King's Business - 1921-06

Protestantism! Breakers Akead! How Romanism is Creeping Into the Church, Especially in England, and Increasing Here

B$ REV. W. ARNOLD BENNETT

S - hif t .T, m ight th e worthy Apostle to the Gentiles exclaim in this generation, “ O foolish P ro t­ estants, who h ath bewitched you?” Only once.- is th is significantly means, “ To fascinate w ith the evil eye.” To th e sp iritu a l and B ible-taught be­ liever it is a m atter of accepted revela­ tion th a t th is dispensation shall culmin­ ate in th e human aspect in— a. F alling away from The Truth, b. Abounding w ith False Teachers. >c. P revalent secession to th e “Mother of H a rlo ts!” T hat we are in the day of apostasy, of th e superabundance of false teachers, and S atan ’s transform ed m inisters of righteousness, we are more th a n aware. But nevertheless, even in th e face of th e terrib le sp iritual declension of th e times it has been difficult to imagine the literal fulfilment of Revelation 17,— ; th e fdreview of Ecclesiastical Babylon, “The G reat Whore,” or th e Roman Church which is yet to be. TO make the' education and mental cu ltu re of our p resen t age subject to th e crude superstitions and b la ta n t idol­ atries of th e Roman Catholic Church has been though t an u tte r impossibility. ' To suggest Tor one moment th a t th e story of the R eform ation would ever be forgotten, and th a t th e m arty r fires would ever be re-lit, or th e Office of Inquisition would ever be re-established, would be to suggest something which would be instantly and indignantly re­ pudiated by the “ enlightened” modern; in fact, by all. But let it be remembered, God never

errs in H is prognostications, and how­ ever improbable a foreview may seem th ere is" only one infallible prover of all things— time. Time, then, comes on th e scene today, long afte r th e fires of martyrdom have died out and the Inqui­ sition has become a m a tte r of history, and tells us w ith astonishing confidence and indisputable evidence th a t P rotes­ tan tism is crumbling to dust about our very heads. T h at th e dreaded Evil Eye of the Church of Rome is fascinating even the leaders of the descendants of th e noble Reformers and Martyrs. That leading m inisters of outstanding de­ nom inations are hovering like th e fated butterfly around the candle flame of Rome. The P ro testan t churches having al­ ways considered themselves impregnably established behind the bulw arks of Holy Scripture, awake today to find th a t they have been betrayed by tra ito rs w ithin th eir own camp who are cleaving th a t divine bulw ark w ith Destructive C riti­ cism, and th a t Romish practices and u t­ terances have opened th e way for the wholesale inroads of the Seven-hilled Enemy of T ruth. It h as been a m a tte r of ordinary in terest and observation for a genera­ tion now th a t th e re is a certain portion of th e Episcopal Church of England which is Roman Catholic in everything b u t name. T h at a section of clergy should introduce and prom ulgate the distinctive tenets and practices of th e Roman H ier­ archy has been described as “ a scandal to religion and a cause of weakness to th e Church of England.” T h at weak­ ness, now th a t the older generation of evangelical m inisters has passed away, is fu lly evident when statistics conclu-

_ _ _ _ _ Greek word for “ bew itch” used (Gal. 3 :1 ) ' and then

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