Who Were They?
The Waldensians-The Doctrines
Matthew 16:13-19
13When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea
Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do
men say that I the Son of man am? 14And they said,
Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some,
Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.
15He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
16And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art
the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17And Jesus
answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou,
Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not
revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in
heaven. 18And I say also unto thee, That thou art
Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church;
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
19And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom
of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth
shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou
shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
[JFR]
We continue to examine some of the groups that
were in existence during the period of the
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Reformation. I again utilize Pastor K. David
Oldfield’s work on the Reformation.
[Oldfield]
The Bible teaches that Christ Jesus started His
church during the days of His earthly ministry. On
several occasions, He spoke about different aspects
of church responsibility, discipline, and theology.
The word “church” (ekklesia) is used prior to the
Pentecost which the Protestants mistakenly say was
the founding of the church. In Matthew 18 Jesus was
teaching his disciples about how to treat misbehaving
believers, saying, “And if he shall neglect to hear
them, tell it unto the church.” That statement shows
that the disciples not only knew what a church was,
but that one already existed. Those disciples were
members of the very first church, which Jesus started
in Mark 3. “He goeth up into a mountain, and
calleth unto him (ekkaleo) whom he would; and they
come unto him. And he ordained twelve that they
should be with him, and that he might send them forth
to preach.” In Matthew 16, Christ said, “I will build
my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it.” Christ has been building His church
before and ever since He made that statement. Not
only does this establish that Jesus was the
founder of Christ’s church, but it also teaches that it
would be indestructible. The Bible teaches that
Christ’s church will remain in existence until the
end of time. The “Great Commission” concludes
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with the words, “and, lo, I am with you alway, even
unto the end of the world. Amen.” Baptists believe,
God’s people believe, that Christ founded His
church during His earthly ministry, and that
there have been representatives of that first church
in every age and every day throughout history.
Before the rise of Catholicism in the third century,
there were churches of Christ – churches true to
Christ and to Christian doctrine. During the rise of
Catholicism in the third, fourth, fifth and six
centuries there were churches of Christ. They
were called different names by their enemies, but
they were known by God – not by their names, but by
their doctrine. There have been Christ’s churches
and God’s people in every century – scattered across
Europe and the East – since the days that the Lord
Jesus walked this earth.
Last week we considered the antiquity of
Christians dwelling in the Alps.
For centuries they were know as the “Valdenses” –
“people of the valleys.” Some were lived in
France on the western, southwestern parts of the
Alps called the “Piedmont” – which means
something like “the foothills.” Others lived on the
eastern and southeastern parts of the Alps, in
northern Italy. There can be little doubt that these
Bible-believing people sought shelter in the valleys
for centuries before the Reformation of the
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16th century. From the days when Rome began her
descent into apostasy, these believers spoke out
against her heresy and were persecuted for it. They
were hounded out of the plains and lower
valleys into the upper valleys, where they became
isolated, and adapted to the tough way of life
required by that harsh climate.
I could greatly expand on the historical quotations
which I gave you last week, but I want to move
on. So, I’m going to share only a few more – just for
the purpose of reintroduction. Hossius, was a
Roman Catholic Cardinal and the President of the
1545 Council of Trent. At the time he
was condemning
the
people
known as “Anabaptists,” which we will likely
examine
next
week.
He
said
that
these
people persisted in boasting of the Word of God,
rather than religious tradition. They wrote and
published books condemning the Roman doctrines.
They refused to baptize their babies and denied the
host – that the Lord’s Supper included the literal
body and blood of Christ. And they suffered
persecution willingly rather than bowing to the
demands
of
the “holy
church
of
Rome.” This Cardinal Hossius declared, and I
quote, “The Anabaptists are a pernicious sect, of
which kind the Waldensian brethren seem to have
been. Nor is this heresy a modern thing, for it existed
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in the time of Austin (Hossius’ name for Augustine,
who died in 430 A.D. ).”
Mosheim, the Lutheran historian, wrote, “The true
origin of that sect which required the denomination
of Anabaptist, by their administering anew the right
of baptism to those who came over to their
communion …. is hid in the remote depths of
antiquity, and is, of consequence, extremely difficult
to be ascertained.” Neander, another Lutheran
historian, wrote, “It is not without some foundation
of truth that the Waldenses… asserted the high
antiquity of their sect, and maintained that from the
time of the secularization of the (Roman) church –
that is from the time of Constantine that they had
existed all along.”
So, the Waldenses made a claim to have served the
Lord and had been true to the doctrines of
Christ since
the
days
of
the Paulicians and Donatists – since the time of
Paul and of Christ. I believe that to be true, and I
identify our church with those people. But it has to
be
admitted
that antiquity
proves
nothing. Buddhism and Hinduism are very old as
well, but that doesn’t prove they have divine
authority as religions of Jehovah. What is the
difference between
Buddhism
and
Bible
Christianity? If you had to use one word to point out
the difference between our faith and the Hindus’
faith, what word would you use? In fact, you could
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use a single word to describe the difference between
us and the Muslim, the Mormon, the Methodist, and
the Roman Catholic. I think that you could use the
word “scripture.” It is Biblical theology which sets
the Waldenses apart from the Lutheran and the
Roman Catholic.
What did the Valdenses believe and practice in their
worship and service of Christ?
Their oldest extant manuscript, a lengthy poem
called the “Nobla Leyçon,” points out these
doctrines – They believed in the deity of Christ and
of the Holy Spirit – they acknowledged the Trinity –
the God-head. They believed that God, the Second
Person of the Trinity, created the universe and
man. They believed in the fall of man – that the
innocent creation chose to sin against God. Thus,
they were not Manicheists as they were so often
charged. They believed that the Decalogue, Ten
Commandments, are moral laws still to be applied
today. While teaching the importance of good works
and holy living, they preached the necessity of divine
grace, in order to be saved or to live a life pleasing
to God. They believed in Heaven and Hell and in
the resurrection of the body. And why did they
believe such things? Because they believed the
Bible.
There
is undeniable
evidence that
the
Waldenses possessed the New Testament in their
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own language. Early on it was just in segments –
some had the gospels, some possessed the epistles,
and so on. But while Catholicism was trying its best
to keep the scriptures away from the common man,
the churches of the valleys were doing their best to
see that every believe had a copy of their own. And
as pointed out last week, they had schools, teaching
their children to read those scriptures. They
also carried the scriptures throughout Europe,
selling them to the wealthy and giving them away to
the poor.
Wylie, the Presbyterian, in his book on the
Waldenses says, “There is reason to believe, from
recent historical researches that the Waldenses
possessed the New Testament in the vernacular. The
‘Lingua Romana’ or Romaunt tongue, was the
common language of the south of Europe from the
8th to the 14th century. It was the language of the
troubadours and of men of letters in the Dark Ages.
Into this tongue – the Romaunt – was the first
translation of the whole of the New Testament made
so early as the 12th century.”
Wylie quoted a Dr. Gilly who made a study of that
translation. It was under the “superintendence and at
the expense of Peter Waldo of Lyons, not later than
1180, and so is older than any complete version in
German, French, Italian, Spanish or English. This
version was widely spread in the south of France and
in the cities Lombardy. It was in common use among
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the Waldenses of Piedmont, and it was no small part,
doubtless, of the testimony born to truth by these
mountains to preserve and circulate it. Of the
Romaunt New Testament six copies have come down
to our day. These are small, plain, and portable
volumes, contrasting with those splendid and
ponderous folios of the Latin Vulgate…”
Why were the churches of valleys able to cling to
the original doctrines of Christ? It was because
they held the Word of God in their hands, and they
taught their children how to read it. Why were
the Catholics so easily lead into heresy? Because all
they had was the word and tradition of their priests
and bishops – they did not have the scriptures.
The Catholics published a formidable list of
Waldensian “heresies,” which included such things
as….. They held that there had been no true
Pope since
the
days
of
Constantine
and
Sylvester. Temporal offices and dignities were not
appropriate for preachers of the gospel. The Popes’
pardons – “indulgences” – were a cheat. This was
one
of
the
catalysts
of
Luther’s
rebellion. Purgatory was
a
fable. Relics were
simply rotten bones which had belonged to one
knew not whom. Meat could be eaten on any day of
the week if one’s appetite serve him. Holy water was
not a whit more efficacious than rainwater. Prayer in
a barn was just as effectual as if offered in a
church. They
scoffed at
the
doctrine
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of transubstantiation – that the communion bread
was transfigured into the body of Christ, and that the
wine became Jesus’ blood. And they even spoke
of the Roman Catholic Church as the harlot of the
Apocalypse. These all come from the assessment of
J.A. Wylie, the Presbyterian.
Samuel Morland, the Anglican, in his book, “The
Churches of the Valleys of the Piedmont,” published
the Waldsensian’s doctrinal statement from the
year 1120. Please remember that was a generation
prior to Peter Waldo. ‘We do believe that there is one
God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” They list the
sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, and
they also list the Apocryphal books, but denying that
they are a part of the inspired record. They state
that God created all things good, forming Adam in
His own image and likeness, but that Adam
sinned, and through him, sin entered into the world,
and all men are now sinners. “That Christ was
promised to our fathers who received the law, so
knowing by the law their sin, unrighteousness and
insufficiency, they might desire the coming of Christ
to satsifie for their sins and accomplish the Law by
himself.” “That Christ was born in the time
appointed by God the Father. That is to say, in the
time when all iniquity abounded, and not for the
cause of good works, for all were sinners: but that he
might show us grace and mercy, as being faithful.”
That Christ is our life, truth, peace, and
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righteousness, as also our Pastour, Advocate,
Sacrifice, and Priest, who died for the salvation of all
those that believe, and is risen for our
justification.” That
there
is no
other
mediator between God and man but Jesus Christ.
That the virgin Mary was holy, humble, and full of
grace as are all other children of God, and she, like
the rest, are in heaven awaiting the resurrection of
their bodies. “We believe that after this life, there are
only two places, the one for the saved, and the other
for the damned, the which two places we call
paradise and hell, absolutely denying that purgatory
invented by Antichrist, and forged contrary to the
truth.” All feasts, vigils of saints, holy water,
abstaining from flesh on certain days, and especially
Masses, are an abomination before God. “We
esteem for an abomination and as anti-Christian, all
those human inventions which are a trouble or
prejudice to the liberty of the Spirit.” The
ordinances are only visible forms of the invisible
grace, and that people can be saved without
them. “We acknowledge no other Sacrament but
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.” “We ought to
honour the secular powers, by subjection, ready
obedience, and paying of tributes.”
In another document dated 1532, and not always
quoted by the historians, the Waldensians state
– “All those that have been, and shall be saved, have
been elected of God, before the Foundation of the
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World. It is impossible that those what are appointed
to salvation, should not be saved. Whosoever
upholds free-will denieth absolutely predestination,
and the Grace of God.”
While not quoting that the 1532 document, I. K.
Cross summarized his consideration of the doctrines
of the Waldensians by saying, “Any Baptist student
will recognize this as a Baptist confession of faith
without question, and Morland says it descended
through the ancestors of these Waldenses from the
apostles themselves.” He says that Morland
quotes Theodore
Beza,
another
Protestant
theologian and historian, who says, “As for the
Waldenses, give me leave to call them the very seed
of the Primitive and purer Christian Church, being
those who have been so upheld by the admirable
Providence of God…”
Once again, from what I can learn about the people
of the Piedmont and Alps, the Waldenses, they were
true saints of God. I would not be ashamed to be
called a Waldense today.
Conclusion
We will consider the Montanists next.
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