PAPACY AND AMERICA!
Prima Facie Evidence of Ultimate Papal Designs on America and the World
Destined to fail!
"the Papacy, since 539 A. D., has incited more wars than all nations combined!"
"539 to 1799 was the Biblically foretold time—the 1260 years—of Antichrist's reign over the nations!"
Dear friends of the Truth,
Forgive me but I took the liberty of editing the amazing document below. It was penned by Paul S.L. Johnson and is a tour de force on the Papacy. It was presented originally in question form. Now by removing each instance of the premise "Do You Know That" and then also the subsequent question marks replaced with an exclamation mark instead, it now reads as an unbroken narrative, and appropriately emphatic, since after all, weve witnessed these years of modern history bearing out this testimony to the Truth. So in my view it's maybe, just maybe time to remove all doubt! rcb editor
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HE #014, SEPTEMBER 1922, PAGES 33-48
THE HERALD OF THE EPIPHANY
September 15, 1922
Whole Number 014
DO YOU KNOW THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES ON
PAPACY AND AMERICA!
Catholics must obey the Pope and his mouthpieces in all things in which the Pope requires their obedience, as the Bull Unam Sanctam shows—hence in political matters, if the Pope thinks that they affect directly or indirectly the political or religious interests of the Papacy!the Papacy is a political Power as well as is the controller of the Catholic Church!
in harmony with this thought the Papacy has the essential attributes of a State, in that it has a head who wears a crown, who is recognized as a sovereign by International Law, and who is guaranteed as a sovereign by the laws of Italy, in that it claims supernational authority, receives and sends ambassadors, makes treaties, has subjects—all Catholics, who at the Pope's discretion are bound to obey the Papacy in civil as well as religious matters—has a court, consisting of the Cardinals, has a system of laws—the canon laws—which it enforces, has (a few) soldiers and a certain (limited) territory, seeks to regain the Papal States from Italy as its claimed rightful territory, and has lately been recognized by the League of Nations as a Power, and therefore as being competent for membership in the League of Nations!
because of its peculiar character the Papacy is a religio-political kingdom within every country in which its officials and subjects live—hence a government within every government of Christendom!
this peculiar Papal characteristic makes every one of her adherents have citizenship in two governments!
with the exception of the subjects of the Papal kingdom the subjects of all powers must renounce political obligations to their rulers and citizenship in their countries before they can become citizens of the United States!
on account of the Pope being a civil ruler, the fact of his being the head of a religion is no more a logical reason for his subjects enjoying such an exceptional privilege than that the Sultan's subjects, who sustain a similar relation to him, should become American citizens without renouncing political allegiance to him!
Papal law, requiring at the Pope's discretion obedience in political matters to the Pope, makes a faithful American Papist, because of such double citizenship, believe that he owes the Papacy in civil matters an allegiance superior to that which he owes to the United States Government!
it is for this reason that Priest Phelan, as reported in the Roman Catholic magazine, Western Watchman, said: "Tell us we are Catholics first and Americans afterwards! Of course we are! Tell us that in case of conflict between Church and State we take the side of the Church! Why, of course we do! Indeed, if the Church were at war tomorrow with the Government of the United States, we would say, To hell with the Government of the United States."!
because of this peculiar characteristic of the Papacy, through its representatives and subjects it participates directly and indirectly in the politics of every country
of Christendom!
this is especially true of its activities in the national, state and municipal politics of America!
America would not tolerate this in the subjects of any other Power!
the fact of American Papists being the subjects of two political Powers makes all participation in American politics on the part of the Papal Hierarchy, whether in person or by those subject to it, per se an alliance of Papacy and our Government—a sort of union of Church and State—when such participation is accepted by national, state or municipal officials!
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the Catholic Church is seeking and also gaining political influence, power and support in America!
many of her efforts in these respects are done under cover of secret dealings with political leaders, campaign managers, convention delegates, etc., and are therefore discernible as having been active mainly from the facts of her receiving and having such influence, power and support!
the first way by which Papacy has been seeking and gaining political influence, power and support in America is by training its subjects to believe in the union of Church and State and to work for as much of it as is possible to attain in America!
the union of Church and State with the Papacy as the controlling Partner in the union is a doctrine of the Papacy, as can be seen among other things from the Bull Unam Sanctam!
Parochial schools teach this un-American doctrine to their pupils; that priests indoctrinate with it their catechumens, preach it to their audiences, inculcate it to their penitents in the Confessional, and spread it in their conversations; that Catholic writers defend it in their books, magazines and periodicals; and that Catholic Professors lecture in favor of it to their students!
as a result of this propaganda the Catholic body is permeated with the doctrine that it is their duty to seek and gain for the Papacy political influence, power and support in America!
this is contrary to the Constitution of the United States!
a second way by which she is seeking and gaining political influence, power and support is a hypocritical profession of great admiration for American Democracy and the institutions of American Democracy, while her practises, as can be seen from history, and her teachings, as can be seen from the anti-democratic bulls of many Popes, the decrees of the Trent and Vatican Councils, the syllabus of errors of Pius IX and the Great Encyclical Letters of Leo XIII, favor absolutism in government, the Divine Right of Kings, Aristocrats and Clergy, and condemn the main pillars of American Democracy—freedom of speech, of press, of assemblage, of worship, of conscience, of thought and of education, separation of Church and State, and government of the people, by the people and for the people!
Papacy's history and doctrines are a complete proof of the blatant hypocrisy of such professions of Papal admiration for the institutions of American Democracy!
despite this fact these hypocritical professions are being widely accepted, and Papacy's representatives are being treated, by national, state and municipal officials, as though such professions were genuine!
in such professions the Jesuitical character of Papacy's representatives is manifest as acting out the principle that the "end—'getting America'—justifies the means"—the hypocrisy used to obtain that end!
our national, state and municipal officials should disbelieve such professions, because they are contrary to Papacy's doctrines and practices!
a third way by which Papacy is seeking and gaining political influence, power and support in America is by influencing Catholics to vote as a block!
in many European countries Papists vote as a block!
Cardinal McCloskey, who was for years the ranking Catholic prelate in America, advised American Catholics to vote as a block, as can be seen from the following statement: "We must take part in elections. Move in solid mass in every state against the party pledged to sustain the integrity of the public schools."
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"during the campaign of 1908 the Vatican issued a manifesto to the effect that William H. Taft should be elected President because of his satisfactory settlement of all matters pertaining to the Roman Catholic Church"!
such a manifesto must be obeyed by all Catholics faithful to their belief as set forth in the Bull Unam Sanctam, published ex cathedra, hence infallible, by Pope Boniface
VIII: "Every human being is [obligated to be] subject to the Roman Pontiff—this we declare, say, define and pronounce to be altogether necessary to salvation"!
in 1916 President Wilson, in his campaign for reelection, received the Catholic vote, because he had, mainly through his Secretary, Mr. Tumulty, a staunch Romanist, so greatly favored Catholics as to give them 70% of America's appointive offices, though Catholics consist of but 17% of our population!
not infrequently Catholic periodicals advise their voting readers for whom to vote, and that such advice is usually followed!
certain sections of the Catholic press, although opposed to woman's suffrage before it was enacted, have, since suffrage was granted, stated that Catholic women would vote as the Church desires!
the Confessional, and all almost exclusively-Catholic clubs like Tammany Hall, etc., and all Catholic Orders, like the Knights of Columbus, etc., afford abundant opportunity to instruct "the faithful" how to vote!
in 1920 the Catholic vote was cast for Mr. Cox in the interests of the League of Nations, because entrance into it by America was publicly favored by the Papacy!
the Catholic vote was marshalled as such last year in Pennsylvania, in an attempt to change the State Constitution so as to legalize the State's financial support of sectarian hospitals, in order that Catholic hospitals might continue to receive 80% of the State funds illegally used before that election for such purposes!
despite the greatest of newspaper opposition it was the Catholic vote that reelected the Mayor of New York last year, and that by an unprecedented majority!
the above facts prove that faithful Catholics will vote as a block in national, state and municipal matters for those who will favor Catholic interests, regardless of whether the candidates are Catholic or Protestant, that they will work and vote against candidates who will not favor their Church, and that they will work and vote for the candidate from whom they hope to get the most favor for their Church, whenever opposing candidates differ in the degrees of their favorableness!
the fourth way by which Papacy is seeking and gaining political influence, power and support in America is by putting its members into political offices!
several years ago 62% of all offices of the United States, both elective and appointive, were held by Roman Catholics, and that about the same percent prevails at this time, though Catholics constitute but 17% of our population!
there being such an overwhelmingly large proportion of offices in Catholic hands is not due to their having proportionately so vastly superior capacities for office over non-Catholics, who as a very general rule are the best educated, most public-spirited and most
efficient of our citizens!
the presence of such a disproportionately large number of Roman Catholics in public office cannot be a matter of accident in selection of candidates, especially when we consider the subject from the standpoint of the general superiority in education, citizenship, Americanism and efficiency on the part of non-Catholics!
the fact that Roman Catholics, constituting 17% of our population, and belonging to a religio-political organization—the Papacy—which in every country makes strenuous efforts to control or mould governmental policies, have succeeded in securing 62% of American political offices can be reasonably explained from but one standpoint!
this standpoint is, that these Roman Catholics hold these offices as the result of a fixed policy of the Papacy to place, in its own interests, its adherents into political offices!
the Catholic Hierarchy praised Mr. Tumulty, President Wilson's private secretary, as "a faithful son of the Church," because he used his official position to advance Roman Catholic interests and also to advance Roman Catholics to offices, until 70% of America's appointive offices were in their hands!
many political clubs like Tammany Hall, and Catholic Societies like the Knights of Columbus, whenever
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possible put forward and support Catholic candidates as such for office in pursuance of Papacy's policy of "getting America"!
the Catholic clergy boast that these Catholic officials hold their offices to protect the Church from opponents, as can be seen in the following declaration of the Rev. Father Ignatius Smith, speaking at a convention of Catholic Societies held against the Ku Klux Klan's activity in Hudson County, N. J., according to the Sep. 7, 1921 issue of the Jersey Journal: "There are too many level-headed Irishmen [Catholics] in authority in the United States to allow the Klan to get very far with their propaganda," which Rome fears as antiCatholic, and which she bitterly opposes!
these facts prove that the Papacy puts such Catholic office-holders into office to increase its political influence, power and support in America!
such an activity very strongly implies an alliance of influential officeholders and political leaders, on the one hand, and the Catholic Church, on the other hand, and smacks of a union of Church and State—Papacy's world-policy!
PAPACY CAPTURING STRATEGIC POSITIONS
a fifth way by which the Papacy has been seeking and gaining political influence, power and support in America is by advancing its dependable adherents to strategic positions in all kinds of public capacities!
the Papacy has agents who seek to secure private secretaryships for graduates of one of its Washington institutions to Senators, Congressmen, Cabinet officers, Bureau heads, etc., and that the same method of securing such secretary-ships to the State and municipal officers prevails!
such private secretaryships, used as Rome has them used, as can be seen in the case of Mr. Tumulty, give the Papacy immense political influence, power and support in America, as well as enable Rome to learn for her advantage. through the Confessional, etc., just what is going on behind the scenes in political America!
Rome uses such knowledge to increase her hold on our Government and to checkmate policies undesirable to her, and that this is the main reason why such secretaryships are sought by her for her dependable adherents!
in pursuance of Papacy's policy to advance its dependable adherents to strategic positions in all official departments of our country, states and cities it succeeded up to about a year ago in having two thorough Catholics in the ranking positions of the U. S. Supreme Court, also Catholic judges in many U. S. District Courts, State Supreme Courts, and County and Municipal Courts!
this does not necessarily mean that the Hierarchy require specific pledges of such support from such Judges, but that it does mean that the Hierarchy believes that they will naturally be inclined to favor the Papacy!
in pursuance of this policy Catholics are placed on Congressional Committees and Government Boards and Bureaus!
in harmony with the policy of placing their dependable adherents in strategic positions the Papacy has secured the ranking position in our navy for a Catholic, and that all branches of the navy on land and sea literally swarm with Catholics in important positions, including those of chaplains, which are almost exclusively in the hands of priests!
, though in a less marked degree, they have succeeded in placing their dependables into strategic positions in all branches of our army and marines, including most of the chaplaincies, which are in the hands of priests!
they have placed their dependable adherents in the strategic positions in the Post Office service, even more completely than in the army and navy!
they have placed such adherents in the responsible positions of the United States Printing Department, and that these manipulate matters so that Congressional matters that are against their Church receive the scantest possible publicity, as is manifest by their early suspension of the printing of the Report of the Taft Commission on the dishonesty, immorality and general unfitness of the Philippine Friars!
strategic positions in all other Governmental departments are being Romanized in a similar manner!
according to this same Papal policy over 90% of the policemen and detectives in American cities of 10,000 population and upward are Catholics!
in Philadelphia 98% of the detective force are Roman Catholic, and that this proportion probably holds good in our other largest cities!
in pursuance of their policy of putting
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their dependables into strategic positions they are placing largely disproportionate numbers of their dependables on State, County and Municipal Boards of Education, thereby hoping to control matters of policy respecting school courses, textbooks, teachers, officers and management, and thus more or less make our public schools, which, despite their fond and great efforts, they have failed to overthrow in the interests of their parochial schools, more amenable to Rome's theories of education!
in harmony with this policy over 100,000 of our public schools are taught more or less by Catholic teachers, and that in 20,000 Catholic teachers constitute one-half of the teaching force!
in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland, Baltimore, St. Louis, Buffalo, Los Angeles, San Francisco, etc., 75% of the public school teachers are Catholics!
in pursuance of this same policy of putting their adherents into strategic positions Catholics are in a majority in the city councils of 15,000 cities and towns of the United States, and that this means that in the various departments of these 15,000 cities and towns Catholics are placed into strategic positions!
according to the same Papal policy the majority of the National Democratic
Committee are Catholics, and that Catholics are in the majority in 35 Democratic and 21 Republican State Committees!
such placing of Catholics in strategic positions cannot be an accidental matter, but must be the result, first, of the operation of a deliberate plan of the Hierarchy to introduce here Rome's world-policy of political control, and, second, of a working alliance between the Catholic Hierarchy, directly or through its agents, on the one hand, and national, state and municipal officials and political leaders, on the other hand!
the resultant condition makes Rome almost omnipotent in legislative, administrative and judicial circles in our nation, states and municipalities, and that this is practically a union of Church and State, because of Rome's relations to her followers!
PAPAL ORDERS, ETC., SERVICEABLE
a sixth way by which Papacy has been seeking and gaining political influence, power and support is by using her Monastic Orders, largely-Catholic political Clubs and various other Societies to secure such ends!
almost all European countries have expelled the Catholic Monastic Orders, both male and female, in part because they were used by the Papacy in political activities!
the chief of these Orders is the Order of Jesuits, which, among other things, because of its political activities has made itself odious unto exile from every nation of Christendom, except America!
the Jesuits in America, as well as elsewhere, are the chief agents of Rome to carry forward Papacy's political programs!
these Jesuits, working in secrecy, are mainly responsible for creating Rome's political power in America, as they have been in other countries!
the benevolent aspect given to some of these Orders, like that of the Sisters of Mercy, gives Papacy opportunities to further Rome's political plans as to "getting America," especially in lulling unwary Americans to sleep by the thought that the Papacy must be a good and harmless institution, if it favors such good as is practiced by the Sisters of Mercy!
Tammany Hall and some other powerful political clubs, being overwhelmingly Catholic in their membership, are in reality Catholic political clubs, and as such further Papacy's political influence, power and support!
various other Catholic Orders, like the Knights of Columbus, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, etc., are working in the same direction and, judging by their activities and accomplishments, were organized for that purpose!
there is good reason for believing that the recently organized National Catholic Welfare Council and the National Council for Catholic Men and the National Council of Catholic Women have been organized in America for the same purposes that Rome organizes such bodies in other countries—among others that of seeking and gaining political influence, power and support!
the seventh way by which the Papacy has been seeking and gaining political influence, power and support in America is by entering into political bargains with politicians and officials!
the Catholic Register published an article which proves that such bargains have been entered into, extolling
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Mr. Tumulty’s influence, exerted among other ways in persuading President Wilson and the Democratic Party into an open alliance with the Catholic Church, saying, "This is the first time in the history of the country when the President and a great political party have openly sought an equal and honest alliance with the Catholic Church"!
an alliance implies that both parties to it grant, as bargains, certain advantages to one another, for which the alliance is entered into and maintained!
such an alliance explains the fact of Papacy's great political influence, power and support in America during President Wilson's incumbency, a condition that gave the Papacy such a grip on the Government that the change of administration would not have been able to set aside, even if it had tried so to do!
the fact that the Papacy now enjoys such great political influence, power and support in America is per se a proof that political bargains have been made by representatives of the Papacy with American politicians and officials!
an eighth way by which Papacy has been seeking and gaining political influence, power and support in America is by creating such an atmosphere as compels its recognition on the part of politicians and officials!
Papacy does this by impressing such politicians and officials with its power to support or oppose them by its controlled Catholic vote!
Papacy does this by promising to reward and by actually rewarding compliant politicians and officials with support at the polls, etc., and by threatening to punish and by actually punishing recalcitrant politicians and officials with opposition at the polls, etc.!
these considerations account for some politicians and office-holders ever mounting from lower to higher offices, and for others sinking under defeat into oblivion!
for this reason the bulk of politicians and officials dance to the crack of Papacy's whip, and thus Rome gains political influence, power and support through the selfish ambitions and fears of politicians and officials!
a ninth way by which the Papacy has been seeking and gaining political influence, power and support is by using national, state and municipal officials to give it favors, prestige and publicity!
among such favors are the political jobs and positions that the Papacy secures for her favorites from national, state and municipal politicians and officials!
Papacy has succeeded in gaining considerable prestige by securing politicians' and officials' attendance at great Papal functions and celebrations!
in line with this course of Papacy one of our Presidents attended a Catholic Church each Thanksgiving day and attended with his entire Cabinet, accompanied by Senators, Representatives, etc., the fiftieth anniversary celebration of Cardinal Gibbons' ordination!
Papacy has created such an atmosphere as to make our public officials, from the President down, spare no pains to impress the thought of the importance of the Catholic clergy and Church in American affairs, as can be seen from the remark of one of our Presidents to the effect that "a Roman Catholic priest is the finest human being that walks the earth;" from the remark of another President that "the Roman Catholic Church is the most uplifting moral influence in the Philippine Islands;" and from the telegrams of another President, his Vice-President, some of his department secretaries and other prominent officials, on the occasion of Cardinal Gibbons' death, praising his Americanism and Churchmanship!
this same spirit created by the Papacy in politicians and officials prompted the Mayor of New York to furnish Cardinal Dougherty, on several occasions of the latter's passing through New York City, with an ostentatious escort of motor policemen to clear the way
according to the mayor's testimony the Cardinal frequently remarked, during the course of the parade, at such unprecedented civic honors, "This is not meant for me
personally, but for the cause I represent"!
the next night the Mayor of Philadelphia and the Governor of Pennsylvania, seated at either side of the
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enthroned Cardinal, vied with each other in doing honor to what was seemingly the Cardinal, but actually was, as the Cardinal truly claimed—the cause he represented!
the Papacy by using prominent politicians and officials to give its representatives such favors, prestige and publicity is gaining political influence, power and support in America!
a tenth way by which Papacy is seeking and gaining political influence, power and support in America is by seeking through legislative, judicial and administrative action to overthrow opponents, and their use of the freedom of the press and of speech and of assemblage!
the Papacy has been seeking by legislative, judicial and administrative action to overthrow the Ku Klux Klan, as inimical to it!
it inspired the recent newspaper and congressional attack on the Klan!
the Roman Hierarchy continually seeks to secure the withdrawal of mailing privileges from anti-Catholic periodicals!
the Catholic and Catholic-inspired legislators, have introduced similarly worded bills in almost every State legislature, and also in Congress, forbidding criticism of any religion or of its head, with penal provisions and provisions of withdrawal of the mail service to publications criticizing any religion or its head!
Papacy through its representatives frequently prevails upon municipal officials to prohibit meetings where patriotic lectures are to be given for the enlightenment of the public on Papacy's political activities in America, and through Catholic mobs have killed, maimed and otherwise violated the rights of some who delivered such lectures!
all these facts prove that Papacy has been seeking and gaining political influence, power and support in America through efforts to undermine opponents and to take away their Constitution-guaranteed privileges, and that in such activity it has the cooperation of not a few politicians and officers!
PAPACY'S HOLD ON PUBLICITY AGENCIES
an eleventh way by which Papacy is seeking and gaining political influence, power and support in America is by manipulating in its interests the agencies and organs of publicity—the leading news-gathering agencies, publishing houses, newspapers, and moving picture corporations!
it is for this reason that Papacy gets such large and prominent space for its favorable news, and causes important favorable Protestant news to be given scant and obscure space, in the public press!
it is for this reason that unfavorable Catholic news, e.g., like priests going wrong, etc., is suppressed, while unfavorable Protestant news, e.g., like ministers going wrong, is given large and prominent mention!
it is for this reason that reference books, histories, textbooks, etc. are being given a Catholic bias, with the deletion and minimizing of things discreditable to Papacy!
it is for this reason that until very recently the movies have usually held up Papal matters to reverence and Protestant matters to scorn!
these conditions brought about by Papacy according to its intention result in its increasing its political influence, power and support in America!
a twelfth way by which Papacy is seeking and gaining political influence,
power and support in America is by getting financial aid for its hospitals, schools and Indian missions!
the Papacy has in many States and cities secured support for its hospitals, and that in some cases 80% of public funds given to Sectarian hospitals have gone to Catholic hospitals!
in America "3000 public schools now contribute a part or all of the School tax to Catholic Churches and Schools" !
Papacy has so manipulated matters that, while our national Government has for years been supporting public schools in the Philippine Islands, these schools for years have been practically turned over to the control of the Catholic Church, which uses her control to teach her doctrines in them!
under Papal manipulation our National Government in part supports the Papal missionary work among the American Indians, by contributing to the support of Rome's Indian schools, where among other Papal things her catechism is taught!
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in these ways our Government supports the work of teaching Papal religion among the Filipinos and Indians, and that this is a feature of the union of Church and State!
these acts give the Papacy political influence, power and support in America!
a thirteenth way by which Papacy seeks and gains political influence, power and support in America is by influencing millions of its European adherents to emigrate to America, usually settling them in large cities, rapidly securing citizenship for them, and marshalling them to the polls as voters in her interests!
this accounts for Rome's great numbers and political dominance in our large cities!
for the past forty years our immigrants are preponderately from Catholic countries!
Papacy is the most persistent foe to our legislation for the restriction of immigration, and that because Roman Catholic immigration enhances her political influence, power and support in America!
a fourteenth way by which Papacy is seeking and gaining political influence, power and support in America is by encouraging the use of parochial schools and by seeking to set aside the distinctively American features of our public schools!
as staunchly as Rome supports parochial schools, so vigorously does she oppose our unmanipulated Public Schools!
this is because, among other things, its parochial schools enable the Papacy to train her future voters to seek and conserve her political interests, and because our unmanipulated Public Schools inculcate a l00% Americanism, which means death to Papal politics in America!
Papacy seeks desperately to have her parochial schools in America supported by the State, and has succeeded in securing this in many cases, and is continually in many States injecting the question into State and municipal politics!
Papacy has for years opposed the enactment of the Smith Towner bill— now called the Towner-Sterling bill—which champions things in harmony with Americanism in education, and up to the present has kept the bill asleep "in Committee," because its enactment among other things would put hindrances in the way of Rome's "getting America"!
Papacy's external and frontal attack on our Public School system having generally failed, it is now "boring from within" in an effort to emasculate their Americanism by filling the Boards of Education and the teaching staffs of our Public Schools with its adherents!
Papacy is seeking to revise the textbooks used in our Public Schools or write new ones so as to make them more or less Roman propaganda!
these facts prove that Papacy's policy of education, exemplified in its course toward the parochial schools and toward our Public Schools, is in part to seek and secure political influence, power and support, and in part to nullify opposition to such influence, power and support, and that in these purposes it receives more or less support from political leaders and office-holders!
the fourteen lines of Papal activity outlined above unanswerably prove the existence of a deep, thorough, all-embracing, cleverly conducted and largely successful plan on the part of Papacy to "get America"!
the above fourteen lines of thought incontrovertibly prove that there is a working cooperation and alliance between the representatives of Papacy and their supporters on the one hand, and politicians and office-holders on the other hand, in which cooperation and working alliance many features characterizing a union of Church and State are present!
our National Constitution, forbidding a union of Church and State, impliedly, logically and truly forbids what partakes of various features of such a union!
it is, therefore, unlawful in America and repugnant to American institutions that there be such a cooperation and working alliance as we have proved exists in America between the representatives of the Papacy and their adherents, on the one hand, and politicians and officials, on the other hand!
the Church is espoused to Christ, and is in figurative chastity to keep herself pure and free from all alliances with all others, so that as a figurative chaste virgin she may be fit for her marriage with Christ, which takes place at Christ's Second Advent!—2 Cor.
11: 2; Rev. 19: 6-8; 21: 9, 10.
it is because the Roman Catholic Church has failed to keep herself free from all alliances with others and
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has united with various States in a union of Church and State that she has become unfaithful and unchaste as the Bride of Christ, and hence is, figuratively, called in Scripture a "Harlot," who will not become Christ's Bride at His Second Advent!—Rev. 17: 3-6, 15, 16, 18; 19: 2, 3.
the Divine law, described in the two last questions as forbidding what partakes in any measure of a union of Church and State, is also violated by the cooperation and working alliance which the above given fourteen points prove exists between Papacy's representatives and their adherents and many American politicians and office-holders!
it is, therefore, unlawful both from the standpoint of God's Law and of our nation's Law that politicians and office-holders in America be in such a cooperation and working alliance with the Roman Catholic Church!
WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT
the above given facts should move all Protestants, all members of Anti-Catholic Lodges, Orders, Societies, etc., and all other non-Catholics to use all honorable means in pulpit, press, platform, assemblage, conversation and ballot to checkmate Rome's hold on our national, state and municipal officers, in order to avert the displeasure of the Almighty from resting upon our country, and the loss of liberty and equality, for which America has been the champion, from the earth!
by the circulation of this and similar articles you can in part "do your bit" in this much needed reform!
Papists, the most bigoted of all religionists, will call such a course bigotry!
such a course on their part is the "stop thief" cry of the pursued wrongdoer!
ANTICHRIST'S IDENTITY AND RISE
the Scriptures refer to the one and self-same character by the following terms: "That Wicked One," "The Man of Sin," "The Mystery of Iniquity," "The Son of Perdition" (2 Thess. 2: 3-8), "The Anti-Christ" (1 John 2: 18; 4: 3), "The Abomination that maketh desolate" (Dan. 11: 31; 12: 11), "The Little Horn" (Dan. 7: 8, 21), "The Abomination of Desolation" (Matt. 24: 15), and "The Beast"!—Rev. 13: 1-8.
it was to be during the Gospel Age—the last period of "the present evil world"—that Antichrist was to be revealed!—2 Thess. 2: 3-8; 1 John 2: 18, 19.
according to prophecy the second coming of Christ was to be preceded by Antichrist's appearing, prosperity and withering!—2 Thess. 2: 3-8.
some believe that Antichrist is an individual, and that his coming is yet future!
Antichrist—having had his small beginning—his begettal—in Apostolic times, and coming to his great end at Christ's Second Advent—a period of at least nearly nineteen hundred years—cannot be an individual and literal man, since no individual and literal man lives so long!—2 Thess. 2: 7, 8; 1 John 4: 1, 3.
this fact, that Antichrist has existed from the days of the Apostles—at which time he was begotten—until now proves that Antichrist is some self-perpetuating System, whose successive members have represented him before the successive generations of the Gospel Age!
the word Antichrist is compounded from the Greek words anti, meaning instead of, and Christos, meaning Christ, and that the word Antichrist literally means instead of Christ, i e., a substitute Christ, hence a counterfeit Christ!
the Antichrist is, therefore, a counterfeit of the true Christ!
there is a great Antichrist and many lesser antichrists!—2 Thess. 2: 3-8; 1 John 2: 18.
the True Christ consists of Jesus the Head and the Church His Body—a company that has in its successive members been present in the world during the Gospel Age, and that is set forth in the Bible as a "new,"a "perfect Man" in implied contrast to the "Man of Sin!"—1 Cor. 12: 12, 14, 27; Gal. 3: 16, 29; 1 Cor. 15: 23; Rom. 12: 4, 5; Eph. 1: 22, 23; 2: 15;
4: 4, 14. the Church—Christ's Bride—shares His name, Christ, according to some of
the passages just cited for the reason that a bride shares her husband's name. unless we understand The Christ to
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be one Body, consisting of many members—Jesus the Head-member and the Church the Bodymembers—we are unprepared to understand, as a counterfeit of The Christ, the great Antichrist, who, as we have seen, must be a System, consisting of many members, having a head-member and many body-members!
as the true Lord is the Head of The Christ, so a false lord must be the head of the Antichrist—the counterfeit Christ!
as the true Church is the Body of The Christ, so a false, an apostate Church, must be the body of the Antichrist—the counterfeit Christ!
it is just because a false lord is set forth as the true Head, instead of the true Lord—Jesus, the true Head—and that it is just because a false church is set forth as the true Body, instead of the true Church—the true Body of Jesus Christ, the true Head—that the counterfeit head and body constitute the Antichrist—the counterfeit Christ!
we must therefore search for one false head who is put in the place of Jesus as Head of the Church, and for one false church which is put in the place of the true Church as the Body of Christ, if we would find out just what is the great Antichrist!
the Bible, History and Reason prove that the Antichrist already has come, and has sat in the temple of God, and has been revealed and smitten, though his final destruction is yet future!
there is especially one System in the world whose workings reach back from our times to those of the Apostles, whose head falsely claims to be the head of the true Church and whose body members falsely claim to be the true Church!—2 Thess. 2: 7; 1 John 4:
3. this System must be the Antichrist! this System is the Papacy, in which the pope as its head is the counterfeit of
Jesus the true Head of the true Church, and the Roman Catholic Church as its body is the
counterfeit of the true Church, the Body of Christ!
the Bible, History and Reason prove that the Papacy is the great Antichrist!
this does not mean that individual Roman Catholics are antichrists, many of whom are godly people and real children of God; but it does mean that the Papal System as such—not an individual—is the Antichrist!
the Bible teaches that the Antichrist would have its rise out of, through and amid a falling away—an apostasy—from the true Christianity, introduced by Christ and His Apostles!—2 Thess. 2: 3, 7; 1 John 2: 18, 19; 4: 1, 3.
it started in the unholy ambition of certain leaders to gain the position of preeminence and power in various churches, even while the Apostles lived!—3 John 9-11; 2 Thess. 2: 4, 7.
the zeal of the Apostles and their faithful helpers to maintain the true organization, teachings and practices of Christianity greatly curtailed the unholy ambition and influence of such leaders!—Acts 20: 20, 24, 27-31; Gal. 2: 4, 5; 2 Pet. 1: 12-15.
these ambitious ones became more successful after the Apostles fell asleep!—Acts 20: 29, 30; 2 Pet. 1: 14, 15, compare with 2: 1-3, 15; Matt. 13: 25.
during the second century they undermined the organization of the true Church, especially by two things, the first of which was the dividing of the Church into two classes: (1) the clergy, as the ruling class, and (2) the laity, as the subject class!
during the second century they also undermined the organization of the true Church by a second thing—the dividing of the clergy into two classes (1) the ruling clergy, to whom, contrary to apostolic usage—according to which the words elders and bishops, or overseers, apply to the same persons and office (Acts 20: 17, 28; Phil. 1: 1)—they limited the name bishop; and (2) the subordinate clergy, to whom they limited the name elders, presbyters, which latter word was later corrupted in form and meaning into the word priest!
during the third century the bishops gained more power, and began to be considered the successors of the Apostles, and that it was especially through the influence of Cyprion, bishop of Carthage in Africa,
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who died in 258, that the doctrine of apostolic succession was introduced!
late in the third century the more powerful bishops became known as archbishops and metropolitans, having under them all of the clergy of their respective districts and provinces!
in the fourth century the five most powerful of the metropolitans—those of Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople and Rome—developed into patriarchs—first, or chief fathers—and the superiors of all bishops in their respective sections of the world!
during the fifth century the position of supreme ecclesiastical authority became an object of rivalry and contention between the bishop of Rome and the bishop of Constantinople!
the Roman emperors during the sixth century, beginning with Justinian, 533 A. D., acknowledged the supremacy of the bishop of Rome as Pope, over all the clergy and churches of the Roman Empire and of the world!
this fact and certain events occurring within six years from its beginning "set up" the Papacy in power as the Man of Sin, in the year 539 A. D.!
the above-described gradual apostasy from the original organization of the Church completely perverted the Divine organization of the Church!
the falling away—the Apostasy—affected not only the organization, but also the teachings that Jesus and the Apostles gave the true Church!
during the second century, mainly through the teachings and activities of certain converted heathen philosophers, the doctrinal truths of the Church began to be corrupted through the introduction of heathen philosophical views!
during that century they began to introduce the Pagan doctrine of the condition of the dead, and to undermine confidence in the Millennium!
during the third century the philosophical theologians and ambitious clergy began to undermine the Scriptural teachings on the relation and unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, by introducing an unscriptural view of their relation and unity; continued to corrupt and deny the Scriptural doctrine of the Millennium; perverted the present mission of the Church, which is to gather the Elect from the world for joint-heirship and rulership with Christ after His Second Advent, for the conversion of the world, into the mission of converting and reigning over the world before Christ's Second Advent; and introduced into the Church from heathendom its views on the punishment of sin and began to teach errors on various phases of baptism!
during the fourth century they rejected the true doctrine of the relation and unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and established by aid of the civil power the false teaching on that subject; wholly rejected the doctrine of the Millennium as following Christ's Second Advent, and the true mission of the Church during the Gospel Age, in favor of its converting and reigning over the world before Christ's Return; united Church and State in an unholy and, to the Church, degrading alliance for the conversion of the world and the Millennial Reign before Christ's Return; and developed further the previously mentioned errors and the magical effect of external rites!
during the fifth and sixth centuries, in addition to placing increased emphasis on the above-mentioned errors, further errors on the person of Christ were introduced; purgatory, and the mass, as a sacrifice for sins committed after baptism—the greatest of Catholic errors—began in their first principles to be taught; errors on grace, free will, predestination, and the Lord's Supper began to spread; and errors on the Second Advent, the end of the world, the Judgment Day, the resurrection of the dead, the rewards of the righteous and the punishment of the wicked increased!
in addition to these organizational and doctrinal corruptions, during these six centuries there set in very many corruptions in, and evil additions to the practises introduced into the Church by Christ and the Apostles, all of which corruptions and evil additions led to dead formality instead of living spirituality in the Church!
these corruptions of, and evil additions
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to primitive Christian practices include auricular confession, penances, monasticism, asceticism, fasts, feasts, worship of saints and their relics and images, pilgrimages, processions, and that they include elaborate and heathenish ceremonies in worship, regalia, vestments, buildings, festivals,
weddings, deaths, funerals, lustrations, incense, crucifixes, etc., etc., etc., and that they fostered increasing ignorance, superstition, credulity, etc., etc., etc., none of which are traceable in the Bible, but all of which were more or less present before the end of the sixth century!
all of these features of the apostasy led to a terrible lowering of the standard of life in the Christian Society, Church and Family!
out of, through and amid all of these corruptions of Church organization, doctrine and practice, i.e., out of, through and amid the above-described great apostasy from primitive Christianity, the Papacy—the Antichrist—developed, even as St. Paul and St. John declared it would develop out of, through and amid an apostasy!—2 Thess. 2: 3; 1 John 2: 18,
19.
ACCORDING TO SCRIPTURE, HISTORY, REASON
the above-mentioned facts of the great apostasy are authentic History's corroboration of the fulfillment of St. Paul's and St. John's prophecies respecting the rise of the Antichrist—the Papacy, as the counterfeit Christ—out of, through and amid a great falling away from primitive Christianity!
Reason assents to the conclusion that a System with the nature, origin, character, doctrine and history—harmonious with the Biblical forecast—of the Papacy's rise has all of the earmarks of the Antichrist!
, additional to the Scriptural, Historical and Reasonable evidence respecting Papacy's rise, showing it to be the Antichrist, there are many other lines of proof for the same fact derived from Scripture, History and Reason respecting Papacy's course after it was set up in 539 A. D.!
it is necessary for us to acquaint ourselves with at least an outline of these facts in order that we may properly take our part in the Drama of the Ages now being enacted on the stage of ominous World-events in their relation to Christ's Second Advent, the Deliverance of the true Church from the world, and the establishment of God's Kingdom throughout the earth!
Christ's Second Advent cannot now be delayed because of Antichrist's coming, since the latter has already come!
in harmony with Biblical usage, both in the Hebrew of the Old Testament and in the Greek of the New, human notables and rulers are sometimes meant by the Hebrew word elohim and the Greek word theos, both of which are usually translated by the word God!— Gen. 23: 6; Ex. 7: 1; 21: 6; 22: 8, 10, 28, compare with Acts 23: 5; Ps. 82: 6, compare with John
10: 34, 35; I Cor. 8: 5.
the following is the literal translation of 2 Thess. 2: 4: "Who opposes himself against, and highly exalts himself over, every one called a God [human ruler] or an augustused one [one treated as an Augustus, the highest title of the Roman emperors, i.e., any one to whom fealty is sworn and homage is given as the highest civil ruler], so that he seats himself [as an intruder and usurper pushes his See] into God's Temple [the Church, 1 Cor. 3: 16, 17] exhibiting himself that he is a God [a mighty ruler]!
in 533 A. D. Justinian, the Roman Emperor, publicly and by an imperial rescript recognized the Bishop of Rome as the head of all the clergy and of all the churches!
he sent in 535, to Sicily, and in 537, to Italy, his army under Belisarius, who in his war with the Goths in Italy was so successful that by 539 he had freed Rome and Italy from their power, which resulted in the Pope's becoming in civil, as he had already been in religious affairs the chief power in Rome and its adjacent territory!
accordingly from 539, the year of the Gothic empire's fall in Italy, must be dated the beginning of the civil power of the popes as temporal rulers! from shortly thereafter with ever increasing emphasis various popes as the head of the Antichrist, supported by the clergy, the body of Antichrist, came, while grasping for
civil power, into conflict with civil
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rulers—"opposing himself against . . . every one called a god [civil ruler] or an augustused one!"
this manifested itself first against the Roman Emperors' Italian exarchs whose capital was at Ravenna, then for several centuries against the Longobard rulers, then for centuries against the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire, and then for centuries against every other European ruler who would not be subject to the Papacy!
in such activity the Man of Sin fulfilled the prophecy of 2 Thess. 2: 4: "Who opposes himself against . . . every one called a god [civil ruler] or an augustused one . . . exhibiting himself that he is a god [civil ruler]!
gradually from 539 onward the Antichrist claimed higher and higher prerogatives for himself, until he claimed the supreme place on earth, not only in religious, but also in civil matters!
these claims and their realization reached their summit especially in the reign of Pope Innocent III, 1198-1216 A. D., and that they were clearly set forth as a matter of faith necessary for salvation, in the infamous bull, Unam Sanctam, issued by Pope Boniface VIII, 1294-1303 A. D.!
in these claims and their realization the Antichrist likewise fulfilled the prophecy of 2 Thess. 2: 4: "and highly exalts himself over every one called a god [civil ruler] or an augustused one . . ., exhibiting himself that he is a god [civil ruler]!
the meaning and realization of Antichrist's claims to supremacy in political matters over all secular rulers are best illustrated in the activities and successes of Pope Innocent III, who brought back to Papal control the temporarily freed Papal States, brought Sicily under the Papal suzerainty, interfered in the elections of German emperors until his tools and partisans were elected, compelled the king of France to regulate his domestic life according to his views, induced the Spanish king to pay him tribute as his political superior, sanctioned the overthrow of the Greek and in its place the establishment of a Latin empire at Constantinople, subject to him, ordered the king of France to enforce his interdict and commands against England, forced England under John Lackland to become a Papal fief, paying tribute twice annually to him, formally protested against the cornerstone of civil liberty, the Magna Charta, additionally gained political control in Portugal, Poland, Livonia, Sweden and Bulgaria, and finally, a few months before his death, received homage at the Fourth Lateran Council, 1215 A. D., from over 1500 assembled prelates and from the ambassadors of almost all the kings. princes and free cities of Christendom, not only as head of the Church, but also as supreme lord and judge of all kings, princes and peoples!
these claims and their realization are in most striking contradiction to God's Word and the example of Jesus and the Apostles, which inculcate the subjection of all of Jesus' followers in secular matters to the civil powers until the end of "the present evil world"!—John
18: 33-37; Matt. 20: 20, 21, 24-28; Mark 10: 42-45; Luke 22: 24-27; Matt. 22: 21; Rom. 13: 1-7; 1 Pet. 2: 13-15.
THE HINDRANCE IN THE WAY
when the Mystery of Iniquity—The Antichrist—first began to work, and for several centuries afterward, there was something in the way that hindered the self-exalting and power-grasping clergy in the early Church from gaining what proved to be the goal of Antichrist—religious and political supremacy over mankind!—2 Thess. 2: 6, 7, see Revised Version.
the hindering thing was the Pagan Roman Empire, with a heathen Roman Emperor at its head!
one of the official titles of the Roman Emperor was Pontifex Maximus— greatest, or chief priest!
the Roman Emperor had this title because he was the supreme head of the religion, as he also was of the government, of the Roman Empire—things implied in his official titles!
as long as the Roman Emperors had and used these powers as the head of the Pagan Roman government and religion, there was a hindrance in the way of Antichrist's obtaining supremacy in State and Church!
Antichrist could gain such power only
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if the hindrance was taken out of the way, i.e., if Pagan Rome would become what proved to be Papal Rome, and if the heathen Emperor would become what proved to be a Papal Emperor subject in religion and government to Antichrist!—2 Thess. 2: 6, 7.
the self-exalting and power-grasping clergy in the second, third and fourth centuries increasingly as time went on made most extraordinary efforts at the so-called Christianizing of Pagan Rome!
they greatly lowered the standards of Christian doctrine and practice, and adopted many heathen views, practices and customs to facilitate the conversion of Pagan to what was growing into Papal Rome!
when the size of their following warranted it they made special efforts to win over rulers and to impress upon them their need of the clergy's support!
this sometimes led to their winning the confidence, favor and support of certain rulers, and sometimes to their stirring up the fears, envy and opposition of other rulers, up to 313 A. D., when Emperor Constantine openly espoused the side of the self-exalting and power-grasping clergy and their party, by which Antichrist experienced his birth!
such a course on the part of the clergy was one of the causes of arousing certain Pagan Roman emperors to persecute all Christians!
by 313 A. D. Antichrist succeeded in putting a so-called Christian emperor on the throne of Rome in the person of Constantine, and thus took out of the way one of the features of the hindrance (a heathen emperor as the head of the State) to Antichrist's supremacy in government and religion!—2 Thess. 2: 6, 7.
shortly afterward Constantine made a partial counterfeit of Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire, by uniting Church and State, and thus a second part of the hindrance (the Pagan religion as the religion of the Empire) was taken out of the way!—2 Thess.
2: 6, 7.
when Emperor Justinian in 533 decreed the pope to be the head of all the clergy and the Church, as a direct consequence a third part of the hindrance (the right of the Emperor to the office of Pontifex Maximus—Chief Priest) in the way of Antichrist's ambition for supremacy was taken out of the way!—2 Thess. 2 : 7.
when in 539 Belisarius, Justinian's general, freed Rome and Italy from the control of the Goths he not only removed the final part of the hindrance to Antichrist's exercising political authority, but also laid the foundation upon which immediately the Pope began to build that temporal power which in due time enabled Antichrist to exercise supremacy in governmental matters!
many, yea, the majority, of those who wrought on the development and in the interests of Antichrist did so piously and conscientiously, under the delusion that they were thereby enhancing God's glory and gaining His approval!
Antichrist's phenomenal success in attaining supremacy in Church and State, so perseveringly and cunningly sought after for many centuries, was at every step favored
and furthered by Satan!—John 14: 30; 2 Thess. 2: 9, 10.
of all devices formed for deceiving, enslaving, oppressing and injuring mankind Antichrist is easily the chief, and as such is the very climax of Satanic cunning and ingenuity!
Antichrist is thus proven to be the supreme product and the highest representative of Satan's Empire among men!—John 14: 30.
Satan first offered the faithful Christ the supremacy in the earth on sinful conditions; and failing to win Him thereto, sought and won the unfaithful Antichrist on those conditions for that position!—Luke 4: 5-8.
Satan was one of the most attentive listeners to the teaching and preaching of Jesus and His Apostles, and that after having learned all that he could from them he very diligently studied every part of the Old and New Testaments, even as a counterfeiter scrutinizes every part of genuine money; and that from such study he constructed his counterfeit of The Christ, His teachings, practices and organization, and palmed off his counterfeit the Papacy, its teachings, practices and organization!
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it took centuries for Satan to work out and palm off the Papal religion as the counterfeit of the true Christian religion!
among other things he had to work out a theory of the primacy of the Pope, in the Antichrist, as a counterfeit of the primacy of Jesus, in The Christ, Head and Body!
he began the work of palming off his counterfeit primacy during the second century, through the Judaizing heretics called the Ebionites, through whose Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles he set forth the fable of a Bishopric of St. Peter for 25 years at Rome!
there is no sure evidence that St. Peter was ever at Rome, much less that he ever was the Roman bishop!
this fable of the Ebionites was adopted as a part of Roman Catholic tradition, and that early in the third century the seat of the Roman bishop began to be called the See of St. Peter!
in the fourth century the Roman bishop was considered, in his capacity of being one of the five patriarchs, as the first among equals!
in the fifth century Satan began to spread misinterpretations of Matt. 16: 16-19; Luke 22: 31, 32; John 21: 15-17, to the effect that they taught that Jesus conferred the primacy of authority among the Apostles upon St. Peter, despite the fact that apart from the keys—(1) the power of opening an entrance for the Jews, at Pentecost, and (2) the power of opening an entrance for the Gentiles, in Cornelius' home, into the Church, Jesus conferred upon all the other Apostles the same authority as upon St. Peter (Matt. 18: 18), and despite the fact that Jesus taught that none of the Apostles was to be over any other Apostle!—Luke 22: 24-26.
when the claim was made that the Bishop of Rome was the successor of St. Peter as the prince of the Apostles, and therefore was the chief of the patriarchs, the other four patriarchs disputed the claim!
when for the first time the claim was in the fifth century set forth that not as the first among equals, but as the superior over the four other patriarchs and all other prelates, the Roman Bishop was the head of the Church, this claim was disputed on all sides as an entirely new teaching!
gradually this claim gained adherence for assertions and reasons like the following: The Roman Bishop was the successor of St. Peter; he was Bishop of Rome, the most famous city of the world; he had charge of the graves of Sts. Peter and Paul; he was independent of the court intrigues at Constantinople; he was always orthodox; he was usually able and active; he had the solid backing of the Western churches against the rival and divided claimants in the
Eastern Church; each group of controversialists in the theological conflicts of the Eastern Church sought his favor and decision against their opponents; his clients always in the end won out in these controversies; the continued growth of the Western and decrease of the Eastern Church; the abandonment of the Western Christians to their fate by the Government at Constantinople during the wandering of the nations; and the paternalism of the Roman Bishop toward the people amid the sufferings due to the wandering of the nations!
none of these assertions and reasons is of Divine sanction!
Innocent I (402-417), Coelestin I (422-432), Leo I, the Great, (440-461) and Gregory I, the Great, (590-604) were the most influential Roman Bishops in effecting the acceptance of the primacy of the Roman Bishop as head of the Church!
Leo I, the Great, in 445 succeeded in securing the legal recognition of the primacy of the Roman Bishop over the Western Church, and that in 451 he protested not without effect against the 28th canon of the Council of Chalcedon which declared the Bishop of Constantinople and the Bishop of Rome to be equals!
it was in the sixth century that the Bishop of Rome arrogated to himself the title of Pope—Papa—as exclusively his, though this title had for several centuries been common to all bishops!
in order to prove the primacy of the Pope as head of the Church the following unprovable
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propositions must be proven: (1) that St. Peter was the head of the Church; (2) that St. Peter was Bishop of Rome; (3) that both as Apostle and as Bishop of Rome St. Peter was head of the Church; (4) that St. Peter was to have a successor as head of the Church; (5) that St. Peter's successor as head of the Church had to be the Bishop of Rome; and (6) that the Pope, as Bishop of Rome, is St. Peter's successor as head of the Church!
DEVELOPING THE COUNTERFEIT
Satan not only counterfeited The Christ—Jesus the Head and the true Church His Body—by the Antichrist, in which the Pope is the Head and the Roman Catholic Church the Body, but also in the Papacy he counterfeited almost everything else that is a part of genuine Christianity!
in doctrinal matters Satan through the Papacy set forth a counterfeit teaching for almost every doctrine of the Bible!
in harmony with this procedure Satan through Antichrist has set forth counterfeit doctrines on the Bible, on tradition, on God, on the relation of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, on Jesus Christ, on the Holy Spirit, on angels, on man, on sin, on man's fall into sin, on the penalty of sin, on death, on hell, on purgatory, on the Ransom, on the Abrahamic Covenant, on the New Covenant, on repentance, on faith, on justification, on consecration, on self-denial, on sanctification, on baptism, on the Lord's Supper, on confirmation, on penance, on matrimony, on ordination, on extreme unction, on the Church, on the Gospel Age work, on the priesthood, on the saints, on their sacrifice, on the last day, on time, on eternity, on the last judgment, on the Millennium, on the resurrection, on the end of the world, on heaven, on eternal life, and on eternal death!
the ascetic practices of the Papacy, as seen, for example, in monastic life and the celibacy of the priesthood, are some of Antichrist's counterfeits of the self-denials inculcated in the Bible!
the bulk of Papacy's saints are Antichrist's counterfeits for the faithful Body members of The Christ!
the Papal sacrifice of the Mass is Antichrist's counterfeit of the true
sacrifice that the faithful Body of Christ has been making of themselves throughout the Gospel Age!—Rom. 12: 1; 1 Pet. 2: 5; Heb. 13: 15, 16.
the infallibility of the Pope is in Antichrist Satan's counterfeit of the infallibility of our Lord Jesus!
the college of cardinals is in Antichrist Satan's counterfeit of the more prominent servants of Jesus among men as the antitypes of Israel's seventy judges—the Sanhedrin!
the Papal reign from 799 to 1799 is in Antichrist Satan's counterfeit of the Millennial Reign of The Christ!
as the Pope and the hierarchy counterfeit Jesus and His Church, so monks and nuns, as the intermediaries between Antichrist and the Catholic laity, counterfeit the Ancient and Youthful Worthies as the Millennial intermediaries between The Christ and the world of mankind!
the Papal laity are in Antichrist Satan's counterfeit for the Millennial subjects of The Christ!
Purgatory is Antichrist's counterfeit for the Millennium, when The Christ will purge the earth from the curse and obedient people from all imperfection and sin!
Papacy's doctrine on the penalty of sin is Antichrist's counterfeit for the symbolic lake of fire the second death!
counterfeitedly many of the true saints and martyrs of God (Rev. 17: 6; 18: 24) have been in Antichrist treated by Satan as the Millennial incorrigibles!
the tortures to which the true saints and martyrs of Jesus were subjected are in Antichrist Satan's counterfeit of the judgments of the Lord that will in the Millennium teach earth's inhabitants righteousness!—Is. 26: 9.
the above discussion does not dilate
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on clerical immoralities and other wrongs since these, having existed in all ages and classes, cannot prove Papacy to be Antichrist!
if the Roman Hierarchy were as chaste and good as angels, Papacy would yet be the Antichrist because of counterfeiting the Christ in His organization, doctrines and practices!
it is just because Antichrist in his teachings, practices and organization is so complete a counterfeit of The Christ in His teachings, practices and organization that Satan has by Antichrist attained his greatest power, influence, and success in the world!
ANTICHRIST'S DARK REIGN
after 539—when the Ostrogoths were overthrown in Italy—the Italian exarch, the political representative of the emperor in Italy, having made Ravenna his capital, the Pope gradually began to assume the functions of a civil ruler at Rome and in its suburbs!
Gregory I, the Great (590-604), said that the one who occupied his office as Bishop of Rome discharged the functions of a civil ruler and of an ecclesiastical shepherd, and that at times it was difficult to determine to which of these capacities some of his acts belonged!
Gregory II (715-731) successfully encouraged the revolutionary remnant of the Exarchate of Ravenna to come under his political leadership!
the Popes' controllership of this territory was through the gift of Pepin, the king of the Franks, legally confirmed in 755!
Charlemagne in 774 renewed and enlarged this gift of his father Pepin, and thus confirmed the Pope in his temporal power over the Papal States as a fief of the Frankish Empire!
in this way the Papal States rose!
the Popes were not content thus to be subject to the Frankish Empire!
the aim of the Papacy was absolutism in State and Church!
it is a doctrine of Antichrist that of Divine right every human being should be subject in all things to the Papacy!
in the ninth century there were only two hindrances to Papal absolutism— the supremacy of the Frankish emperors over the Papal States in matters of State, and the claims of the Frankish metropolitans to independence in the Church!
through the greatest forgery of all history—the forged decretals among the so-called Isidorean decretals—the Papacy overcame the Frankish metropolitans' opposition to Papal absolutism in the Church!
it was also through these same forged decretals, especially through the part of them that treats of the so-called donation of Constantine—which sets forth the fable that Constantine the Great, 330, out of gratitude for Pope Sylvester's curing (!) him of leprosy, surrendered to the Pope as a gift the whole of the Western part of the Roman Empire as the Pope's civil domain, placing upon the Pope's head the imperial crown, and thereupon left Rome and built Constantinople as his capital over the Eastern part of the Roman Empire—that gradually the Popes overcame the supremacy of the emperors and kings and became the chief civil power in the earth!
Papacy's contentions for supremacy in civil matters caused many conflicts and wars!
to secure such supremacy among other things the Papacy excommunicated unsubmissive kings and emperors, placed interdicts—prohibition of all rites of the Church—over entire countries, absolved subjects from their oaths of allegiance to their kings and emperors, and aroused the former to revolution against the latter, resulting in some of the latter losing their thrones!
one of the most drastic cases of Papacy's acts along these lines occurred when Hildebrand. as Gregory VII, 1073-1085, excommunicated Henry IV of Germany, released his subjects from their oath of allegiance, and compelled him, when penitent, to do penance by fasting and standing almost naked for three days in the bitter cold of January in the court of the castle at Canossa,
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where Gregory was then visiting, before that haughty and self-willed pontiff deigned to receive into his presence and absolve the royal penitent!
even Catholic theologians now admit that the Isidorean decretals are forgeries in those parts of them that make these extravagant claims of power in Church and State for the Pope!
a good and true cause does not require or have forgeries as its basic credentials!
powers secured by such fraudulent claims and used for such fraudulent purposes must have been invented by Satan and intended by him for use in his own interests!
the powers so gained were used more effectually than other powers ever were used against God, His servants and mankind!
such uses stamp them as of Satan's invention, and therefore prove that Papal absolutism in Church and State is of Satanic origin!
Antichrist still claims by Divine right the authority to reign in secular and religious matters over all rulers and peoples of the earth!
according to the International News Service the present Pope, Pius XI, on Sept. 9, 1921, shortly after his elevation to the cardinalate, publicly made, at Milan, Italy, the
following declaration: "The Vatican must be considered, not an international power, but a super-national power . . . The world must consider Italy as the second country in importance and Rome the universal capital, because the Pope resides there."
the reason why the Pope does not now do to the nations and rulers what among others Gregory VII did to them in the eleventh century, and what Innocent III did to them in the thirteenth century, is not for lack of will so to do, but only for lack of power to enforce his will so to do!
the Scriptures treat of the desolating abomination as an especially wicked thing!—Dan. 11: 31; 12: 11; 8: 13; Matt. 24: 15.
this desolating abomination is Antichrist—the Papacy!
the expression of Matt. 24: 15: "the abomination of desolation . . . stand in the holy place" is practically synonymous with the expression of 2 Thess. 2: 4: "he sitteth in the temple of God"—the true Church!
St. Matthew's expression, "When ye shall see the abomination of desolation . . . stand in the holy place," is synonymous with St. Mark's expression (Mark 13: 14): "When ye shall see the abomination of desolation . . . standing where it ought not," and that this latter expression proves Antichrist to have no right whatever to be in the Church—that he is there only as an intruder and usurper!
Papacy, the Antichrist, teaches that the sacrifice of Jesus atones for only the original sin of man and his actual sins committed before baptism!
Antichrist teaches that the sacrifice of the mass atones for all actual sins committed after baptism, whether those who have committed such sins are now living or dead!
Papacy teaches that when in the mass the priest in the consecration service utters over the bread and wine the words, This is My body—this is My blood, the bread and wine are changed into the actual flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, which the priest then offers as an unbloody sacrifice to God for the sins of the living Catholics and of the dead in Purgatory!
by the doctrine of the Mass the daily—the continual—sacrifice, the continual efficacy of the one Ransom sacrifice of our Lord Jesus to cleanse us from all sin (1 John 1: 7), was taken away by the Antichrist!—Dan. 8: 11-13.
the Ransom-Sacrifice is the place, or foundation, of the Sanctuary—the Church!—Dan. 8: 11.
the doctrine of the Mass is the most abominable feature of the Papacy, because it is subversive of the foundation of Christian doctrine and practice—the Ransom!
the doctrine of the Mass with its concomitants of Purgatory and indulgences has been the mint whereby Antichrist has coined inexhaustible treasures
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through the fears and superstitions of its deluded adherents!—Dan. 8: 12, margin.
it is Antichrist's doctrine of the Mass which makes Antichrist the "desolating abomination"!
the Bible also calls Antichrist—the Papacy—a "little horn"!—Dan. 7: 8, 11, 24, 25; Dan. 8: 9-13, 23-25.
in Biblical symbols a horn represents a power—a kingdom or a king!— Dan. 7: 7, 8, 24; Dan. 8: 3, 5, 8, 9, 20-23; Rev. 17: 3, 12.
the two-horned ram of Dan. 8: 3, 4 represents the Medo-Persian Empire!— Dan. 8: 20.
the one-horned he-goat of Dan. 8: 5-8 represents the Grecian Empire under Alexander the Great, the conqueror of Medo-Persia!—Dan. 8: 21.
the four horns which took the place of the one great horn (Dan. 8: 8) represent the four kingdoms into which the Empire of Alexander was divided!—Dan. 8: 22.
one of these four divisions was Alexander's original kingdom— Macedonia—and that the Roman ambassadors acknowledged the subjection of Rome to the victorious Alexander as a part of his Empire—at that time especially Macedonia!
it is for this reason that the "little horn" of Dan. 8: 9-13 represents first Pagan and then Papal Rome as having come out of one of the divisions of Alexander's Empire— that of Macedonia!
the waxing great against (margin) the host of heaven and overthrowing them (Dan. 8: 10) represents the conflict in the ecclesiastical heavens whereby the Pope contended with all rival religious claimants, and gained the victory over them in the contention for the primacy!
the expression (Dan. 8: 11), "He magnified himself even to the Prince of the Host," means that the Pope would exalt himself to Christ's place as the Head of the Church, and as the rightful Ruler of mankind!—Rom. 14: 9.
Dan. 8: 23-25 treats of the Papacy and is an explanation of Dan. 8: 9-13, even as Dan. 8: 19-22 is an explanation of Dan. 8: 3-8!
Dan. 7: 7, 8, 19-26 gives a more minute picture of the Papacy in its relation to the Roman Empire than is given in Dan. 8: 9-13, 23-25!
the four beasts of Dan. 7: 3-8 represent in their respective order the four universal Empires—Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome!—Dan. 7: 17; 2: 31-35, 36-43.
the ten horns on the head of the fourth beast—the Roman Empire—(Dan.
7: 7) represent the ten nations that would establish a seat of government and exercise rulership on Italian soil—the original territory of the Roman Empire!
those ten nations, with the year of the end of their rule on Italian soil, are the following: (1) the Western Empire, 476 A. D., (2) the Heruli, 489, (3) the Ostrogoths, 539,
(4) the Exarchate of Ravenna (representative of the Eastern Empire), 751, (5) the Longobards, 774, (6) the Franks, 870 (the French in later periods ruled more or less on Italian soil), (7) the Austro-Germanic Holy Roman Empire, 1806 (Austria later ruled in parts of Italy), (8) the Normans, 1194, (9) the Spaniards, 1714, and (10) the present Italian kingdom!—Dan 8: 24.
PAPACY IS THE "LITTLE HORN"
apart from these ten nations the Papacy is the only other government that had a seat of government and exercised rulership on Italian soil!
Papacy, therefore, must be the "little horn" of Dan. 7: 8, 11, 20, 21, 24-26!
the three horns (Dan. 7: 8) that were plucked up by the roots—utterly destroyed—before the Papal horn came up were the Western Empire, which fell in 476, the Heruli, who fell in 489, and the Ostrogoths, who fell in 539, on whose ruins Papal civil power was built!
the Papacy conspired successfully for the successive overthrow of each of these three governments!—Dan. 8: 24.
as symbolized by the eyes and mouth
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of the "little horn" the Papacy—Antichrist—is especially marked by his deep and subtle knowledge (eyes) and great utterances (mouth)!—Dan. 7: 8; 8: 23.
Papacy in his scholars is deeply learned, as evidenced in their many books, in subtle, Satanic perversions and in minute accuracies of all branches of human knowledge, especially in those serviceable to his interests, as symbolized by the man-like eyes of the "little horn"!—Dan. 7 : 8.
Papacy's utterances (the mouth of the "little horn") are great—selfexalting—in their teachings, claims and objects!—Dan. 7: 8.
some of these great claims for the Pope as Papacy's head are set forth in the 62 blasphemous Papal titles which were arranged by Monsignor Capel, one of Papacy's prominent writers, and of which we submit a number as samples: Most Divine of all Heads, Holy Father of Fathers, Pontiff Supreme over all Prelates, Overseer of the Christian Religion, the Chief Pastor, Pastor of Pastors, Christ by Unction, Heir of the Apostles, Abel in Primacy, Noah in Government, Abraham by Patriarchate, Melchisedec in Order, Aaron in Dignity, Moses in Authority, Samuel in Judicial Office, Peter in Power, High Priest, Supreme Bishop, Prince of Bishops, Key-bearer of the Kingdom of Heaven, Pontiff Appointed with Plenitude of Power, Vicar of Christ, Head of the Holy Churches, Chief of the Universal Church, Bishop of Bishops, that is, Sovereign Pontiff, Ruler of the House of the Lord, Apostolic Lord and Father of Fathers, Chief Pastor and Teacher, Physician of Souls, Rock against which the proud gates of hell prevail not, Infallible Pope, Head of all the Holy Priests of God!
among other "great things" that the "little horn" has claimed as the Pope's titles the following are some examples: Prince of the Universe, Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Priest and King who is to be adored by all people, and who is very like unto God!
Ferrari's Ecclesiastical Dictionary—a standard Roman Catholic work— says the following of the Pope under the word Papa, article second: "The pope is . . ., as it were, God and the vicar of God . . . is crowned with a triple crown as king of heaven, of earth and of hell . . . He is above angels . . . Angels . . . could be judged and excommunicated by the pope . . . He occupies one and the same tribunal with Christ . . . The pope is, as it were, God on earth, the only prince of the faithful of Christ, the greatest king of all kings, possessing the plenitude of power, to whom the government of the earthly and heavenly kingdom is entrusted. . . . The pope is of so great authority and power that he can modify, declare or interpret the Divine law. . . . The pope can sometimes counteract the Divine law by limiting, explaining [away], etc.!"
their canon law in the gloss denominates the Pope—"our Lord God!"
next to Satan Antichrist has exalted himself more than all other beings and systems combined!
the Revelator (Rev. 13: 5, 6) prophetically describes the Papacy— Antichrist—as having a mouth speaking great things, and that he declares that in such speaking he blasphemes God and God's name—character, plan, works and office—agreeing on this point with the prophecy of Daniel that we have just been considering!—Dan. 7: 8, 25.
Papacy's—Antichrist's—claims in teaching, practice and ambition, some of which we have briefly mentioned, are these blasphemies!
such high self-exaltation must some day meet the deepest humiliation, and that such blasphemies must some day be repudiated!—Luke 14: 11; Rev. 18: 1-24; Jer. 51: 44, compare with Rev. 17: 5.
the Bible also prophesies that the Papacy—Antichrist—would change— pervert—God's times and laws!—Dan. 7: 25.
according to this passage the times that Papacy changed are certain dispensational periods of God's Plan!
in fulfillment of the prophecy of Dan. 7: 25 the Papacy claims that the period of her power and reign over the nations—approximately from 799 to 1799, which was a part of the Gospel Age—was the Millennial
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reign of Christ and His saints mentioned in Rev. 20: 4-6, whereas the Bible teaches that this reign will follow the Gospel Age and Christ's Second Coming!—Acts 3: 19-21; 15: 14-17; Dan.
7: 13, 14, 18, 22, 27.
in fulfillment of the prophecy of Dan. 7: 25 the Papacy—Antichrist— teaches that the period of the breaking and removal of its power to reign over the earth is the
"little season" of Rev. 20: 7-9, which the Bible teaches is to come after the Millennium!
in Papacy's changing these times—dispensational periods of God's Plan—it has given us a counterfeit Gospel Age, a counterfeit Millennium, and a counterfeit "little season" following the Millennium, thereby again furnishing proof that the Papacy is Antichrist—the counterfeit Christ!
in Dan. 7: 25 God has given a prophecy that the Papacy would change— pervert—God's laws!
this means that the Antichrist—the Papacy—would pervert God's doctrinal, preceptorial, promissory, hortatory, prophetical and typical ordinances and arrangements, to many of which perversions we have previously referred!
in fulfilling this prophecy Papacy—the Antichrist—has perverted— counterfeited—practically every feature of true Christianity!
this prophecy proves God's foreknowledge of Papacy's terrible perversions of Truth and Righteousness!
the Bible foretells the great craftiness, hypocrisy and cunning of the Papacy!—Dan. 7: 8; 8: 25; 11: 27.
by the two kings of Dan. 11: 27 the ecclesiastical power and the civil power in Christendom, prior to 539 A. D., are meant!
at that time both of these rulerships sat at the table of power, each ambitiously seeking to deceive the other as to its real intentions, and to take to itself supremacy in the other's sphere!
by such a course the Papacy introduced the usually mendacious practice that is now called diplomacy!—Dan. 8: 25.
no system ever caused craft to prosper so greatly as did the Papacy!—Dan.
8: 25.
Papacy's dealings in dark expediency and secret diplomacy with rulers and nations, individually and collectively, have been more hypocritical, cunning, deceitful and selfish than those of all other similar dealings combined!
the craft, hypocrisy and cunning of Papacy have created Jesuitism, than which nothing more deceitful and unconscionable was ever invented among men by human or Satanic ingenuity!
as Jesuitism is the child of Papacy's craft, cunning and hypocrisy, so is it the truest representative of Papacy's spirit and practice!
by such hypocrisy, cunning and deceitfulness Papacy has counterfeited Christian tactfulness, which Jesus said should always be harmless!—Matt. 10: 16.
the Papacy—Antichrist—has always degraded individuals in proportion as they have come under its influence!—Rev. 17: 2 ; Rev. 18: 2, 3; Rev. 19: 2.
Papacy's degrading influence has also been national, in that in the same proportion as nations have been under Papacy's influence they have been lowered in civilization, education, freedom, prosperity, and other elements of national greatness!—Rev. 18: 3.
the thoroughly Catholic nations—Spain, Mexico, the Central and South American countries, Austro-Hungary, Poland, Bavaria—are examples of Papacy's degrading national influence!—Rev. 19: 2.
even in preponderantly Protestant countries the great majority of murderers and other notorious criminals are subjects of the Papacy!
the Papacy prospers in proportion as it keeps nations and individuals in ignorance, and that therefore the countries of Christendom where illiteracy is greatest are Papal countries!
Papacy educates the laity only where Protestant competition forces it to do so for self-protection!
Papacy by teaching its people numberless
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superstitions has deeply degraded them mentally and religiously!—Rev. 17: 2.
by teaching the principle of unquestioning obedience to its commands and by inculcating blank, unreasoning acceptance of its teachings Papacy has greatly degraded its subjects mentally, morally and religiously!
in the very nature of the case Papacy by its exaltation of the hierarchy and subjugation of the laity cannot but degrade its subjects, as all history attests that it has done!
many Papal institutions, like the confessional, pilgrimages, indulgences, masses, purgatory, monastic vows, asceticism, the celibacy of the priesthood, monasteries and nunneries are from the nature of the case directly degrading in their influence on the majority of their users!
the Papacy by having taken the Bible and its teachings away from its people has taken from them the greatest incentive to mental, moral and religious elevation (John
17: 17), and by teaching them its own errors gives them the most effective means to their degradation!—Rev. 17: 2; Rev. 19: 2.
ANTICHRIST INCITING WARS
the Papacy, since 539 A. D., has incited more wars than all nations combined!
by arousing the nations of Christendom to enter the crusade against the Mohammedans to recover the so-called Holy Sepulchre the Papacy caused many millions of people to lose their lives!
for centuries after the kings of Christendom saw the folly of the crusades the Papacy sought, happily in vain, to arouse the nations to further crusades against the Moslems!
the Papacy, to further its own political and religious ambitions has embroiled nations in war!
the Papacy was directly responsible for the wars against the Waldensians, Albigensians, Hussites, the Huguenots and the Netherlanders, because of their relinquishing the Papal faith!
the Papacy aroused Charles and Philip of Spain to war against many Protestant countries, like England, Holland, Germany and Denmark!
the Papacy, to crush Protestantism, instigated the Thirty Years' War, in which many millions of people perished!
for about 125 years after the Reformation began there was scarcely a war in Europe that the Papacy did not incite!
Papacy then sought—unsuccessfully in some cases—to incite still other wars!
since that time the Papacy has had more or less to do in occasioning and inciting other wars!
Papacy's intrigues with Austria respecting the Romanizing of Servia's state religion occasioned the World War!
its doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings contributed mightily to the starting and continuing of the World War!
, leaving the World War out of consideration, careful historians charge the Papacy with the responsibility of destroying 50,000,000 lives through the wars that it has fomented!—Dan. 8: 24.
this proves that Papacy—next to Satan, who through introducing sin into
our race (John 8: 44) murdered the whole human family—is the arch-murderer of all history, and has by its course regarding war greatly degraded the peoples!
Papacy would now foment any war that it thinks would result in its interests or in the overthrow of its enemies, and that this means that it would be glad to cripple by war every Protestant country—including America and Britain!
by such a course as to war Papacy has in part fulfilled the prophecies which speak of its cruelty and destructiveness!—Dan. 8: 23-25.
Papacy—Antichrist—is the chief foe of civil and religious liberty on earth!—Dan. 7: 21, 24, 25; Dan. 8: 10, 12, 13, 23-25; Dan. 11: 33; Rev. 13: 6, 7.
, in the passages cited after the previous question, by the expression "saints" and "sanctuary" the faithful followers of Christ are meant; that by the expressions
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"host of heaven" and "stars" religious teachers are meant; and that by the expression "the host" the remainder of the people of Christendom—the laity—are meant!
these passages foretell Papacy's antagonism to civil and religious liberty and its persecution of its opponents and its oppression of its subjects!
Papacy's claim of being the final authority on religious and civil questions, and its demand of absolute obedience to its teachings and commands, from their very nature are destructive of religious and civil liberty and are promotive of religious persecution and civil oppression!
Papacy—Antichrist—as such must be subversive of religious and civil liberty, oppressive to its subjects and murderous to its opponents, especially its religious opponents—the so-called heretics!
in the Dark Ages through Papacy's influence and teachings religious and civil liberty were non-existent!
with fierce and unrelenting hatred and unexampled and demoniacal cruelty it sought to crush every effort to obtain civil and religious liberty!
Innocent III, the most powerful of the popes, protested against the Magna Charta—the palladium of civil liberty!
the Papacy is the greatest foe of a free press, free speech, free assemblage, free opinion, free conscience and free schools!
through the cruel, so-called "Holy" Inquisition Papacy for centuries sought, and that with temporary success, to destroy religious and civil liberty!
by many wars, assassinations and other monstrous crimes fomented by the Papacy it sought to destroy religious and civil liberty!
by almost every other dishonorable and criminal method it likewise sought to stifle religious and civil liberty!
the Bible is the greatest Charter of religious and civil liberty and the Beacon-Light of civilization!—John 17: 17; Ps. 119: 130; Matt. 5: 13-17.
in proportion as the principles of the Bible prevail, in that proportion religious and civil liberty and a noble civilization prevail!—John 8: 31, 32.
Papacy's doctrines, practices and organization have been completely refuted by the Bible!—2 Thess. 2: 8; Rev. 13: 3, 12.
for this reason the Papacy has relentlessly sought to suppress the reading of the Bible among others than her mouthpieces!—Dan. 8: 12.
in harmony with this principle the Papacy has hindered and persecuted the translation of the Bible into living languages!
so far as possible the Papacy kept the Old and New Testaments—God's two Witnesses—covered with the "sackcloth" of dead languages during the long period of her
power!—Rev. 11: 3.
by dark crimes the Papacy hindered the translation and spread of the Bible until, during the last century, through the Bible Societies, backed by the spirit of true liberty, fraternity and equality, it was effectually prevented from further successful hindrance of the good work!—Rev. 11: 3-13.
for the common people to have been found with Bibles in the vernacular during Papacy's ascendency meant persecution and frequently death, through the "Holy" Inquisition!
the Papacy has made bonfires of multitudes of Bibles on the plea that the Bibles of heretics were mistranslations!
the standard Protestant Bibles are better translations than the standard Papal translations!
within the last twenty-five years Papal priests in the Philippines, under the jurisdiction of Archbishop Dougherty—now Cardinal Dougherty of Philadelphia—publicly burned thousands of Bibles as a warning to their flocks!
the Papacy has cursed with bloodcurdling imprecations the Bible Societies for translating and spreading the Bible!
the Papacy never gives the common people the Bible unless forced thereto by Protestant competition!
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the Catholic laity may have the Bible only by special clerical permission, and then usually only when annotated with grossly misleading Papal comments!
these facts prove that the Papacy fears the Bible as its greatest foe!
the Papacy has not only proscribed the Bible, but all other books that, more or less deriving their light from the Bible, teach differently from the Papacy!
the Papacy keeps a double list of such books—called the index of prohibited books and the index of expurgated books—the former being totally prohibited to its adherents, apart from special dispensations, and the latter permitted only after certain papally disapproved parts are deleted!
the above are only a few of the ways in which the Papacy has "cast down the Truth to the ground" and trodden down the saints and the laity!—Dan. 8: 12, 13; John 17: 17.
CRUSHING THE SAINTS
the Bible repeatedly and emphatically prophesies that the Papacy would oppose and persecute God's faithful people—the true saints!—Dan. 7: 21, 25; Dan. 8: 11-13, 24; Dan. 11: 33; Rev. 13: 6, 7; Rev. 17: 6; Rev. 18: 24.
especially for 1260 symbolic days, i.e., 1260 literal years—539 to 1799 A. D.—Papacy, in harmony with prophecy, did this very thing!—Rev. 11: 2, 3; Rev. 12: 6; Rev. 13: 5; Dan. 7: 25.
the Papal persecutions of the saints were from every standpoint immeasurably more severe than were the Jewish and Pagan—Roman—persecutions of the saints!
the Jewish and Pagan persecutions of the saints were intermittent, more or less lenient, restricted usually to individuals, often perfunctorily carried out, more or less humane in methods, and usually largely escapable, whereas Papal persecutions of the saints were continual for many long centuries, cruel in the extreme, diabolic in method, directed not only against individuals, but also against whole communities and nations, fanatically systematic and in most cases entirely unescapable!
the longest non-papal persecution—that of the Roman Emperor
Diocletian—lasted ten years, while Papal persecution lasted for more than twelve hundred years!
Papal persecution began, on the basis of information pried out of penitents in the confessional, with a persistent worrying and annoying of the dissenting saints along religious, social and civil lines, in ways calculated to wear them out!—Dan. 7: 25.
as Papacy gained more influence with the rulers it increasingly induced them to persecute the dissenting saints, whom it caused to be stigmatized as heretics!
Papacy used this ever-increasing influence with the State to cause laws to be passed making it a civil crime to hold and spread what often was Truth struggling to maintain a foothold, but what Papacy was pleased to call heresy!
in this way the Roman Catholic Church caused the Civil Power to persecute saints!
in such doings that Church antityped the heathen and wicked Queen Jezebel, and that the Civil Power antityped King Ahab of Israel, through whom Jezebel persecuted Jehovah's prophets, and that the persecuted saints antityped those persecuted prophets!—Rev. 2: 20; 1 Kings 16: 29—19: 14.
even before the year 539 Papacy influenced the Emperors Constantine, Valentinian, Gratian, Theodosius, Arcadius and Honorius to pass penal laws against heresy, Constantine passing two, Theodosius fifteen, Arcadius twelve, and Honorius eighteen, all of which are to be found in the Theodosian, or Justinian codes!
while from 539 onward the civil powers, incited thereto by the Papacy, persecuted dissenting saints, it was especially since early in the thirteenth century, through Innocent III, 1198-1216, who authorized the so-called "Holy" Inquisition, 1204, that the persecution of the heretics–—usually God's saints—by the so-called "Holy" Inquisition and by national crusades took on a form
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of ruthlessness unequaled in human history, not excepting the ruthlessness of the World War!
Papacy, sometimes by threats, sometimes by flattery and sometimes by rewards—bribes—aroused the persecuting fury of rulers, armies and civilians!
the Papacy offered these prospective murderers of God's saints plenary indulgence—full release—from purgatorial sufferings, if they would make some who actually were God's saints suffer even unto death!
the most cruel and revolting tortures were applied to the saints by the Inquisitors in their efforts to induce them to "recant”!
the following are some of the things that the "Holy" Inquisition did to exterminate God's saints, and with them God's Truth—scourging them; stretching them on racks 6 and 8 inches longer than their natural sizes; disjointing their bones; breaking their teeth with hammers; cutting out their tongues; slicing off their checks; cutting off their ears, lips and noses; gouging out their eyes; pouring melted lead into their empty eye-sockets, into their ears and down their throats; pulling out their nails with hot pincers; cutting off their fingers, toes, hands and feet; cutting off the breasts of women; ripping open pregnant women and tearing from them their unborn infants, which they sometimes would then burn at the stake with their prospective mothers; torturing with special instruments the most sensitive parts of the human body; skinning, boiling, roasting and burning them alive; forcing urine and excrement down their throats; breaking their arms by sudden raising and letting them fall not quite to the floor with chains attached to pulleys in the ceilings and tied to their hands, which were forced back of them, while 300 pound weights were attached to their feet; forcing them to submit to the embraces of a machine called the "kissing virgin," which was covered with horseshoe nails and knife-blades whose points entered the bodies pressed against the machine; applying thumbscrews and Spanish boots to them, the former crushing their thumbs and the latter lacerating their feet and legs up to
the knees; impaling them; pulling their bodies apart by tying their feet with long ropes to two horses which were then made to run at full speed in opposite directions; stripping them and tying them to fleet horses which dragged them until dead over rocky fields; casting them off of eminences upon spears below; beheading and disemboweling them; burying them alive; torturing and murdering their nearest relatives before their eyes, etc. etc., etc.!
the victims of the "Holy" Inquisition, under 45 of its "Holy" Inquisitor-Generals, totaled 347,704 men and women, beside many others tortured by other "Holy" Inquisitor-Generals!
the "Holy" Inquisition hired physicians to watch its victims undergoing torture, so that the physicians could stop the tortures just short of killing the victims, in order that after somewhat of convalescence the tortures could again be applied to the partly cured and highly sensitive victims!
not only did Pope Innocent III authorize the "Holy" Inquisition, but he offered a plenary indulgence—full release—from purgatorial sufferings to all who would join in the crusade against the Waldenses and Albigenses of France and Italy!
in response to his call a half million men from France, Germany and Italy joined the crusade and devastated entire provinces!
at Beziers, 1209, they slaughtered 60,000 men, women and children; that at Lavaur, 1211, they slaughtered thousands of others; and that in one day in the province of Languedoc alone they devastated cities, towns and country, slaughtering over 100,000 Albigenses!
on that day the crusaders attended mass in the morning, and throughout the rest of the day devastated Languedoc and murdered its inhabitants!
the Papal clergy publicly thanked God for the "victory" over these "heretics"!
under Charles V and Philip II of Spain, in the Netherlands alone 100,000 Protestants were martyred by Papal instigation!
following the example of Charles and Philip of Spain, and instigated thereto by the Papacy, the French kings, Francis, Henry, Charles and Louis XIV, fiendishly persecuted the French Protestants—Huguenots—
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in various provinces of France, slaying them by the hundreds of thousands, and exiling over a million of them, sparing neither men, women or children, and that with indescribable tortures!
among others of these massacres that of St. Bartholomew's Day, 1572, begun by treachery to the Protestants, carried out with extremist cruelty and destroying approximately 70,000 people, was instigated by Papacy!
both the Pope and the French king had medals struck in commemoration of this infamous massacre, as if it were something of which one should boast!
the Pope had a picture of the St. Bartholomew massacre hung in the Vatican, bearing the inscription, "The Pontiff approves the fate of Coligny"—the French Protestant leader and French Admiral, who was treacherously invited to a royal wedding ostensibly arranged for the reconciliation of the French Catholics and Protestants, but really intended to bring all the prominent French Protestants to Paris for what turned out to be St. Bartholomew's massacre!
Coligny's head was severed from his dead body by the French queen's order, then embalmed and sent by her as a trophy to the Pope, while the Parisian populace dragged the trunk of the body through the streets of Paris!
after receiving Coligny's embalmed head the Pope had the above-mentioned picture hung in the Vatican!
Antichrist in 1641 called upon the Irish to enter a war of religion to kill or exile Protestants, and that in Ulster alone 154,000 Protestants, men, women and children, were either killed or exiled, amid utmost barbarity!
O'Neil, the Irish primate, called the massacre "a pious and lawful war," and that Pope Urban VIII granted plenary indulgence to its executors as "gallantly doing what in them lay to extirpate and wholly root out the pestiferous leaven of heretical contagion"— Protestantism!
the above facts as well as hosts of others almost as atrocious are so well authenticated that even Papal historians are forced to admit their truth, though trying to mitigate the force of them!
by these massacres during 1260 years the Papacy forced the faithful followers of Christ into the symbolic wilderness—isolation—out of which the faithful emerged with large and sure freedom only from 1799 onward!—Rev. 12: 6.
by these as well as by other methods of Satan "it was given to him [the Papacy] to make war with the saints and to overcome them" and to "wear out the saints of the Most High"!—Rev. 13: 6, 7; Dan. 7: 25.
DRUNK WITH BLOOD OF SAINTS
it is for these reasons that Antichrist—the Papacy—is described as "drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus"!—Rev. 17: 6.
this blood is now on Papacy's hands and calls for vengeance, which very shortly will be executed in the destruction of the entire Papal system!—Rev. 6: 9-11; Rev. 18:
24.
the Papacy—Antichrist—would reenact these persecutions here in America, if it only had the power, as within the last 50 years in Mexico, Central and South America it has aroused mobs to kill Protestant missionaries!
the Papacy curses everyone to eternal torment who teaches or practices contrary to her theories and practices!
the Papacy has cursed the faithful followers of Christ with bloodcurdling curses!
in the Romish Pontifical the following is only one of Papacy's authorized curses against Protestants: "May God Almighty and all His saints curse them with the curse with which the devil and his angels are cursed! Let them be destroyed out of the land of the living! Let the vilest of deaths come upon them, and let them descend alive into the pit [of eternal torment]! Let their seed be destroyed from the earth—by hunger and thirst and nakedness and all distress let them perish! May they have all misery and pestilence and torment! Let all
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they have be cursed! Always and everywhere let them be cursed! Speaking and silent let them be cursed! Within and without let them be cursed! From the crown of the head to the sole of the foot let them be cursed! Let their eyes become blind; let their ears become deaf; let their mouths become dumb; let their tongue cleave to their jaws; let not their hands handle; let not their feet walk! Let all the members of their body be cursed! Cursed let them be, standing or lying, from this time forth forever; and thus let their candle be extinguished in the presence of God, at the day of judgment! Let hungry wolves devour their corpses! Let the devil and his angels be their companions for ever! Amen, Amen; so be it; so let it be!"
it was not God's Spirit that dictated this curse!—Matt. 5: 43-45.
only Satan and his chief earthly representative—Antichrist—could pour out such a curse!
a religion whose spirit draws up and authorizes such a curse must have
been invented by Satan and must be the basest kind of a counterfeit of true Christianity!
ANTICHRIST'S REVELATION—SMITING—END
some of the Scripture passages that treat of the development of the Papacy to its greatest height of exaltation speak of its being revealed later in its true character and of its being then smitten by the Truth!—2 Thess. 2: 6, 8; Rev. 13: 3, 10; Dan. 7: 26 ; Dan. 8:
25. the time for Papacy's revealment as the Antichrist of the Bible was the period of the Reformation!—Dan. 11: 32-35; 2 Thess. 2: 8.
the Reformation proceeded through two phases, the first being characterized by unorganized, or undenominational movements, from 1309 A. D. to 1498 A. D., the second being characterized by organized, or denominational movements, from 1517 A. D. to 1846 A. D!
both of these phases of the Reformation emphasized, and proved from the Bible with historical corroborations, the fact that Papacy is the Antichrist of the Bible, and thus they revealed the Man of Sin as such! —2 Thess. 2: 6, 8.
St. Paul, by the expression, "spirit of His mouth," in 2 Thess. 2: 8, meant the power of the Truth as given in the Bible, which is God's figurative mouth—that through which He speaks to us!—2 Thess. 2: 8, compare with Rev. 1: 16; 2: 16; 19: 15, 21; Is. 49: 2; Eph. 6: 17.
St. John by the second use of the term "sword," in Rev. 13: 10, also means the Truth given in the Bible!—Eph. 6: 17.
the Truth as contained in the Bible is the great weapon by which the Lord according to prophecy has revealed and smitten Antichrist as such!
History proves that such a predicted revelation and smiting of Papacy has taken place!
Marsilius of Padua, one of the ablest men of the fourteenth century, began in 1309 to learn the Biblical principles that enabled him to recognize the Papacy as Antichrist, usurping power in both Church and State!
by 1324 he had so thoroughly learned these principles as to have written in 90 days a large book entitled The Defender of the Peace, which from Scripture, Reason and History disproved Antichrist's claims of power and authority in Church and State!
even to this day Marsilius' book is a standard on the subject that it discusses!
Marsilius had as co-laborers certain of the ablest scholars of his day, including men like John of Jandun, Michael of Cesena, general of the so-called schismatical Franciscans, and William Occam, the foremost theologian and philosopher of his time!
in the literary war waged by these against the defenders of the Papacy the latter were thoroughly refuted, and thus Papacy began to be revealed as Antichrist!
John Wiclif of England, the ablest theologian and philosopher of his day, especially from 1378 to the end of 1384 attacked the Papacy as Antichrist with unanswerable power, and greatly added to the Scriptural arguments on this subject advanced by Marsilius!
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he started from the basis that no religious doctrine or practice should be permitted in the Church unless it be proven to be Biblical!
this principle moved him to reject most of Papacy's doctrines and practices as erroneous!
multitudes in England under his teachings rejected the Papacy and its chief doctrines and practices!
Wiclif increased greatly the revelation of Papacy as Antichrist, and assisted in its smiting!
in 1391 John Huss of Bohemia became interested in Wiclif's writings and shortly afterward began his career as a reformer, sealing it in 1415 with a martyr's death at the stake, to which a Papal council condemned him!
he manifested the Papacy as Antichrist to hundreds of thousands in Bohemia!
John Wessel of Holland was used by the Lord to make still more manifest as of Antichrist not a few of the Papal doctrines!
he laid down as basic the four cardinal principles of the Reformation by sects as it was developed from 1517 to 1846!
Jerome Savonarola in Italy likewise wrought fruitfully in the work of manifesting the Papacy as Antichrist and shared in its smiting until his death as a martyr in 1498!
all of the reformers hitherto mentioned led unorganized— undenominational—reformatory movements which, one and all, contributed a share in the work of revealing the Papacy as Antichrist and in smiting it with the Word of God!—2 Thess. 2: 8.
this class of Reformers are a part of those referred to in Dan. 11: 33 as "they that understand among the people shall instruct many, yet shall they fall by the sword and by flame, by captivity and by spoil!"
the next verse, by the expression "They shall be holpen [assisted] with a little help," refers to the Reformation by sects begun in 1517 by Luther, and ended in 1846 by Miller in the Second Advent movement!
the following are the four fundamental principles of the Reformation by sects—usually called the Protestant Reformation: (1) The Bible is the sole source and rule of faith and practice; (2) Justification is by faith alone through the merit of Christ; (3) Christ alone is the Head of the Church; and (4) all and only the Faithful are Priests.
the Lutheran church placed the chief emphasis on Justification by faith alone as against the Papal doctrine of justification by faith and works!
the Presbyterian church placed the chief stress on the Bible as the sole source and rule of faith and practice as against the Papal doctrine of tradition as a source and rule of faith and practice!
the Episcopal church placed the chief emphasis on the sole Headship of Christ in the Church as against the headship of the Pope!
the Baptist church placed the chief stress on the exclusive priesthood of the Faithful as against the Papal doctrine of its priesthood!
the Congregational church stressed the doctrine of the equality of all the brethren in the Church as against the Papal doctrine of the superiority of the priests to the laity!
the Methodist church stressed the doctrine of consecration and heart religion as against the formalism of the Papal religion!
the Disciple church emphasized the doctrine of the Apostolic organization of the Church as against the doctrine of the Papal organization of the Church!
the Advent church stressed the doctrine of eternal life to be gained in the resurrection of the dead at Christ's Second Advent as against the Papal doctrine of eternal life being inherent in man!
other denominations stressed other important truths!
the above-mentioned churches wrought out the Reformation by sects, or denominations, from 1517 to 1846!
each of them stressed an important truth as against a Papal error!
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it was by the truths that they emphasized against Papal errors that they both revealed the Papacy as Antichrist and smote it with the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God!
this smiting was the means by which the Lord consumed much of the Papal power in Church and State!—2 Thess. 2: 8; Rev. 13: 3.
before this revelation and smiting began the Papacy was almost omnipotent in Church and State!
when it was finished the Papacy's power in Church and State was very largely consumed!
the advocacy of the principle of liberty in the Church from the Papacy led to the advocacy of the principle of liberty in the State from the Papacy!
as Sisters Religious Liberty and Civil Liberty supported one another against Papal absolutism—the ancient ravisher of both!
with the support of Protestantism many nations cast off the Papal political power, e.g., Britain, all Scandinavia and Holland, and most of Germany and Switzerland!
other countries and certain provinces obtained temporary freedom from Rome politically, but were later by bloody wars and Jesuitical intrigues forced into subjection to it by Austria, Spain and France!
as the principles of religious and political liberty gradually spread, the Papacy's political power, even in Papal countries, gradually diminished!
it was the French Revolution and especially Napoleon—1789 to 1809— that broke forever the spell of Papal political authority over the nations!
France was for a thousand years Papacy's most dependable ally!
through France above all other nations Papacy exercised its political power to the subversion of Truth and Righteousness throughout Europe!
France above all other nations at Antichrist's instigation persecuted and warred against movements protesting against the Papacy, like the Waldenses, the Albigenses, and the Huguenots!
the Papacy could depend on France when it could depend on no other nation!
France was as drunken by Papal doctrine as any other nation on earth!— Rev. 17: 2; 18: 3; 10: 2.
this extreme subserviency to Papacy on the part of France prepared the latter to strike Papacy the hardest blow of all history, once France learned that she had been deceived, wronged and exploited by Papacy!
the wrath of revolutionary France poured itself out in stripping the Papacy of all its vast French wealth and privileges, in abrogating its services, in massacring or banishing those of its clergy who refused to wed, in freeing its monks and nuns from monastic life and institutions and in banishing from social and political life everything derived from Papacy!
Napoleon Bonaparte more than any other individual broke Papacy's civil power!
he and his generals four times, from 1796 to 1808, invaded the Papal States, exacting the first time a large indemnity, the second time a still larger indemnity and a part of the Papal territory, the third time abrogating entirely the temporal power of the Pope, setting up a Republic in its stead, and taking Pius VI to France as a prisoner, where he died the next year, 1799, and, when later the Pope received again a part of his temporal power, at the fourth invasion taking away every shred of it from him, in 1808-1809!
Napoleon's disregard and defiance of the Papacy's anathemas and claims of Christ's Vicarship and his rough handling of and trampling upon the Papacy not only broke the
temporal power of the Pope, but also the superstitious dread of the Papacy which the bulk of Europe had felt!
despite a precarious assumption of temporal power by the Papacy, which it arrogated to itself, as a ward either of France or of Austria, and which was finally ended by Italy in 1870, the Papacy has scarcely since Napoleon's time dared breathe aloud the claims of supremacy over the kings of earth of which it formerly boasted!
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when the final settlement of the Napoleonic wars came the Papacy despite its wishes was not even invited to send representatives to the Peace Congress at Vienna, in 18151816, as it also was snubbed in the same way by the Peace Congress at Paris in 1919-1920!
this proves that the civil rulership of the Papacy is broken, despite Papacy's political intrigues to have it restored!
almost all the States of Europe that had been united with the Papacy as the State religion have in their midst separated Church and State and have destroyed Papacy's civil power in their lands!
the curtailment of Papacy's civil power and the casting off of their union with it on the part of the European States is what is meant by the "ten horns" of the symbolic "Beast" making the Catholic Church desolate and naked, and eating her flesh!—Rev. 17: 16.
before long these same nations will "burn her with fire"—destroy the Papacy entirely!—Rev. 17: 16; 2 Thess. 2: 8.
Papacy's present diplomatic activity and increased influence among the nations is her final boasting—"I sit as a queen," etc.—immediately preceding her final and complete destruction!—Rev. 18: 7.
NAPOLEON—A PROPHETIC CHARACTER
Napoleon was an unconscious instrument in God's hands to ruin Papacy's temporal power and break the spell of superstitious dread of the Papacy that hung like a dark cloud over the nations, and that his activities in this and other respects are described in Dan. 11: 29, 30, 36-45!
in Dan. 11: 2-45 there is a prophecy of world events from the days of Cyrus of Persia, 536 B. C., until Napoleons death, 1821 A. D.!
in this section of Scripture the King of the North stands, first for the Grecian Empire in its Syrian subdivision especially, then for its successor, Rome, and then for Rome's successor—the European Concert of Powers!
"the King of the South" is Egypt!
Dan. 11: 5-17 treats of the conflicts between Alexander's successors, especially in Syria, and the Egyptian rulers until the time of Cleopatra!
from there onward the prophecy touches only on the more prominent persons and events of history connected with the two great invasions of Egypt by the King of the North before Napoleon's invasion—the third great invasion—also on the conflict between the civil and clerical power in Christendom, on the activities and the persecution of the saints and on the Reformation until, apart from verses 29 and 30, which are thrown in parenthetically, it describes Napoleon's activity in verses 36-45!
verse 17 treats of Rome's occupation of Egypt by Julius Caesar and Mark Antony and of their relations with Cleopatra, queen of Egypt!
verses 18 and 19 treat of Augustus' and Antony's quarrel as Rome's and Egypt's representatives, verses 17-14 describing the first great invasion of Egypt from the North!
verse 20 refers to Augustus Caesar, the tax-gathering Roman Emperor (Luke 2: 1-3), and that verses 21-24 refer to Tiberius Caesar, under whom Jesus Christ—"the
Prince of the Covenant" (verse 22)—was crucified!
verses 25-28 treat of the second great invasion of Egypt from the North, that under Emperor Aurelian, when Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, a descendant of Cleopatra, claimed and exercised authority over Egypt!
verses 29, 30 treat of Napoleon's invasion of Egypt—the third great invasion of Egypt from the North—and are thrown in parenthetically to give the connection and contrast between the first and second invasions, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the third great invasion of Egypt from the North!
verse 36 treats of Napoleon's willfulness, his ambition to outstrip every other ruler—"god"—his commands, proclamations, indignities, etc., against the Papacy—"the god of gods," ruler of rulers—his marvelous prosperity until he would complete the ruin of Papacy as the thing determined by God!
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verse 37 describes Napoleon's disregard of the Papacy—"the god [ruler] of his fathers"—and his disregard of the Protestant denominations—symbolic "women"—his disregard of all civil rulers and his exalting himself above all other rulers!
verse 38 describes military power as Napoleon's "god," and describes the rewards he gave those who manifested great military ability and success!
Napoleon, though a great administrator, was, according to verse 39, especially noted for his military power and for the rewards and positions that he gave his successful military supporters!
his Egyptian campaign, 1798, 1799, is described in verse 40, when not only Egypt fought him with their horsemen, but almost all Europe declared war on him, and Nelson, the great English Admiral, destroyed his fleet, Aug. 1, 1798, in Aboukir Bay, as shown in verse 30!
verses 40 and 29 and 30 enable us to fix the date when the "time of the end" began as 1799—which is by these verses shown to have begun on Napoleon's return to France, Oct. 9, 1799, from Egypt's third invasion from the North!
verses 40-43 show his victorious invasion of Palestine, his keeping close to the Mediterranean Sea coast, his humbling Egypt and its contiguous countries!
the "tidings out of the East and North" (verse 44) refer to the news that Napoleon received in Egypt of a coalition, of Britain, Russia, Naples, Austria and Turkey, declaring war upon him!
this news, according to verse 44, caused him to return to France "at the time of the end," and to begin his series of wars to subjugate all Europe to himself !
verse 45 describes his temporary residence in Palestine in 1799, his ultimate defeat and his abandonment on the part of all!
Napoleon as the man of destiny (Dan. 11: 36) was the Divinely appointed instrument in pouring out Divine retribution on the Papacy, in making the world safe from its political power and the people free from its persecuting fury and from its "Holy" Inquisition, which he destroyed!
from this standpoint Napoleon's work as a political reformer—despite his evident infidelity, barbarous ruthlessness and insatiable ambition—resulted ultimately in great good for religious and civil liberty!
THE PROPHETIC LENGTH OF PAPACY'S REIGN—1260 YEARS
the Bible prophesies the duration of the period of Papacy's power to persecute the Lord's people and to oppress its enemies and opponents!
the Bible gives this period in symbolic language in which a day stands for a
year, a month for 30 years, and a "time," a year, for 360 years!—Dan. 7: 25; Rev. 11: 2, 3; Rev.
12: 6; Rev. 13: 5. so understood these passages prove that the duration of Papacy's power to oppress and persecute would be 1260 years, and that this would be the period of her power! the Papacy was "set up" in power in 539 A. D., and that its power ended in 1799 A. D., when Pope Pius VI died a captive of Napoleon in France—a period of 1260 years!
the fact that independent Papal civil power ended in 1799 was acknowledged by Pius VII who, succeeding Pius VI, became Pope in 1800, and who immediately issued a statement declaring it to be the Divinely
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imposed duty of every human being—therefore of the Pope also—to be subject to the civil rulers of his country!
the period from 539 to 1799 was the Biblically foretold time—the 1260 years—of Antichrist's reign over the nations!
since 1799 the Pope's rule—intermittent at most—has been merely nominal, because whenever after that date he exercised the semblance of political power it was as the ward of France or Austria, and not as a fully independent political sovereign!
the end of Papacy's long period of power synchronized with the beginning of "the time of the end," as shown above, and that before the "time of the end" is completed Papacy will be out of existence!—2 Thess. 2: 8; Rev. 17: 16, 17.
one of Papacy's doctrines is that it is semper idem—always the same!
, though facts disprove this doctrine in many particulars, it certainly means that if Papacy had the power it would do again what it did to the kings, nations and saints from 539 to 1799!
the semper idem doctrine of the Papacy means that it is plotting for a restoration of its temporal power!
Papacy's efforts at making the nations feel that it is their indispensable bulwark against radicals is a part of its intrigues to regain temporal power!
Papacy still agitates for the restoration of the States of the Church to its power!
these aspirations of the Papacy will never be realized!—Rev. 17: 16, 17.
Papacy's present political and diplomatical prominence and influence are the immediate precursor of its annihilation!—Rev. 18: 7, 8; 2 Thess. 2: 8.
" 'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wish'd!"—Rev. 18: 20
