But, although this attempt was opposed, and apostolically denounced, the enterprise was not abandoned by the christianized Pharisees. They determined to popularize christianity so as to make it palatable to the Jews, in the hope that it would cause them to cease persecuting those who believed in Jesus as the Christ. They therefore taught that men should believe the gospel, be immersed, then be circumcised, and keep the law of Moses, if they would be saved. The invention of this lie was the beginning of troubles to the body of Christ. Its inventors found their advantage in propagating it in defiance of the apostles.
Truth is fixed, but lies never diminish in circulating, but always increase.
While, then, christendom was, as we have described it in the beginning, pure and uncorrupt in faith and practice, it had sadly degenerated at the time when the apostles had all finished their course, except John. The Apostolical State of the Body was not, therefore, all rose-coloured, but was defaced by many unsightly blemishes. A thoughtful perusal of the epistles will convince the reader that by the time of the apostles' decease, the One Body was in a fallen or Ephesian State, and that consequently, the Apostolical State of things was pregnant with the Ephesian, as the Ephesian afterwards was of the Smyrnean, and the Smyrnean of the Pergamian, and the Pergamian of the Thyatiran, and the Thyatiran of the Sardian, and the Sardian of the Philadelphian, and the Philadelphian of the Laodicean, and the Laodicean of vomiting, corruption, and death. The Mystery of Iniquity, then, had its beginning in the Apostolical State. The seeds of it were then sown broadcast by the enemy.