THE LITTLE HORN ‘WEARS OUT THE SAINTS OF THE MOST HIGH’ – Part 3

FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:

THE LITTLE HORN ‘WEARS OUT THE SAINTS OF THE MOST HIGH’ – Part 3

The last and final counterpart of “the saints of the Most High” in Dan. 7:25 are the “saints who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” and “have the testimony of Jesus which is the Spirit of prophecy” (Rev. 14:12; 19:10). And “the dragon was wroth with the woman (the church) and went to make war with the remnant of her seed who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus”(Rev. 12: 9, 17). These are they who steadfastly refuse “to worship the beast and his image or to receive his mark, name, or number in their foreheads or in their right hands” (Rev. 13: 11-18; 15:2; 21: 7, 14).

Let’s return to church and world history: “Albert Barnes, in his comment on this passage [the ‘wearing out of the saints,’ Dan. 8:19], remarks:

‘Can anyone doubt that this is true of the Papacy? The Inquisition, the ‘persecutions of the Waldenses,‘ the ravages of the Duke of Alva; the fires of Smithfield; the tortures of Goa [in India]—-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 the evangelical religion would have become extinct, it would have been the PERSECUTION of the Papal powers.

“In the year 1208, a CRUSADE was proclaimed by Pope Innocent III against the Waldenses and Albigenses, in which a million of men perished. From the beginning of the Order of JESUITS, in the year 1540, nine hundred thousand were destroyed. One hundred and fifty thousand perished in the INQUISITION in thirty years. In the Low Countries [Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg] fifty thousand persons were hanged, beheaded, burned, and buried alive for the crime of 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 any one that what is here said of ‘making war with the saints’(verse 21, and ‘wearing out of 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 Dan. 7:25.’ “- Uriah Smith, ‘Daniel and the Revelation,’ pp. 130, 131.

Do we have the faith of the saints and the courage of the martyrs for Jesus? God bless as you ponder upon that, NMF.