Protestantism failed to adhere to the principles that were stated during the Protestant Reformation and because of that, the second angel’s message was pronounced against them.
Ellen White describes the foundational principles of the Reformation as follows: “We protest by these presents, before God, our only Creator, Preserver, Redeemer, and Saviour, and who will one day be our Judge, as well as before all men and all creatures, that we, for us and for our people, neither consent nor adhere in any manner whatsoever to the proposed decree, in anything that is contrary to God, to His holy word, to our right conscience, to the salvation of our souls. …
“This word is the only truth; it is the sure rule of all doctrine and of all life, and can never fail or deceive us. He who builds on this foundation shall stand against all the powers of hell, while all the human vanities that are set up against it shall fall before the face of God.” The Great Controversy, 202, 203.
As Jesus, on the walk to Emmaus, directed the minds of the disciples back to the word of God to understand the ministry of Jesus in the sanctuary of the new covenant, so the Protestant reformers also directed the people back to the Bible as the foundation of their faith.
There are two very important, basic principles contained in the protest of the princes. They are recorded as follows: “The principles contained in this celebrated Protest … constitute the very essence of Protestantism. Now this Protest opposes two abuses of man in matters of faith: the first is the intrusion of the civil magistrate, and the second the arbitrary authority of the church. Instead of these abuses, Protestantism sets the power of conscience above the magistrate, and the authority of the word of God above the visible church. In the first place, it rejects the civil power in divine things, and says with the prophets and apostles, ‘We must obey God rather than man’ (Acts 5:29). In presence of the crown of Charles the Fifth, it uplifts the crown of Jesus Christ. But it goes farther: it lays down the principle that all human teaching should be subordinate to the oracles of God.” Ibid., 203, 204.]
The importance of these two principles to the success of the Reformation is emphasized in the following statement: “Had the Reformation, after attaining a degree of success, consented to temporize to secure favor with the world, it would have been untrue to God and to itself, and would thus have ensured its own destruction.” Ibid., 204.
As noted in the following quotation, the Protestant reformers had built on Christ, the word of God: “The Protestant Reformers had built on Christ, and the gates of hell could not prevail against them.” Ibid., 210.
Unfortunately, those that followed did not continue to maintain the high standards set by the reformers. The following statement confirms that in later years these new leaders departed from their foundation of truth: “In our time there is a wide departure from their [the reformers] doctrines and precepts, and there is need of a return to the great Protestant principle—the Bible, and the Bible only, as the rule of faith and duty.” Ibid., 204, 205.
There is a prophecy about these Protestant churches in the book of Revelation in the message to the Sardis church, which represents the period of church history from the Reformation to the opening of the great second-advent movement. Revelation 3:1, 2 states: “To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.”
The early reformers were “alive” to Christ (the Truth), but as new leaders came in, they began departing from the word of God, replacing those precious truths with the false teachings and traditions of men.
It is important that we understand what took place during the period of the reformation that is a fulfillment of this prophecy. During the rise of Protestantism, it set “the power of conscience above the magistrate, and the authority of the word of God above the visible church. In the first place, it rejects the civil power in divine things, and says with the prophets and apostles, ‘ “We must obey God rather than man.” In presence of the crown of Charles the Fifth, it uplifts the crown of Jesus Christ. But it goes farther: it lays down the principle that all human teaching should be subordinate to the oracles of God.’—Ibid. [D’Aubigne], b. 13, ch. 6. The protesters had moreover affirmed their right to utter freely their convictions of truth. They would not only believe and obey, but teach what the word of God presents, and they denied the right of priest or magistrate to interfere. The Protest of Spires was a solemn witness against religious intolerance, and an assertion of the right of all men to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences.” Ibid., 204.
This protest was so important that it was registered in the books of heaven. “The declaration had been made. It was written in the memory of thousands and registered in the books of heaven, where no effort of man could erase it. All evangelical Germany adopted the Protest as the expression of its faith. Everywhere men beheld in this declaration the promise of a new and better era.” Ibid.
In this protest they had “a reputation of being alive.” The question that is before us is, Why did God say they were dead?
Let us see how this great change of being “alive” at time of the protest of the Princes to being “dead” at the time when the great second-advent movement began in the 1830s and ’40s took place.
“Rome withheld the Bible from the people and required all men to accept her teachings in its place. It was the work of the Reformation to restore to men the word of God; but is it not too true that in the churches of our time men are taught to rest their faith upon their creed and the teachings of their church rather than on the Scriptures?” Ibid., 388.
One of the first steps in separating from the pure truth is to substitute the teachings and traditions of the church for the word of God. Charles Beecher made a very interesting comment of the importance of men’s writings in the present religious world: “Said Charles Beecher, speaking of the Protestant churches: … ‘The Protestant evangelical denominations have so tied up one another’s hands, and their own, that, between them all, a man cannot become a preacher at all, anywhere, without accepting some book besides the Bible. … There is nothing imaginary in the statement that the creed power is now beginning to prohibit the Bible as really as Rome did, though in a subtler way.’ ”—Sermon on ‘The Bible a Sufficient Creed,’ delivered at Fort Wayne, Indiana, February 22, 1846.” Ibid., 388, 389.
The warning is given: “The same unswerving adherence to the word of God manifested at that crisis of the Reformation is the only hope of reform today.” Ibid., 204.
Let us review the definition of the word creed. The meaning of creed in the 10th edition of Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary is defined as follows:
- a brief authoritative formula of religious belief,
- a set of fundamental beliefs.
In The Great Controversy we find this clear explanation of what took place in the Protestant churches later in the Reformation: “Has not the same process been repeated in nearly every church calling itself Protestant? As the founders, those who possessed the true spirit of reform, pass away, their descendants come forward and ‘new-model the cause.’ While blindly clinging to the creed of their fathers and refusing to accept any truth in advance of what they saw, the children of the reformers depart widely from their example of humility, self-denial, and renunciation of the world.” Ibid., 385.
When these descendants came forward and “new-modeled the cause” they stepped from the foundation principles that the Reformation was founded upon. They established a creed or statement of beliefs and refused to consider any new light (truth), which the Lord was pleased to reveal. Thus, when the second-advent awakening began with the preaching of the first angel’s message and Daniel 8:14, they were unprepared to receive the new light (truths) that God was pleased to send to them. The following quotation explains how the Protestant churches responded to the first angel’s message and the preaching of Daniel 8:14:
“As his work tended to build up the churches, it was for a time regarded with favor. But as ministers and religious leaders decided against the advent doctrine and desired to suppress all agitation of the subject, they not only opposed it from the pulpit, but denied their members the privilege of attending preaching upon the second advent, or even of speaking of their hope in the social meetings of the church.” Ibid., 376.
Those who desired to hold to the two great principles of the Protestant reformation found this to be a very distressing situation. The following is a description of the dilemma this put the true believers in and how they responded: “Thus the believers found themselves in a position of great trial and perplexity. … But as they saw the testimony of God’s word suppressed and their right to investigate the prophecies denied they felt that loyalty to God forbade them to submit. Those who sought to shut out the testimony of God’s word they could not regard as constituting the church of Christ, ‘the pillar and ground of the truth.’ Hence they felt themselves justified in separating from their former connection. In the summer of 1844 about fifty thousand withdrew from the churches.” Ibid.
Because of the creeds the Protestant churches established, they were not prepared to receive the new light the Lord was pleased to send them in the proclamation of the first angel’s message and the time of the judgment announced in Daniel 8:14. As a result, they separated themselves from God and cut themselves off from the benefits of the new covenant. “In refusing the warning of the first angel, they rejected the means which Heaven had provided for their restoration.” Ibid., 380.
In Revelation 14:6, the first angel proclaimed far and wide the eternal gospel. “Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel [the very foundation of the Christian faith] to proclaim to those who live on the earth.”
The ministry of Jesus in the sanctuary of the new covenant in heaven where the terms and conditions of the new covenant formed by God the Father and Christ is the only place in the universe where our confessed sins are atoned for by the blood of Christ.
Revelation 14:7 states: “He said in a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come.’ ” The judgment, set by Daniel 8:14, is the last event under the new covenant plan of salvation. It prepares the way for the complete restoration of the kingdom of glory.
“And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days [Hebrew–evenings and mornings]; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed [restored to its rightful state].” Daniel 8:14 KJV.
This verse is the foundation and central pillar of the Christian’s faith and of the true church. “The Scripture which above all others had been both the foundation and the central pillar of the advent faith was the declaration: ‘Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.’ (Daniel 8:14).” The Great Controversy, 409.
Had the Protestant churches accepted the message of the sanctuary it would have opened to them “a complete system of truth, connected and harmonious, showing that God’s hand had directed the great advent movement.” Light from the sanctuary would have “illumined the past, the present, and the future.”
In their rejection of these messages, the Protestant churches virtually rejected the foundation and central pillar of the Christian faith and became “dead,” the churches represented by the message sent to Sardis.
In this rejection of the “everlasting gospel” and the announcement of the judgment to begin, we see the reason why the second angel’s message was pronounced against them in the summer of 1844. “The second angel’s message of Revelation 14 was first preached in the summer of 1844, and it then had a more direct application to the churches of the United States, where the warning of the judgment had been most widely proclaimed and most generally rejected, and where the declension in the churches had been most rapid.” Ibid., 389.
Since Jesus has begun His atonement ministry in the most holy place in the sanctuary of the new covenant in heaven on October 22, 1844, Satan has successfully led almost the whole world to reject this message again. Only a remnant remains who are giving a clear message concerning the ministry of Jesus in the most holy place of this new covenant sanctuary. They are described in Revelation 12:17: “Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring—those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”
Another description of them is recorded in the third angel’s message: “This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus.” Revelation 14:12.
We know from these verses that this remnant people believe in the true sanctuary message. The first evidence is that they keep the commandments, which are in the most holy place. They recognized that they had broken these commandments and were sinners, but they have gone to Christ to plead for His atoning blood to cover their sin. Then they trusted in Jesus to provide them with His strength to help keep them from sin and to obey the commandments. So, we see that those who keep the commandments believe in the true sanctuary message. Secondly, they “hold to the testimony of Jesus.”
We know from Revelation 19:10 that the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy. In the book, The Great Controversy, there is a complete description of the sanctuary of the new covenant and the atonement ministry of Jesus in the holy place. Therefore the remnant that holds to the testimony of Jesus will also hold to the true sanctuary message contained in that testimony.
Let us again turn our attention on the Protestant world that rejected the first angel’s message and the 2300 year time prophecy. The Bible says that the second angel’s message was immediately pronounced against them.
“In Revelation 14 the first angel is followed by a second proclaiming: ‘Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication’ (Revelation 14:8). The term ‘Babylon’ is derived from ‘Babel,’ and signifies confusion. It is employed in Scripture to designate the various forms of false or apostate religion.” Ibid., 381.
There remains one remedy for them by which they may be restored to the favor of God. It is as follows: “The same unswerving adherence to the word of God manifested at that crisis of the Reformation is the only hope of reform today.” Ibid., 204.
But, to the present time, there has been no evidence of reform or acceptance of the new covenant sanctuary message among the fallen Protestant churches. So, we see that Satan is continuing to be very successful in his warfare against the ministry of Jesus in the new covenant sanctuary. He continues to hold the Roman Catholic Church in rejection of the new covenant sanctuary truth since the Dark Ages and still continues to direct the people to confess their sins to priests in the place of their Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
Satan continues to lead the whole world to reject the new covenant and the ministry of Jesus in the sanctuary above. But let us be of good courage; the prophecy in Daniel 8:14 states that, “the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state.” The two great principles of the Protestant reformers will be revived and this will be done by the faithful believers described in Revelation 12:17 and 14:12.
This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus.
(Unless appearing in quoted references or otherwise identified, Bible texts are from the New International Version.)
Maurice Hoppe is Director of the Steps to Life Training Programs and a member of the Steps to Life Board. The Training Program for Ministers and Church Leaders is a correspondence course that prepares individuals to serve as pastors or Bible workers. Preparing for the Final Conflict is a correspondence course for the laity. Both of these courses teach present truth that will be an anchor for the soul during the storm of opposition and persecution just ahead. He and his wife also have a correspondence course offered through Revelation Ministry. He can be contacted at: mauricehoppe@stepstolife.org.