FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
MEANS THE PAPACY USE TO DESTROY ARIAN ENEMIES
Neither deceit nor force are pathways to true freedom and liberty.
“Religion and government will both exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together.” – ‘Writings of James Madison,’ Vol. III. p. 373.
Christian Edwardson wrote: “In order to give the reader a better understanding of the MEANS used by the Papacy these three Arian kingdoms, we shall quote from Thomas Hodgkin a few brief statements. He states that THEODORIC, the Ostrogothic king, ‘endeavored to have ‘a close league of mutual defense formed between the four great Arian and Teutonic monarchies, the Visigothic, the Burgundian, the Ostrogothic, and the Vandal.’ But ‘diplomatists were wanting [who could act] as their skillful and eloquent representatives, traveling like Epiphanius from court to court, and bringing the Barbarian sovereigns to understand each other, to sink their petty grievances, and to work together harmoniously for one common end.
Precisely these men [the skillful diplomats] were the CATHOLIC PRELATES of the Mediterranean lands to whom it was all-important that NO such Arian league should be formed….All over the Roman world there was a serried array of Catholic bishops and presbyters, taking their orders FROM A SINGLE CENTER, ROME, feeling the interest of each one to be the interest of all. In lively and constant intercourse with one another, quick to discover, quick to disclose the SLIGHTEST WEAK place in the organization of the new heretical kingdoms [of Arians]. Of all this there was NOT A SLIGHTEST TRACE on the other side [the Arians]. The Arian bishops…..stood APART from one another in STUPID AND IGNORANT ISOLATION.’- ‘Italy and Her Invaders,’ Thomas Hodgkin, (8-vol. ed.) Vol. III, Book 4, pp, 381-383. Oxford. 1889.
“The SAME principle was clearly stated by the Catholic Bishop Avitus, when the Arian king Gundomad appealed to him not to allow the Catholic king CLOVIS [of the Franks] to overrun his country. Avitus answered: ‘If Gundobad would reconcile himself to the [Catholic] Church, the Church would guarantee his safety from the attacks of Clovis.’- Ibid, p 384.”- Facts of Faith, pp. 45, 46.
Take note of Clovis, king of the Franks [later called France]. The year he converted to Catholicism marks the starting date of a specific time prophecy in Daniel that has already been fulfilled within the longest time prophecy of the 2300 days of Daniel 8:14.
Even as Friday is preparation day for each weekly Sabbath so is this short stretch of probation our preparation time for “the day of God”—-the day of final reckoning and visitation! Have a sanctifying Sabbath! NMF