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Last Updated on :
Saturday, November 22, 2014

 

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CONTENTS| Introduction

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The Protesters
By Alan Eyre


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THE members of a comparatively small community, who have sought from its foundation to base their beliefs and their life upon what is revealed in the Scriptures, the Word of God, have inevitably a keen interest in the career and fate of those devout believers in God of former centuries, whose aim and attitude were the same. Unfortunately the historical details and evidence were not easy to come by, scattered as they are among various writings in different languages and spread over a period of many centuries.

Alan Eyre has put us all in his debt by the massive research he has done into the religious opinions and political fortunes of those early students of Scripture. The breadth of his investigations is revealed by the impressive Bibliography at the end of this volume, and by the evidence in the text itself of the use he has made of his sources.

One or two impressions inevitably emerge from a reading of this book. Whatever may be the ultimate verdict of God upon them individually, there is no doubting the tremendous zeal and earnestness with which some of these early believers applied themselves to the study of Scripture. It is a matter of great encouragement to us, whose religious views are regarded as unorthodox by our contemporaries, to find that in a number of cases where major doctrines are concerned, these early believers had come to the same conclusions as ourselves. And how should it be otherwise, for we have sought to do what they did -- go back to the Scriptures alone in our search for truth.

Another, genuinely shocking, discovery is to realise how swiftly the leaders of the "official" Protestant reformation in the 16th and 17th centuries reverted to ideas which they had originally condemned in Catholicism, and with what ruthlessness they treated the "protesters" who insisted on relying only upon the Word of God.

Not the least striking feature of the narrative of this book is the revelation of the tremendous spirit of faith, love and devotion to God shown by some of these believers of former times who suffered almost indescribable tortures for the sake of their convictions. Would we today, who profess the same faith in God and in His Word, show the same firm courage if persecution became our lot? May the reflection send us all back to the Scriptures themselves as the source of all truth and inspiration.

F.T.P. November, 1975.

 

 


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