The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE: Waldensian Defiance of Rome

I. Waldensians Claim Apostolicity

The Waldensians claimed to have been always independent of Rome, never to have been under bondage to the papal jurisdiction, and never to have assented to its errors. And having denied its usurpations, they denounced Rome increasingly as the very apostasy of Babylon, and finally as Antichrist. The comparison was odious and dangerous. The very foundation of the papal structure was threatened. This assertion of a rival line of spiritual transmission, paralleling her own vaunted apostolic succession-of a contemporaneous line of truth that matched and countered the growing departures and apostasies marking the centuries of papal climb to power and pre-eminence- was a denial, a rebuke, and an intolerable threat to the universal headship of all the churches. PFF1 860.1

1. WALDENSIAN CLAIM MADE ROMAN CHALLENGE INEVITABLE

The Waldensian claim of being the true church of Christ, the spiritual successor to the apostles, and the paralleling assertion that the Roman church had become the apocalyptic Harlot ¹ and the synagogue of irreclaimable malignants was bound to stir the wrath of Rome. The Waldenses claimed a succession, however, not so much of men as of evangelical truth. It was not a transmission through an episcopate but a perpetuation of divine principles deposited in one glorious, heavenly Mediator, and derivable from Him to all believers. It was therefore inevitable that conflict should come between such proponents and the Papacy, which laid exclusive claim to apostolicity, primacy, perpetuity, unity, and universality. ² Those who refused to submit to that authority were necessarily rebels, schismatics, and heretics. PFF1 860.2

2. THE TRUE AND FALSE CHURCHES

The Waldenses claimed to be the true church of the Scriptures persecuted by the false church, which professed to be the woman clothed with the sun but which was really the impure Babylon the Great. Wherever else she may have fled into the wilderness, the true church must also be found within the territory of Romanism, where oppression and persecution would be brought directly to bear upon her. This conclusion was obvious, and not to be rejected unless the prophetic premises outlining the two churches are set aside. PFF1 861.1

We do not, of course, admit the contention of Rome, that she is the true and only church of Christ, in view of all the `foreign and adverse influences that have molded the Roman church. However, God never left Himself without witnesses to the truth and spirituality of His work of redemption among mankind. These influences are to be found within and without the pale of the dominant church. It is the church in the heart of men renewed by the Spirit of God; to all outward appearances it is often the church in the wilderness, sometimes in little groups, sometimes combining in larger communions, so that at times two churches existed. Certainly the alleged fulfillment in the Papacy of Christ’s specifications for His true church, in universality, perpetuity, apostolicity, and purity, is so contradictory to fact, in the light of our previous study” as to warrant the charges brought by the Waldenses that the two churches of history are the two churches of prophecy. PFF1 861.2

3. MATERIALS SCANTY FOR WALDENSIAN DOCTRINES

The witness of the Waldenses is both intriguing and vital. Their consciousness of their own role in fulfilling prophecy, as well as their interpretation of prophecy; the difficulty of clear discernment of their spiritual forefathers in the early centuries of witness in the Dark Ages; their fidelity to and preservation of the Word, and its evangelical truths; their protest against doctrinal and organizational apostasy; the resultant persecution against them throughout their witness; and the attempts of their enemies to destroy and discredit their writings—these all conspire to make the study of their beliefs particularly important. PFF1 862.1

We have very little Waldensian literature left. Much of their doctrine we must piece together from accounts of their enemies. Their original vernacular translations of the Scriptures, are lost, and the vernacular writings that have survived come mostly from the valleys of Piedmont, where the remnant of the Waldenses were sheltered by their craggy ramparts, and thus their writings alone were preserved from the oblivion which overtook their sister communities in other parts of Europe. It is not in the province of this work to study the Waldensian literature in general; our quest is their doctrines, and particularly their prophetic interpretation as revealed in their doctrines. PFF1 862.2

Before proceeding to this study, however, something must be said of the language and form of the writings themselves. PFF1 862.3