FRIDAY MORNING MANNA
May 29, 2015
Nathaniel Fajardo
Email:[email protected]
Biblical Numerology: NUMBER THREE – Part X
THE THREE PERSONS OF THE GODHEAD (Continued)
The book The Great Controversy by Ellen G. White is not alone in referring to the Roman Catholic Church more succinctly as the “Roman Church” or the “Church of Rome” or the “Romish Church.” The Protestant Reformers said the same. This Monday, the 20th, the secular press also referred to it as such. The AFP reported May 20, 2015, which the TheGuardian (Nigeria) repeated the next day, saying, and we quote: (emphasis mine):
“Pope Urges Chinese Catholics’s Allegiance to Rome
“Pope Francis called Wednesday on Chinese Catholics to remain attached to the ‘rock’ on which the Church in Rome is built, in a move expected to rile Beijing. ‘Ask Mary to help Catholics in China….to live spiritually united to the rock of Peter on which the church is built,’ the pontiff said in his weekly general audience in Saint Peter’s Square.
“Francis was speaking ahead of a May 24 day of prayer for Catholics in China, which was established by his predecessor Benedict XVI in 2007. With his reference to Peter, whom the Roman Catholic Church considers to have been the first pope, he was calling on Chinese Catholics for their allegiance. The Vatican has not had diplomatic relations with China since Mao Zedung broke them off in 1951.
“On a visit to South Korea in August, Francis called for a normalization of relations. But he insisted that could only happen if China’s Catholics are given the right to exercise their religion freely, and when the Vatican is allowed to appoint bishops in the world’s most populous country. On his way back from Korea, Francis said he would visit China as soon as the Church was allowed to do its job there.
“Researchers say that there are about 12 million practicing Catholics in China, half of who attend services under the auspices of a state-controlled association. The other half are involved in clandestine churches that swear allegiance to the Vatican.” See www.ngrguardiannews.com/2015/05/pope-urges-chinese-catholics-allegiance-to-rome.
The Papacy—the hierarchy of the Church of Rome, in its official published works and literature, which both religious and secular histories attest to, has openly claimed the offices, power, nature, and work of the three Persons of the Godhead in the plan of redemption of the true gospel, as defined in the Bible. Let’s consider but a few facts:
The Office, Authority, and Titles of God the Father. In vision, Daniel “the man greatly beloved,” Dan. 9: 23; 10:11; 10: 19 (even as John the Apostle and writer of the Revelation was also similarly addressed as “the beloved,” John 21: 20) was shown that the “little horn” that “had eyes like a man, and a mouth speaking great things” (Dan. 8: 8; cf. v. 25) would “wax exceeding great toward the south [Egypt], and toward the east [Syria] and toward the pleasant land [Jerusalem. . . .even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of host and of the stars [worshippers and messengers of the true God], and stamped upon them. Yea, he magnified himself even to the Prince of the host . . .” (Dan. 8: 9-11). This happened only after first totally “uprooting the three horns” before it, i.e., the three Arian nations in Italy and Africa—the Heruli, Vandals, and Visigoths, respectively, who, though firmly and fiercely opposed the Bishop of Rome and its hierarchy, were not united, while the Roman Church was, which proved their undoing yet fulfilled prophecy. The “little horn” that waxed exceeding great,” was “to speak great words against the Most High.” Daniel 7: 25. We now quote a few extracts from authentic Roman Catholic sources showing the fulfillment of this prophetic utterance: Pope Leo XIII in his “Great Encyclical Letters,’ says:
‘We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty.’ – p. 304.
“In a large, authentic work by F. Lucii Ferraris, called ‘Prompta Bibliotheca Canonica Juridica Moralis Theologica,’ printed at Rome, 1890, and sanctioned by the Catholic Encyclopedia (Vol. VI, p. 48), we find the following statements regarding the power of the pope:
‘The Pope is of so great a dignity and so exalted that he is not a mere man, but as it were God, and the vicar of God. . . . . ‘Hence the Pope is crowned with a triple crown, as king of heaven, and of earth, and of the lower regions. . . .
‘So that if it were possible that the angels might err in the faith, or might think contrary to the faith, they [the angels!] might be excommunicated by the Pope . . .
‘The Pope is as were God on earth, sole sovereign of the faithful of Christ, chief king of kings, have plenitude of power, to whom has been entrusted by the omnipotent God direction not only of the earthly but also of the heavenly kingdom.’– Quoted in “Source Book,” (Revised Edtion), pp. 409, 410: Washington, D.C.: 1917. The Catholic Encyclopedia says of the Pope:
‘The sentences which he gives are to be forthwith ratified in heaven.’ –Vol. XII, art. ‘Pope,’ p. 265.” – Quoted in Facts of Faith (Revised), Christian Edwardson, Southern Publishing Asso., TN, U.S.A., 1943: pp. 61, 62.
St. Alphonsus de Liguori, a sainted doctor of the Roman Church, claims the same power for the Roman priests! He says (emphasis added):
‘The priest has the power of the keys, or the power of delivering sinners from hell, of making them worthy of paradise, and of changing them from the slaves of Satan into the children of God. And God Himself is obliged to abide by the judgment of His priests . . . . The Sovereign Master of the universe only follows the servant by confirming in heaven all that the latter decides on earth.’”—‘Dignity and Duties of the Priest,’ pp. 27, 28. New York: Benziger Brothers, Printers to the Holy Apostolic See, 1888.
“Pope Innocent III has written: ‘Indeed, it is not too much to say that in view of the sublimity of their offices the priests are so many gods.”—Ibid, p. 36. No wonder the first of the Ten Commandments plainly states: “Thou shalt have no other Gods before Me.” Exo. 20: 3; Deut. 5: 7; et cetera.
The Office and Work of the Holy Spirit. Just prior to His crucifixion on 31 A.D. at the hands of the first church and state collusion—“the mightiest crime and the loudest crying sin in all the history of the universe was committed” (A.T. Jones) which all involved will have render an account in Judgment seat of Christ, (Rom. 14: 10), Jesus promised His disciples: ”And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him for He dwelleth in you, and shall be in you. . . . But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall TEACH you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.”John 14: 16-18, 26, 27.
In contradiction to this plain “truth as it is in Jesus” (Eph. 3: 21), Pope Leo XIII says:
“But the supreme teacher in the Church is the Roman Pontiff. Union of minds, therefore, requires, together with a perfect accord in the one faith, complete submission and obedience to the will to the Church and to the Roman Pontiff, as to God Himself.” –“The Great Encyclical Letters,” p. 193.
Alonzo Trevor Jones wrote: “This is also plain enough in the plain truth itself. For the Holy Spirit is given to each individual to guide him ‘into all truth.’ The truth of God is infinite and eternal [mankind is fallen, sinful, finite, and mortal]. Therefore it will always be true that there is still an infinity and eternity of truth into which the Christian is to be guided. In the nature of things it is impossible for any other than the infinite and eternal [Holy] Spirit to guide anyone into or in the truth of God. Therefore every soul must be infinitely and eternally free to be guided by the infinite and eternal Spirit into this infinity and eternity of truth.”- The Divine Right of Individuality in Religion, p. 43.
“The priest holds the place of the Savior Himself, when, by saying, ‘Ego te absolvo’ [I thee absolve], he absolves from sin. . . .To pardon a single sin requires all the omnipotence of God. . . . but only what God can do by His omnipotence the priest can also do by saying ‘Ego te absolve a peccatis tuis.’” (Alphonsus de Liguori, Dignity and Duties of the Priest, pp. 34-36) . . . . Note still further:
“But our wonder would be far greater when we find that in obedience to the words of His priests—HOC EST CORPUS MEUM [This is My Body]—God Himself descends on the altar, that He comes wherever they call Him, and as often as they call Him, and places Himself in their hands, even though they should be His enemies. And after having come, He remains, entirely at their disposal; they move Him as they please, from one place to another; they may, if they wish, shut Him up in the tabernacle, or expose Him on the altar, or carry Him outside the Church; they may, if they choose, eat His flesh, and give Him for the food of others. ‘Oh, how very great is their power,’ says St. Lawrence Justinian, speaking of priests. ‘A word falls from their lips and the body of Christ is there substantially formed from the matter of bread, and Incarnate Word descended from heaven, is found really present on the table of the altar!’”- Liguori, , pp. 26, 27,
“Thus the priest may, in a certain manner, be called the creator of the Creator. . . The power of the priest,’ says St. Bernard de Sienna, ‘is the power of the divine person; for the transubstantiation of the bread requires as much power as the creation of the world.’- Ibid, pp. 32, 33. Quoted in Daniel & the Revelation, Uriah Smith, pp. 569, 570: Southern Publishing Asso., Review & Herald Publishing Asso., U.S.A., 1944, 1972.
These, truly indeed are “great words against the Most High!”
{To be continued next week)