| We live in a time of shameless and vain confessionism
which is most often performed in the name of political, religious, or personal expediency.
This was brought to mind recently by the Supreme Court decision that female government
workers should be compensated the wages they lost due to discrimination. If the government
decides not to challenge this decision, which once again shows us who is truly running
this country, I am sure we will have to tolerate the pious confessions, all the while they
are taking from the pockets of all Canadians the billions of dollars required to make
their confessions noble! If the government is truly guilty of holding back due wages I
would think that this would be considered a criminal act and that someone should be going
to jail. How much easier to make these financial awards which cost the offender nothing.
What ever happened to contractual law? Did not the offended members agree to work for the
wages received? This
decision, of course, is just one in a series of confessions. My thoughts couldn’t
help but drift to the confession the confession the Catholic Church made some time ago, in
the name of religious expediency, namely ecumenicalism, to the Jews for the atrocities
committed against them by the world in general and by the Catholics particularly. At the
last United Church Conference I noted a similar apology being issued to the Jewish
community also.
Stephen stoned outside
Jerusalem, 34 AD
Conspicuous by it’s
absence is an apology to the Christian community at large, especially from that of the
Catholic Church who has spilled much of her blood as I alluded to in my last article.
I’m not seeking an apology for indeed this absence is to be expected according to the
testimony of God’s word. The world truly hates God’s people and so this
indifference to their sufferings only solidifies my belief that the peoples to whom I am
related spiritually were indeed the true church, and that we are the continuation of the
New Testament church of which Jesus Christ said, "I will build my church, and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
I want to undertake over the next couple of issues to present the
history of the worst, yet mostly forgotten or ignored, persecutions of which the world has
been a witness. Three books have come into my possession of late — "History of
the Waldenses" by J. A. Wylie; "The Trail of Blood" by J. M. Carroll; and
the most astounding, "Martyr’s Mirror" by Thieleman J. van
Braght, which is
over 1100 large pages of personal witness of those who paid with their blood for the
testimony of Jesus Christ. |
|
They
paid with their blood for refusing to shift from the "doctrine" they held dear.
Notably the doctrine of baptism — that it was for believers only, and that it did not
eternally save as is professed among the Catholics and many of her harlot daughters to
this day. How sad it is these days when one hears professing Christians claim to be
seeking peace by not splitting hairs over "doctrine", and that all they want to
do is "love Jesus". To love Jesus is to keep His commandments as He delivered
them. We must therefore contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints (Jude
3). To do else is cowardly!
The history of these persecuted believers is scant. The people to which
I refer have been known as the Donatists, Paterines, Catharists, Paulicians,
Petro-Brussians, Arnoldists, Henricians, Albigenses, Waldenses, and Ana Baptists. The
Catholics possess most of their history, but unfortunately they disseminate the
information of these peoples in very jaundice ways. In fact the reason history is found
little elsewhere is because of the persecutions themselves. During all the period of the
"Dark Ages", and the period of persecution, strenuous efforts were made to
destroy even what Scripture manuscripts the persecuted did possess. Hence, in many
instances these people had only small parts of the Bible. Furthermore, it is well to note
that in order to prevent the spread of any view of any sort, contrary to those of the
Catholics, very extreme plans and measures were employed. First, all writings of any sort,
other than those of the Catholics, were gathered and burned. In a letter from Augustine to
the Donatists Augustine makes a most unusual confession: "If the surrendering of the
sacred books to destruction is a crime which, in the case of the king who burned the book
of Jeremiah, God punished with death as a prisoner of war, how much greater is the guilt
of schism." The Donatists would have nothing to do with the Catholics, which is right
according to the Scriptures wherein the believer is told not to associate with heretics,
nor to permit them into their fellowship, and thus they are accused of being schismatics
by Augustine who yet acknowledges that what he was instrumental in doing was judged
severely by God!
The apostle Peter warned that men would speak against true believers as evil doers but
yet they would not be able to deny their character. St. Bernard led the charge against the
Cathars in 1145 A.D., of whom he said, "No sermons are more Christian than theirs,
and their morals are pure." Nonetheless all the faithful were called upon zealously
to oppose this ‘pest’, and even take up arms against them. Whoever killed a
Cathar was given an indulgence worth two years penance and the protection of the Church as
a crusader. |
