Lord, we do thank You and rejoice in the beauty of Your life, the glory of Your life, as we behold You. We thank You that we do not have to stand apart, but can come into Your presence. We can see You, and we can dwell as Thy people.
Lord, we continue in the spirit of worship and adoration before You, before that royal throne, beholding Your preciousness. As we look into Your Word and consider these lessons from church history, we confess again our dependence upon You, the Holy Spirit, to breathe upon this time. We give ourselves to You, that You would have Your rightful place.
As we consider these times, we see Thy great faithfulness. Over and over again, we are stricken with the unfaithfulness of man. But, Lord, we thank You for Thy great faithfulness and Your promise that You will build Your church. In spite of us, Lord, You will build Your church. We worship You in Jesus’ name. Amen.
We turn again to Revelation 2, beginning in verse 18.
And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
The Son of God, who hath His eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like unto burnished brass, saith these things:
I know thy works, and thy love and faith and ministry and patience, and that thy last works are more than the first.
But I have this against thee, that thou sufferest the woman Jezebel, who calleth herself a prophetess; and she teacheth and seduceth My servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols.
And I gave her time that she should repent; and she willeth not to repent of her fornication.
Behold, I cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of her works.
And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am He who searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto each one of you according to your works.
But to you I say, to the rest that are in Thyatira, as many as have not this teaching, who know not the deep things of Satan, as they are wont to say; I cast upon you none other burden.
Nevertheless that which ye have, hold fast till I come.
And he that overcometh, and he that keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give authority over the nations:
And he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to shivers; as I also have received of My Father:
And I will give him the morning star.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
Let us look back at two verses that we will be considering more today: Revelation 2:24-25.
But to you I say, to the rest that are in Thyatira, as many as have not this teaching, who know not the deep things of Satan, as they are wont to say; I cast upon you none other burden.
Nevertheless that which ye have, hold fast till I come.
There are two more Scriptures. First, Romans 11. As we shared last week, we considered the history of Jezebel and what occurred during the time of King Ahab and Jezebel. We know that Elijah was alive during that time, and these verses refer to that.
We saw last week the darkness encompassing the world during the Dark Ages. Looking outwardly, one might wonder what was going on and ask, “God hath not rejected His people, hath He?”
Or know ye not what the Scripture saith of Elijah, how he pleadeth with God against Israel?
Lord, they have killed Thy prophets, they have digged down Thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have left for Myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
I am sure many of our brothers and sisters during the Dark Ages had Elijah’s cry upon their hearts. They felt alone. They felt persecuted. They saw many being killed, and they cried to the Lord. Yet the Lord’s assurance came back, just as it did to Elijah: “I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”
The beautiful thing, as we look throughout the Dark Ages, is that there were those who did not bow the knee to Baal. They were small in number. They were not great. At times, you have to look even to find them. But they did not bow the knee to Baal. Why? It was God’s gracious choice. God kept them.
They had a heart for the Lord, to remain in the simplicity of our Lord Jesus Christ. As they saw Him, the Lord, in His grace and mercy, kept them throughout these generations. We will be considering them today.
There is one other verse which occurs over and over again as you read church history, particularly during these Dark Ages: Luke 12:32.
Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
In the midst of all of that, the word was, “Fear not, little flock.” Your Father is watching over you. He is taking care of you. Over and over again, those in spiritual leadership encouraged the hearts of the brethren in the midst of dark times: fear not, for their Father was watching over them.
Brothers and sisters, that can encourage our hearts as we look at the days in which we live. We may think the times are very dark, but we can be encouraged to fear not. The Father is with us. He is watching over us, and He has chosen to give us His kingdom. It is our desire to remain in the flow of His life.
The handout today is an addendum to the one from last week. We are focusing upon “the rest” in Thyatira: those brothers and sisters who were faithful to the Lord during this dark time.
We saw last week the wickedness that had developed through the Roman Catholic system. That is in the background of all the stories we will share today. Yet the brothers and sisters we are considering never referred to themselves by the names we will use. They simply called themselves Christians, brothers, brethren, or friends of God.
Their enemies labeled them and gave them names. We will use those names simply to distinguish and identify them, but they did not call themselves by those names. They were simply Christians, gathered in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In many mainline church-history books, these groups are referred to as heretics, as being outside the mainstream of Christianity. Yet, as we see what they were accused of, we will find that they were not heretics. They were true believers who continued in the faithfulness of our Lord.
Let me establish another boundary for today. The church in Sardis follows Thyatira and normally begins the Reformation period. We are going only to the pre-Reformation period. We will stop before familiar names such as Wycliffe and Hus, who will be covered in a few weeks when we enter the Reformation.
The timeline in your handout, taken from Christian History magazine, illustrates something important. Many of the groups we will discuss today are scarcely mentioned, if they are mentioned at all, on a timeline of “the most significant events in church history.” That shows how they have been perceived by standard church-history authorities: as outside the main line.
But we thank the Lord that, in His grace and mercy, He has preserved certain records so that we can see how these ones lived. Many of their writings were destroyed when they were persecuted. Much of what we have comes from the accusations brought against them.
Yet, even as we read the accusations, we find that many of them would apply to us and would actually be compliments. They were accused of disregarding the authority of the pope and of having only the Word of God as authority in their lives. For that, they were put to death. We will take that accusation.
By the grace of God, we ask the Lord to help us capture the spirit of what held these brethren: what they saw—or, better, Whom they saw. As they remained in communion and fellowship with our Lord, He held them through the darkest of ages.
The first group we want to consider is the Paulicians. They were prominent from the seventh through the ninth centuries, primarily in Armenia and Asia Minor.
No one really knows how they received the name “Paulician.” Some suggest it was because they loved the teachings of Paul. Another theory is that, when converted, influential believers changed their names to those of Paul’s fellow workers. Constantine became Silvanus; Simeon became Titus; Sergius became Timothy.
One of the first documented Paulicians was Constantine, who lived in Armenia in the city of Kibossa. A traveler stayed overnight in his home and left him a copy of the Scriptures—the Gospels and several Epistles. Constantine simply read the Scriptures, was saved, and changed his name to Silvanus.
For thirty years, Silvanus labored throughout Armenia, across the Taurus Mountains, and through Asia Minor, preaching the gospel of Christ. Many were being saved. His ministry became so effective that the emperor in Constantinople issued a decree against him.
The emperor sent an official named Simeon to kill Silvanus. Simeon arrested him, gathered Silvanus’s friends around him, gave each of them a stone, and commanded them to stone their friend to death. None of them would do it.
Then Silvanus’s adopted son, a man named Justus, whom Silvanus had poured his life into, took a stone for the sake of money and killed him. Silvanus was martyred that day.
But Simeon, the man sent by the emperor to kill Silvanus, was deeply touched by the testimony of Christ in these believers. They loved not their lives unto death. The emperor had ordered them to stone this man, and they refused. Simeon was so touched by the life of Christ in them that he was saved.
He returned to the emperor’s quarters and tried to remain there for another year, but he could not continue. He fled back to the region, encouraged the brethren, and changed his name to Titus.
When the emperor heard that one of his high officials had converted, he sent more troops. The believers were rounded up. Justus knew their secret ways and betrayed them to the emperor. This time Titus and all his followers were stoned and burned to death.
Was it over? No. Their testimony of faith strengthened the others. No one denied the faith. As people saw those willing to die for the testimony of Jesus, the gospel spread, even as persecution increased. From Armenia and Asia Minor, the testimony continued across the straits and into the Balkans.
Around the year 800, another man named Sergius was converted. One day, as he walked down the street, a faithful sister asked him, “Why do you not read the Scriptures?”
He replied, “I cannot read the Scriptures. They are a mystery. Only the priests can read them.” That was the teaching of the church at that time: the Scriptures were too mysterious for ordinary people, and only the pope could truly interpret them.
But the sister told him that it was God’s desire that all would come to the saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. That shook him. He went home, found a copy of the Scriptures, read them, and was converted.
Brothers and sisters, a pattern begins here: the effective work of the Word of God. As men and women touch the Word of God through the anointing of the Holy Spirit, lives are changed. We see it throughout this history. Thank the Lord for that faithful sister who challenged him.
In 842, Theodora was governing for her minor son, the emperor. She was an idol worshiper and a Catholic, and she unleashed one of the greatest persecutions ever known in that region. During the five- or six-year period from 842 to 847, it is said that more than one hundred thousand were killed and slaughtered for the testimony of Jesus.
Pope Nicholas I sent a commendation to Theodora, praising her resolve either to bring the Paulicians “to the true faith” or to cut them off at the root. He commended her because some had been crucified, some killed by the sword, and some drowned, all because she followed the directions of the Apostolic See.
It is hard to imagine that the supposed vicar of Christ, Christ’s representative, would authorize and command that one hundred thousand believers be put to death for the simple testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ.
One surviving Paulician writing, an Armenian book called The Key of Truth, focuses on two things: the reading of the Scriptures and prayer, and holiness of life according to God’s Word. The holy life and the reading of Scripture sustained them. In spite of persecution, the gospel spread.
Sadly, some who remained eventually grew weary of the battle. They allied themselves with the Mohammedans against the Catholic Church, viewing the alliance as the lesser of two evils. They were later killed in that conflict.
The gospel and persecution spread into the Balkan Peninsula, leading to the next group, the Bogomils. The name comes from a Slavic term meaning “friends of God.” Because of persecution, they became settled throughout the Balkans, especially in Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia.
One influential Bogomil was Basil the Physician, who lived around 1070. He was saved, but he made a conscientious choice to continue working as a physician to support himself. The testimony of many priests and monks at that time was marked by begging, and Basil wanted there to be no cloud of money or financial gain over his ministry.
Around 1111, the emperor invited Basil to a private dinner, supposedly because he wanted to hear his testimony. Basil shared the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, how he had been saved, drawn out of the world, and had given his life to the Lord.
Toward the end of dinner, the emperor pulled back a curtain. Scribes had been concealed behind it, writing down everything Basil said. His testimony was then used at his trial to condemn him. It was simply a trick of the enemy.
But what the enemy means for evil, God uses for good. Out of the emperor’s trickery, the gospel continued to go forth. Basil was imprisoned in 1119, tortured, and burned that same year for the testimony of Jesus.
The gospel spread throughout Bosnia. In 1199, the king of Bosnia and his whole family were reportedly saved, and thousands upon thousands of believers were present in the land. The Catholic Church lost much of its influence there. It was not a “Christian nation,” but a nation with many Christians.
Pope Innocent III could not tolerate this. He forced the king to recant, threatening invasion if he did not repent. The king recanted, but the people refused. The pope appointed another king and sent missionaries to convert the Bosnians back, but by 1225 those efforts had failed.
Then persecution began again. The pope’s armies invaded the country and devastated it. In 1291, Bosnia was placed under the Inquisition, and Dominican and Franciscan monks entered as inquisitors. Yet their efforts were not successful.
What were these Bogomils persecuted for? We have writings from some of their inquisitors, the very ones condemning them.
They wrote that those who listened to Bogomil doctrine kept the commandments of the gospel rather than the commandments of the pope. They paid no honor to the mother of God or to the cross. They rejected the ceremonies of the church and its dignitaries. They called the priests blind Pharisees. They said that the Lord’s Supper was not kept according to God’s commandment and that the bread was ordinary bread, not the body of Christ.
For this, they were put to death.
Another inquisitor wrote that when people saw their lowly behavior, they thought them to be true believers. They approached them concerning their souls’ salvation. Yet these supposed “wolves,” he wrote, would humble themselves, bow their heads in prayer, answer with humility, and set themselves forward as though they knew the way to heaven. That was the accusation.
Even some within the Catholic system were touched. Gregory of Narek wrote that this sect had searched out the foundation itself—the Holy Scriptures—seeking pure teaching and sound guidance for a moral life. He said, “I think I have found true apostolic Christianity amongst them.”
For a church father to admit that he had found true apostolic Christianity outside the Catholic system was a tremendous thing.
During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Islam spread from modern-day Turkey into the Balkans. For about a hundred years, battles went back and forth between Islamic forces and Catholic armies. Whenever the Catholic system regained an area, there was great persecution. When Islam prevailed, the believers were generally accepted as long as they did not cause trouble.
Eventually, many grew weary and gave themselves over as Muslims. This contributed to what is now called the Muslim minority of Slavic descent in the Bosnia-Croatia region. Yet we thank the Lord that faithful ones held on through persecution we can scarcely imagine.
The next group is called the Cathars, or Puritans. The name Cathar comes from a word meaning “pure,” and the accusation against these people was that they lived a pure life. They were found mainly in southern France, northern Italy, and the area around Toulouse.
During the pre-Reformation period, calling someone a Cathar was a term of reproach. But they were called Cathars simply because of their pure living.
There is not much written about these believers because their writings were destroyed. They met simply, from house to house. They had no large organization. Like the other groups, they were local assemblies with fellowship among believers in different places, but without an official organization connecting them.
One influential man in this movement was Claudius, bishop of Turin, in northern Italy, around the year 800. Though he was appointed bishop, he had studied the Scriptures and was strongly opposed to the Catholic system.
When he came to Turin, he cleared the cathedrals of relics, crosses, and images. The buildings became simple places with no relics or images. He also denounced the authority of the pope.
Claudius taught that Peter’s authority did not pass to the pope. When Peter died, Peter’s authority died. Each individual stands before the Lord. He spoke of the priesthood of all believers, teaching that the Lord appoints His government in localities and raises up those who can be His delegated authority at different times. Authority is not hereditary or merely positional; it is recognized from the inward life.
He denied transubstantiation. He taught that the bread was bread and the wine was wine, taken in remembrance of the Lord. Nothing mystical happened in the elements; rather, believers remembered and joined the testimony of the Lord’s death, burial, and resurrection.
Remarkably, Claudius was not martyred. Though disliked, he lived out his life and died in 839. The Lord somehow placed a covering over him. He was influential throughout northern Italy and would later be associated with the teachings of the Waldensians.
Around the year 1100, Peter of Bruys ministered in southern France, through Burgundy, Provence, and the region known as Languedoc. He preached openly for twenty years against the corruptions of the Catholic Church.
He removed relics from churches. Finally, he gathered crosses bearing images of Christ, placed them in a large pile, and burned them. He saw that people were worshiping idols and wanted to set them free for the simplicity of worshiping Christ. Shortly afterward, he was burned to death.
Another man of this period was Henry of Lausanne, a follower of Peter and deeply influenced by him. When Peter and Henry testified of the gospel, people left the cathedrals and flocked to them.
The more the church persecuted them and spoke against them, the more people followed. Peter and Henry testified of a holy, pure, and simple life, seeking to proclaim the true gospel. People saw the contrast between their lives and the lives of the priests and monks and realized that something did not add up.
Henry was captured and condemned as a heretic in Pisa. He escaped from prison but was soon arrested again and died in prison.
Bernard of Clairvaux, whom we discussed in connection with the Crusades, was one of the strongest opponents of Peter and Henry. The pope commissioned Bernard to be his voice against them.
Bernard wrote to the pope concerning the condition of the Catholic system in those provinces. He said that the churches were without people, the people were without priests, and the priests were without honor. He complained that the churches were no longer considered holy, the sacraments were no longer regarded as sacred, and festivals were no longer celebrated.
He further lamented that people were dying without penance and communion, and that infant baptism was refused. In other words, he was describing a people who had left the teachings of the church and were following the simple gospel.
Though Bernard was powerful, his efforts to bring people back to the Catholic system were largely ineffective. He was not seeking to reform that system; he was trying to suppress what these believers held. But he could not overcome because they had touched something real.
Once the revelation of Jesus Christ occurs in a person’s life, no one can shut that down. You cannot deny it. The living Christ was going out in life and changing lives, and the greatest arguments in the world could not change that.
The last record we have of these Cathars is a conference held in Toulouse in 1167. Believers came from throughout the Balkans, Dalmatia, Albania, and other places. They came simply to encourage one another in fellowship and in the testimony of the Lord’s faithfulness.
They shared over and over how wonderful and faithful the Lord was in all His ways. It strengthened them, and they returned to their various regions to continue spreading the gospel.
During the 1200s, another event occurred. In 1215, the Fourth Lateran Council dealt with the treatment of the Jews. The council required Jews to wear special clothing or insignia and to live in ghettos.
It brings to mind the yellow star that we have seen so often in history. Shortly afterward, England, Spain, and France expelled Jewish communities from their countries. Many went to Germany and Poland.
They did not find a peaceful life there either. In the fourteenth century, during the Black Death, superstition led people to blame the Jews for the plague. Thousands upon thousands were killed. They continued to be a persecuted people, not because of anything related to their religion, but because of superstition and fear.
The next group we want to consider is the Waldensians. We do not know their precise date of origin. Some trace them back to the time of Christ, when believers fled persecution in Rome and settled in northern Italy and the Alps.
Others suggest that believers from Asia Minor and the Balkans came through the influence of Claudius and found homes in northern Italy and southern France. There is no clear point at which we can say the Waldensians began.
But we can say that they lived a simple Christian life in conformity with the New Testament pattern. They remained according to that pattern.
Some say the Waldensians were formed by Peter Waldo because of the similarity of names. Yet the Waldensians clearly existed before Peter Waldo, who was converted around 1160. He was influential among them, but he did not originate them.
The Waldensians were marked by their reverence for the Word of God: the way the Word ruled their daily lives and led them into the fullness of what the Lord desired.
Their opponents wrote that the Waldensians denied infant baptism and denied that bread and wine became the blood of Christ. They also denied that unfaithful ministers had any right to exercise ecclesiastical power.
What they meant was that power goes with the person. If you do not live a faithful life, you do not know the power of God. The Catholic system held that power was bestowed upon a position: if you were a priest or pope, that position carried the power.
The Waldensians were trying to move people away from the idea that authority inheres in a position and toward the truth that power and authority reside in the lives of faithful believers.
One inquisitor wrote that they were the most formidable enemies of the Church of Rome because all that “these wretched men” asserted, they learned from the Gospels and the Epistles. They would receive nothing except what they found expressly contained there, rejecting the interpretation of the church.
He also said that they gave a great appearance of godliness because they lived righteously before men, believed rightly concerning God, and held the articles of the creed. Yet, he complained, they hated and reviled the Church of Rome.
Again, it was the life that contrasted with what the Church of Rome was saying.
Sometimes these groups are classified as heretics. But we must remember the times in which they lived and what they were preaching for and against. The Catholic system taught that Mary was the mother of God. In response, these groups preached Christ and His relationship with God. They were then accused of denying the humanity of Christ, though that was not the issue. Their concern was the origin and identity of Christ.
They were also accused of rejecting all authority because they preached against the pope and the authority of the church. But what they were actually saying was that they believed in the priesthood of all believers: every believer is a priest.
The Waldensians were perhaps among the most persecuted groups in the history of Christian testimony. From the 1100s through the 1600s, they were under constant persecution. Hundreds of thousands were put to death. It is hard to imagine how they endured.
Peter Waldo was deeply affected when a close friend died suddenly. That event awakened him, and he came to know the Lord. He was a wealthy merchant and businessman, but he sold what he had and adopted a life of poverty so that he could go out and minister.
Those sent out among the Waldensians were called the Poor Men of Lyons. They traveled as simple merchants, carrying wares from city to city. In this way, they used their mercantile activity to spread the gospel.
As they began speaking with someone and showed their wares, they might sense whether there was openness. If so, they would say, “I also have a pearl of great price. Would you be interested in that?” Then they would begin sharing the gospel.
Peter Waldo and his men gained the attention of Pope Alexander III. Waldo actually went to the pope and asked permission to preach. But because he was a layman, permission was denied, and he was excommunicated.
From there, he fled into Bohemia, where he eventually died. Bohemia is near Moravia, an area that would later be significant in connection with the Moravians. We see what Miller’s Church History calls a silver thread: the Lord using different ones and connecting them through the centuries.
Time and again, throughout five centuries, the pope sent crusades into the Alps to slaughter the Waldensians. In one case, the army reached a town and asked, “How do we know whom to kill? How do we distinguish the Christians?” The pope’s emissary replied, “Do not worry. Just kill them all.”
Depending on the account, twenty to forty thousand were killed in that town. In hundreds of villages throughout the Alps, every inhabitant was massacred.
The pope’s armies were ruthless. They were supposed to give people an opportunity to repent, but often did not. In one account, the abbot in charge said mockingly, “Do not be afraid. There will not be many converts for you to handle.”
At Montfort, the armies found two houses: men were praying in one, and women were praying in the other. They were asked whether they would recant and return to the Catholic faith. They refused.
They denied the supremacy of the pope and the authority of the priesthood, saying that they had no head but Christ and no authority but His holy Word. Enraged by their calm firmness, the abbot ordered the fire lit.
The pile became one mass of flames. The undaunted confessors of the name of Jesus, committing their souls into His hands, voluntarily entered the flames, as though ascending to heaven in a chariot of fire.
Yet we also see the Lord’s hand at work. In Revelation 2, Christ speaks of those who do not repent being struck with pestilence. In 1225, Louis VIII and the pope assembled a crusade into the valleys of Piedmont and southern France.
How large was this force? The pope’s army numbered two hundred thousand crusaders marching into those valleys against these believers. But the hand of the Lord interposed.
As the invading army camped, a pestilence broke out. Thirty thousand were killed within a week. The army retreated, and the Waldensians were spared for a time.
There is another account of the Lord’s protection. The Waldensians, familiar with the mountains, were escaping through the Alps when the pope’s armies closed in from both sides. The Waldensians were trapped in the middle.
As they stood in prayer, a cloud covered the mountains. The Waldensians knew the terrain and knew that when clouds came in, one simply stood still. They stood still and saw the salvation of their God.
The soldiers, unfamiliar with mountain warfare, panicked. It is said that forty thousand fell over the cliffs as they tried to flee. The Waldensians remained still and then escaped after the cloud lifted.
Over and over, a huge force of evil was unleashed against these Waldensians. The persecution did not stop with the Reformation. It continued through the 1500s and 1600s, as forces of the Counter-Reformation swept through valleys, killing and slaughtering innocent people.
At times, the Waldensians took up the sword in self-defense. They referred to Luke 22, where the Lord told the disciples to take a sword, and Peter said they had two. The Lord replied, “It is enough.” Church historians have debated for centuries whether Christians should take up the sword. At times, the Waldensians did.
Yet when they took prisoners, they treated them better than they themselves were treated. In one battle, the pope’s soldiers were so malnourished that crusaders surrendered to the Waldensians because they would be cared for better as Waldensian prisoners than in the pope’s army. Some were saved and left the army altogether.
What sustained the Waldensians was not merely personal conviction. They desired to live in the simplicity and purity of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were among those seven thousand who did not bow the knee to Baal. They remained in the faithfulness of the Lord.
The persecution continued until 1689. At that time, some returned from Geneva, and they were able to live a relatively peaceful life afterward.
During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, two other groups emerged: the Friends of God and the Brethren of the Common Life.
The Friends of God were centered in Strasbourg, Cologne, and Basel. Names associated with them include Eckhart and Suso. They are often called mystics, and some were within the Catholic system. Eckhart and Suso were Dominican monks.
Yet, in their zeal for the Lord, they came into a saving knowledge of Him. If you want to see how men tried to reach God during the Dark Ages, consider the teaching of salvation through works and self-sacrifice.
These men tortured their physical bodies, trying to put the flesh to death. They wore wool garments with nails driven into them. They beat themselves, starved themselves, went without sleep, and slept on hard floors. They were trying to reach God, crucify the flesh, live holy lives, and be set free from the body that entangles us.
But praise the Lord for His sovereignty. Even in their misguided attempts to seek salvation, God came in. He touched their lives, changed them, and set them free. They became true believers in the Lord Jesus. It was a great liberation.
In Strasbourg, there was conflict between the emperor and the pope over who was in charge—and, as it often came down to, who received the money. Johannes Tauler stood on the emperor’s side. Because the emperor opposed the pope, the whole country was placed under an interdict, essentially excommunicating the country.
Tauler remained faithful in serving his flock and those who came to him. During the plague at Strasbourg in 1349, he continued serving the dying.
Tauler and other monks published a paper condemning the pope’s actions. Their great declaration was this: since Christ died for all, the pope could not close the door to heaven. Since Christ died for all, the pope cannot close heaven’s door. Believers have an open heaven to which they may come.
Later, the Jesuits ordered their books burned, and the pope placed them on the list of prohibited books. If you wanted to know what books to read, you might have looked at that list.
What these believers drew from was a personal relationship with the Lord. Their influence upon the Reformation was tremendous. A small book called Theologia Germanica, or German Theology, came from this stream.
Martin Luther obtained that book and greatly praised it for the influence it had upon his life. Its teaching does not sound outdated to us.
One speaks of the old man and of the new man. You should know what that language means. The old man is Adam, disobedience, self, and I, and the like. But the new man is Christ.
One also says that man should die to himself; that is to say, man’s self and his I and mine should die. Saint Paul speaks of the same thing: “Put off the old man with his practices, and put on the new man.”
He who lives in his selfhood and according to his self-will is of the old man and is called Adam’s child. But he who lives in obedience, the life of the new man, is Christ’s brother and God’s child.
Paul says also, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” All who follow Adam in disobedience are dead and will never come alive except in Jesus Christ. For this reason, as long as man is Adam or his child, he exists without God. But the one who is with Christ and in Christ is with God and lives.
That was written in the thirteenth or fourteenth century, yet we still speak of the old man, the new man, self, and I. What we sometimes receive as new revelation has often been maintained by brothers and sisters throughout the centuries, until at some point we enter into the goodness of it.
The Brethren of the Common Life were primarily in the Netherlands, around Deventer. See how the gospel was spreading. It began in the East, and during the darkest of times the gospel was not hindered. It was spreading throughout Europe.
The Brethren of the Common Life are especially noted for their emphasis on education. They were among the first educational reformers. Gerard Groote said that “the root of study and the mirror of life must be, in the first instance, the gospel of Christ.”
They developed schools, including one in Deventer with more than two thousand pupils. Their work was founded on preaching the gospel of Christ.
One important book associated with the Brethren of the Common Life was The Imitation of Christ. It was not written by Thomas Aquinas, but by Thomas à Kempis, who more or less compiled it from the writings of others.
As we compare those faithful to the Lord with the darkness we considered last week, we see a contrast. What encourages my heart most about the Dark Ages is Christ’s declaration: “I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
No matter how dark the times become, the Lord continues to work. I want to close by reading a testimony from a document written in 1404. We do not know exactly who wrote it, but it was the testimony of a persecuted brother before an inquisitor.
For two hundred years and more, our fellowship has enjoyed good times, and the brethren became so numerous that in their council seven hundred and more persons were present. God did great things throughout the fellowship.
Then severe persecution would break out over the servants of Christ. They were driven from land to land, and to the present time this cruelty continues.
But since the church of Christ was founded, the true Christians have never been so far reduced that in the world, or at least in some countries, some of the saints have not been found.
Also, our brethren, on account of persecution, have at times crossed the sea and in a certain district have found brethren. But because they did not understand the language of the country, intercourse with them was difficult.
The face of the church changes like the phases of the moon. Often the church blossoms on account of the number of the saints and is strong on this earth. Again, she seems to fall and to pass away in power. But if she disappears in one place, we know that she is to be seen in other lands, even if the saints are only a few who lead a good life and remain in holy fellowship.
And we believe that the church will be raised up again in greater numbers and strength until our Lord returns. The Founder of our covenant is Christ, and the Head of our church is Jesus, the Son of God.
Lord, we thank You for so great a foundation. We thank You that, as we read these stories of the terrors these ones endured, though it is hard for us to relate and beyond our understanding, they can be an encouragement to us.
Lord, we see that in spite of all the efforts and failures of man, and in spite of the tactics of the enemy, Your promise remains true: You will build Your church.
We thank You for these faithful ones. As we consider how they were faithful in dark times, it causes us to reflect upon our own lives. We see the times in which we live, the freedoms we have, and the luxuries we have.
We can almost choose when we want to come to You. We can choose when we want to serve You, and quite often we make wrong choices. Lord, help us draw near to You in a fresh way.
May our walk with You not be dictated by outward circumstances. May we have such a fresh revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ that we see and know You in an inward, daily manner.
Lord, we thank You for the fellowship we have with one another and for the open doors of fellowship throughout this world. May they be a treasure to us.
Lord, may Your life become a greater and greater measure of testimony. May Your life be a greater measure of encouragement within all of us.
Where we are backsliding at times, You know our frail state. Would You come in, Lord, and lift us up? Would Your love be shed abroad in our hearts, lifting us to the place where we hold fast to what we have?
We thank You that we have You, Lord. We thank You that You hold us. You never leave us or forsake us. You encourage us day by day: “Fear not, little flock.”
Lord, we thank You for the precious provision of Your life. May we desire to learn to draw from Your life in a greater and greater way, that You might have the bride for which You are waiting.
Lord, it continues to come back to us: we want to be those who hasten Your return. Help us to learn, Lord, not merely of things, but of Your life. In Jesus’ name.