The Great Controversy: the Waldenses

October 23, 2023

…a three minute read, I will be sharing this on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays – as well as What’s the difference on the last Saturday of the month

The Great Controversy:
the Waldenses
~ Reformation in Europe begins ~

“Amid the gloom that settled upon the earth during the long period of papal supremacy, the light of truth could not be wholly extinguished. In every age there were witnesses for God—men who cherished faith in Christ as the only mediator between God and man, who held the Bible as the only rule of life, and who hallowed the true Sabbath. How much the world owes to these men, posterity will never know. They were branded as heretics, their motives impugned, their characters maligned, their writings suppressed, misrepresented, or mutilated. Yet they stood firm, and from age to age maintained their faith in its purity, as a sacred heritage for the generations to come.”

“The history of God’s people during the ages of darkness that followed upon Rome’s supremacy is written in heaven, but they have little place in human records. Few traces of their existence can be found, except in the accusations of their persecutors. It was the policy of Rome to obliterate every trace of dissent from her doctrines or decrees. Everything heretical, whether persons or writings, she sought to destroy. Expressions of doubt, or questions as to the authority of papal dogmas, were enough to forfeit the life of rich or poor, high or low. Rome endeavored also to destroy every record of her cruelty toward dissenters. Papal councils decreed that books and writings containing such records should be committed to the flames. Before the invention of printing, books were few in number, and in a form not favorable for preservation; therefore there was little to prevent the Romanists from carrying out their purpose.”

~ No church within the limits of Romish jurisdiction was long left undisturbed in the enjoyment of freedom of conscience
~ No sooner had the papacy obtained power than she stretched out her arms to crush all that refused to acknowledge her sway, and one after another the churches submitted to her dominion
~ In Great Britain, primitive Christianity had very early taken root
~ The gospel received by the Britons in the first centuries was then uncorrupted by Romish apostasy
~ Persecution from pagan emperors, which extended even to these far-off shores, was the only gift that the first churches of Britain received from Rome
~ Many of the Christians, fleeing from persecution in England, found refuge in Scotland (this is slightly before Christians started fleeing to America to escape persecution, which is covered in another chapter)
~ thence the truth was carried to Ireland, and in all these countries it was received with gladness
~ Christians were forced to retreat to the mountains and the wild moors when Saxons invaded Britain
~But Rome had fixed her eyes on Britain, resolving to bring it under her supremacy
~In the sixth century Britian’s missionaries undertook the conversion of the heathen Saxons. 
~ They were received with favor by the proud barbarians
~ many thousands to profess the Romish faith
~ As the work progressed, the papal leaders and their converts encountered the primitive Christians

 “If you will not receive brethren who bring you peace, you shall receive enemies who will bring you war.
If you will not unite with us in showing the Saxons the way of life,
you shall receive from them the stroke of death.”
~ said the Romish leader
(J. H. Merle D’Aubigne, History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century)

the Waldensian Christians

~ refused to yield to the authority of pope or prelate
~ determined to maintain their allegiance to God and to preserve the purity and simplicity of their faith
~  A separation took place: those who adhered to the ancient faith now withdrew, some, forsaking their native Alps, raised the banner of truth in foreign lands, others retreated to the secluded glens and rocky fastnesses of the mountains, and there preserved their freedom to worship God
~ the faith which for centuries was held and taught by the Waldensian Christians (learn religions) was in marked contrast to the false doctrines put forth from Rome
~  founded upon the written word of God, the true system of Christianity
~ their religious belief was their inheritance from their fathers
~ they contended for the faith of the apostolic church

Jude 3-5 (NKJV)
Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation,
I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith
which was once for all delivered to the saints. 
⁴ For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation,
ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness
and deny the only Lord ^[a]God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Old and New Apostates

⁵ But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord,
having saved the people out of the land of Egypt,
afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

[a] NU omits God

“The church in the wilderness,” and not the proud hierarchy enthroned in the world’s great capital,
was the true church of Christ, the guardian of the treasures of truth
which God has committed to His people to be given to the world.”

~ the Waldenses were among the first of the peoples of Europe to obtain a translation of the Holy Scriptures, in their native tongue
~ they declared the Church of Rome to be the apostate Babylon of the Apocalypse, and at the peril of their lives they stood up to resist her corruptions
~ the church of Rome declared the Waldenses as heretics, to be crushed as snakes

source: The Great Controversy: the Waldenses

Events found on this timeline:

• The Cross (timeline)
• The Apostles (timeline)
• Jerusalem destroyed
• Persecution (first centuries)
• An era of spiritual darkness begins
• Reformation in Europe begins
• The Mayflower

Bible Timelines: The Great Controversy: BibleTimeLines.com…

hope you have a great day!
thanks for stopping by!!