Now I came across something really hits home on how the church at Rome suppressed the truth and now we must choose going forward...
"Do you want to be a person of truth, someone who loves the truth, who is able to comprehend the truth and move forward in truth as it is revealed?
The Bible tells us that those who are lost are lost because “they refused to love the truth and so be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:10).
Something about them causes them to develop minds and hearts that do not love truth. These lost souls won’t accept advancing light and don’t have minds that are willing to move forward in unfolding insight.
Do you think the majority who refuse truth realize they are doing so or would they likely consider themselves defenders of the truth?...
Because truth is typically initially resisted, this advancement of light is slow and even contentious at times. Thus, just like with germ theory, some groups will practice the new truth, while others stick by the traditional standards. In time, however, what is actually true will be demonstrated to be healthier and result in greater acceptance, until practiced by the vast majority — unless some obstacle is inserted into the organization to prevent the truth from its normal and natural advancement. And what is that obstacle? A hierarchical organization — a top-down authoritarian system.
In such a system, authority is not local, but is invested in a supreme leader or governing body that establishes, from the top, what is truth, typically with precise definitions. This could be called a creed or a list of fundamental beliefs, but, regardless, these definitions are not open to being challenged or deviated from by anyone within the organization. This is because in hierarchical organizations, questioning the established truth is seen as undermining its authority, as rebellious, and as an attack on “known truth.” New ideas are not tested, because, when they arise in local regions, they are not allowed to advance and be tested. Instead, the ruling authority has a system of thought police, or compliance officers, who oversee the local groups, monitoring for any idea which threatens the orthodox view, and then act to bring consequences to bear, thus ensuring new truth never takes root. Any group or region who attempts to resist the central authority and move forward in new light will be ridiculed, accused of being rebellious, and threatened with expulsion from the organization.
Consider when the gospel was being preached in the first century after the resurrection of Christ. The top-down, authoritarian, religious leaders utilized coercive power in an attempt to silence the Apostles. However, Gamaliel stood up and promoted a different method. He pointed out that others, with false messages, had arisen, but because their messages were false they faded away. He summed up with this inspired wisdom, “I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God” (Acts 5:38-39).
And what does the history of organized religion tell us? Where has the vast majority of opposition to advancing truth originated, if not from the theological ruling counsels of each era? And what method did those systems employ, if not a top-down, authoritarian approach, with centralized definitions of orthodox truth?
The question for each of us today is: Do you want to be a person of truth, someone who loves the truth, who is able to comprehend the truth and move forward in truth as it is revealed?
Consider people through history who have resisted truth, such as those who crucified Christ, or persecuted His Apostles, or those who murdered the Reformers. Do you think they would have said, “We know we are in the wrong; we know we don’t have the truth; we realize these people are in the right, so let’s destroy them?” Or do you think these opposers of truth thought they were defending the truth?
I think that most people, who end up opposing and resisting truth do so while ardently believing they are defenders of the truth. How can we tell if we fall into the truth-loving group or the truth-opposing camp? By understanding how truth actually moves forward and then determining which system and method we are promoting."...
Truth — How It Unfolds and Advances