Part 2: FROM APOSTATES TO APOSTLES
While the European world was experiencing a Renaissance in all fronts – science, culture, art and explorations – the field of religious thought was not. The new ideas and inventions spawned by this rebirth were resisted and rejected by religious leaders.
The Church was under the control of powerful political rules and even more powerful families who would not tolerate this freedom of thought. Such thinking was anathema for anyone who attempted it. The result was stagnation and withdrawal because a religion that does not address alternative ways of thinking and acknowledge the current spiritual needs of the people as well as old traditional values, begins a long downwards death spiral. Consequently, scientific and mystic (religious) minds remained on opposite sides of just about every issue, including progress.
Slowly but surely the pressure from the reformers was achieving its intended goal: to break the Church’s iron fist grip on every aspect of every living soul within its long, long reach. Alternative and progressive thinking brought fresh hope to the common folk, whose affairs in this world and in the world to come, depended on people and circumstances they did not understand and over which they had no control.
In spite of all the forces arrayed to stop it, the recovery of lost and disappeared bodies of scriptures began to surface from the murky waters of the past.
Nephi, an ancient American prophet and a descendent of the old prophets of Israel, explained the problem and the need for undefiled records in his prophesies:
And the angel of the Lord said unto me: Thou hast beheld that the book
[The Bible] proceeded
forth from the mouth of a Jew; and when it proceeded forth from the mouth of a
Jew it contained the fulness of the gospel of the Lord, of whom the twelve
apostles bear record; and they bear record according to the truth which is in
the Lamb of God.
Wherefore, these things go forth from the Jews in purity unto the Gentiles,
according to the truth which is in God.
And after they go forth by the hand of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, from
the Jews unto the Gentiles, thou seest the formation of that great and
abominable church, which is most abominable above all other churches; for
behold, they have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many parts which are plain
and most precious; and also many covenants of the Lord have they taken away.
And after these plain and precious things were taken away it goeth forth unto
all the nations of the Gentiles; and after it goeth forth unto all the nations
of the Gentiles… thou seest—because of the many plain and precious things which
have been taken out of the book, which were plain unto the understanding of the
children of men, according to the plainness which is in the Lamb of God—because
of these things which are taken away out of the gospel of the Lamb, an
exceedingly great many do stumble, yea, insomuch that Satan hath great power
over them.
It appears that the books of the Bible (those which the reformerswere left with in the late 1500’s) had been tampered with during the early centuries of the Church under Roman and Greek influences. Many of the original and precious truths had been deleted. Now, with the printing press available, thousands of copies of these altered accounts were being distributed worldwide.
An example of some of the changes that had been made to the ancient writings can be seen in the determination Greek and Roman philosophers had to demystify the mysteries of God. While originally an arm of religion, this philosophy metamorphosed into an irreligious study to find a believable alternative answer to mankind’s existence. The five main fields (Metaphysics, Epistemology, Ethics, Politics, and Aesthetics) soon eclipsed religious thought and influenced it to a point that one could barely tell metaphysics from theology, except for the historical element of the later.
Many of the Church fathers such as Augustine, Pelagious, Origen, Justin Martyr, etc. were heavily influenced by the thinking of the school at Alexandria, and used their arguments to achieve acceptance of the Christian thoughts. It is because of this philosophy, in a large degree, that we find Church Fathers agreeing that God was pure spirit matter and existed everywhere in everything. Therefore, the Church Fathers could not accept the idea that God went places – when he already was in all places.
Also, the church’s views on spirit and physical matters, along with their understanding of God, was badly skewed by Augustine who spent years studying under the Manicheans. Augustine believed that God was pure spirit and abhorred physical matter. His conclusion was that everything spiritual was good, while everything physical was evil.
This approach was problematic. For instance, the birth of Jesus (who was of God status yet born of the woman Mary), became not only impossible but repugnant. Likewise, the resurrection of Jesus was incomprehensible. After struggling all one’s life and enduring the curses of a physical, imperfect and impure body, it was sort of a strange reward that when you finally discarded and rid yourself of it – it was decreed your body would be given back to you to live in for all eternity. Surely, this would be the greatest ironies of all of God’s mysterious ways!
We see the evidence of how deeply rooted this philosophically-sourced concept had become by the formation and acceptance of the Chalcedonian Creed in 451 A.D. This creed attempted a compromise between the scriptures of Christianity and the speculative thoughts of the Greek philosophers.
It is not to understand how the drift from the teachings of Jesus Christ occurred. If Holy Scriptures differed from currently popular and accepted views, it was not the well-educated, popular and prestigious philosophers who miraculously changed their minds. It was, of course, the less-convincing scriptures whose written words could easily be manipulated by less-obvious nip and tucks. Thus, the scribes made wholesale omissions, corrections and additions to help the two sides blend their views.
Fortunately for us, like in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15: 11-32), as soon as we began to repent and show a desire to return to God, he reached out to prepare the way for us to do so…
As the reformers were scrutinizing the Bible for answers regarding contradictory doctrines and commandments, God was preparing for something much bigger. Lost manuscripts, inscriptions on clay and metal were being discovered in numerous, unlikely sites. All this was a forerunner for restoring his gospel and preparing a people to receive their Saviour upon his second arrival.