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As the Protestant,
churches have been seeking the favor of the
world; false charity has blinded their eyes. They
do not see but that it is right to believe good
of all evil, and as the inevitable result they
will finally believe evil of all good. Instead of
standing in defense of the faith once delivered
to the saints, they are now, as it were,
apologizing to Rome for their uncharitable
opinion of her, begging pardon for their bigotry.
A large class, even of
those who look upon Romanism with no favor,
apprehend little danger from her power and
influence. Many urge that the intellectual and
moral darkness prevailing during the Middle Ages
favored the intelligence of modern times, the
general diffusion of knowledge, and the
increasing liberality in matters of religion
forbid a revival of intolerance and tyranny. The
very thought that such a state of things will
exist in this enlightened age is ridiculed. It is
true that great light, intellectual, moral, and
religious, is shining upon this generation. In
the open pages of God’s Holy Word, light
from heaven has been shed upon the world.
However, it should be remembered that the greater
the light bestowed, the greater the darkness of
those who pervert and reject it.
A prayerful study of the
Bible would show Protestants the real character
of the papacy and would cause them to abhor and
to shun it; but many are so wise in their own
conceit that they feel no need of humbly seeking
God that they may be led into the truth. Although
priding themselves on their enlightenment, they
are both ignorant both of the Scriptures and of
the power of God. They must have some means of
quieting their consciences, and they seek that
which is least spiritual and humiliating. What
they desire is a method of forgetting God that
shall pass as a method of remembering Him. The
papacy is well adapted to meet the wants of all
these. It is prepared for two classes of mankind,
embracing nearly the whole world – those who
would be saved by their merits, and those who
would be saved in their sins. Here is the secret
of its power.
A day of intellectual
darkness has been shown to be favorable to the
success of the papacy. It will yet be
demonstrated that a day of great intellectual
light is equally favorable for its success. In
past ages, when men were without God’s word
and without the knowledge of the truth, their
eyes were blindfolded, and thousands were
ensnared, not seeing the net spread for their
feet. In this generation there are many whose
eyes become dazzled by the glare of human
speculations, “science falsely so
called;” they discern not the net, and walk
into it readily as if blindfolded. God designed
that man’s intellectual powers should be
held as a gift from his Maker and should be
employed in the service of truth and
righteousness; but when pride and ambition are
cherished, and men exalt their own theories above
the word of God, then intelligence can accomplish
greater harm than ignorance. Thus the false
science of the present day, which undermines
faith in the Bible, will prove as successful in
preparing the way for the acceptance of the
papacy, with its pleasing forms, as did the
withholding of knowledge in opening the way for
its aggrandizement in the Dark Ages.
In the movements now in
progress in the United States to secure for the
institutions and usages of the church for the
support of the state, Protestants are following
in the steps of papists. Nay, more, they are
opening the door for the papacy to regain in
Protestant America the supremacy that she has
lost in the Old World. In addition, that which
gives greater significance to this movement is
the fact that the principle object contemplated
is the enforcement of Sunday observance
– a custom which originated with Rome, and
which she claims as the sign of her authority. It
is the spirit of the papacy – the spirit of
conformity to worldly customs, the generation for
human traditions above the commandments of God
– that is permeating the Protestant churches
and leading them on to do the same work of Sunday
exaltation which the papacy has done before
them.
If the reader would
understand the agencies to be employed in the
soon coming contest, he has but to trace the
record of the means that Rome employed for the
same object in ages past. If he would know how
papists and Protestants united would deal with
those who reject their dogmas, let him see the
spirit that Rome manifested toward the Sabbath
and its defenders.
Royal edicts, general
councils, and church ordinances sustained by
secular power were the steps by which the pagan
festival attained its position of honor in the
Christian world. The first public measure
enforcing Sunday observance was the law enacted
by Emperor Constantine in A.D. 321. This edict
required townspeople to rest on “the
venerable day of the sun,” but permitted
countrymen to continue their agricultural
pursuits. Though virtually a heathen statute, it
was enforced by the emperor after its nominal
acceptance of Christianity.
The royal mandate not
proving a sufficient substitute for divine
authority, Eusebius, a bishop who sought the
favor of princes, and who was the special friend
and flatterer of Constantine, advanced the claim
that Christ had transferred the Sabbath to
Sunday. Not a single testimony of the Scriptures
was produced in proof of the new doctrine.
Eusebius himself unwittingly acknowledges its
falsity and points to the real authors of the
change. “All things,” he says,
“whatever that is was the duty to do on the
Sabbath, these we have transferred to the
Lord’s Day.” – Robert Cox, Sabbath
Laws and Sabbath Duties, page 538. However,
the Sunday argument, groundless as it was, served
to embolden men in trampling upon the Sabbath of
the Lord. All who desired to be honored by the
world accepted the popular festival.
As the papacy became
firmly established, the work of Sunday exaltation
was continued. For a time the people engaged in
agricultural labor when not attending church, and
the seventh day was still regarded as the
Sabbath. However, steadily a change was effected.
Those in holy office were forbidden to pass
judgment in any civil controversy on the Sunday.
Soon after, all persons, of whatever rank, were
commanded to refrain from common labor on the
pain of a fine for freemen and stripes in the
case of servants. Later, it was decreed that rich
men should be punished with loss of half of their
estates; and finally, that if they still
obstinate they should be made slaves. The lower
classes were to suffer perpetual banishment.
Miracles also were called
into requisition. Among other wonders, it was
reported that as a husbandman who was about to
plow his field on Sunday cleaned his plow with an
iron, the iron stuck fast in his hand, and for
two years he carried it about with him, “to
his exceeding great pain and shame.”-Francis
West, Historical and Practical Discourse on
the Lord’s Day, page 174.
Later the pope gave
directions that the perish priest should abolish
the violators of Sunday and wish them to go to
church and say their prayers, lest they brought
some great calamity on themselves and neighbors.
An ecclesiastical council brought forward the
argument, since so widely employed, even by
Protestants, that because persons had been struck
by lightening while laboring on Sunday, it must
be the Sabbath. “It was apparent,” said
the prelates, “how high the displeasure of
God was upon their neglect of this day.” An
appeal was then made that priests and ministers,
kings and princes, and all faithful people
“use their utmost endeavors and care that
the day be restored to its honor, and, for the
credit of Christianity, more devoutly observed
for the time to come.” -Thomas Morer, Discourse
in Six Dialogues on the Name, Nation, and
Observation of the Lord’s Day, page 271.
The decrees of councils
proving insufficient, the secular authorities
were besought to issue an edict that would strike
terror to the hearts of the people and force them
to refrain from labor on the Sunday. At a synod
held in Rome, all previous decisions were
reaffirmed with greater force and solemnity. They
were also incorporated into the ecclesiastical
law and enforced by the civil authorities
throughout nearly all Christendom. (See Heylyn,
History of the Sabbath, pt. 2, ch. 5, sec 7.)
Still the absence of
Scriptural authority for Sunday keeping
occasioned no little embarrassment. The people
questioned the right of their teachers to set
aside the positive declaration of Jehovah,
“The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord
thy God,” in order to honor the day the day
of the sun. To supple the lack of Bible
testimony, other expedients were necessary. A
zealous advocate of Sunday, who about the close
of the twelve century visited the churches of
England, was resisted by faithful witnesses for
the truth; and so fruitless were his efforts that
he departed from the country for a season and
cast about him for some means to enforce his
teachings. When he returned, the lack was
supplied, and in his after labors, he met with
great success. He brought with him a roll
purporting to be from God Himself, which
contained the needed command for Sunday
observance, with awful threats to terrify the
disobedient. This precious document – as
base a counterfeit as the institution it
supported – was laid to have fallen from
heaven and to have been found in Jerusalem, upon
the altar of St. Simeon, in Golgotha. However, in
fact, the pontifical palace at Rome was the
source whence it proceeded. Frauds and forgeries
to advance the power and prosperity of the church
have in all ages been esteemed lawful by the
papal hierarchy.
The roll forbade labor
from the ninth hour, three o’clock, on
Saturday afternoon, until sunrise on Monday; and
its authority was declared to be confirmed by
many miracles. It was reported that persons
laboring beyond the appointed hour were stricken
with paralysis. A miller, who attempted to grind
his corn, saw, instead of flour, a torrent of
blood come forth, and the mill wheel stood still,
notwithstanding the strong rush of water. A woman
who placed dough in the oven found it raw when
taken out, though the oven was very hot. Another
who had dough prepared for baking at the ninth
hour, but determined to set it aside till Monday,
found, the next day, that it had been made into
loaves and baked by divine power. A man who baked
bread after the ninth hour on Saturday found,
when he broke it the next morning that blood
started there from. By such absurd and
superstitious fabrications did not advocates of
Sunday endeavor to establish its sacredness. (See
Roger de Hoveden, Annals, vol 2, pp.
528-530.)
In Scotland, as in
England, a greater regard for Sunday was secured
by uniting it with a portion of the ancient
Sabbath. However, the time required to be kept
holy varied. An edict from the king of Scotland
declared that “Saturday from twelve at noon
ought to be accounted holy,” and that no
man, from that until Monday morning, should
engage in worldly business. –Morer, pages
290,291.
However, notwithstanding
all the efforts to establish Sunday sacredness,
papists themselves publicly confessed the divine
authority of the Sabbath and the human origin of
the institution by which it had been supplanted.
In the sixteenth century a papal council plainly
declared: “Let all Christians remember that
the seventh day was consecrated by God, and hath
been received and observed, not only by the Jews,
but by all others who pretend to worship God;
though we Christians have changed their Sabbath
into the Lord’s Day.” –Ibid.,
pages 281, 282. Those who were tampering with the
divine law were not ignorant of the character of
their work. They were deliberately setting
themselves above God.
A striking illustration
of Rome’s policy toward those who disagree
with her was given in the long and bloody
persecution of the Waldenses, some of whom were
observers of the Sabbath. Others suffered in a
similar manner for their fidelity to the fourth
commandment. The history of the churches of
Ethiopia and Abyssinia is especially significant.
Amid the gloom of the Dark Ages, the Christians
of Central Africa were lost sight of and
forgotten by the world, and for many centuries,
they enjoyed freedom in the exercise of their
faith. But at last, Rome learned of their
existence, and the emperor of Abyssinia was soon
beguiled into an acknowledgment of the pope as
the Vicar of Christ. Other concessions
followed. An edict was issued forbidding the
observance of the Sabbath under the severest
penalties. (See Michael Geddes, Church History
of Ethiopia, pages 311, 312.)
However, papal tyranny
soon became a yoke so galling that the
Abyssinians determined to break it from their
necks. After a terrible struggle, the Romanists
were banished from their dominions, and the
ancient faith was restored. The churches rejoiced
in their freedom, and they never forgot the
lesson they had learned concerning the deception,
the fanaticism, and the despotic power of Rome.
Within their solitary realm, they were content to
remain, unknown to the rest of Christendom.
The churches of Africa
held the Sabbath as it was held by the papal
church before her complete apostasy. While they
kept the seventh day in obedience to the
commandment of God, they abstained from the labor
on the Sunday in conformity to the custom of the
church. Upon obtaining supreme power, Rome had
trampled upon the Sabbath of God to exalt her
own; but the churches of Africa, hidden for
nearly a thousand years, did not share in this
apostasy. When brought under the sway of Rome,
they were forced to set aside the true and exalt
the false sabbath; but no sooner had they
regained their independence than they returned to
obedience to the fourth commandment.
These records of the past
clearly reveal the enmity of Rome toward the true
Sabbath and its defenders, and the means that she
employs to honor the institution of her creating.
The Word of God teaches that these scenes are to
be repeated as Roman Catholics and Protestants
unite of the exaltation of Sunday.
The prophecy of
Revelation 13 declares that the power represented
by the beast with lamblike horns cause ”the
earth and them which dwell therein” to
worship the papacy – there symbolized by the
beast “like unto a leopard.” The beast
with two horns is also to say “to them that
dwell on the earth, that they should make an
image to the beast;” and, furthermore, it is
to command all, “both small and great, rich
and poor, free and bond,” to receive the
mark of the beast. Revelation 13: 11-16. It has
been shown that the United States is the power
represented by the beast with lamblike horns, and
that this prophecy will be fulfilled when the
United States shall enforce Sunday observance,
which Rome claims as the special acknowledgement
of her supremacy. However, in this homage to the
papacy the United States will not be alone. The
influence of Rome in the countries that once
acknowledged her dominion is still far from being
destroyed. Moreover, prophecy foretells a
restoration of her power. “I saw one
of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his
deadly wound was healed: all the world wondered
after the beast.” Verse 3. The infliction of
the deadly wound points to the downfall of the
papacy in 1798. After this, says the prophet,
“his deadly wound was healed: and all the
world wondered after the beast.” Paul states
plainly that the “man of sin” will
continue until the Second Advent. 2 Thessalonians
2: 3-8. To the very close of time, he will carry
forward the work of deception. Moreover, the
revelator declares referring to the papacy:
“All that dwell upon the earth shall worship
him, whose names are not written in the book of
life.” Revelation 13:8. In both the Old and
the New World, the papacy will receive homage in
the honor paid to the Sunday institution that
rests solely upon the authority of the Roman
Church.
Since the middle of the
nineteenth century, students of prophecy in the
United States have presented this testimony to
the world. In the events now taking place is seen
a rapid advance toward the fulfillment of the
prediction. With Protestant teachers there is the
same claim of divine authority for Sunday
keeping, and the same lack of Scriptural
evidence, as with the papal leaders who
fabricated miracles to supply the place of a
command from God’s judgments are visited
upon men for their violation of Sunday-sabbath,
will be repeated; already it is beginning to be
urged. Moreover, a movement to enforce Sunday
observance is fast gaining ground.
Marvelous in her
shrewdness and cunning is the Roman Church. She
can read what is to be. She bides her time;
seeing that the Protestant churches are paying
her homage in their acceptance of the false
sabbath and that, they are preparing to enforce
it by the very means that she herself employed in
bygone days. Those who reject the light of truth
will yet seek the aid of this self-styled
infallible power to exalt an institution that
originated with her. How readily she will come to
the help of Protestants in this work it is not
difficult to conjecture. Who understands better
than the papal leaders how to deal with those who
are disobedient to the church?
The Roman Catholic
Church, with al its ramifications throughout the
world, forms one vast organization under its
control, and designed to serve the interests, of
the papal see. Its millions of communicants, in
every country on the globe, are instructed to
hold themselves as bound in allegiance to the
pope. Whatever their nationality or their
government, they are to regard the authority of
the church as above all other. Though they may
take an oath pledging their loyalty to the state,
yet back of this lies the vow of obedience to
Rome, absolving them from every pledge inimical
to her interests.
History testifies of her
artful and persistent efforts to insinuate
herself into the affairs of nations; and having
gained a foothold, to further her own aims, even
at the ruin of princes and people. In the year
1204, Pope Innocent III extracted from Peter II,
king of Arragon, the following extraordinary
oath: “I, Peter, king of Arragonians,
profess and promise to be ever faithful and
obedient to my lord, Pope Innocent, to his
Catholic successors, and the defending the
Catholic faith, and persecuting heretical
pravity.” –John Dowling, The History
of Romanism, b.5, c. 6, sec. 55. This is in
harmony with the claims regarding the power of
the Roman pontiff ‘that it is lawful for him
to depose emperors” and “that he can
absolve subjects from their allegiance to
unrighteous rulers.” –Mosheim, b. 3,
cent. 11, pt. 2, ch. 2, sec. 9, note 17.
In addition, let it be
remembered, it is the boast of Rome that she
never changes. The principles of Gregory VII and
Innocent III are still the principles of the
Roman Catholic Church. Moreover, had she but the
power, she would put them in practice with as
much vigor now as in past centuries. Protestants
know little what they are doing when they propose
to accept the aid of Rome in the work of Sunday
exaltation. While they are bent upon the
accomplishment of their purpose, Rome is aiming
to re-establish her power, to recover her lost
supremacy. Let the principle once be established
in the United States that the church may employ
or control the power of the state; that religious
observances may be enforced by secular laws; in
short, that the authority of the church and state
is to dominate the conscience, and the triumph of
Rome in this country is assured.
God’s
word has given warning of the impending danger;
let this be unheeded, and the Protestant world
will learn what the purposes of Rome really are,
only when it is too late to escape the snare. She
is silently growing into power. Her doctrines are
exerting their influence in legislative halls, in
the churches, and in the hearts of men. She is
piling up her lofty and massive structures in the
secret recesses of which her former persecutions
will be repeated. Stealthily and unsuspectedly,
she is strengthening her forces to further her
own ends when the time shall come for her to
strike. All that she desires is vantage ground,
and this is already being given her. We shall
soon see and shall feel what is the purpose of
the Roman element is. Whoever shall believe and
obey the word of God will thereby incur reproach
and persecution.
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