EXCERPT
THE CHURCH OF ROME IN BIBLE PROPHECY
AND THE DIALOGUE
BETWEEN S.D.A. THEOLOGIANS AND ROMAN CHURCH THEOLOGIANS
Pro Libertas
+++++
It is
significant that the number of the beast, 666, is not only the numerical total of
the letters in various names that have been applied to the papacy as well as
the name that is claimed by the Pope (Vicarius Filii
Dei,) but it also represents the ancient system of paganism involving worship
of the sun. In Unfolding the Revelation (1953) Roy Allan Anderson
describes the system and its transfer from Babylon to Pergamos,
and ultimately to Rome. (Pp. 123-135.) It
is worthy of note that the book was written as "Evangelistic Studies for
Public Presentation." That was a time when the S.D.A. Church was
still true to its mission!
Now about
the mark of the beast: unquestionably the Church of Rome has changed the
Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. Thus they fulfilled the prophecy that
they would "think to change times and laws" (Dan. 7:25.) It is
also beyond question that the Sabbath is in issue during the final conflict
between truth and error. However, God's remnant people are facing a
devious and deadly dangerous foe. Recently, the papacy has been
downplaying the issue of Sunday worship. It has not changed, but it is
hiding its fangs. Since Vatican II, the Church of Rome has been promoting
the Eucharist, the ritual of the communion mass, as the test of
fellowship. Thomas Richstatter, O.F.M., S.T.D.
states in an American Catholic Online article (May, 2000) titled
"Eucharist: Sign and Source of Christian Unity:"
All who participate in
this Eucharist are fed by the same life of Christ. At the same time the
worldwide eucharistic
celebration is a sign of unity it is also a source, or cause, of unity.
We are nourished by the same body and blood of Christ, strengthened in unity.
Yet there's a flip side of the coin. As remarkable a display of unity as eucharistic congresses are they
also show us how far we are from unity among all Christians. A eucharistic congress makes us long
for the day when all Christians can share in the one body of Christ:
intercommunion. To what degree is intercommunion possible today? Are there ways
we can hasten the day when all communions can participate in one Eucharist? . . .
Pope John Paul II explains
the Roman Catholic position regarding intercommunion in his encyclical letter
on ecumenism, That All May Be One. He says that Vatican II's Decree
on Ecumenism (#22-23) "pointing out that the post-Reformation
Communities lack that 'fullness of unity with us which should flow from
Baptism," observes that 'especially because of the lack of the Sacrament
of Orders they have not preserved the genuine and total reality of the Eucharistic
mystery,' even though 'when they commemorate the Lord's Death and Resurrection
in the Holy Supper, they profess that it signifies life in communion with
Christ and they await his coming in glory'" (#67). . .
In the encyclical On
the Coming of the Third Millennium, Pope John Paul II stated: "Among
the most fervent petitions which the Church makes to the Lord...is that unity
among all Christians of the various confessions will increase until they reach
full communion." Our efforts toward ecumenical agreements must show the
world "that the disciples of Christ are fully resolved to reach full unity
as soon as possible in the certainty that 'nothing is impossible with God.'"
In this same context, as the pope calls for "cooperation in the many areas
which unite us," he points out that these areas which unite us "are
unquestionably more numerous than those which divide us" (#16).
Our task is to emphasize
the positive, to realize how far we have come. Today in many places the
Churches of a city or area are joining together to work for safe, drug-free
streets; jointly sponsoring thrift stores and soup kitchens; pooling resources
for emergency financial help to those in need; working together in projects
such as Habitat for Humanity. And
even though we cannot yet always share the Lord's life-giving Bread at one
common table, how wonderful it is that so many of our Churches share a common
table of the Lord's Word. It is a great blessing that we all experience
the redeeming presence of Christ in the proclamation of the same Scripture
passages in our churches. "To accomplish so great a work, Christ is always
present in his Church, especially in its liturgical celebrations....He is
present in his word, since it is he himself who speaks when the holy Scriptures
are read in the Church." (Sacred Liturgy, 7).
When we speak of Church
unity we do not, of course, mean Church uniformity. It is possible, and even
preferable, to achieve Church unity while preserving a wide diversity of Church
structures and liturgical expressions. "From the beginning, this one
Church has been marked by a great diversity of those who receive them" (Catechism
of the Catholic Church, 814).
The
transcendent splendor of Orthodox liturgies; the reverence and ecumenical zeal
of the Churches of the Anglican Communion; the gratitude for God's free grace
and the Lutheran Church's contributions to liturgy through music; the
missionary spirit of the Baptist Churches; the Disciples of Christ's dedication
to Church unity; the call to social responsibility proclaimed by the United
Methodist Church; the confidence in God's faithfulness as witnessed to by the
Presbyterian and Reform Churches—these rich gifts which God has given to each
of the Churches are to be preserved and developed until the day we weave
them together in a wonderful tapestry to be placed on the table when
"many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob at the banquet in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 8:11).
(Emphasis supplied.)
In another
American Catholic Online article (1989) titled "A Walk Through the Mass: A Step-by-Step Explanation" Richstatter describes the consecration of the host and the
communion as follows:
The priest continues the
prayer, giving praise and thanks, and calling upon the Holy Spirit to change
our gifts of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.
As
God fed our ancestors in the desert on their pilgrimage, so God gives us food
for our journey. We approach the minister who gives us the eucharistic bread with the words "The Body of
Christ," and we respond, "Amen." We then go to the minister
with the cup who gives it to us with the words "The Blood of
Christ," to which we again profess our "Amen."
(Emphasis supplied.)
In
commenting on this description of the Mass, I want to note from the first Richstatter statement above that the Pope sees the
post-Reformation Communities as lacking that "fullness of unity with us
which should flow from Baptism," observing that "especially because
of the lack of the Sacrament of Orders they have not preserved the genuine
and total reality of the Eucharistic mystery" (emphasis
supplied.) Thus in the ritual of the Mass there is "insistent and
defiant rebellion" (S.D.A. Bible Commentary quoted above) combined
with blasphemy of staggering proportions. The prophet Daniel had
predicted of Messiah that He would "be cut off, but not for himself,"
(Dan 9:26 KJV) and "in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice
and the oblation to cease," (Dan 9:27 KJV,) and so it came to pass.
Then
Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. At that moment
the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth
shook, and the rocks were split. (Mat. 27:50,51
NRSV; emphasis supplied.)
The
apostle Paul declared:
And
every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again
the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. But when Christ
had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, "he sat down at
the right hand of God," (Heb. 10:11,12
NRSV; emphasis supplied.)
The Bible
declares that the daily ministration of earthly priests, the sacrifices and the
oblations, ended for all time at Calvary. The Church of Rome defiantly
claimed the authority to continue the priesthood, and instituted its own
sacrificial system in the blasphemous ritual of the Mass. John A. Hardon, S.J., states in an article titled "The
Priesthood and the Eucharist" in The
Catholic Faith (September/October
2000, Vol. 6, No. 5):
A priest can be working in
a chancery or a publishing house — no matter. The main reason he has been
ordained is because of the Eucharist. So true is this that if we would
specify the heart of the priesthood we would have to say it is the Eucharist:
the Eucharist as Presence, and the Eucharist as Sacrifice.
Each of these levels of
the Holy Eucharist is totally dependent on the priesthood — no priesthood, no
Real Presence and no Eucharistic Sacrifice (and no Holy Communion, either). . .
A
priest, therefore, makes the Real Presence possible, and no one, no king or
prince or genius, nor the will of a thousand people or the combined efforts of
a whole nation, can substitute for the power of a priest’s consecrated
words: “This is my body. This is the chalice of my blood.”
And
as the Fathers of the Church do not hesitate to say, there is no less a
miraculous change taking place on the altar than took place in the womb of Mary
at the moment of the Incarnation. Before she pronounced her words,
there was no Christ on earth. The moment she did, He took dwelling in her body.
The moment before the words of the priest are pronounced over the elements
of bread and wine, there is just bread and wine. He pronounces them and then
divine power — it has to be divine power — changes the substance of bread and
wine into the very living Body and Blood of the living God. (Emphasis
and italics supplied.)
The
defiance of God is carried further. The Word of God says, "And
almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of
blood is no remission" (Heb 9:22 KJV; emphasis supplied.) For
the Church of Rome, Hardon says, "On Christ’s
side, therefore, the Mass, which the priest offers and as the Church further
tells us, is unbloody, it is the same
Sacrifice because it is the same priest, Jesus, and the same victim, Himself.
(Ibid.; emphasis and italics supplied.)
Is it any
wonder then that Daniel prophesied of this apostate power:
Yea,
he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily
sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast
down. And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the
truth to the ground; and it practiced, and prospered. (Dan. 8:11,12; emphasis supplied.)
This is
not ancient prophetic history. The Church of Rome continues to challenge
the ministry of Christ in the Heavenly Sanctuary and to pervert the Truth of
God. It will do so to the end of time. Therefore God commissioned
the Seventh-day Adventist Church to proclaim the Third Angel's Message and the
Loud Cry. Instead, the S.D.A. theologians are now in dialogue with
the very apostate power which they are called to denounce under the
authority of Rev. 14:8,9 and Rev. 18.
The seven last plagues reveal the just wrath of God against the apostate power,
and those who have defied His condemnation of its blasphemous
pretensions. It is incomprehensible that the S.D.A. leaders are ignoring
the warnings:
And
the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the
beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The
same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without
mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire
and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the
Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for
ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the
beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark
of his name. And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth;
and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of
the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.
(Rev. 14:9-11, 16:2.)
The
ultimate end of the Church of Rome, "them that commit adultery with
her," and "her children" is described in Revelation 19:
And after these things I
heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and
glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: For true and righteous are
his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore,
which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of
his servants at her hand. And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke
rose up for ever and ever. . . .
And
I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was
called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth
judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head
were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a
vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in
fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword,
that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of
iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness
and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a
name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. And I saw an angel
standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls
that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the
supper of the great God; That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of
captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them
that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and
great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies,
gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against
his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet
that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received
the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast
alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the
horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled
with their flesh. (Rev. 19:1-3, 11-21; italics and emphasis supplied.)
Do the
leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church believe the Word
of God.
Have they kept in mind the teachings of God in the past history of the S.D.A. Church. Evidently not!
But they will learn, too late, that you cannot expect to walk into the
embrace of the Devil and not be destroyed!
The words
of the apostle Peter on the Day of Pentecost echo down through the centuries to
this time:
And
with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save
yourselves from this untoward generation. (Acts 2:40; emphasis
and italics supplied.)
In
closing, I am appropriating the last paragraph of the chapter on "The
Beast From the Sea, and the Man With the Mystic Number
666," in Roy Allan Anderson's Unfolding the Revelation. 'The
fact that the papal number is identical with the sacred number of the ancient
pagan sun-god is significant. Against this system of deception,
God has spoken in no uncertain language. He calls it "Babylon,"
or "confusion." And His message today is, "Come out of
her, my people." Revelation 18:1-4. His true church will be
victorious. They will stand on the sea of glass singing the song of Moses
and the Lamb, the song of victory "over the beast, and over his image, and
over his mark, and over the number of his name." Revelation
15:1-4. Through a greater Name (Jesus) they have conquered sin, for
"there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be
saved." Acts 4:12. God hath
"given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow." Philippians 2:9, 10.
"All hail the power of Jesus' name!".' (P. 135.)