Birth of a Reformation; Or, The Life and Labors of Daniel S. Warner — John Shaqi
Birth of a Reformation; Or, The Life and Labors of Daniel S. WarnerByers, A. L. (Andrew L.)
Religion
Birth of a Reformation; Or, The Life and Labors of Daniel S. Warner
Byers, A. L. (Andrew L.)
Church of God (Anderson, Ind.) -- History; Warner, D. S. (Daniel Sidney), 1842-1895
We have shown why sects are bad in rather a negative light, as
being confusion and therefore a hindrance to proper Christian
representation in the world. They are evil in a more positive sense,
and it was because of this that God prompted Brother Warner and
others in the reform to utter such sharp judgment against them. Any
body of Christian people that arises and fails to qualify on all
principles that mark the church of God as a whole, that proceeds to
human organization and rule instead of recognizing only Holy Spirit
organization and government, at once limits itself and becomes
thereby a sect, a false representation of the church. As a false
church it is soon a corrupt institution in which human pride and
every element contrary to God may exist and become active. The human
will, intended for the rule of our bodies and things terrestrial,
things which belong to man's province, becomes sadly out of place
when exercised in any sphere or capacity that belongs to God. In
such sphere it becomes a rival of God, a monster evil of great
proportions, a distinctive satanic spirit, always opposing the true
work of God.
BEASTLY CHARACTER IN PROPHECY
This man rule in a province to which God alone has rightful claim
(for indeed it exercises the prerogative of God when it presumes
to direct God's work and people) has characterized all Protestant
sectism just as it did Roman Catholicism, only in milder aspect.
Man rule is represented in prophetic symbols by beastly character,
whether it applies to political or ecclesiastical government. Thus
in the 7th chapter of Daniel we have the symbols of four great
beasts, representing in their respective order four universal
kingdoms, as follows: Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. These
were temporal powers that ruled the world. When a mere temporal
power is indicated the prophetic symbol used is a dumb beast. If
a beast or any part of such symbol is represented as speaking or
exercising human propensities, then the thing indicated is also
an ecclesiastical power. Thus the fourth beast in Daniel 7, which
represents the Roman Empire, exercises first as a dumb animal; but
directly a particular horn appears among the horns of this beast,
and is given eyes to see and a mouth to speak great things, which
indicates ecclesiastical exercise, so that we have here Rome first
as a heathen power, and then as a so-called Christian power speaking
great things, making war against the saints, etc.
In Revelation 13 we find this same Roman Catholic power represented
by a beast to whom was given "a mouth speaking great things and
blasphemies" and power "to make war with the saints and to overcome
them." These anthropomorphic qualities given to a beast indicate man
rule in ecclesiastical matters, a thing which is at once blasphemy in
God's sight, utterly obnoxious and foreign to him.
PROTESTANTISM IN REVELATION 13
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