|
THIRD ANGEL’S MESSAGE #3
1895 General
Conference
Elder A. T.
Jones
THE PAPACY
Our lesson tonight will be
the study of the papacy, as it was last night on the image of the papacy. I
would say, now as then, all that I am doing at present is setting before
you the evidence, stating the case; the arguments will come more fully after we
see what is to be built upon them. The statements I shall read tonight will all
be from Catholic authorities--Catholic speeches and Catholic papers.
First I shall read from
some of the Catholic speeches in the Catholic Congress in Chicago in 1893,
printed in the Chicago Herald of September 5, 6, and 7. They are simply
parallel statements with those that were brought forth in the previous lesson
from the other side, or rather from the other part of the same side, and by
putting these together, as we did those others together and having the two
lessons, it will be easy enough for you to mark the
parallels, almost word for word you will find in some of them, and they are
identical in principle and in purpose.
I will first read from an
address delivered to the Catholic Congress at Chicago September 4 on the
"Influence of Catholic Citizens," by Walter George Smith, as published
in the Chicago Herald of
September 5, 1893.
The church and the state, as corporations or external
governing bodies, are indeed separate in their spheres, and the church does not
absorb the state, nor does the state the church, but both are from God, and
both work to the same ends, and when each is rightly understood, there is no
antithesis or antagonism between them. Men serve God in serving the state as
directly as in serving the church. He who dies on the
battlefield, fighting for his country, ranks with him who dies at the stake for
his faith. Civic virtues are themselves religious virtues,
or, at least, virtues without which there are no religious virtues, since no
man who loves not his brother, does or can love God.
That is in the same line,
you will remember, with the statement of last night, that "Nearer, My God,
to Thee" and "Star Spangled Banner" are "both Christian
hymns" to one that understands this thing. You can see that this makes the
government wholly religious, equally with the church.
Another statement from the
same speech:
The church [what he means is the Catholic church] in all ages
has been the most democratic of all organizations; the church alone has
taught the true theory of the fraternity and equality of all men before God, and
to her precepts must mankind look for the foundation of their measures of
relief from present dangers.
What he refers to is the
present danger in social affairs, labor against capital, and the controversies
at present rife in the
United States.
Another statement from the
same paper from a speech by Edgar H. Gans entitled,
"The Catholic Church in
America," is published in the Chicago
Herald of September
5, 1893. Speaking of the spirit of liberty
as exemplified in the
United States and gathering the statement
concerning this spirit of liberty from a quotation from Webster, the speaker says:
The Catholic church welcomes this
bright and beautiful spirit and takes it to her bosom, for she is its foster
mother. With tender devotion has she nourished it through the ages. Time and again has she rescued it from the bold and
impious hands of despots, whether they be kings,
emperors, or a popular majority enthroned. Within the
church
of
God
is the only true sovereign and the source of all
power. The sovereignty of the people comes from him as a sacred trust, and they
must use this trust for the common weal.
We shall find presently
from the pope's encyclical that he, in the place of God, is the guardian and
the source of this sovereignty. We now read the closing statement of this same
speech of Mr. Gans'. The statement is identical with
one which we read last night:
We have among us our prophets of Israel, divinely
commissioned, as were the holy men of old, to guide,
instruct, ennoble, and elevate the nation; and the American people will
have achieved their highest glory when they seek the words of wisdom and truth
from their lips--when they voluntarily submit to the gentle ministrations of
the priests and the bishops of the holy Catholic church.
These statements need no
comment. Your recollection of the statement we read last night will be clear
enough to make the connection.
We now read from a speech
by Bishop John A. Waterson, of
Columbus, in the Catholic Congress, and
published in the Chicago Herald, November 6. His speech is upon Leo and Satolli, and he says this, speaking of Leo:
By his personal dignity and goodness, the practical wisdom of
his teachings and the firmness of his acts, he is giving the world to
understand that the pope is a great thing in the world and for the world. [Loud cheers.] And intellects heretofore rebellious are
accustoming themselves to think that, if society is to be saved from a
condition worse in some respects than that of pagan times, it is from the
Vatican
the savior is to come. [Renewed cheering.]
Another statement in the
Herald of September 7 is by Katherine E. Conway. Her paper was entitled,
"Making America Catholic," and she said this:
Your mission is to make America Catholic. This was Archbishop
Ireland's
greeting to the assembled delegates at the Catholic Centenary Congress in
Baltimore
four years ago. And this was the charge with which he sent them back to their
homes. Patriotic and religious enthusiasm were at
flood tide, and all hearts were willing to respond like the first Crusaders to
the call of Peter the Hermit, "God will it."
These addresses show that
the aim and work of the papacy are precisely what those are of which we read
last night.
Now I turn to some other
statements made last fall in connection with the then coming encyclical of the
pope. A letter from
Rome dated
October 14, 1894, printed in the Catholic Standard of
November 3, 1894, has this:
The
United
States of America,
it can be said without exaggeration, is the chief thought of Leo XIII in the
government of the Roman and universal Catholic church.
I would like to comment a
little upon this as we go along. Why is it that Leo thinks so constantly of the
United States? Oh, it is concerning the
government of the Roman and universal Catholic church.
Then what he proposes to use the
United States for is for some purpose in the
government of the Catholic church throughout the
world.
He is one of the choice
intellects of the
Old
World who
are watching the starry flag of
Washington rise to the zenith of the heavens.
A few days ago, on receiving an eminent American, Leo XIII said to him,
"But the United States are the future; we think
of them incessantly." The inattentive politician, the superficial
observer, in Europe as in
America, is astonished at this persistent
sympathy for the American people and care for its general interests. But those
who know the ardent soul of the pope, restless for what is good, eager for all
that is great and fruitful; the philosopher who sweeps over the whole
intellectual, social, and religious horizon; the statesman who judges matters
by the light of central and governing ideas, these all read in the heart of the
holy father the motives for his unbending resolutions and his devotion to
American ideas. This ever-ready sympathy has its base in the fundamental
interests of the holy see.
Now the fundamental ideas
of the holy see are the ideas upon which the whole
structure rests, and this sympathy for
America has its base in these fundamental
ideas concerning the interests of the holy see of "the Roman and universal
church."
This ever-ready sympathy
has its base in the fundamental interest of the holy see,
in a peculiar conception of the part to be played, and the position to be held
by the Church and papacy in the times to come.
This is explained more
fully presently that the papacy is watching the times to come with an all
absorbing interest. She proposes to prepare herself in every way to meet the
things that are to arise, as she says, in the times to come; and she proposes
to use the United States by which, and through which, to clothe herself and
prepare herself to meet successfully these things that are to arise in the
times to come. So I will read further upon that same point now:
The interest is the necessity in which
Rome
finds she is, to direct her general course according to the signs of the times
and the transformations on the agitated surface of the world. The peculiar
conception is the deep-rooted feeling that the Church of Europe must renew its
instruments and its method of adapting unchanging principles to changeable
surroundings and new conditions. . . . In this evolution the Church, in the
eyes of the Pope, has a mission to fill. To fulfill this mission she must adapt
herself to the changes which have come about the action of universal forces.
State Church, official Catholicism, privileges, legal and close relations
between two powers, connection of the clergy with a political party, feudal
ecclesiastical organizations, all the external framework of the Church must be
transformed, renewed, perhaps be done away with entirely. That is the central
dominating thought which marks the whole latter half of the present pontificate
from the time of the incident of the Knights of Labor and encyclical Rerum Novarum to that of the
encyclical to the French people. In the first half of his reign Leo XIII had
pacified, appeased, healed. He had been the pope of
peace and rest. After sealing that charter he became the pope of action. But
how can this new type of ecclesiastic be created?
Where can he get the clergy, the form of ecclesiastic through
which this scheme can be carried out and be made successful for
Europe
and for the world? Because
Europe
has to be rejuvenated, remodeled, re-enlivened. Where is she going to get the
model upon which to remold
Europe?
From whom shall he be copied? What civilization, what
country, what philosophy will provide him? Would it not be hazardous to create
him at one stroke? Would it not be better to join forces with a nation which
has a type in part, where, at least, it exists in the rough? Would it not be
enough to mark the outlines boldly to finish it and make use of it? This type
is the American type; it is American democracy, with liberty, with common law,
a full and exuberant life, without restraining bonds, and without a historic
bureaucracy.
The foundation of all
endorsements of Sunday laws in all the courts is "the common law."
Common law is the direct descendant of canon law. When the papacy was the state
and the state was subject to the rules of the papacy, canon law was then what
common law is now. And the states which profess to have been separated from the
papacy still build up religious observances upon "the common law."
And now that the whole judicial structure of the United States is built in
support of Sunday, upon common law, the papacy steps in and is glad to find a
model so ready made to her hand upon which she can remodel her ecclesiastical
forms for Europe and all the world.
Another thing; I will read
that sentence over:
This type is the American type; it is American democracy,
with liberty, with common law, a full and exuberant life, without restraining
bonds, and without a historic bureaucracy.
The papacy is very
impatient of any restraining bonds; in fact, it wants none at all. And the one
grand discovery Leo XIII has made, which no pope before him ever made, is that
turn which is taken now all the time by Leo and from him by those who are managing
affairs in this country--the turn that is taken upon the clause of the
Constitution of the United States: "Congress shall make no law respecting
an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
Leo has made the discovery that the papacy can be pushed upon this country in
every possible way and by every possible means and that congress is prohibited
from ever legislating in any way to stop it. That is a discovery that he made
that none before him made and that is how it is that he of late can so fully
endorse the United States Constitution.
We all know of course that
that was intended to be the expression of the American people always, that
religion should have no place in governmental affairs and no connection
whatever with it. But the papacy is never satisfied without taking possession
of everything in the government and running it in the interests of the church
and Leo XIII has found out that this can all be done under the cover of that
constitutional statement which was intended to prevent such a thing forever.
Thus the papacy in plain
violation of the Constitution will crowd herself upon
the government and then hold up that clause as a barrier against anything that
any would do to stop it. And every one that speaks against this working of the
papacy, behold! He "is violating the Constitution of the
United States" in spirit, because the
constitution says that nothing shall ever be done in respect to any religion or
the establishment of it. When a citizen of the
United States would rise up and protest against
the papacy and all this that is against the letter and the spirit of the
constitution, behold! He does not appreciate "the liberty of the
constitution. We are lovers of liberty; we are defenders of the constitution;
we are glad that
America has such a symbol of liberty"
as that. Indeed they are.
That is why Pope Leo XIII
turns all his soul, full of ideality, to what is improperly called his American
policy. It should be rightly called his Catholic universal policy.
What, then, is his policy
in the
United States? It is universal policy. That which
is done in the United States by the papacy is done with the idea of influencing
all the world and bringing all the world into line with the papal ideas, and to
build all once more upon the basic and fundamental principles thereof.
It is in this perspective,
wide as a great world, and lasting as a whole epoch, that the coming American
encyclical must be viewed. To make the delegation [of Satolli] independent and sovereign [which he does] with a
supreme ecclesiastical tribunal.
And that means a great deal
more than many people have dreamed of yet; for Satolli
has already set forth the doctrine that the clergy in the
United States are not subject to civil
jurisdiction. That means indeed a supreme ecclesiastical tribunal.
To support Monsignor Satolli and make his mission permanent and successful, to
point out the means of increasing influence and liberty, to continue the policy
of moderation and adaptability, which has brought peace to the nation, to deal,
in a word, with all the important questions of the day and to fix for good the
ecclesiastical type--the model of life, which Leo XIII wishes, little by
little, to bring within the reach of the weakening peoples of the old
world--that is the sublime inspiration of the encyclical to the Americans.
Now this statement with
reference to his watching the signs of the times, this recasting of the papacy,
even undoing, if necessary, the establishments and the forms that have been in
successful use for ages--all this in view of what the papacy is to do in the
times to come--reminds me of the Jews' translation of Daniel 8:23. Where the Authorized Version says, "In the latter time of
their kingdom, when transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce
countenance and understanding dark sentences shall stand up." The
Jews' translation says, "A king with an impudent face and understanding
deep schemes." I want to know, then, if that does not point out the papacy
as we are reading it right here tonight from these documents? "A king of impudent face and understanding deep schemes."
Bishop Keane, on his return
from his visit to
Rome last October, says in an interview published in the
Catholic Standard of
October 13, 1894, upon the same subject:
Bishop Keane talked very freely about his recent trip abroad
and especially about the great interest the pope takes in
America
and the affairs both temporal and spiritual of this country. The pope believed
the political welfare or properly the temporal welfare, of the world to be
guided by God equally with the spiritual welfare. It is his policy to
conciliate the two as much as possible. In carrying out his purpose the pope
wishes to adapt the church as much as possible to the existing conditions which
characterize the world at present and to provide for those which characterize
its future. The world he likens to the man, in that the church represents the
soul and the state the body. A man would be foolish to cultivate the soul and
pay no attention to the body and likewise the church cannot afford not to take
cognizance of the conditions surrounding it. As the body of the man grows, his
soul develops; and as the age of the world advances, the conditions surrounding
the church are subject to equal changes. Consequently it is the purpose of the
pope to keep the temporal power and the spiritual power from conflicting.
The pope then still holds
his claim to be God's agent in the conducting of these affairs. He sets up what
he declares to be God's will respecting the church and
respecting the temporal and spiritual powers and then he is the one who, for
God, is to manipulate them and say how they are to go on together; he is the
one who is to keep them from conflicting.
The pope recognizes the
fact that democracy is the coming state, and as such the most prominent
exponents today are
France and
America. Consequently he regards these
countries with a great deal of interest. This is especially true of the
United States, where the pope believes the
stronghold of Catholicism of the future lies.
Now turn to the words of
the pope in his encyclical as published in the Catholic Standard of
February 2, 1895. This encyclical needs to be
read over several times before its real purpose is caught, therefore I have
read these statements that preceded it, that you may catch the quicker what is
said there upon this subject. Several points are discussed in it, but only what
is said on this subject is what we shall now read. After addressing,
"Venerable brethren, health and apostolic benediction," he says:
We have now resolved to speak to you separately, trusting
that we shall be, God willing, of some assistance to the Catholic cause among
you. To this we apply ourselves with the utmost zeal and care, because we
highly esteem and love exceedingly the young and vigorous American nation in
which we plainly discern latent forces for the advancement alike of
civilization and Christianity.
Speaking of the landing of
Columbus, he says:
Like as the ark of Noah, surmounting the overflowing waters,
bore the seed of
Israel
together with the remnants of the human race, even thus did the barks launched
by
Columbus
upon the ocean carry into regions beyond the seas as well germs of mighty
states as the principles of the Catholic religion.
Speaking further of the
landing of
Columbus:
Now, perchance, did the fact which we now recall take place
without some design of Divine Providence.
Precisely at the epoch when the American colonies, having, with Catholic aid,
achieved liberty and independence, coalesced into a constitutional republic,
the ecclesiastical hierarchy was happily established among you.
That is to say, just when
liberty and independence were gained and this nation started, the
ecclesiastical hierarchy of the Catholic church was
also started in this country. The two things belong to the same time; that is
what he is pointing out.
Another point upon that is
thus made:
And at the very time when the popular suffrage placed the
great
Washington
at the helm of the republic, the first bishop was set by apostolic authority
over the American church.
These expressions are not
put in there without a purpose. The papacy intends that the Catholic church shall be recognized as the American church
henceforth. Again I read:
The well-known friendship and familiar intercourse which
subsisted between these two men seems to be an evidence
that the
United States
ought to be enjoined in concord and amity with the Catholic church.
In another passage, after
stating what the bishops did in their synods and by their decrees, he says:
Thanks are due to the equity of the laws which obtain in
America
and to the customs of the well-ordered republic, for the church among you,
unopposed by the constitution.
The constitution as it
reads was made for the direct purpose of opposing
Rome and to save the country from the
domination of
Rome. Those who made the constitution and the history of
the time in which it was made, said this:
It is impossible for the magistrate to adjudge the right of
preference among the various sects that profess the Christian faith without
erecting a claim to infallibility which would lead us back to the church of Rome.
So to keep the people of
the country from the domination of the church of Rome, they said in the
constitution, the government must never have
anything to do with religion. But Leo has discovered that that lack of
opposition in the constitution is the church's best hold, her greatest
opportunity.
For the church among you, unopposed by the constitution and
government of your nation, fettered by no hostile legislation, protected
against violence by the common laws and the impartiality of the tribunals is
free to live and act without hindrance.
And she is acting without
hindrance. Now I am not saying that the constitution should be in such shape
that Congress could legislate against the papacy. Not at all.
The surest safeguard against the papacy is the constitution as it is, but under
the circumstances she is making that the surest means to the dominance of the
papacy. Leo continues:
Yet, though all this is true, it would be very erroneous to
draw the conclusion that in America is to be sought the type of the most
desirable status of the church or that it would be universally lawful or
expedient for state and church to be, as in America, dissevered and divorced.
Although the church has
prospered under this constitution and has here the finest chance and prospect
of any place on the earth, that is not to be taken as evidence that it is
better to have the church and the state separate. Oh, no, because before
he gets done with this paragraph, he teaches that they shall be joined. Here
are his words:
The fact that Catholicity with you is in good condition, nay,
is even enjoying a prosperous growth, is by all means to be attributed to the
fecundity with which God has endowed His church, in virtue of which, unless men
or circumstances interfere, she spontaneously expands and propagates herself,
but she would bring forth more abundant fruits if, in addition to liberty, she
enjoyed the favor of the laws and the patronage of the public authority.
It is not enough that she
shall be free and unmolested; she must be favored and supported before she is
satisfied, and although the constitution leaves her totally unfettered, that is
not enough. And although she prospers under it, that is not enough. Nothing can
satisfy but that she shall be supported and favored by the laws and the public
authority.
Now as to the establishment
of the apostolic delegation, that is, the position of Satolli,
hear his words upon that. They are full of meaning, too:
By this action, as we have elsewhere intimated, we have
wished, first of all, to certify that in our judgment and affections,
America
occupies the same place and rights as other states, be they ever so mighty and
imperial.
By the establishment of Satolli's position here, he proposes, and says by that,
that America today, the United States, occupies the same place, and has the
same rights as other states, however mighty and imperial they may be--as
Austria, Spain, France--any of them, even as is said in this dispatch which
appeared in the Lansing, Michigan, Republican of
September 24, 1894.
The papal rescript elevates the
United
States to the rank as a Catholic nation.
Heretofore this country has stood before the church as a "missionary"
country. It had no more recognition officially at
Rome
than had
China.
. . . By the new rescript [and by this
encyclical also] the country is freed from the propaganda and is declared to be
a Catholic country.
Yes, "a Catholic
country," as much so as any other state, "be
it ever so mighty or imperial!"
In addition to this we had in mind to draw more closely the
bonds of duty and friendship which connect you and so many thousands of
Catholics with the Apostolic See. In fact, the mass of the Catholics understood
how salutary our action was destined to be; they saw, moreover, that it
accorded with the usage and policy of the apostolic see. For it has been, from
earliest antiquity, the custom of the Roman pontiffs in the exercise of the
divinely-bestowed gift of the primacy in the administration of the
church
of
Christ,
to send forth legates to Christian nations and peoples.
To whom do the pontiffs
send legates? To missionary countries? No. To Protestant countries or peoples? No. To heathen countries or peoples and nations? No. to "Christian nations and peoples." How did
the papacy find out that this was "a Christian nation" to which she
could send a legate? Why, the Supreme Court of the
United States said it "is a Christian
nation." And no sooner had it done so than the legacy was commissioned and
the delegation was sent and established here permanently.
Legates. . . . who, supplying his [the pope's] place, may
correct errors, make the rough ways plain, and administer to the people
confided to their care increased means of salvation. . . . His authority will
possess no slight weight for preserving in the multitude a submissive spirit.
Then telling what he will do
with the bishops and how he will help them and preserve their administration
and diocesan affairs, it says this is all done that all "may work together
with combined energies to promote the glory of the American church and the
general welfare."
It is difficult to estimate the good results which will flow
from the concord of the bishops. Our own people will receive edification, and
the force of example will have its effect on those without who will be
persuaded by this argument alone that the divine apostolate has passed by
inheritance to the ranks of the Catholic Episcopate.
Another consideration claims our earnest attention. All
intelligent men are agreed and we ourselves have with pleasure intimated it
above, that
America
seems destined for greater things.
You see he is watching
America for these greater things in view of
"the times to come."
Now it is our wish that the Catholic church
should not only share in but help to bring about this prospective greatness. We
deem it right and proper that she should by availing herself of the
opportunities daily presented to her, keep equal step with the Republic in the
march of improvement, at the same time striving to the utmost, by her virtue
and her institutions, to aid in the rapid growth of the States. Now she will
attain both these objects the more easily and abundantly, in proportion to the
degree in which the future shall find her constitution perfected. [That is, the church's constitution.] But what is the
meaning of the legation [that is, Satolli's position]
of which we are speaking? or what its ultimate aim,
except to bring it about that the constitution of the church shall be
strengthened, her discipline better fortified?
There is the whole
situation laid out. The church sees herself in need of
a new formation, a new molding of machinery and of the framework by which she
carries forward her work and imposes her doctrines and dogmas upon the peoples
of the earth. The
United States is leading the nations, and she
joins herself to this in view of the times to come and by reclothing
herself, remodeling herself, intends to use this nation as the chief agent in
her schemes. Here is a most forcible figure of this in the letter from
Rome before quoted from the Catholic
Standard of November
3, 1894:
Now to the mind of Leo XIII so receptive to the broad and
fruitful ideas of Cardinal Gibbons, of Monsignors Ireland and Keane,
Europe
is going through the process of casting off its slough.
Europe here relates to the papacy as the chief
of all and she proposes to cast off her slough, as the snake casts off its
skin, and applying the argument and allowing the papacy to speak for herself, it is a very appropriate figure, because the
Scripture says that she is actuated by that "old serpent." It is
correct, and she casts off her old rough, worn skin and is coming out in such a
new skin, so beautiful and so rosy that thousands of Protestants think it is
another thing altogether, but God says it is the same old serpent, whether it be
in the same old skin or not. It is the same old serpent in her new skin,
working the same way for the same purposes for bringing the nations under her
hand and she now proposes to do it, and will do it.
I must read a few more
statements and make a few more comments. I read from the Catholic Standard of
November 3, 1894, as follows:
There is an awakening, a metamorphosis, uneasiness and hope.
The tradition is that in ancient
Rome
there were such strange expectations while the tragedy on
Golgotha
was being enacted and even now mysterious voices may be heard announcing that
Great Pan is dead. What new order will arise? Will humanity be once more its
own dupe? and will the old evils appear again under
new names to people the world once more with false gods? Who knows?
The idea is suggested there
that nobody knows what the answer will be. Now he tells:
What we do know is that a world is in its death agony.
Is it not time that
Seventh-day Adventists knew that thing full well too? The papacy knows that the
world is in its death agony. Do you know that? If you
know it, is it not your place to tell it to the world, as well as it is the
place of the papacy to tell it to the world? What has God given us this message
for all these years but that we may show that the world is in its death agony
and that we may tell the people so, that they may turn to the Author of life
and be saved when the agony brings the last result? The papacy knows this, and
she is acting in view of it. I will now read the rest of the sentence:
What we do know is that a world is in its death agony, and
that we are entering upon the night which must inevitably precede the dawn.
Of course we are. "Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the
night? The watchman said. The morning cometh, and also the
night."
Continuing I read:-
In this evolution,
the church, in the eyes of the pope, has a mission to fill.
This is in view of the
times to come. What is she looking for? A world in its death
agony. All nations uneasy, society
racked, everything going to pieces as it is.[1]
The papacy sees all that is going
on and expects it to go on until the finish, and out of the agony and the
tearing to pieces that comes with it, she expects to exalt herself once more to
the supremacy over the nations, as she did of old. And she is going to do it;
we know that. The Scriptures point that out.
She sees precisely what we
see. We see the world in its death agony. We see society racking itself to
pieces. We see thrones trembling. She sees that too, and she proposes to exalt
herself upon what comes through all this at the end. We see that coming. We
know she is going to do it, for her triumph comes out of this death agony. She
gains new life herself and then glorifies herself upon it, living deliciously.
. . .saying in her heart, I sit a queen and am no
widow and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death
and mourning and famine. And she shall be utterly
burned with fire, for strong is the God who judgeth
her.
Are we not, then, in the
very whirl of events that brings that thing before the whirl shall stop? We are
in it; the whirl is going on. What are we here for but to tell the people that
the world is in its death agony and to call upon them to flee to Him who is the
life of all?
Has not the papacy had
experience in just that thing? Has not the papacy seen, practically, the world
once in its death agony? The
Roman Empire was the world; all civilization was embraced within
its limits, was under its control. She saw the
Roman Empire go to pieces; she saw universal
anarchy there. As the world then stood and then was, she saw the world once in
its death agony, and out of that death agony of the world she exalted herself
to the supremacy that she had in the Dark Ages and wrought the mischief that cursed
the world so long. She sees the same elements working again--the same
movements again going on among the nations, and she congratulates herself.
"We did it once. Once I rose upon the ruins of that thing. I will do it
again. That demonstrated to the world in that day that I was superior to all
earthly things. This will demonstrate to the world in this day--large as it
is--'I am, and there is none else beside me.' I shall be a lady forever. 'I sit
a queen and am no widow and shall see no sorrow.'"
That is her tone. That is
what she is watching for, and God has opened this up to us in the prophecies
that are before us and he wants us to call to all the people that the world is
in its death agony. She raised herself upon the ruins of the death agony of the
Roman world, and after the pattern of her old experience, she proposes to do
the like thing now. She will succeed; that is certain. And it is likewise
certain that her success will be her certain ruin, and therefore, "Come
out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive
not of her plagues."
(Underscored emphasis added.)
[1] These were conditions at the end of the 19th century,
when A. T. Jones delivered this sermon on the Papacy. This is
referenced in the following essays, the second of which points
out the similarity between that century and the present time in
the United States:
19th Century - Invasions, Independence and Civil Wars ("The
19th Century went down in history as one marked by turmoil,
revolution, independence and many changes. It was no
different for Spain.")
Dysfunction in Washington: The U.S. Political System in Turmoil
(Political polarisation is not a new
phenomenon in U.S. politics as it occurred during the late 19th
century and the early 20th century.
However, the recent resurgence is highly problematic in the
contemporary period due to the dire economic situation the U.S.
is in and the urgent need for compromise that addressing this
issue requires. One of the key reasons for
polarisation in the present day is division over basic questions
of what the federal government ought to do.
Disagreement on a fundamental level between both parties is
causing a huge divide in Congress and exacerbating the issues
the U.S. faces rather than solving them, creating what Mann and
Ornstein (2013) deem a ‘coarsened, divided and tribal political
culture’ which is detrimental to the nation." (Underscored
emphasis added.)) It is very significant that "division over
basic questions of what the federal government ought to do" is a
direct result of
Roman Catholic ideology.]
|