The Watchtower Society and John and Morton Edgar - A2Z.org

emperor of the West. And then in that year, 1328, Marciglio died Now Louis was a man of no ability, and fullof superstition, who dreaded an ex-communication, and when Marciglio, his great counsellor, died, Louissimply threw up the whole matter and fled from Rome, and the matter ended. The work was finished in fouryears; - just as the literal temple was finished in four years, and did not go on building again, so this work wasfinished in four years and did not go on again year after year. But just as the temple being built in four yearswas used for the purpose for which it was built, so the work of these four years was also used for the purposefor which it was done-the organization of the great reformation. Then follows a lull of about fifty years; and asin 467 Ezra came back from Babylon with the golden vessels of the temple, and then the temple could be usedproperly with the vessels in it, it was the same way here. In 1378 Wycliffe came back from Babylon the Great,and with him carried the vessels (truths) of the temple to Jerusalem - (to this reformed church.)In the year 1378 a wonderful thing happened. In that year the pope ln Avignon died, and the people roseup and appointed a pope of their own in Rome. But the people in France did not want him, and they alsoappointed a pope in Avignon. So there were two popes in Europe at the same time. What happened? Thesetwo popes immediately arose and quarrelled with each other, called each other all sorts of blasphemousnames, and used scurrilous language against each other; each of them claimed to be the vicar of Christ, of thisand each of them said the other was Anti-Christ – not knowing, of course, that both were correct. Thatopened Wycliffe's eyes. Wycliffe had been a reformer, but not a temple reformer. He saw it could not betrue that there were two vicars of Christ, more especially considering what language they were using.So in that year, 1378, he came out as a reformer. He began to translate the Bible, and the first thing he saw wasthat the golden vessels, (the Word of God,) which had been lying in Babylon, this great system of papacy, werefull of abominations, and the worst of all these abominations was the doctrine of transubstantiation. Thisabominable doctrine took away the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. When Wycliffe saw that in 1378 he beganto teach the world what the sacrifice of Christ meant. He brought the golden vessel back from Babylon to thistemple of the reformed church, containing the pure Bible truth with regard to the ransom sacrifice of our LordJesus Christ, that our Lord Jesus Christ had died once and for all; and not only did he bring that vessel back, butothers. He pointed out the error of the adoration of the virgin Mary, of the adoration of the saints, and of theclaim that pennance would atone for sin, and of many other false doctrines. He taught that the abominable doctrines of the papacy were all wrong, and brought forth the truth in regard to these questions. That was thework of Wycliffe, corresponding to the work of Ezra.Then the work of the reformation grew. Just as 13 years afterwards Nehemiah received his commission tobuild the walls of Jerusalem, to buttress that great system of Jerusalem, fleshly Israel, so 133 years afterthe death of Wycliffe, Huss received his commission to do the same thing to buttress the reformation. It wasHuss who made the reformation a natural force, and properly, therefore, these two points, the work ofNehemiah and the work of Huss, begins each of the seventy weeks. The 70 weeks brings us to the time 454 B.C. That was about the time of Malachi the prophet. After that we come to this time; seven weeks brings us to1440, the time of the invention of printing, which did almost more than anything else to carry on thereformation. Then followed 62 weeks. In that period between 1440 and 1874 is a blank, just as thecorresponding time in the Jewish age was blank. You know the historical canon of the Old Testament endedwith Ezra and Nehemiah, and the prophecies ended with Malachi. Then there is a blank until we come to theNew Testament, which tells about the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and John the Baptist. Nevertheless, weknow what happened during that time. We know that previous to that there was a gradual rise of thereformation, but during that interval there was a fall, chiefly into two parties; one party holding to the traditionsof the elders, which bound them faster and faster into those traditions, and these were the Pharisees; the otherparty became free thinkers, began to doubt the Bible, began to criticise the Bible, began to doubt the fact of theresurrection, doubting many things and interfering more in the politics of this world, and these were theSaducees. So "in due time" when the Lord came to His own His own received Him not; it was only a remnantwho received him.