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Originally Posted by Sons to Glory!
I love reading about Huss, the Moravian saints, and that period before Luther! There are some ties between them and the ancient Christian groups, which lived in the mountains, that Broadbent presents in his awesome book, The Pilgrim Church. We could have some wonderful discussions around that period of time in the church!
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The "ties" with the Waldensians, Albigensians, and others were entirely of the Spirit. Broadbent researched many of these. Their stories were often "reverse-engineered" historically, in other words the records of the oppressive Catholics were re-written to reflect the truth. For example, those whom the Catholic Church would label as "obstinate heretics disrespecting the virgin" were simply genuine believers who refused to worship marble Mary.
Many of these believing communities were hidden in the mountain enclaves, whether the Pyrenees or the Alps, for centuries until the Popes gathered armies to attack them, forcing compliance. Some took King David as their pattern and some took Jesus Himself. The former would form trained militias to resist papal mercenaries, protecting their woman and children. Some, however, refused to resist, as the Lamb of God before them, and knowing the inevitable, chose corporate suicide rather than being forced to watch their wives and daughters brutally raped before all were slaughtered.
In this regard Hitler's goons or ISIS soldiers were no worse than the Pope's. So how can we really think that the prophetic "Smyrrna" was ended with Constantine in 325AD?