Read or download Study for the Month of April 2015: The ‘Man of Sin’ of Bible Prophecy and his activities and career – Part II
Category: Monthly Studies
Monthly Studies created by Pastor Nathaniel Fajardo
“Rome Versus The Bible. After the Church had fallen from its apostolic purity of life and doctrine, it found that, where the Bible was read by the common people, they lost faith in the Church and opposed her worship as a species of idolatry. This was particularly true of the Waldenses, who had retained the Bible in their native language hundreds of years before the Reformation, and had copied and spread its pages over Catholic Christendom, wherever their missionaries traveled. It was natural, therefore, that the Roman Church, instead of supplying the common people with the Scriptures in their native tongue, should oppose this.
“Cardinal Merry del Val says that on account of the activity of the Waldenses, and later of the Protestants, in spreading the Scriptures in the native language of the people, ‘the Pontiffs and the Councils were obliged on more than one occasion to control and sometimes even forbid the use of the Bible in the vernacular.’
Claims that the head of Christ’s church on earth is a visible man, not the Holy Spirit
“It is one of the leading doctrines of Romanism that the pope is the visible head of the universal church of Christ, invested with supreme authority over bishops and pastors in all parts of the world. More than this, the pope has been given the very titles of Deity. He has been styled ‘the Lord God the Pope’ [See Appendix], and has been declared infallible. He demands the homage [worship and veneration] of all men. The same claim urged by Satan in the wilderness of temptation, is still urged by him through the Church of Rome, and vast numbers are ready to yield him homage.
“But those who fear and reverence God meet this Heaven-daring assumption of Christ met the solicitations of the wily foe: ‘Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.’ Luke 4: 8. God has never given a hint in His word that He has appointed any man to be the head of the church. The doctrine of papal supremacy is directly opposed to the teachings of the Scriptures. The pope can have no power over Christ’s church except by usurpation.”- Ibid.
Study for the Month of March 2015
The Image of the Beast-Part VI
By Nathaniel Fajardo
The ‘Man of Sin’ of Bible Prophecy and his activities and career – Part I
INTRODUCTION
The Son of God and the Son of Man
This most fundamental of all Biblical truths must be firmly established at the outset for it shows the contrast between the Son of man and the man of sin:
The plan of redemption of the everlasting gospel is indeed “the good news of salvation.” Salvation from what? from the power of the following:
(1) Satan, the fallen Lucifer who became “the great dragon, the serpent of old, Satan, the devil, the master deceiver and enemy of God and man, who first caused the rebellion and fall of one-third of the angels in heaven in the first war against the law, kingdom, and authority of Jesus, the Creator
“If in the land of boasted liberty [America] a Protestant government is preparing to sacrifice every principle that enters into its constitution, making decrees to suppress religious liberty, and for the enforcing of papal falsehoods and delusions, then the people of God need to present their petitions in faith to the Most High. There is every encouragement in the promise of God for those who put their trust in Him.
“The prospect of being brought into personal danger and distress need not cause despondency, but should quicken the vigor and hope of God’s people, for the time of their peril is the season for God to grant them clearer manifestations of His power.”- Letter 3, 1890, paragraphs 8, 9/LDE 176.
“The tyrant is seeking to oppress man’s conscience, which Christ has made free. Persecution will come more definitely and decidedly upon the people of God, because the godly are seeking for uprightness and holiness and the disobedient are in sin. The sin-loving do not choose the way and will of God, and the obedient, in their character and course of action, are a constant rebuke to the sinful When the truth finds access to the heart, it must fight every inch of the way . . . .Then the collision comes. Then comes the warfare, and , if the heart has yielded to Jesus in obeying the commandments of God, there is a jealous contest, error rising up to condemn truth, and truth in its God-given principles setting strongly against error. This is the experience the world over. The only way in which man will be enabled to stand firm in the conflict is to be rooted and grounded in Christ. They must receive the truth as it is in Jesus….Our probation is about ended.
As a matter of review, this particular beast of which an image of it will be formed soon, refers to the papacy as our past studies clearly showed, based on sound Biblical exegesis, the writings of past Protestant scholars, particularly that of the inspired pen of Mrs. Ellen G. White. Once more, the Papacy is not a single pope but a system of the Roman Church and refers more comprehensively to a combination of four things. According to Webster’s Dictionary, Student Edition (1976) it is (all words in parenthesis mine):
1. The position or authority of the Pope.
2. The period during which the pope rules.
3. The line of or succession of popes. (600 years ago there were three popes concurrently claiming to be the legitimate Holy See, having their own separate enclaves, resulting in violence between all three. This troublous time for the Roman Catholic Church lasted for 40 years, and is euphemistically referred to as “the “Western Schism.” This historical fact alone clearly exposes as false the claim of the papacy of being “one unbroken line of apostolic succession from Peter, the first Pope.”
Study for the Month of February 2015
The Image of the Beast-Part VI
By Nathaniel Fajardo
Whole Gospel Ministries
email: [email protected]
References on the Image of or to the Beast-Part II
This is a continuation from last month’s study, focusing on who, what, where, when, and how the Image of the Beast is formed. Image is the Greek eikon, meaning “a likeness,” “an image.” In 2 Cor. 4: 4 and Col. 1: 15 Christ is spoken of as the eikon of God. An eikon implies an archetype and in many respects is like its archetype. An image to the first beast would be an organization functioning on much the same principles as that beast’s organization. Among the principles by which the first beast operated was the use of the secular arm to support religious institutions. In imitation the second beast will repudiate its principles of freedom. The church will prevail upon the state to enforce its dogmas. State and church will unite, and the result will be the loss of religious liberty and persecution of dissenting minorities. Compare on Revelation 13: 12; see Great Controversy 443-448.” – Footnote on Revelation 13: 14, An Exhaustive E. G. White Commentary on Revelation, Vol. 2, p. 872.
“And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth…That they should make an image to the beast. Rev. 13: 14.
“Here is clearly presented a form of government in which the legislative power rests with the people, a striking evidence that the United States is the nation denoted in the prophecy.
“What then is the change of the Sabbath, but the sign, or mark, of the authority of the Roman [not Christian] Church—‘the mark of the beast.’
“The Roman Church has not relinquished her claim to supremacy; and when the world and the Protestant churches accept a sabbath of her creating, while they reject the Bible Sabbath, they virtually admit this assumption. They may claim the authority of tradition and the Fathers for the change; but in so doing they ignore the very principle which separates them from Rome—that ‘the Bible, and the Bible only, is the religion of the Protestants.’ The papist can see that they are deceiving themselves, willingly closing their eyes to the facts of the case.
As the movement for Sunday observance gains favor, he [the papist] rejoices, feeling assured that it will eventually will bring the whole Protestant world under the banner of Rome.