FACTS OF FAITH By Christian Edwardson
Chapter 6
Other Marks of Identity
"HE
SHALL SPEAK GREAT WORDS"
(61) The little horn was to "speak great
words against the Most High." Daniel 7:25. We shall 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 this encyclical the pope has capitalized all pronouns referring to himself
and to God.
In a large, authentic work by F. Luccii 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 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 could be judged and
excommunicated by the Pope....
"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
has been entrusted by the omnipotent God direction not only of the earthly but
also of the heavenly kingdom." - Quoted in "Source
Book," (Revised Edition) pp. 409, 410. Washington, D.C.: 1927.
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.
(62) 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 of will to the Church and to
the Roman Pontiff, as to God Himself." - "The
Great Encyclical Letters," p. 193.
We leave it with the reader to decide whether or not these
are "great words." St. Alphonsus de Liguori, a sainted doctor of the
Roman church, claims the same power for the Roman priests. He says:
"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 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 upon earth." - "Dignity and
Duties of the Priest," pp. 27, 28. New York: Benziger Brothers.,
Printers to the Holy Apostolic See, 1888.
"Innocent III has written: 'Indeed, it is not too much
to say that in view of the sublimity of their offices the priest are so many
gods.'" - Id., p. 36.
These must truly be called
"great words"!
A
PERSECUTING POWER
The little horn was also to "wear out the saints of the
Most High." Daniel 7:25. That is, it was to persecute them till they were
literally worn out. Has the Papacy fulfilled this part of the prophecy? In
order to do Roman Catholics no injustice, we shall quote from unquestioned
authorities among them. And, since they persecute people for
"heresy," we must first let them define what they mean by
"heresy." In the New Catholic
Dictionary, published by the Universal Knowledge Foundation, a Roman
Catholic institution, New York, 1929, we read:
"Heresy (Gr., hairesis, choice),
deciding for oneself what one shall believe and practise." -
"Heresy," p. 440.
(63) According to this
definition any one who will not blindly submit to papal authority, but will
read the Bible, deciding for himself what he shall believe, is a
"heretic." What official stand has the Catholic Church taken in
regard to such heretics? This we find stated in the Catholic Encyclopedia in
the following words;
"In the Bull 'Ad exstirpanda' (1252) Innocent IV says:
'When those adjudged guilty of heresy have been given up to the civil power by
the bishop or his representative, or the Inquisition, the podesta or chief magistrate of the city shall
take them at once, and shall, within five days at the most, execute the laws
made against them.'...Nor could any doubt remain as to what civil regulations
were meant, for the passages which ordered the burning of impenitent heretics
were inserted in the papal decretals from the imperial constitutions 'Commissis
nobis' and 'Inconsutibilem tunicam.' The aforesaid Bull 'Ad exstirpanda'
remained thenceforth a fundamental document of the Inquisition, renewed or
reinforced by several popes, Alexander IV (1254-61), Clement IV (1265-68),
Nicolas IV (1288-92), Boniface VIII (1294-1303), and others. The civil
authorities, therefore, were enjoined by the popes, under pain of
excommunication to execute the legal sentences that condemned impenitent
heretics to the stake. It is to be noted that excommunication itself was no
trifle, for, if the person excommunicated did not free himself from
excommunication within a year, he was held by the legislation of that period to
be a heretic, and incurred all the penalties that affected heresy." - Vol.
VIII, p. 34. (See also "Dictionary
of the Inquisition," in "Illustrations
of Popery," J. P. Challender, pp. 377-386, New York, 1838; and
"History of the Inquisition of the Middle
Ages." H. C. Lea, Vol. I, pp. 337, 338, New York. 1888.)
This Encyclopedia was printed in 1910, and bears the sanction
of the Catholic authorities, and of their "censor," so that here is
up-to-date authority showing that the Roman church sanctions persecution. The
Roman church here acknowledges, that, when she was in power, she forced the
civil government to burn those whom she termed heretics, and the government
officials who failed to execute her laws, became heretics by that neglect, and
suffered the punishment of heretics. Professor Alfred Baudrillart, a Roman
Catholic scholar in France, who is now a Catholic Cardinal, says:
(64) "The Catholic Church is a respecter of conscience
and of liberty....She has, and she loudly
proclaims that she has, a 'horror of blood.' Nevertheless 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 the State to her aid, if
necessary she encourages a crusade, or a religious war 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 preach by example, to convert
people by eloquent and holy missionaries, she lit in Italy, in the Low
Countries, and above all in Spain the funerals piles of the Inquisition. In
France under Francis I and Henry II, in England under Mary Tudor, she tortured
the heretics, whilst both in France and Germany during the second half of the
sixteenth and the first half of the seventeenth century if she did not actually
begin, at any rate she encouraged and actively aided, the religious wars. No
one will deny that we have here a great scandal to our contemporaries....
"Indeed, even among our friends and our brothers we find
those who dare not look this problem in the face. They ask permission from the
Church to ignore or even deny all those acts and institutions in the past which
have made orthodoxy compulsory." (This explains why some Catholic authors
deny that their church ever persecuted.) - "The
Catholic Church, the Renaissance, and Protestantism," pp. 182-184.
London: 1908. This book bears the sanction of the Roman Catholic authorities,
and of their "censor."
Andrew Steinmetz says:
"Catholics easily account for their devotion to the Holy
See, in spite of its historical abominations, which, however, very few of them
are aware of - their accredited histories in common use, 'with permission of
authority,' veiling the subject with painful dexterity." - "History of the Jesuits," Vol. I, p.
13. London: 1848.
(65) Dr. C. H. Lea
says:
"In view of the unvarying policy of the Church during
the three centuries under consideration, and for a century and a half later,
there is a typical instance of the manner in which history is written to order,
in the quiet assertion of the latest Catholic historian of the Inquisition that
'the Church took no part in the corporal punishment of heretics.'" - "History of the Inquisition of the Middle
Ages," Vol. I, p. 540. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1888.
Pope Gregory IX (1227-1241) made the following decree for the
destruction of all heretics, which is binding on civil rulers:
"Temporal princes shall be reminded and exhorted, and if
needs be, compelled by spiritual censures, to discharge every one of their
functions: and that, as they desire to be reckoned and held faithful, so, for
the defence of the faith, let them publicly make oath that they will endeavor, bona fide with all their might, to extirpate
from their territories all heretics marked by the Church; so that when anyone
is about to assume any authority, whether spiritual or temporal, he shall be
held bound to confirm his title by this oath. And if a temporal prince, being
required and admonished by the Church, shall neglect to purge his kingdom from
this heretical pravity, the metropolitan and other provincial bishops shall
bind him in fetters of excommunication; and if he obstinately refuse to make
satisfaction this shall be notified within a year to the Supreme Pontiff, that
then he may declare his subjects absolved from their allegiance, and leave
their lands to be occupied by Catholics, who, the heretics being exterminated,
may possess them unchallenged, and preserve them in the purity of the
faith." - "Decretalium Gregorii Papae
Noni Compilatio," Liber V, Titulus VII, Capitulum XIII, (A
Collection of the Decretals of Gregory IX, Book 5, Title 7, Chapter 13), dated
April 20, 1619.
(66) The sainted
Catholic doctor, Thomas Aquinas, says:
"If counterfeiters of money or other criminals are
justly delivered over to death forthwith by the secular authorities, much more
can heretics, after they are convicted of heresy, be not only forthwith
excommunicated, but as surely put to death." - "Summa Theologica," 2a, 2ae, qu. xi, art. iii.
That this principle is sanctioned by modern Catholic priests,
we can see from the following statement:
"The church has persecuted. Only a tyro in church
history will deny that....Protestants were persecuted in France and Spain with
the full approval of the church authorities. We have always defended the
persecution of the Huguenots, and the Spanish Inquisition." - "Western Watchman," official organ
of Father Phelan. St. Louis, Mo." Dec. 24, 1908.
We have now seen from the "decretals" of popes,
from sainted doctors of the Roman church, and from authentic Catholic books,
that they sanction and defend persecution, and history amply bears out the
fact. Dr. J. Dowling says:
"From the birth of Popery in 606, to the present time,
it is estimated by careful and credible historians, that more than fifty millions of the human family, have been
slaughtered for the crime of heresy by popish persecutors, an average of more
than forty thousand religious murders for
every year of the existence of Popery." - "History
of Romanism," pp. 541, 542. New York: 1871.
W. E. H. Lecky says:
"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 competent knowledge of history. The
memorials, indeed, of many of her persecutions are now so scanty, that it is
impossible to form a complete conception of the multitude of her victims, and
it is quite certain that no power of imagination can adequately realize their
sufferings." - "History of the Rise
and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe," Vol. II, p.
32. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1910.
(67) John Lothrop
Motley, speaking of papal persecution in the Netherlands says:
"Upon February 16, 1568, a sentence of the Holy Office
[the Inquisition] condemned all the inhabitants
of the Netherlands to death as
heretics....A proclamation of the king, ten days later, confirmed this decree
of the Inquisition, and ordered it to be carried into instant execution....This
is probably the most concise death warrant that was ever framed. Three millions
of people, men, women, and children, were sentenced to the scaffold in three
lines." - "The Rise of the Dutch
Republic," (2-vol. Ed.) Vol. I, p. 626. New York.
Many Roman Catholic authors today have tried to prove that
their church does not sanction persecution, but facts of history are too plain
to be denied. Eternity alone will reveal what God's dear children suffered
during the Dark Ages. Accordingly as the Papacy attained to power, the common
people became more oppressed, until "the noon of the Papacy was the
midnight of the world." - "History of
Protestantism," J. A. Wylie, LL.D., Vol. I, p. 16. London.
"THINK
TO CHANGE TIMES AND LAWS"
But Daniel 7:25 has still another prediction concerning the
"little horn"; namely, that it should "think to change times and
laws," or as the Revised Version has it: "times and the law."
James Moffatt's translation reads: "He shall plan to alter the sacred
seasons and the law." Now, as the two preceding statements in this verse
depict what the Papacy should do against the Most High, we must conclude that
it is also the "times and the law" of the Most High which the Papacy
should attempt to change. This could not
refer to the ceremonial laws of the Jews, which were abolished at the cross
(Ephesians 2:15; Hebrews 9:9, 10), but to the Ten Commandments, which are
binding in the Christian era, to which dispensation this prophecy applies.
(Matthew 5:17-19; 19:16-19; Luke 16:17; Romans 3:31; 7:7, 12, 14; James 2:10,
11.) From the prophecy of Daniel 7:25 it is therefore evident that the Papacy
would attempt to make some changes in the moral law.
(((PLEASE
TAKE TIME TO READ THESE VERSES- Copied here for those who may not have access
to God's Holy Word for some reason, but have stumbled across this study--
Eph 2:13 But
now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of
Christ.
Eph 2:14 For
he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall
of partition between us;
Eph 2:15
Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making
peace;
Heb 9:9 Which
was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and
sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining
to the conscience;
Heb 9:10 Which
stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances,
imposed on them until the time of reformation.
Mat 5:17 Think
not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to
destroy, but to fulfil.
Mat 5:18 For
verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall
in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
Mat 5:19
Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall
teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but
whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the
kingdom of heaven.
Mat 19:16 And,
behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do,
that I may have eternal life?
Mat 19:17 And
he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that
is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
Mat 19:18 He
saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not
commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,
Mat 19:19
Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself.
Luk 16:17 And
it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to
fail.
Rom 3:31 Do we
then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
Rom 7:7 What
shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by
the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not
covet.
Rom 7:12
Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
Rom 7:14 For
we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
Jas 2:10 For
whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty
of all.
Jas 2:11 For
he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou
commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the
law.
Dan 7:25 And
he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints
of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given
into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. ))))
(68) After the worship
of images had crept into the church during the fourth to the sixth centuries,
its leaders finally removed the second commandment from their doctrinal books,
because it forbids us to bow down to images
(Exodus 20:4, 5),
(((Exo 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any
likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath,
or that is in the water under the earth:
Exo 20:5 Thou
shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a
jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the
third and fourth generation of them that hate me))))
and they
divided the tenth, so as to retain ten
in number. Thus the Catholic Church has two commandments against coveting,
while Paul six times speaks of it as only one "commandment."
(Romans 7:7-13.)
(((Rom 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin?
God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust,
except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
Rom 7:8 But
sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of
concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
Rom 7:9 For I
was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and
I died.
Rom 7:10 And
the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
Rom 7:11 For
sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
Rom 7:12
Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
Rom 7:13 Was
then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might
appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the
commandment might become exceeding sinful. ))))
Then, too, the Lord has purposely reversed the
order of the supposed ninth and tenth commandments in Deuteronomy 5:21 to what
they are in Exodus 20:17, have it as part of their tenth commandment, and their
ninth command is: "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house." Thus
we see how people get themselves into trouble when they attempt to change the
law of God.
The Papacy was also to change times. But the only commandment
of the ten that has to do with time is
the fourth, which commands us to keep holy the seventh day, on which God rested
at creation. (Exodus 20:10, 11; Genesis 2:1-3.)
(((Exo 20:10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of
the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy
daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger
that is within thy gates:
Exo 20:11 For
in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is,
and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and
hallowed it.
Gen 2:1 Thus
the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
Gen 2:2 And on
the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the
seventh day from all his work which he had made.
Gen 2:3 And
God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had
rested from all his work which God created and made. ))))
It is a
remarkable fact that Christ, His apostles, and their followers kept the seventh
day in common with the Jews (Mark 6:2, 3; Luke 4:16, 31; 23:52-56; Acts 13:42,
44; 16:12, 13; 17:2; 18:1-4),
Mar 6:2 And
when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many
hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things?
and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works
are wrought by his hands?
Mar 6:3 Is not
this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of
Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended
at him.
Luk 4:16 And
he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he
went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
Luk 4:31 And
came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath
days.
Luk 23:52 This
man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus.
Luk 23:53 And
he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was
hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid.
Luk 23:54 And
that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.
Luk 23:55 And
the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld
the sepulchre, and how his body was laid.
Luk 23:56 And
they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day
according to the commandment.
Act 13:42 And
when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these
words might be preached to them the next sabbath.
Act 13:44 And
the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of
God.
Act 16:12 And
from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and
a colony: and we were in that city abiding certain days.
Act 16:13 And
on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont
to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted
thither.
Act 17:2 And
Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned
with them out of the scriptures
Act 18:1 After
these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth;
Act 18:2 And
found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with
his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart
from Rome:) and came unto them.
Act 18:3 And
because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their
occupation they were tentmakers.
Act 18:4 And
he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the
Greeks. ))))
and that
the New Testament is entirely silent in regard to any change of the Sabbath
from the seventh to the first day of the week. This would be natural enough if
the original Sabbath, which they were then keeping, should continue. But if a
new day was to take place in the Christian church, its Founder would certainly
have given explicit directions for its observance. Yet not a word was spoken by
Christ or His apostles, either before or after His resurrection, as to such a
change.
It is another remarkable fact that Sunday is never called by
any sacred title in the New Testament, but always referred to as a weekday, never as a holy day. It is classed as
one of the weekdays, being called "the first day of the week."
(69) And yet we find the Christian world generally keeping
it. Who made this change, when it is not recorded in the Bible? When, how, and
why was it made? Who dared to lay hands on Jehovah's law, and change His Holy
Sabbath, without any warrant of Scripture?
All Protestant denominations disclaim any part in this crime.
But the Roman Catholic Church boasts of having made this change, and even
points to it as an evidence of its authority to act in Christ's stead upon
earth. We shall therefore ask her two pointed questions: 1. When did you change
the Sabbath? 2. Why did you do it? Here are her answers:
"The first proposition needs little proof. The Catholic
Church for over one thousand years before the existence of a Protestant, by
virtue of her Divine mission changed the day from Saturday to Sunday." - "The Christian Sabbath," p. 29.
Baltimore, Md.: "Catholic Mirror," Sept. 23, 1893.
"Ques. - Which is the Sabbath day? Ans. - Saturday is
the Sabbath day.
"Ques. - Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
"Ans. - We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because
the Catholic Church, in the council of Laodicea (A.D. 336), transferred the
solemnity from Saturday to Sunday....
"The Church substituted Sunday for Saturday by the
plenitude of that divine power which Jesus Christ bestowed upon her." - "The Convert's Catechism of Christian
Doctrine," Rev. Peter Geiermann, C. SS. R., p. 50. St. Louis, Mo.:
1934. (This work received the "apostolic blessing" of Pope Pius X,
Jan. 25, 1910.)
"The Church...took the pagan Sunday and made it the
Christian Sunday....And thus the pagan Sunday, dedicated to Balder, became the
Christian Sunday, sacred to Jesus." - "Catholic
World," (New York), March, 1894, p. 809.
We shall enter into this subject more thoroughly in the
following chapters.
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