performed by true believers within the church in Babylon on the plains of Dura, when Nebuchadnezzar was compelled to acknowledge the God of Israel. The same was done in Media and Persia by the loyalty of Daniel. God preserved the whole organization as such because of these true souls who were the real spiritual church within the commonwealth of Israel.
What bearing all this has upon the birth of Christ by the prophetic "woman" (the church), and the consequent organization of the Christian church, will be dealt with in the next study.
Washington, D. C.
