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The subject of this section then, will be an examination of this hidden line in the family tree of Christianity. Only in recent years has any significant weight of evidence been collated, for much of the record has been suppressed and destroyed by their opponents.
In previous pages mention has been made of the groups who made the original exodus from the oppressive |
| religion that was developing in the early Christian church in Rome, to continue a pure line of individual faith and obedience in the secret places of the mountains. It is only by following this original line of Christianity that we find the unfolding story of the seventh-day Sabbath. It was lost from the Roman line, which put forth all efforts to obliterate any record of the lives and activities of this underground branch of Christianity. Where the Roman Church was able to remove all knowledge, these primitive Christians were painted in extreme terms, as fanatics or a wild-eyed lunatic fringe on the edges of mainstream Christianity. |
| The primitive Christianity of this direct line from the Apostles was not organised like the Roman Church and had no religious name, except the nicknames given them by their enemies. Consequently it is possible to find wide variations in their belief and practice but, through it all, almost all of them kept the Sabbath and the rite of adult baptism. The purity of these beliefs and the mission zeal of the believers only began to diminish when persecution lessened, and succeeding generations gradually mingled |
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| with other religious groups. The line of the Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment has been unbroken since the Garden of Eden in spite of the strongest attempts of human powers, both civil and religious, to break it. It has seemed almost to be overcome, more by peace than by persecution, but throughout history it has never been quenched. |
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THE WESTERN CHURCH.
To follow the history of the Sabbath, we will first look at Europe. It was to the Alps that the first groups of Sabbath keepers fled. Here the passes and high valleys are steep and secluded and it was in these remote places that they formed small communities to bring up their children to know only the Word of God and not |
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