But what of the Catholic argument that there has been an unbroken line of authority from Peter to Leo XIII.; and running parallel with that line of authority a continuation of all that is essential to the Gospel, both in doctrine1 and ordinances2? My reply is: "Of what avail is argument in the face of facts which contradict it? The facts of both history and prophecy are against the contention4 that there has been such a line of divine authority, accompanied by a continuation of all the essentials of the Gospel; and therefore, the argument is worthless. But that we may see how weak the argument is in itself, let us examine it.
"Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost * * * And lo I am with you to the end of the world."[1] On this Catholic writers remark: "Now the event has proved * * * that the apostles themselves were only to live the ordinary term of man's life; therefore the commission of preaching and ministering together with the promise of the divine assistance, regards the successors of the apostles, no less than the apostles themselves. This proves that there must have been an uninterrupted series of such successors of the apostles, in every age since their time; that is to say, successors to their doctrines5, to their jurisdiction6, to their orders, and to their mission."[2] Cardinal7 Gibbons, commenting on the same passage says: "This sentence contains three important declarations: 1st, the presence of Christ with His Church, 'behold8, I am with you;' 2nd, His constant presence without an interval9 of one day's absence, 'I am with you all days;' 3rd, His perpetual presence to the end of the world, and consequently the perpetual duration of the church, 'even to the consummation of the world.' Hence it follows that the true church must have existed from the beginning; it must have had not one day's interval of suspended animation10, or separation from Christ, and must live to the end of time."[3]
Of the conclusion here arrived at, it is only necessary to say that it is founded upon an assumption. Look again at the passage upon which the argument is based, in connection with its context. "Then the eleven disciples11 went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying: All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth, Go ye therefore, and teach all nations; * * * and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."[4] It will be seen that the promise was to the eleven apostles, not to the church. To say that this promise "regards the successors of the apostles no less than the apostles themselves," is an assumption unwarranted by the text; and it is upon that assumption that the Rev12. John Milner and other Catholic writers, base their conclusions that the word of Jesus is pledged to an uninterrupted continuation of His church in the earth.
The argument of Cardinal Gibbons is still worse than that of Dr. Milner. He says the promise of Jesus to the apostles contains three important declarations, the first of which is: "The presence of Christ with His church." This is worse than assumption. The learned Cardinal has written "church," where he should have written "apostles;" and therefore the conclusion he reached, namely, the perpetual duration of the church, is based upon a misstatement; and as the premises13 upon which the argument is based are untrue, the conclusion is false.
The argument by Catholics is thought to be invulnerable, because the promise of Jesus to be with the apostles to the end of the world is impossible of fulfillment, unless it "regarded the successors of the apostles no less than the apostles themselves." But to be with their successors is not being with the apostles. Hence the device arranged by Catholics for the fulfillment of this promise of the Lord, misses its purpose altogether. Moreover, there is no need of such device to explain how the promise of Jesus could be fulfilled. "In my Father's house," said he, addressing these same men, "are many mansions14: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, * * * that where I am there ye may be also;"[5] And there they are with Jesus in the place he prepared for them, and they will continue to be with him even unto the end of the world.
No less erroneous is the Catholic argument for the uninterrupted continuation of the church of Christ on earth, based on the passage in the sixteenth chapter of Matthew, when Jesus in the course of a conversation with Peter says to him: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." "By this promise," says a foot-note on this passage in the Douay Bible—the version accepted by the Catholic Church,—"we are fully15 assured that neither idolatry, heresy16, nor any pernicious error whatever, shall at any time prevail over the church of Christ." "Our blessed Lord clearly intimates here," says Cardinal Gibbons, "that the church is destined17 to be assailed18 always but to be overcome never."[6] The argument of Catholics is, that if the great apostasy19 took place which, as we have seen, is clearly predicted in the scriptures20, and, as I believe, confirmed by the facts already presented to the reader in this volume, then the express promise of Jesus Christ that the gates of hell should not prevail against His church has failed. "If the prediction of our Savior about the preservation22 of His church from error be false, then Jesus Christ is not God, since God cannot lie. He is not even a prophet, since he predicted falsehood. Nay23, he is an imposter, and all Christianity is a miserable25 failure, and a huge deception26, since it rests on a false prophet."[7]
This argument and its conclusion is based upon too narrow a conception of the Church of Christ. That church exists not only on earth, but in heaven; not only in time, but in eternity27. It has not been prevailed against, because men on earth have departed from it; corrupted28 its doctrines, changed its ordinances, transgressed29 its laws. The Church of Christ in heaven, consisting of "an innumerable company of angels—the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven—"[8] the church there has been far beyond the reach of the powers of hell; and ultimately here on earth it shall be triumphant30. To repeat an illustration I before used: Truth may lose a single battle, it may lose two or three, and yet be victorious31 in the war. So with the Church of Christ: many of those enrolled32 as its members may be stricken down by cruel persecution33; those remaining may capitulate with the enemy, and by compromises betray the cause of Christ, and put him to an open shame. Repose34 and luxury, the reward of the above perfidy35, may bring in such floods of wickedness that virtue36 can scarce be found among men, and no abiding37 place found on earth for the church of the Redeemer. That church, however, still exists in heaven, in all the glory of the general assembly of the firstborn; and from time to time dispensation after dispensation of the gospel will be sent from thence to the children of men, until a people shall be found who will remain true to all its doctrines, accept its ordinances, obey its precepts38, preserve its institutions, and the Church of Christ everywhere become triumphant as well on earth as in heaven. The promise of the Lord Jesus will not fail—the gates of hell will not finally prevail against his church.
The reader's faith in the above view will doubtless be strengthened if I remind him that the apostasy contended for in the foregoing pages, is not the first time in the experience of men that the gospel has been taken from among them. It is written by Paul that, "the scripture21 foreseeing that God would justify39 the heathen through faith preached before the gospel unto Abraham."[9] A little further on the apostle asks: "Wherefore then serveth the law?" Referring to the law of Moses. That is to say, if the gospel was preached unto Abraham, wherefore serveth the law of Moses? His answer is, "It was added because of transgression40 till the seed should come, to whom the promise was made * * * Wherefore the law was our school master to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified41 by faith."[10] Having in the third chapter of his epistles to the Hebrews referred to the dealings of God with the children of Israel in the wilderness42, and having in the opening verse of the fourth chapter warned the saints against similar sins to those committed by Israel, Paul says: "For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them [ancient Israel], but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it." The only conclusion to be drawn43 from these passages is this: In very ancient times the Gospel was introduced among men; but because of their disinclination or inability to keep its laws and live in harmony with its precepts—"because of transgression," it was taken from among them. God, however, not willing to leave His children utterly44 without light, gave unto them a less exalted45 law—the law of carnal commandments. A law better suited to their condition, wherein were forms and ceremonies foreshadowing things to come, designed to act as a school master to bring the people to Christ.
Taking away the gospel from the earth, then, is not a new thing; not a thing peculiar46 to the first centuries of the Christian24 era. It had been done before when transgression led the people to depart from its ordinances and disregard its precepts. So, too, after the introduction of the gospel by the personal ministry47 of the Son of God, when men transgressed its laws, and corrupted its teachings and ordinances by their vain and foolish fancies, or by their efforts to modify it to make it acceptable to a pagan nation, because of transgression, it was taken from among them. Not abruptly48. Not in such a sense as that the Christians49 some night in the third century all laid down to sleep good, faithful saints and awoke next morning stripped of the Gospel and turned pagans. No; but as the elders and bishops50 who held divine authority were destroyed by persecution, or passed away by natural death, the people with each succeeding generation growing worse and worse, and less and less worthy51 of the gospel—false teachers without authority from God usurped52 power, corrupted the gospel and the church until the false displaced the true, and anti-Christ sat in the temple of God.
Nothing remained but fragments of the gospel; here a doctrine and there a principle, like single stones fallen and rolled away from the ruined wall; but no one able to tell where they belonged in the structure, and so many of the stones missing that to reconstruct the wall with what remains53 is out of the question.
The fragmentary accounts of the gospel, as recorded by some of the apostles, and their associates, is all that was left to the world. All! But this was much. It has stood to the people since the days of the great apostasy as the law of carnal commandments did to Israel after the transgression which occasioned the gospel to be taken from them. Those fragments of the truth, however disconnected, have been as the light of the moon and the stars to the night traveler; not the sunlight, indeed, which makes so clear the way, but light which, however dim, is still better than absolute darkness; and will, I trust, yet lead many of our Father's children into the sunlight of Christ's restored gospel.
It will not be necessary to examine at length the Protestant argument, viz.: The gospel had been corrupted, and buried under the rubbish of idolatry for ages it is true, but the "Reformers" of the sixteenth century cleared away the rubbish and brought to light again the gospel, and restored the Church of Christ in all its simplicity54 of organization, and efficacy of power. Of this one need only say that the gospel having been taken from the earth, and divine authority lost, the only way for their restoration is through the re-opening of the heavens and the committing of a new dispensation thereof to men. As this answers the argument, it is only necessary to prove that Protestants admit the apostasy.
Luther said of himself, "At first I stood alone." Calvin in his epistle says: "The first Protestants were obliged to break off from the whole world."[11] The editor of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, the Rev. H. H. Milman, a Protestant divine, writes in his preface to that book: "It is idle, it is disingenuous55 to deny or to dissemble the early depravations of Christianity, its gradual and rapid departure from its primitive56 simplicity, still more from its spirit of universal love."
The reader is already acquainted with the declaration of Wesley that the Christians had turned heathens again and only had a dead form of faith left.[12]
In Smith's Dictionary of the Bible—the work is endorsed57 by sixty-three learned divines and Bible scholars—the following occurs: "We must not expect to see the Church of Christ existing in its perfection on the earth. It is not to be found thus perfect, either in the collected fragments of Christendom, or still less in any one of those fragments."[13]
Roger Williams refused to continue as pastor58 over the oldest Baptist Church in America on the ground that there was no regularly constituted church on earth, nor any person authorized59 to administer any church ordinance3; "nor can there be until new apostles are sent by the great head of the church for whose coming I am seeking."[14] Alexander Campbell, founder60 of the sect61 of the "Disciples," says: "The meaning of this institution (the kingdom of heaven) has been buried under the rubbish of human tradition for hundreds of years. It was lost in the dark ages and has never, until recently been disinterred."[15]
And lastly, that greatest of all Protestant sects62, the Church of England in its homily on the Perils63 of Idolatry, says: "Laity64 and clergy65, learned and unlearned, all ages and sects and degrees have been drowned in abominable66 idolatry, most detested67 by God and damnable to man, for eight hundred years and more."
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
doctrine
|
|
| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
ordinances
|
|
| n.条例，法令( ordinance的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
ordinance
|
|
| n.法令；条令；条例 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
contention
|
|
| n.争论，争辩，论战；论点，主张 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
doctrines
|
|
| n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 )；教义；学说；（政府政策的）正式声明 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
jurisdiction
|
|
| n.司法权，审判权，管辖权，控制权 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
cardinal
|
|
| n.(天主教的)红衣主教；adj.首要的，基本的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
behold
|
|
| v.看，注视，看到 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
interval
|
|
| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
animation
|
|
| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
disciples
|
|
| n.信徒( disciple的名词复数 )；门徒；耶稣的信徒；（尤指）耶稣十二门徒之一 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
rev
|
|
| v.发动机旋转，加快速度 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
premises
|
|
| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
mansions
|
|
| n.宅第，公馆，大厦( mansion的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
fully
|
|
| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
heresy
|
|
| n.异端邪说；异教 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
destined
|
|
| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
assailed
|
|
| v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 )；困扰；质问；毅然应对 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
apostasy
|
|
| n.背教，脱党 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
scriptures
|
|
| 经文，圣典( scripture的名词复数 )； 经典 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
scripture
|
|
| n.经文，圣书，手稿；Scripture:(常用复数)《圣经》，《圣经》中的一段 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
preservation
|
|
| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
nay
|
|
| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
Christian
|
|
| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
miserable
|
|
| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
deception
|
|
| n.欺骗，欺诈；骗局，诡计 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
eternity
|
|
| n.不朽，来世；永恒，无穷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
corrupted
|
|
| （使）败坏( corrupt的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
transgressed
|
|
| v.超越( transgress的过去式和过去分词 )；越过；违反；违背 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
triumphant
|
|
| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
victorious
|
|
| adj.胜利的，得胜的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
enrolled
|
|
| adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
persecution
|
|
| n. 迫害,烦扰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
repose
|
|
| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
perfidy
|
|
| n.背信弃义，不忠贞 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
virtue
|
|
| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
abiding
|
|
| adj.永久的，持久的，不变的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
precepts
|
|
| n.规诫，戒律，箴言( precept的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
justify
|
|
| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
transgression
|
|
| n.违背；犯规；罪过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
justified
|
|
| a.正当的，有理的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
wilderness
|
|
| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
utterly
|
|
| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
exalted
|
|
| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
peculiar
|
|
| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
ministry
|
|
| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
abruptly
|
|
| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
Christians
|
|
| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
bishops
|
|
| （基督教某些教派管辖大教区的）主教( bishop的名词复数 )； （国际象棋的）象 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
worthy
|
|
| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
usurped
|
|
| 篡夺，霸占( usurp的过去式和过去分词 )； 盗用； 篡夺，篡权 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
remains
|
|
| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
simplicity
|
|
| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
disingenuous
|
|
| adj.不诚恳的，虚伪的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
primitive
|
|
| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
endorsed
|
|
| vt.& vi.endorse的过去式或过去分词形式v.赞同( endorse的过去式和过去分词 )；在（尤指支票的）背面签字；在（文件的）背面写评论；在广告上说本人使用并赞同某产品 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
pastor
|
|
| n.牧师，牧人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
authorized
|
|
| a.委任的，许可的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
Founder
|
|
| n.创始者，缔造者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
sect
|
|
| n.派别，宗教，学派，派系 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
sects
|
|
| n.宗派，教派( sect的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
perils
|
|
| 极大危险( peril的名词复数 )； 危险的事（或环境） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
laity
|
|
| n.俗人；门外汉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
clergy
|
|
| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
abominable
|
|
| adj.可厌的，令人憎恶的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
detested
|
|
| v.憎恶，嫌恶，痛恨( detest的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |