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  1. Pre-Reformation History (A.D. 30-1517)
    1. The Church of the First Century
    2. The District Church
    3. The International Church
    4. Independent Churches
    5. Fore-runners of the Reformation and Present Recovery

I. Pre-Reformation History (A.D. 30-1517)

A. The Church of the First Century

In the beginning the churches were local.

In the beginning the churches were local. To match one city there was only one church, just as a husband can only be matched with one wife. All the believers met as one in each city. Each church had one group of elders who were responsible before the Lord for the local matters. Watchman Nee says:

The Bible clearly shows us this one thing, that the church absolutely belongs to a locality; such as the Church at Jerusalem—Jerusalem is a place; the Church at Corinth—Corinth is a place; the Church at Antioch—Antioch is a city; the Church at Ephesus—Ephesus is a seaport. In the Bible, the ground of the church is the locality where the church is. The churches all take the locality as the boundary.[1]

He goes on to say:

The church in every locality had its own independent administration. Therefore, in the Bible, Acts 14 tells us, “They ordained elders in every church” [14:23] and Titus 1, “ordain elders in every city” [1:5].

The boundary of the city, therefore, equals the boundary of the church...

The elders are for the church, and the church is in the city. Thus, the elders are for the church in a city. The church takes the city as the unit; otherwise, the elders in a city would take care of several churches, or the elders in a church would take care of several cities. The boundary of the city, therefore, equals the boundary of the church, and the boundary of the church equals the boundary of the elders' administration.[2]

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This is very evident in Scripture.

B. The District Church

It was not long until changes came. Shortly after the time of the Apostles there was a departure from what was in the beginning. Gradually the churches in the big cities absorbed the churches in the smaller cities. The churches in large cities spontaneously began to have power. Watchman Nee says:

A big city naturally had a greater population; thus the church in a large city became more powerful than the church in a small city or village. The church in the big city inclined to absorb the churches in the smaller cities and villages so that they became her satellites. She became the center, while they became the accessories around her. As a result, there were changes not only in the organization, but also in the administration of the church.[3]

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Originally, regardless of the size of the church, each had its own elders or bishops. In the Bible, the elders were bishops and the bishops were elders. These referred to the same group of people, not two distinct groups. This also began to change. Quoting Watchman Nee:

Later, the head elder came out of the big church and, naturally, became the head elder of the satellite churches. He was then called the bishop, which is the same title given in the Bible, but not essentially the same as that which is in the Bible. In the Bible, the elders were bishops. Paul called the elders of Ephesus together and told them: “…over the Church which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers [bishops]” (Acts 20:28). The bishops in the Bible were plural in number; the elders were also plural in number. But today one is picked from among many elders to become the bishop. Only one is bishop while the rest are elders, not bishops. The elders no longer have the authority of bishop. Smaller places were also united together and given over to the rule of this one bishop. Thus, a change was made so that one person ruled over many churches.[4]

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In the Bible, the churches existed in many localities. God never united them together to be one church. In I Thessalonians 2:14 the phrase

In the Bible, the churches existed in many localities. God never united them together to be one church.

“the churches…in Judea,” is used, not “the church (singular)…in Judea.” Judea was a Roman province, representing an area larger than a city. We find the same in relation to Galatia, which also was a Roman province. In I Corinthians 16:1 we read of “the churches in Galatia.” Then, Revelation chapter 1 speaks of “the seven churches…in Asia” (Rev. 1:11). The area of Asia included many cities. If all were to be united into one church, the word “churches” never would have been used.

But man did not hold to this. Gradually, the authority of a church extended beyond the scriptural limits of the city. Beginning in Rome, the centralization of authority began to creep in. Little by little, one city gained control over several cities. This led to districts or dioceses as they are called today.

C. The International Church

The changes within the church paralleled what was going on in the political sphere. As Rome, the seat of the Roman Empire, extended its authority, the church in Rome did likewise. Watchman Nee described it this way:

At that time the Roman Empire conquered the whole world, and, naturally, among the many churches the church in the city of Rome became very big…As the city of Rome became very prominent, they said, “We are the capital, and Caesar lives in our midst.” Consequently, the bishop in the church of Rome ruled not only over the elders of the church of Rome, but also over the elders of the district of Rome. And, he not only became the head of the elders of the district of Rome, but also the head of the bishops of the various districts.

By that time “the churches” as recorded in the Bible existed no more; they all become “one church”…

This was the pope. It all resulted from giving one man rank upon rank till he reached the top of a hierarchy…once one becomes the bishop in Rome, he is spontaneously the bishop of the whole world, the head of all the elders in the world…he immediately becomes the pope, representing Christ. This trend continued to develop until the fourth century, when its development became fully complete. By that time “the churches” as recorded in the Bible existed no more; they all become “one church”…“the churches of God” as mentioned in the Bible (I Cor. 11:16) no longer existed and no longer were mentioned; “the churches of the saints” mentioned in the Bible (I Cor. 14:33) also no longer existed, no longer were mentioned, and no longer were heard of. They all became the one church of Rome, and all the churches throughout the world became the branches of Rome. There were no more churches of the localities.[5]

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Elsewhere Watchman Nee relates:

The Scriptures do say that the Body of Christ is one, but they never require the churches on the earth to become one church as the Roman Catholic Church. Otherwise, the word “churches” is a great mistake and the Scriptures should not have contained such a term. You cannot say churches and also say one church. Since the Scriptures say “churches,” we know then that God has no intention of uniting all the churches on the earth into one church. Furthermore, the Apostles in the Bible never organized one church. What they established in many places were “the churches,” and they established one church in each city.[6]

There was a gradual departure from the New Testament, continuing from the second to the fifth century. In A.D. 313 Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire under Constantine. The Church and the State became one. Membership in the Church went along with citizenship in the Empire. The trend of departure from the New Testament came to a head when Leo I became pope. By then, all Christianity was one church, and all the churches became branches of Rome.

D. Independent Churches

Throughout the ages there have always been a minority who would not go along with the stream of religion.

Not everyone went along with this trend. Some stood firm, and would not be swallowed up by the religious world now wed with the political world. Throughout the ages there have always been a minority who would not go along with the stream of religion. Through these small groups the Lord was able to recover and maintain the church life from the very beginning. They were generally criticized and branded as heretics. Many were ruthlessly slain for what they stood for.

1. Montanists (A.D. 156-200)

One such group was the Montanists. Initially this group did not separate from the degraded Church, but tried to reform it. They sought to know the indwelling Spirit in their experience, and were concerned with the power of the Spirit. Their desire was to return to the teachings of the Apostles and to revive the practices of the early church. They resisted the tendency to centralize authority in Rome. Day by day they longed for the Lord's return. They wanted the Holy Spirit to have the rightful place in the church. Eventually, however, either they were excluded by the Roman Church or left it on their own. Tertullian, one of the so-called Church Fathers, was with them for a period of time. This is his description of the Montanists:

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We are dead to all ideas of worldly honor and dignity; nothing is more foreign to us than political concerns…we are a body united in one bond of religion, discipline and hope. We meet in our assemblies for prayer. We are compelled to have recourse to the divine oracles for caution and recollection on all occasions. We nourish our faith by the Word of God. We erect our hope, we fix our confidence, we strengthen our discipline by repeatedly inculcating precepts, exhortations, corrections, and by excommunication when it is needful. This last, as being in the sight of God is of great weight, and is a serious warning of the future judgment…Those who preside among us are elderly persons, not distinguished for opulence, but worthiness of character. Every one pays something into the public chest once a month, or when he pleases and according to his ability and inclination; for there is no compulsion. These gifts are as it were the deposits of piety. Hence we relieve and bury the needy, support orphans and decrepit persons, those who have suffered shipwreck, and those who for the Word of God are condemned to the mines or imprisonment. This very charity of ours has caused us to be noticed by some. “See,” they say, “how these Christians love one another!”[7]

2. Priscillianists (A.D. 340-385)

These were the first Christians to be put to death by the Roman Church.

Priscillian was a Spanish nobleman. When he came to the Lord, he gave up all his wealth, and devoted himself to the Lord's service. The movement associated with him was much like modern Puritanism. It quickly spread throughout Spain, but received bitter opposition from the state and from the Church officials. Many false charges were leveled against them. They were accused of heresy. As to real heretics, one author has said that it seems as if heretics usually escaped persecution. These were the first Christians to be put to death by the Roman Church.

Carron wrote:

There can be no doubt that Priscillian was a true follower of Christ according to his light. Fifteen years after his death Priscillian's case was reviewed at the Council of Toledo, and every charge against him disproved except one statement. He had said as to Christ: “The word became flesh; being invisible He became visible; being unbegotten He became born; being incomprehensible He allowed Himself to be understood.”[8]

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This was the one statement that the Council could not agree with! Carron goes on to say:

A fuller justification was to follow many centuries later. The writings of Priscillian had been completely lost, until in 1886 eleven tracts of his were discovered in a library in Europe. They were found to contain nothing heretical. Indeed quotations from Scriptures constitute a very large proportion of their contents…Those who see an historical parallel between the worldly Church of the fourth century and the Pergamos Church of Rev. 2:12, will recall the words of the Lord, “Antipas my faithful witness who was slain among you where Satan dwells.”[9]

Broadbent wrote of Priscillian:

He defends himself and his friends for their habit of holding Bible readings in which laymen were active and women took part, also for their objection to taking the Lord's supper with frivolous and worldly-minded persons. For Priscillian the theological disputations in the Church had little value, for he knew the gift of God, and had accepted it by a living faith. He would not dispute as to the Trinity, being content to know that in Christ the true One God is laid hold of by the help of the Divine Spirit. He taught that the object of redemption is that we should be turned to God and therefore an energetic turning from the world is needed, lest anything might hinder fellowship with God.

For Priscillian the theological disputations in the Church had little value, for he knew the gift of God, and had accepted it by a living faith.

This salvation is not a magical event brought about by some sacrament, but a spiritual act…If communion with Christ should be broken it is for each one to restore it by personal repentance. There is no special official grace, laymen have the Spirit as much as clergy…Scripture is not only historical truth, but is at the same time a means of grace. The spirit feeds upon it and finds that every portion of it contains revelation, instruction, and guidance for daily life.[10]

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These were the beliefs of a group of people who were declared by the religious world to be nothing but heretics worthy of destruction!

3. Paulicians (A.D. 625-800)

The Paulicians were believers who lived in the area around Armenia in Asia Minor. They called themselves “Christians” or “Brothers”, and met together in a simple way. Due to their rejection of the images which had been brought into the Roman Church, they were bitterly persecuted. It became a capital offense to harbor them or to have any relationship with them. Their books were taken and burned. As many as 100,000 Paulicians were ruthlessly put to death by the Empress Theodora, a fanatic image worshipper. It is worth noting that the action taken by the Empress Theodora was applauded by Pope Nicolaus in 758.

4. Bogomils (A.D. 950-1463)

The Bogomils maintained that all believers were priests before God and not just a select few acting on behalf of the majority.

“Bogomils” is a Slavic name which means “Friends of God.” This group had its beginnings in Bulgaria, from which it spread. Each church was governed by elders. The Bogomils maintained that all believers were priests before God and not just a select few acting on behalf of the majority. They had a disdain for the official churches of the Empire with their empty ceremonies. Some referred to the Bogomils as the church of “Cathari.” Cathari is from the Greek “catharizo” which means “to cleanse” or “to purify.” They were concerned with the mixture which had come into the Church, and sought to cleanse the Church from all foreign elements.

Those who opposed them wrote:

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They bid those who listened to their doctrines to keep the commandments of the Gospel, and to be meek and merciful and of brotherly love…they pay no honor to the Mother of God, nor to the cross; they revile the ceremonies of the Church and all Church dignitaries, call orthodox priests “blind Pharisees,” say that the Lord's Supper is not kept according to God's commandment, and that the bread is not the body of God, but ordinary bread.[11]

Broadbent further said of them:

It was generally admitted even by these [their enemies] that their standard of life, their morals, their industry, were superior to those which prevailed round about them; and it was largely this which attracted to them many who failed to find in the State Church that which satisfied them.[12]

5. Albigenses (A.D. 1150-1300)

The Albigenses lived in southern France. People called them “Good Men.” They met apart from the Roman Catholic Church, simply confessing Christ and His Word. As a result, they died in the flames. Between 1208 and 1249 there was a crusade in which as many of these “heretics” as could be found were put to death. The Inquisition was started in 1210 by Dominic, the founder of the Dominicians, primarily to exterminate the Albigenses. A contemporary German monk writing about them said:

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They are armed with all those passages of Holy Scripture which in any degree seem to favor their views…They are increased to great multitudes throughout all countries…They declare that the true faith and worship of Christ is nowhere to be found but in their meetings which they hold in cellars and weaving rooms.[13]

6. Waldenses (A.D. 1160-present)

The Waldenses condemned the Roman system, for they could not reconcile what they saw within the Roman Church with what they read in the Scriptures. They, too, suffered from the Inquisition. Later, one of the Crusades was initiated by a pope to annihilate the Waldenses. But in spite of persecution, by the time of the Reformation there were some 800,000 Waldenses.

Hutton describes them:

In their lives they were simple and Christlike. They tried to live as nearly as possible after the example of Christ and His Apostles. In conversation they addressed each other as “Brother” and “Sister.” Although they had cut themselves off from the Roman Church, they attended its services, because they did not wish to create a disturbance, and employed the time in discovering flaws in the logic of the speaker. Like the Quakers of today, they looked upon all war as pure murder, and refused to take an oath. To them the State was an evil, and they would have nothing to do with it. They would quietly obey its laws, but no more. The law of Christ they said was enough. If that were obeyed, what was the need of governments?[14]

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Concerning the Waldenses, Broadbent wrote:

…apart from the Holy Scriptures they had no special confession of faith or religion, nor any rules, and no authority of any man, however eminent, was allowed to set aside the authority of Scripture…A few great truths were looked upon as essential to fellowship, but otherwise, in matters open to doubt or to difference of view, large liberty was allowed. They maintained that the inner testimony of the indwelling Spirit of Christ is of great importance, since the highest truths come from the heart to the mind; not that new revelation is given, but a clearer understanding of the Word.[15]

Broadbent continues:

In matters of church order they practiced simplicity, and there was nothing among them corresponding to that which had grown up in the Church of Rome. Yet the churches and elders accepted their responsibilities with the utmost seriousness… (The Lord's Supper) was looked upon as a remembrance of the Lord's body given for them and at the same time as a strong exhortation to yield themselves to be broken and poured out for His sake.[16]

E. Fore-runners of the Reformation and Present Recovery

1. John Wycliff (A.D. 1324-1384)

The most notable work of John Wycliff was the first translation of the entire Bible into English (A.D. 1382). It was not a translation merely for scholars, but for the English people in general who had been denied access to the Lord's Word. Wycliff says:

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The sacred Scriptures are the property of the people, and one which no one should be allowed to wrest from them.… Christ and His apostles converted the world by making known the Scriptures to men in a form familiar to them,…and I pray with all my heart, that, through doing the things contained in this book, we may all together come to the everlasting life.[17]

The influence of this translation is pointed out by Miller:

Minds were enlightened, souls were saved, and God was glorified.

The effect of thus bringing home the Word of God to the unlearned—to citizens, soldiers, and the lower classes is beyond human power to estimate. Minds were enlightened, souls were saved, and God was glorified.[18]

Miller notes the effect of this work of translation on Wycliff himself:

…but he is now engaged in a work which will a thousand times more enrich his own soul. He is yet more exclusively engaged with the Sacred Writings. It was not until he became more fully acquainted with the Bible that he rejected the false doctrines of the Church of Rome. It is one thing to see the outward abuses of the hierarchy, it is quite another to see the mind of God in the doctrines of His Word.[19]

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Seeing how far Rome had departed from the Word of God, Wycliff strongly opposed her practices. He emphasized that it was not the pope, the councils, nor any of the Church decrees that was to be the authority of the church, but simply the Word of God. The Scriptures are to be preferred above human traditions, doctrines, and ordinances.

Wycliff's view concerning the nature of the Word and its interpretation is given by Broadbent:

…the Bible is the Word of God or Will and Testament of the Father; God and His Word are one. Christ is the Author of Holy Scripture, which is His law, He Himself is in the Scriptures, to be ignorant of them is to be ignorant of Him….the theological doctors cannot have the power of interpretation for us, but the Holy Spirit teaches us the meaning of Scripture, as Christ opened the Scriptures to the Apostles.[20]

2. John Huss (A.D. 1370-1415)

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John Huss was of Bohemia, today's western Czechoslovakia. In his day he made the convictions and teachings of Wycliff popular. Recognizing in Huss much that he could identify with, Luther said of him, “We are all Hussites, without having known it.”[21]

According to Hutton:

He had become a national hero; he was the people's idol.

He had declared that Christ was the only true Head of the Church, and that the Pope was not to be obeyed unless he taught the truth. He had said that the Bible and not the Church was the only standard of faith; that the Pope had not the keys of Heaven; that man could be forgiven by God only, through faith and repentance; that the supposed miracles worked by saints were a fraud; and that the Priests who duped the people by selling indulgences were servants, not of Christ, but of Satan. He had brought out a new translation of the Bible, and made the study of the Bible popular. He had called for more purity of life; had thundered against the adulterous priests, and declared that they were not fit to give the Sacrament.

He explained the Bible as they had never heard it explained before; he taught them to love it and read it;

He had become a national hero; he was the people's idol. When the Pope's messengers had come to Prague with large boxes full of indulgences, Huss had held them up to scorn. “Let who will proclaim the contrary,” he said; “let the Pope, or a Bishop, or a Priest say 'I forgive thee thy sins; I free thee from the pains of hell,'–it is all vain, and helps thee nothing. God alone, I repeat, can forgive sins through Christ.” His words aroused enthusiasm among the people. He preached to them in the villages. He explained the Bible as they had never heard it explained before; he taught them to love it and read it; and, like a general cheering his army, he called on the Bohemian people to fight right manfully against the Devil in their hearts, and against lies and quackery, and to take their stand on the Word of God, and bid defiance to the Pope and his minions.[22]

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Because of his strong stand against the Catholic Church on the one hand, and his steadfast insistence upon the Word of God on the other hand, Huss was summoned to the Council of Constance to testify to his beliefs. Although promised safe passage if he came, he was condemned by the Council, and subsequently burned at the stake.

3. Peter Cheltschizki (A.D. 1390-1452)

Peter Cheltschizki, or Peter of Chelcic, was influenced by Wycliff and Huss. Hutton says, “Like most of Huss's followers, if we can call him one, he took his stand upon the Bible; and that was the secret of his strength.”[23] It was Peter of Chelcic who became the literary founder of the United or Bohemian Brethren, being their source of ideas and plans.

In his book, The Net of Faith, written in 1440, he says:

Nothing else is sought in this book but that we, who come last, desire to see the first things and wish to return to them in so far as God enables us. We are like people who have come to a house that has been burnt down and try to find the original foundations. This is the more difficult in that the ruins are grown over with all sorts of growths, and many think that these growths are the foundation, and say, “This is the foundation” and “This is the way in which all must go,” and others repeat it after them. So that in the novelties that have grown up they think to have found the foundation, whereas they have found something quite different from, and contrary to, the true foundation. This makes the search more difficult, for if all said, “the old foundation has been lost among the ruins,” then many would begin to dig and search for it and really to begin a true work of building upon it, as Nehemiah and Zerubbabel did after the destruction of the temple. It is much more difficult now to restore the spiritual ruins, so long fallen down, and get back to the former state, for which no other foundation can be laid than Jesus Christ, from whom the many have wandered away and turned to other gods and made foundations of them.[24]

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In the same book he writes:

In the Apostles' times the churches of believers were named according to the towns, villages and districts, they were churches and assemblies of believers, of one faith…

I do not say that everywhere where the Apostles preached all believed, but some, whom God had chosen; here more, there fewer. In the Apostles' times the churches of believers were named according to the towns, villages and districts, they were churches and assemblies of believers, of one faith…they were united in an association of faith and came together in local gatherings where they had fellowship with each other in spiritual things and in the Word of God. And in accordance with such association in faith and in spiritual things they were called churches of believers.[25]

From Hutton we learn Peter Cheltschizki's view concerning the Roman Church:

(Peter of Chelcic) said as plainly as he could that the connection between Church and State was the root of all the evils that had come upon this miserable world. “Since that time,” he said, speaking of the time when Constantine the Great had blended the Church and the Empire, “Since that time these two powers, Imperial and Papal, have clung together; they have turned everything to account in the Church and in Christendom for their own impious purposes; theologians, professors and priests are the satraps of the Emperor; they ask the Emperor to protect them so that they may sleep as long as possible, and they create war so that they may have everything under their thumb.”

If Peter lashed the Roman Church with whips, he lashed the priests with scorpions. He loathed these “honourable men, who sit in great houses, these purple men, with their beautiful mantles, their high caps, their fat stomaches.”[26]

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He continues:

“They prepare Jesus,” he said, “as a sweet sauce for the world, so that the world may not have to shape its course after Jesus and His heavy cross, but that Jesus may conform to the world; and they make Him softer than oil, so that every wound may be soothed, and the violent, thieves, murderers, and adulterers may have an easy entrance into Heaven.”[27]

4. United Brethren in Bohemia (A.D. 1457-1621)

The United Brethren in Bohemia (also known as the Ancient Brethren, or the Ancient United Brethren), had their beginning in Kunwald, Bohemia on March 1, 1457.

“We take the words of the New Testament just as they stand, without further argument.”

These “Brothers and Sisters of the Law of Christ,” as they called themselves, were severely persecuted and many were ruthlessly slain. Their hymnal was the first to be published outside of the Catholic Church. They gave the Bohemian people the Bible in their own language, translating it from the original Greek and Hebrew. This translation, called the Kralitz Bible, was printed in 1593. Concerning the Scriptures the United Brethren said, “We take the words of the New Testament just as they stand, without further argument.”[28]

They were commonly dubbed “Pitmen” because at times they lived in pits and caves due to persecution. Hutton writes:

Yet not for a moment did they lose hope. At the very time when the king thought to have crushed them, they were in reality increasing in numbers every day. As their watch-fires shone in the darkness of the forests, so their pure lives shone among a darkened people. No weapon did they use except the pen. They never retaliated, never rebelled, never took up arms in their own defense, never even appealed to the arm of justice. When smitten on one cheek they turned the other; and from ill-report they went to good report, till the king for very shame had to let them be. Well aware was he that such persecution was not the way to stamp out spiritual life.[29]

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Hutton further adds:

What made the Brethren's Church shine so brightly in Bohemia before Luther's days was not their doctrine, but their lives; not their theory, but their practice; not their opinions, but their discipline. Without that discipline they would have been a shell without a kernel.[30]

5. Kasper von Schwenckfeld (A.D. 1489-1561)

Schwenckfeld and his followers met apart from the Catholics, Lutherans, Anabaptists, and Reformed Churches. They saw much concerning Christ and the church. Rufus Jones, in his book, Spiritual Reformers in the 16th and 17th Centuries, gives an excellent account of Schwenckfeld:

Among all the Reformers of the sixteenth century who worked at the immense task of recovering, purifying, and restating the Christian Faith, no one was nobler in life and personality, and no one was more uncompromisingly dedicated to the mission of bringing into the life of the people a type of Christianity winnowed clean from the husks of superstition and tradition and grounded in ethical and spiritual reality, than was Caspar Schwenckfeld, the Silesian noble.[31]

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According to Jones:

…even in his earliest writings he emphasizes the inwardness of true religion and the importance of a personal experience of the living, creative Divine Word…. He pleads for a faith in Christ and an appreciation of Him that shall “reach the deep regions of the spirit,” renew the heart, and produce a new man in the believer…[32]

Jones describes Schwenckfeld's beliefs concerning salvation:

The process—for it is a vital process—is from beginning to end in the realm of experience. By the exercise of faith in the crucified, risen, and glorified God-Man, as the life-giving Spirit, real power from a higher world streams into the soul. Something “pneumatic,” something which belongs ontologically to a higher spiritual world-order, comes into the person as a divinely bestowed germ-plasm, with living, renewing, organizing power.

...salvation is “real redemption,” the “deification”[33] of mortal man, the actual formation of an immortal nature,

As with Irenaeus, so with Schwenckfeld, salvation is “real redemption,” the “deification”[33] of mortal man, the actual formation of an immortal nature, the restoration of humanity to what it originally was, through the in-streaming life-energy of a mystical Adam-Christ, the Founder and Head of a new spiritual race.

By this incoming spiritual power and life-substance the entire personality of the recipient is affected. The recreative energy which pours in transforms both soul and body. The inner eternal Word of God, who became flesh, acts upon the inner nature of man, so that the believing man is changed into something spiritual, divine and heavenly, and like Jesus Christ, the incarnated Word of God.[34]

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Jones goes on to say:

…this Word, which is the same life-giving Spirit that became flesh in Christ and that produces the new creation in man, becomes a perpetual inward Teacher in those who are reborn.… It is, in fact, God Himself operating as Life and Spirit and Light upon the spiritual substance of the human soul, first as the Life-Seed which forms the new creation in man, and afterwards as the permanent nourishing and tutoring Spirit who leads the obedient soul on into all the Truth, and perfects it into the likeness and stature of Christ.[35]

Through Jones we also learn what Schwenckfeld taught concerning the interpretation of Scriptures:

“If man,” he writes, “is to understand spiritual things and is to know and judge rightly, he must bring the divine Light to the Scriptures, the Spirit to the letter, the Truth to the picture, and the Master to His created work…. In a word, to understand the Scriptures a man must become a new man, a man of God; he must be in Christ who gave forth the Scriptures.”[36]

And again:

He who will see the truth must have God for eyes.”

The spiritual realities of life cannot be settled by laboriously piling up texts of Scripture, by subtle theological dialectic, or by learned exegesis of sacred words. If these spiritual realities are to become real and effective to us, it must be through the direct relation of the human spirit with the divine Spirit–the inward spiritual Word of God. “He who will see the truth must have God for eyes.”[37]

Jones quotes and paraphrases Schwenckfeld regarding faith:

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“Real faith is a gracious and gratuitous gift of God through the Holy Spirit. It is an emination from the eternal Life of God, and is of the same essence and substance as God Himself.” It is in fact, the Eternal Word of God become vocal and vital within the inner region of our lives.[38]

The Reformer's views about the church are described by Jones:

Each soul that enters the kingdom of experience through the work of the Life-giving Spirit is builded into this invisible expanding Church of the ages, and is endowed with some “gift” to become an organ of the Divine Head.[39]

The Church is in a very true sense bone of Christ's bone and flesh of His flesh,

The Church is in a very true sense bone of Christ's bone and flesh of His flesh, vitalized by His blood, empowered by His real presence, and formed into an organism which reveals and exhibits the divine and heavenly Life–a world-order as far above the natural human life as that is above the plant.[40]

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Jones notes some remarkable things about regeneration and feeding. He says:

Through the exercise of faith in the person of the crucified, risen, and glorified Christ–the creative Adam–incorruptible, life-giving substance comes into the soul and transfigures it. Something from the divine and heavenly world, something from that spiritualized and glorified nature of Christ, becomes the actual food of man's spirit, so that through it he partakes of the same nature as that of the God-Man. Not once or twice, but as a continuous experience, the soul may share this glorious meal of spiritual renewal–this eating and drinking of Christ.[41]

Finally, Jones describes the meetings of the followers of Schwenckfeld:

The public records of Augsburg [West Germany] reveal the existence, during Schwenckfeld's life, of a remarkable group of these quiet, spiritual worshippers in that city. Their leaders were men of menial occupations–men who would have attracted no notice from the officials of city or Church if they had been contented to conform to any prevailing or recognized type of religion. Under the inspiration which they received from the writings of Schwenckfeld they formed “a little meeting”–in every respect like a seventeenth-century Quaker meeting–in their own homes, meeting about in turn, discarding all use of sacraments, and waiting on God for edification rather than on public preaching.

They objected to any form of religious exercise which seemed to them incomprehensible to their spirits and which did not spring directly out of the inward ministry of the Word of God.

They read the books and epistles of Schwenckfeld in their gatherings, they wrote epistles to other groups of Schwenckfeldians, and received epistles in turn and read them in their gatherings. They objected to any form of religious exercise which seemed to them incomprehensible to their spirits and which did not spring directly out of the inward ministry of the Word of God. They were eventually discovered, their leaders banished, their books burned, and their little meeting of “quiet spirituals” as they called themselves was ruthlessly stamped out. Societies something like this were formed in scores of places, and continued to cultivate their inward piety in the Fatherland, until harried by persecution they migrated in 1734 to Pennsylvania, where they have continued to maintain their community life until the present day.[42]

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