FRIDAY MORNING MANNA March 23, 2018
Nathaniel Fajardo email:[email protected]
Biblical Numerology: NUMBER SEVEN – Part 40
Nothing ‘Little’ in the Prophesied Role of the ‘Little Horn’
QUOTE FOR THE WEEK
“The papacy is just what prophecy declared that she would be, the apostasy of the latter times. 2 Thessalonians 2: 3, 4.” Ellen G. White, Great Controversy p. 571, 1911 ed.
Uriah Smith, in his non-friction classic, Daniel and the Revelation, which some consider a most definitive treatise on these two major prophetic books of the Bible, says:
“Little Horn to ‘Speak Great Words Against the Most High.’ – This prophecy, too, has been unhappily fulfilled in the history of the pontiffs. They have sought, or at least permitted to be applied to them, titles which would be hyperbolical and blasphemous if applied to anangel of God!
Lucius Ferraris, in his Prompta Biblioteca which the Catholic Encyclopedia refers to as a ‘veritable encyclopedia of religious knowledge’ and a ‘precious mine of information,’ declares, in its article on the pope, that ‘the is of so great dignity and so exalted that he is not a mere man, but as it were God, and the vicar of God . . . The pope is of such lofty and supreme dignity that, properly speaking, he has not been established in any rank of dignity, but rather has been placed upon the very summit of all ranks of dignities. . . . The pope is called most holy because he is rightly presumed to be such . . . .
‘The pope is deservedly called by the name ‘most holy,’ because he alone is the vicar of Christ, who is the fountain and source and fullness of all holiness. . . . ‘He is likewise the divine monarch and supreme emperor, and king of kings.’ . . . . Hence the pope is crowned with a triple crown, as king of heaven and of earth and the lower regions. Moreover the superiority and the power of the Roman Pontiff by no means pertain only to heavenly things, to earthly things, and to things under the earth, but are even over angels, than who he is greater. . . . So that if it were possible that the angels might err in the faith, or might think contrary to the faith, they could be judged and excommunicated by the pope [Whaaat?] . . . For he is of so great dignity and power that he forms one and the same tribunal with Christ [There are only three divine Persons of the Godhead’— the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.’ So is the pope the “fourth?” Where in the whole Bible is this taught? Absolutely nowhere and never, ever!]
“The pope is as it were God on earth, sole sovereign of the faithful of Christ, chief king of kings, having plenitude of power, to whom it has been entrusted by the omnipotent God direction not only of the earthly but also of the heavenly kingdom [when? where? how?] . . . . The pope is of so great authority that he can modify, explain, or interpret even divine laws.’ (Translated from Lucius Ferraris, Prompta Bibliotheca, art. ‘Papa,’ II, Vol. VI, pp. 26-29/FF 129.
“Christopher Marcellus, at the fourth session of the fifth Lateran Council in an oration to the Pope, exclaimed: ‘Thou art the shepherd, thou art the physician, thou art the director, thou art the husbandman; finally, thou art another God on earth.’ – P. Joannis Harduin, Acta Conciliorum, Vol. IX, p. 1651/ FF 129. NOTE: The very first commandment of the Decalogue inly says: “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” Exo. 20: 3.
“Again, Adam Clarke says on verse 25: ‘He shall speak as if he were God.’ So St. Jerome quotes from Symmachus. To none can this apply so well or so fully as to the popes of Rome. They have assumed infallibility, which belongs only to God. They profess to forgive sins, which belongs only to God. They profess to open and shut heaven, which belongs only to God. They profess to be higher than all the kings of the earth, which belongs only to God, And they go beyond God in pretending to loose whole nations from their oath of allegiance to their kings, when such kings do not please them. And they go against God when they give indulgence to sin. This is the worst of all blasphemies.’ – Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Old Testament, Vol. IV, p. 596, note on Daniel 7: 25/FF 129, 130.
“Little Horn to ‘Wear Out the Saints of the Most High.’ – it requires but little historical investigation to prove that Rome, both in the times of antiquity and during the Dark Ages [1,260 years, 538-1798 A.D.], carried forward a work of destruction against the church of God. Abundant evidences can be given showing that prior to and following the great work of the Reformation, wars, crusades, massacres, inquisitions, and persecutions of all kinds were the methods adopted to compel all to submit to the Roman yoke.
“The story of medieval persecution is a frightful one, and we dread to dwell upon its detail. Yet for a proper understanding of this passage it necessary that we recall some of the happenings of these times. Albert Barnes, in his comment on this passage, remarks:
‘Can anyone doubt that this is true of the papacy? The Inquisition, the ‘persecution of the Waldenses;’ the ravages of the Duke of Alva; the fires of Smithfield; the tortures of Goa—indeed, the whole history of the papacy may be appealed to in proof that this is applicable to that power. If anything could have ‘worn out the saints of the Most High,’ could have cut them off from the earth so that evangelical religion would have become extinct, it would have been the persecutions of the papal power. In the year 1208, a crusade was proclaimed by Pope Innocent III against the Waldenses and Albigenses, in which a million men perished. From the beginning of the order of the Jesuits, in the year 1540, to 1580, nine hundred thousand were destroyed.[Francis is the first Jesuit pope in history!]. One hundred and fifty thousand perished by the Inquisition in thirty years. NOTE: the Office of the Inquisition has never been disbanded, only renamed. See on the internet.] In the Low Countries [Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg] fifty thousand persons were hanged, beheaded, burned, and buried alive, for the crime of heresy, within the space of thirty-eight years from the edict of Charles V against the Protestants, to the Peace of Chateau Cambreses in 1559. Eighteen thousand suffered by the hand of the executioner in the space of five years and a half during the administration of the Duke of Alva. Indeed, the slightest acquaintance with the history of the papacy will convince anyone that what is here said of ‘making war with the saints’ (verse 21), and ‘wearing out the saints of the Most High’ (verse 25), is strictly applicable to that power, and will accurately describe its history.’ – Albert Barnes, Notes on Daniel, p. 328, comment on Daniel 7: 25/FF 130, 131.
“These facts are confirmed by the testimony of W. E. H. Lecky. He declares:
‘That the Church of Rome has shed more innocent blood than any other institution that has ever existed among mankind, will be questioned by no Protestant who has a complete knowledge of history. The memorials, indeed, of many of her persecutions are now so scanty [by design] that it is impossible to form a complete conception of the multitude of her victims, and it is quite certain that no powers of imagination can adequately realize their sufferings . . . . These atrocities were not perpetrated in the brief paroxysm of a reign of terror, or by the hands of obscure sectaries, but were inflicted by a triumphant church, with every circumstance of solemnity and deliberation.’ – William E.H. Lecky, History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism In Europe, Vol. II, pp. 35, 37/ FF 131.
The untold evils of church and state power combined. “It makes no difference that in numerous instances the victims were turned over to the civil authorities. It was the church that made the decision upon the question of heresy, and it then passed the offenders over to the secular court. But in those days the secular power was but the tool in the hands of the church. It was under its control and did its biddings. When the church delivered its prisoners to the executioners to be destroyed, with fiendish mockery it made use of the following formula: ‘And we do leave and deliver thee to the secular arm, and to the power of the secular court so to moderate its sentence as not to touch thy blood, or to put thy life in any danger.’ –Alexius Lepicier, The Stability and Progress of Dogma, p. 195/ FF 133.
“The testimony of Lepicier is to the point in this connection: ‘The civil power can only punish the crime of unbelief in the manner and to the extent that the crime is judicially made known to it by ecclesiastical persons, skilled in the doctrine of the faith. But the church taking cognizance by herself of the crime of unbelief, can by herself decree the sentence of death, yet not execute it; but she hands over the execution of it to the secular arm.’ Ibid, p. 195/Ibid.
The Church Never Persecuted Dissenters? “The false claims of some Catholics that their church has never killed dissenters, have been flatly denied by one of their own standard writers, Cardinal Bellarmine, who was born in Tuscany in 1542, and who, after his death in 1621, came very near being placed in the calendar of saints on account of his great services in behalf of the church. This man, on one occasion, under the spur of controversy, betrayed himself to an admission of the real facts in the case. Luther having said that the church (meaning the true church) never burned heretics, Bellarmine, understanding it of the Roman Catholic Church, made answer: ‘This argument proves not the sentiment, but the ignorance or impudence of Luther; for as almost an infinite number were either burned or otherwise put to death, Luther either did not know it, and was therefore ignorant; or if he knew it, he is convicted of impudence and falsehood—for that heretics were often burned by the church, may be proved by adducing a few from many examples.’ – John Dowling, The History of Romanism, p. 547/ FF 133, 134.
“Alfred Baudrillart, rector of the Catholic Institute of paris, when referring to the attitude of the church toward heresy, remarks:
‘When confronted by heresy, she does not content herself with persuasion; arguments of an intellectual and moral order appear to her insufficient, and she has recourse to force, to corporal punishment, to torture. She creates tribunals like those of the Inquisition, she calls the laws of state to her aid, if necessary she encourages a crusade, or a religious war [Roman Catholic jihad!], and all her ‘horror of blood’ practically culminates into urging the secular power to shed it, which proceeding is almost more odious—for it is less frank—than shedding it herself.
“Especially did she act thus in the sixteenth century with regard to Protestants. Not content to reform morally, to teach by example, to convert people by eloquent and holy missionaries, she lit in Italy, in the Low Countries, and above all in Spain, the funeral piles of the Inquisition. In France under Francis I and Henry II, in England under Mary Tudor, she tortured the heretics, while both in France and Germany, during the second half of the sixteenth, and the first half of the seventeenth centuries, if she did not actually begin, at any rate she encouraged and actively aided the religious wars.’ – Alfred Baudillart, The Catholic Church, the Renaissance, and Protestantism, pp. 182, 183/ FF 134.
“In a letter of Pope Martin V (A.D. 1417-1431), are the following instructions to the king of Poland:
‘Know that the interest of the Holy See, and those of your crown, make it a duty to exterminate the Hussites. Remember that these impious persons dare proclaim principles of equality; they maintain that all Christians are brethren, and that God has not given to privileged men the right of ruling the nations; they hold that Christ came on earth to abolish slavery; they call the people to liberty, that is, to the annihilation of kings and priests! Whilst there is still time, then, turn your forces against Bohemia, burn, massacre, make desert5s everywhere, for nothing can be more agreeable to God, or more useful to the cause of kings, than the extermination of the Hussites.’- L.M. de Cormenin, The Public and Private History of the Popes of Rome, Vol. II`, pp. 116, 117/ FF 134, 135. (To be continued next week)