Protestant America
TimeWatch Editorial
March 04, 2016
In our very last Editorial, we dealt with the fact that the United States will ultimately repudiate its position as a Protestant and Republican nation.
“By the decree of enforcing the institution of the Papacy in violation of the law of God, our nation will disconnect herself fully from righteousness. When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with Spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and Republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan, and that the end is near.”--Testimonies, vol. 5, p. 451.
In that Editorial, we looked at the imminent return of the original 1888 senate bill Senate Bill, No. 2983, known as the "Sunday-Rest Bill." We made the point that even though the intended amendment failed, those who supported it then, did not give up. That same year, in 1888, a new organization named “The American Sabbath Union” was formed. The organization has continued in varied forms until this very moment. Their intent is the same, their goals are unchanged and the urgency with which they pursue their objective has increased ten-fold.
The statement found in Testimonies for the Church, Volume 5 page 451, includes more than just the repudiation of the Constitution. It also describes the abandonment of Protestantism. Joseph Bottum is an influential Catholic Neo-Conservative. He wrote an article on the First Things Website entitled “The Death of Protestant America.” Here is his opening thought.
“America was Methodist, once upon a time—Methodist, or Baptist, or Presbyterian, or Congregationalist, or Episcopalian. A little light Unitarianism on one side, a lot of stern Calvinism on the other, and the Easter Parade running right down the middle: Think, for instance, of the old Anabaptist congregations—how a residual memory of America’s social geography still lingers in the words: the Hutterites, Mennonites, and Amish, set here and there on the checkerboard of the nation’s farmland. The Quakers in their quiet meetinghouses, the Shakers in their tiny communes, and the Pentecostals, born in the Azusa Street revivals, like blooms forced in the hothouse of the inner city.” Joseph Bottum, “The Death of Protestant America” August 2008
After describing how things were, Mr. Bottum now describes how things are at present. He describes the condition of Protestantism and the disappearance of denominational identity.
Which makes it all the stranger that, somewhere around 1975, the main stream of Protestantism ran dry. In truth, there are still plenty of Methodists around. Baptists and Presbyterians, too—Lutherans, Episcopalians, and all the rest; millions of believing Christians, who remain serious and devout. For that matter, you can still find, soldiering on, some of the institutions they established in their Mainline glory days: But those institutions are corpses, even if they don’t quite realize that they’re dead. The great confluence of Protestantism has dwindled to a trickle over the past thirty years, and the Great Church of America has come to an end. Joseph Bottum, “The Death of Protestant America” August 2008
These events may seem rather strange and unconnected, but they surely are the fulfillment of a prophecy that will have quite an impact upon the nation, and ultimately the world. The time is nearer than we might expect it to be.
“The time is not far distant, when, like the early disciples, we shall be forced to seek a refuge in desolate and solitary places. As the siege of Jerusalem by the Roman armies was the signal for flight to the Judean Christians, so the assumption of power on the part of our nation, in the decree enforcing the papal Sabbath, will be a warning to us. It will then be time to leave the large cities, preparatory to leaving the smaller ones for retired homes in secluded places among the mountains.”--Testimonies, vol. 5, pp. 464, 465.
Let us therefore be prepared for that time.
Cameron A. Bowen
