The Holy Scripture - english version B.indd - Sabbat

Concluding Remarks.431more than thirty years, and I am convinced that is has oceans of truth which Ihave not yet explored. How few really study it ! and yet it has riches of wisdomwhich exceed those of all the libraries on earth. And remember that as certainly asit unveiled beforehand the past history of the Church in the world, so surely doesit unveil and illuminate her critical present and her glorious future. The guidebook that has proved true thus far may be trusted till we reach the goal.Secondly, there are personal, social, and civil duties as regards Romanism andthe Reformation arising from the truth we have learned which are of primaryimportance, and which I must indicate and urge on you before I close.What is the present position of Romanism in the world? and what thecondition of the Reformed Churches? You must be able to answer thesequestions before you can clearly see your own practical duties in relation to thissubject.As to Romanism, I have shown you that its present stage is that of decay, andswiftly approaching destruction. Its rise took place on thousand three hundredyears ago ; it reached the height of its dominion five hundred years ago ; it receivedits first fatal blow in the Reformation over three hundred years ago, its second inthe French Revolution at the end of last century, and a third in the unification ofItaly and the liberation of Rome itself from Papal rule in 1870. The final blow isyet to fall, at the fast approaching advent of Christ, as described at the end of thenineteenth chapter of Revelation.To enable you to realize the extent and steady increase of this consumptionand decay of Romanism, I will mention a few facts and give you a few figures.1. Just before the Reformation Rome boasted that heresy was extinct inChristendom. Not a Protestant existed ; she had slain the witnesses of Jesus[Yahshua]. Now the number of Protestants is variously estimated at from onehundred and thirty-six to one hundred and fifty millions of mankind. In thenational convention of Protestants held last year in Glasgow, the last figure wasgiven as the correct one. Including the Greek, Coptic, and Armenian Churches,there are two hundred and fifty milliones of professing Christians, opposed toRome, and only one hundred and eighty millions subject to her. [Editor: at presentin the year 2011 are 99,9 % of all churches to her - through the doctrine of thetrinity and to observe the Sunday. All churches are falling!] She has therefore noclaim whatever to supremacy or universality, but is in a minority, as comparedwith other Christians.2. Romanist have, during the present century, increased sixty millions, owingto the natural growth of population. At the end of last century they numbered onehundred and twenty millions ; now they are one hundred and eighty millions. ButProtestants have in the same period grown from forty millions to one hundredand fifty millions. In other words, Romanists have increased fifty per cent., andProtestants two hundred and seventy-five per cent. Going on at the same ratio,Protestants will, by the end of this century, equal or exceed Romanists in theworld. Had they increased at the same rate, the Papacy would now have had fourhundred and fifty millions of adherents, instead of only one hundred and eightymillions. It is a decadent cause throughout the world.Among the English-speaking populations the proportions are still more