51
The Revelation of Jesus Christ
church back to God's Word. But instead of repenting, they excommunicated him, and sought not only to put him to death, but also to destroy all who left the fold of Romanism. We owe our privilege of studying the Word of God and worshipping according to the dictates of our conscience to Luther and to those brave spirits who, like him, were ready to die for their faith. And yet, strange to say, there are ac tually Protestants in the world today who are talking about a union with the system which tried to stamp out those who believed in the "freedom to worship God" according to their own conscience! Remember this-if the Protestant Church ever goes back into the arms of the Roman Catholic Church, she will have to leave her faith behind her, for Rome never changes. "I gave her space to repent," says the Son of God, " ... and she repented not." Because she repented not, the Lord Jesus added the searching words recorded by John in Rev. 2:22, 23: "Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death." Who are the chil dren of the papacy? They are those Protestants who "have a name to live" but have never been regenerated by the Spirit of God. In the day when all true believers will be caught up "to meet the Lord in the air" all who do not know God are going to be left to go through the great tribulation. ''.But unto you," our Lord encourages the faithful ones, "unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak, I will put upon you none other bur den. But that which ye have already hold fast till I come" (2:24, 25). There were those in Thyatira who walked the pathway of separation; they were not led away by strange doctrines. And so it was in the period which Thyatira represents. Luther and others like him separated themselves from the Roman Catholic System, and dared death itself to walk in the pathway which was pointed out to them in the Word of God. To such as these the risen Lord held out "that blessed hope" of His coming again as "the bright and morning star," to take the true church unto Himself before the great tribula-
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