Читать книгу Mennonites in the World War - Jonas Smucker Hartzler - Страница 7

A number of things led away from the simple faith. First, heathen customs had crept into the Church already in Paul's time and continued. Second, heresies became more numerous. Gnosticism, Montanism, Sabellianism, and Manichaeanism are among the most striking examples. Third, the idea that it required an elevation to the priesthood to rightly interpret the Scriptures led common people away from the Bible instead of to it, and naturally the people became less and less devoted to its teachings. Fourth, the Roman Church became somewhat idolized. Cyprian said, "One visible Church and one only, can be right. In it and not beyond it, is the abode of the Holy Spirit." This held nominal membership in a visible church so high that it be came an end in itself rather than a means to an end. These things tended to make the Church more worldly, and at the same time caused the truly de- \out to lament the conditions and finally to with draw fellowship from Romanism. They could not fellowship the corruptions that naturally came into the body, and the once persecuted now became the persecutors. Those who dared to stand against those things were at once branded as heretics. This was perfectly natural in the light of Cyprian's statement.