are clearly outlined in that remarkable prediction of Paul to which
reference has already been made, recorded in the second chapter
of Second Thessalonians. The first phase, described as "_a falling
away_," was that decline from true Christianity which we have
considered in the preceding chapter as the Corruption of Evangelical
Faith. The second phase was the rise and development of a foreign
element which was from its beginning "the mystery of iniquity" and
which in certain respects usurped the true place of Jehovah himself
in spiritual worship in the temple of God. This phase now demands our
special attention.

Since the sixteenth century reformation a large part of the Christian
world has renounced the right of the pope to sit as the supreme
earthly head of the church, but we shall show later that these same
modern Christians who have sought the restoration of the evangelical
_faith_ have not discarded the essential elements of the papal
hierarchical system, but have perpetuated them in their own
ecclesiastical constitutions, and that this relic of medievalism is
the chief barrier to a reunited Christendom and the restoration of
pure apostolic Christianity. It is highly essential, therefore, that
this phase of the apostasy be carefully considered. It is not enough
to reject the pope and his college of cardinals. If that tree, as
judged by its fruits, is an "evil" tree, we should seek to know where,
when, and by whom the evil seed from which it grew was first planted,
and then _reject it from the roots up_. Then, and not until then, can
the work of reformation be made complete. We have, therefore, to trace
the rise and development of what may be forcibly expressed by the
apparently pleonastic phrase _human ecclesiasticism_.

[Sidenote: Divine authority vs. positional authority]