CLOSING EVENTS STUDY 3: Catholicism
by Elder Gordon Collier
Part 1 of 3
Introduction
Bible References concerning the Roman Catholic Church
Spirit of Prophecy References concerning the Roman Catholic Church
The Whole Truth About the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholicism and Her Aspirations, Aims, and Objectives
Roman Catholicism and U.S. Democracy
Roman Catholicism and U.S. Politics
Roman Catholicism and the U.S. Constitution
Roman Catholicism and the U.S. Bill of Rights
Roman Catholicism and the Separation of Church and State
Roman Catholicism and Religious Freedom
Roman Catholicism and Bigotry
Roman Catholicism and [its] Intolerance
Roman Catholicism and [the use of coercive] Force
Roman Catholicism and Persecution
Roman Catholicism and U.S. Civil Marriage,
Part 2 (Total, 3 Parts) [CE No. 3 of old series. 42 pages]
Contents:
Roman Catholicism and U.S. Labour Unions
R.C. and U.S. Public School System
R.C. and Public Tax funds for Parochial Schools
R.C. and The U.S. Press, Radio, TV, and Motion Pictures
Roman Catholicism and U.S. Protestantism
Roman Catholicism and The Bible and Tradition
R.C. and The Ten Commandments
R.C. and The Sabbath
Roman Catholicism and Seventh-day Adventists
Roman Catholicism and The Pope
R.C. and The Roman Catholic Priesthood
Roman Catholicism and Mary
R.C. and Spain
R.C. and Colombia
Roman Catholicism and Communism
Roman Catholicism and President Kennedy
R.C. Church and Change: Has She Changed? Is She Changing?
Roman Catholicism and YOU
Catholicism Part 3 (Total, 3 Parts) [CE No. 3 of old series. 39 pages]
Contents:
The Rise and Progress of The RC Church Since 1798
The Roman Catholic Church and The Three-fold Union
The Roman Catholic Church and The Legal Enforcement of Sunday Observance.
The Roman Catholic Church and Her Fruits.
The Roman Catholic Church and Her Boasts.
Can You Read The Handwriting on the Wall?
Conclusion and Appeal
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CLOSING EVENTS STUDY No. 3 - ROMAN CATHOLICISM
Part 2: THE THREEFOLD UNION
ELDER GORDON COLLIER
INTRODUCTION
This study on Roman Catholicism is given as factually, fairly and accurately as it is possible for me to give it.
The things reported here are hard to believe, but are fully documented and decisive. This not what her [the Roman Catholic Church’s] enemies teach about Roman Catholicism, but is what she herself says about herself in her own official Encyclicals, books and papers.
Many Roman Catholics do not know what their Church really believes. They would be much startled and upset should they learn the whole truth about Roman Catholicism.
Many Roman Catholics believe in the Separation of Church and State and in Religious Liberty. Many sincere Roman Catholics are learning the truth about their religion and are forsaking it . . .
I give this study with no animosity in my heart toward Roman Catholics whatsoever.
We love the Roman Catholic people.
We are not dealing in personalities.
We are dealing with a system of doctrine which is contrary to the Bible and to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We are dealing with a system of doctrine which is contrary to Protestantism.
We are dealing with a system of doctrine which is contrary to U. S. Democracy.
We are dealing with a system of doctrine which is contrary to Freedom of Religion.
We are dealing with a system of doctrine which is contrary to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
We are dealing with a system of doctrine which rob you of your religious freedom and force you, in pain or death, to worship as it dictates.
We are dealing with a system of doctrine which is destined to succeed in the world and triumph (apparently) over the truth and the cause of God.
We are dealing with a [Religio-] political power which is destined to rule the world in the last remnant of time.
To be forewarned is to be forearmed (in faith). We distinguish between the doctrine of Roman Catholicism and the members of Roman Catholicism. While we dislike and disapprove of the doctrine, we love the people.
Many Roman Catholics are true, sincere, born again Christians and will be saved so long as they live up to what little light they have. But when new light shines upon them, God holds them accountable for it [as is true for all people], and they will be lost if they do not accept and follow it.
Elder Gordon Collier
p. 3
13. Roman Catholicism and U. S. Labor Unions
The Jesuit Magazine [America (?)] declared that:
“Roman Catholic Jesuit priests and lay members have been instructed by the Church to seek the highest offices in the Labor unions of the U. S.”
The time is certainly coming when labor unions, under the control of Roman Catholicism will have great power and will be in a position to exert tremendous influence on those who get in her way.
These Catholic-controlled labor unions will make it practically impossible for SDAs [ or anyone else who opposes them] to make a living.
They will promote Sunday observance and lobby for State and national Sunday laws.
They will mercilessly persecute those who do not line up with her [the Roman Catholic Church’s] selfish, loveless, power-mad efforts at [Religio-political] supremacy and domination.
They will brand anyone who stands in her [the Roman Catholic Church’s] way as bigoted, ignorant, disloyal, malicious, traitors to the government.
p. 3
14. Roman Catholicism and the U.S. Public School System
“A SUMMONS TO AMERICANS” – A Reformation Day Message by C. Stanley Lowell of the Wesley Methodist Church, Washington D.C., distributed by POAU.
“Roman Catholicism has become a decisive influence in America. The attitude of that Church [Roman Catholic Church] on education reveals this fact clearly. Our public school system has been the keystone of [our] democracy. It was the one place where Protestant, Catholic and Jew could meet on common ground and get to know and understand each other. Very early [on], the Romanists their own sectarian schools. This was their privilege. Millions of Roman Catholic youth continued to attend public schools, however. In an endeavour to correct this situation, Romanist leaders have launched a campaign to undermine and discredit the public schools. Father Francis P. LeBuffe has declared:
‘Thanks to our Godless American public school [system]. . . . We have a generation today which does not know God!’
“The Rev. Robert I. Gannon, President of Fordham University, has charged the public school is responsible for juvenile delinquency and suggests that there would be none if Roman Catholic moral teaching were given to all. (Unfortunately, it just happened that at the time Dr. Gannon was making this speech in New York City, three-fifths of all juvenile delinquents being arrested in that area were Roman Catholics.) It just happens, too, that Roman Catholics supply more than twice their proportionate share of the prison population of this country. In a pamphlet bearing the official Imprimatur of the Bishop, Father Paul Blakely writes:
‘The Catholic’s first duty to the public school is to keep his children out of it and not to pay taxes for its support!’”
“Captive Schools – An American Tragedy” by C. Stanley Lowell in a POAU Pamphlet
“The ‘captive school’ is an astounding institution. Most people believe such a thing could not exist in the United States. But it is a reality. There are hundreds of these institutions in at least 22 states. A captive school is a public school which has been taken over by the Roman Catholic Church and is operated as one of its own parish schools.”
“Priests of the Roman Catholic Church insist that they have been appointed by God to control education. This is stated by Pope Pius XI in his Encyclical, ‘The Christian Education of Youth’. A group of priests of Bloomfield, New Jersey, who were disputing over school arrangements with the local school board, cited this Encyclical as giving them an authority superior to that of the board. Their [the Roman Catholic] Church’s control over education , they said, “has precedence over any right of civil society and of the state, and for this reason, no power on earth may infringe upon it.”
“What is a captive school? It is a school staffed by nuns, or brothers, or priests of the Catholic Church wearing the distinctive garb and insignia of that denomination. Schoolroom walls are lined with symbols unique to the Roman Catholic Church – statues, Madonnas, Crucifixes, and the like. Mass is held in juxtaposition with the school program, often in the period [morning assembly] immediately preceding school hours. The Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church is taught in the class periods to all children, or by means of some contrived arrangement under which those who are formally excused can withdraw while it is being taught. The Catholic Confessional is urged upon the pupils by the teachers. A peculiar non-historical history [propaganda], featuring the United States as a Catholic nation in its origin and genius, is often taught.”
“The Roman Catholic dogma that the Roman Church is the ‘only true church’ is taught along with other beliefs peculiar to this denomination. Children are instructed in the prayers, mannerisms, and beliefs characteristic of the Roman Church. All these procedures are defended on the ground that they constitute putting ‘God’ and ‘spiritual values’ into education.”
“The Nun Teacher”
“The salaries of the teaching nuns are paid from the school funds of the local community. There is no withholding tax; the checks are signed over by the nuns to their superior or bishop. Other expenses of the captive school are also paid from public funds.”
The influence of the Roman Catholic power concerning which the Spirit of Prophecy warns us so emphatically is growing proportionately in this country. More boldly and effectually than ever before the Roman Catholic Church is seeking to gain control of public school systems in district after district, with the use of pictures and images pertaining to the Roman Catholic faith put into schoolrooms and by nuns doing the teaching in religious garb.
The Roman Catholic Church has repeatedly condemned the Public School System and teaches that she alone in the world has the right to control education.
Roman Catholicism and Public Tax Funds for Parochial Schools
One of the primary objectives of the Roman Catholic Church in America is to secure public tax funds for her Church (parochial) schools.
She is constantly agitating this issue and is making steady progress toward the full realization of her aims.
She has already been successful in influencing the Supreme Court of the United States to approve of such aid and to pronounce such aid by the states as constitutional!
We may expect a flood of agitation and requests for public tax funds for Roman Catholic schools by Roman Catholic leaders in America.
The Detroit News, July 31, 1949 – The Roman Catholic Priest, William E. McManus, Assistant Director of the educational division of the Catholic Welfare Conference [stated]:
“Stated flatly that the [Roman Catholic] Church’s ultimate objective is government financing of parochial [Church] schools.”
“A Summons to Americans” A Reformation Day Message by C. Stanley Lowell of the Wesley Methodist Church, Wash. D.C.
“It has now become the Roman Catholic [Church’s] strategy to get tax funds for its own [parochial] schools. First it was textbooks and lunches, then transportation. Now it is direct state aid. Their propaganda has confused a good many people. Is it fair, they ask, to force Catholics to pay for their children’s education at public expense? But the argument completely misses the point.”
(A Good Illustration)
“Suppose the state builds a [public] road. It is paid for by state funds. Everyone may use it; it belongs to all. Then another group decides they want their own private road. That is their privilege. But what right under heaven do they have to say that the rest of us must help pay for their private road? It’s theirs; let them pay for it, or use the road provided by public funds for all.”
“A Summons to Americans” - A Reformation Day Message by C. Stanley Lowell (cont.)
“A decade ago Father Robert I. Gannon, then President of [Roman Catholic] Fordham University, charged that public school inadequacies were responsible for juvenile delinquency. Roman Catholic teaching, he claimed, would solve the problem. Unfortunately for him, his colleague, Father George B. Ford, Roman Catholic Chaplain at Colombia University, and well-known sociologist, made a speech almost at the same time, in which he declared that 64 percent of the delinquents then appearing in Children’s Court were Roman Catholics. The figure today, according to Dean Pike, is still considerably higher than 50 percent, though Romanists comprise less than half the city’s population.”
“An article in the New York Daily Mirror, praising the work of Roman Catholic prison chaplains, incidentally disclosed that of 1989 inmates of Clinton Prison, 1200 were Roman Catholics. Such facts are enough to make us doubt whether Roman Catholic education is the answer to juvenile delinquency.
“It is now avowed Romanist strategy to secure full tax support for their sectarian schools. If they don’t get it, they claim they are ‘double-taxed’. They are required to pay for only one school system – the public [school system]. But if I, a Protestant, am forced to pay taxes for their sectarian schools, that is double taxation. Roman Catholic schools use the textbook, ‘Living Our Faith’ published by W. H. Sadlier. It teaches the children that all Protestant faiths are counterfeit and false. When I am required to pay for that kind of teaching it is not only double taxation – it is triple tyranny. If they want to teach that my faith is counterfeit, let them do so. But don’t expect me to pay the bill!”
p. 7
ROMAN CATHOLICISM AND THE U.S. PRESS, RADIO AND T.V.
Roman Catholicism has a strangle-hold on the press [and media] of America; so much so that the editors dare not publish anything derogatory about the Roman Catholic Church.
Catholicism holds over the heads of the reporters and editors of newspapers, periodicals, etc., of America the threat of immediate, complete boycott of their papers.
Besides economic boycott, the powerful Roman Catholic [or Roman Catholic controlled] Press lifts up the cry of “bigotry”, “intolerance”, “prejudice”, “ignorance”, “Un-American”, etc., against anyone who would dare to unite or publish a derogatory report about Catholicism.
A. Democracy and the Churches:
“There is not a single New York editor who does not live in mortal terror of the power of this group (the Catholic Church). It is not a case of numbers but of organization. . .
“In every parish of the United States and Canada, agencies were established to watch the press and to coerce it. Coercion was preferred to any attempt to persuade. Instead of arguing, the [Roman Catholic] Church hits through the business office. Cardinal Dougherty, for example, turned the Philadelphia Archdiocese on the Record for identifying the cause of the Spanish Republic with democracy. Boycott of the newspaper was urged in Catholic pulpits throughout the city as [well as] by the Diocesan paper. Pamphlets were distributed at Masses, with the suggestion that recipients show them to the advertising managers of department and other stores that advertised in the Record. The New York and Baltimore prelates similarly bullied great newspapers into warping their news by threats of advertising boycotts. The Legion of Decency achieved similar results in the movies. The same technique was applied in the case of the magazines. A systematic campaign of letters and post cards to advertisers in magazines was used to suppress free expression. These are the devices by which a small minority of a minority sect [Roman Catholicism] was able to control the news of a great war in a neutral press and simultaneously to poison the springs of democratic discussion in America and contribute to the establishment of a Totalitarian state in Spain. They [similar tactics by the Roman Catholic Church] have been employed elsewhere in the English-speaking world, as in Australia and Britain, with similar if less sweeping success.
“Occasionally one would hear of a publisher, movie producer, or department store owner who challenged the insolence of the Bishop, and in such cases he often won a complete victory. There was the case of the famous department store owner who refused to take the local bishop’s order to withdraw his advertising from an offending newspaper. When the Bishop then announced that he would impose a boycott on the store also, the owner merely asked to be notified in advance of the time of the boycott. The Bishop’s agent asked why. The business owner replied that at that time all Roman Catholic employees would receive their final pay checks, with a letter explaining the reasons for their dismissal. At this the episode ended.”
- “Democracy and the Churches” – James Hastings Nichols, Westminster, Philadelphia, 1951.
p. 8
B. I remember Elder C. L. Bauer, when he was still President of the Pacific Union Conference, telling us at a workers’ meeting, the following story:
“A man entered into a contract with a certain newspaper in America to publish a series of articles on Catholicism. The contract was signed by both parties and the entire cost of publishing the articles was paid to the editor in advance.
“Immediately following the publication of the first article in the series, the man was contacted by the editor and informed that he could not publish the rest of the articles. When the man reminded the editor that he had a contract, and that he had already paid for the publishing of the series in full, he was told he would have to cancel the contract and that his money would be refunded in full. The editor explained that he had a long distance phone call from a Cardinal in Washington, D.C., in which the Cardinal threatened him, saying, “If anything like that ever appears in your newspaper again, your paper will be boycotted by all of your Roman Catholic subscribers and your business ruined.”
C. Another Little Sample of Roman Catholic Pressure Tactics:
Mary Walsh, who used to be a Roman Catholic
D. Roman Catholicism is Against a Free Press.
“We must now consider briefly liberty of the press. It hardly necessary to say that there can be no such right as this.” – Pope Leo XIII, Great Encyclical Letters, p. 151.
“Liberty of thought, of education, and of the press are as ‘liberties of perdition’ whose design is a poisoned fount giving birth to the great evils of the world.” – Roman Catholic Cardinal Segura of Seville.
[See also the Papal Encyclical The ‘Syllabus of Errors’ by Pope Pius IX issued on December 8, 1864 ]
17. Roman Catholicism and U.S. Protestantism
p. 9
1. Catholic World, October 1935, p. 66
“Some dwell on the vastly increased tolerance shown in this country to Catholics and Catholic things. . . . It betokens a decay of Protestantism.”
2. Cardinal Stritch of Chicago, quoted in Time Magazine, Aug. 5 or 8, 1955, p. 63
“It no longer can be said today that the United States is a Protestant country, , , , The Catholic Church is forging ahead, growing day by day and becoming stronger.”
3. Father F. X. Talbot, former editor of ‘America’ Magazine, official Jesuit magazine for the U.S. Statement found in New York Globe, Dec. 14, 1930
“The old Protestant culture is about at the end of its rope.”
4. A Roman Catholic Priest said publically:
“Our battle for America is about over. Only the mopping up remains.”
Note to the Reader
The Great Controversy – Ellen G. White
The Two Babylons – Revd Alexander Hislop
The Pope Speaks – Harry Borleis, published by Christ’s Mission, New York, 1956
What Catholics and Protestants Should Know – J. H. Meier (Pacific Press Pub.)
The Other Side of Rome – John B. Wilder (Zondervan)
The Riddle of Roman Catholicism – Jaroslav Pelikan (Abingdon Press)
Ins and Outs of Romanism – Joseph Zacchello (Loizeaux Brothers)
A Protestant Primer on Roman Catholicism – Angelo Di Domenica (Osterhus Publishing)
18. Roman Catholicism and the Bible
The Roman Catholic Church has suppressed the translation, publication, and circulation of the Bible through the centuries.
She kept [locked up] in a language (Latin) foreign to her subjects for a thousand years in order to keep them ignorant of its teachings. Catholicism thrives best in ignorance. If you doubt this, go to Spain, Mexico, Central America, Colombia, and the rest of South America. What happens when Roman Catholics learn the teachings of the Bible? They forsake Catholicism.
Catholicism resisted the translation of the Bible into the language[s] of the common people. She persecuted those who were endeavouring to translate it into the languages of the people.
Notice the History of the major translations of the English New Testament:
1332 [John] Wycliffe
1525 [William] Tyndale
1535 Coverdale
1537 Rogers (Matthews)
1539 The Great Bible
1539 Taverner
1557 Whittingham
1560 Geneva [Bible]
1568 Bishop’s Bible
1610 (Roman Catholic) Rheims – the Roman Catholic Church was finally forced to put out an English Bible because everyone was reading the Protestant Bible.
1611 The King James Version
1881 The Revised Version
1901 The American Standard Version
1946 The Revised Standard Version
1961 The New English Bible
What happened to [John] Wycliffe? In 1428, by order of the Roman Catholic [Church] Council of Constance, Wycliffe’s body was disinterred and burned, and his ashes cast into the River Swift. What was his crime? His only crime was that he translated the Bible into the English language so that the common man could read it in his own language.
What happened to [William] Tyndale? He was tried for heresy by the Roman Church and condemned. In October, 1536 he was strangled and burned at the stake. What was his crime? He translated the Bible into English – into the language of the people so that they could read it for themselves.
What happened to Rogers? He was also persecuted by Roman Catholicism. He was burned alive at Smithfield in February, 1555. His crime was the crime of translating the Bible into the English language.
Taverner was imprisoned for reading Tyndale’s English New Testament. “After Cromwell’s fall in 1540, Taverner was committed to the Tower for a time for his work on the Bible.” – A Ready-Reference History of the English Bible, American Bible Society.
Cranmer, who assisted in the preparing, and publishing, and circulating of the Great Bible was martyred. He was tried and burned as a heretic in 1556, by the Roman catholic Church.
O, At what a price we received our English Bibles! How little we appreciate the faith, the courage, and the effort and the suffering which was endured by those who gave us our English Bibles. Let us love and cherish and study and live by our Bibles more.
In 1229 AD, the Roman Catholic Council of Toulouse decreed that “No layman shall be able to read the Bible in his own language except the Psalter (Psalms).”
In 1408, the Constitutions of Oxford (Roman Catholic) forbade anyone reading, “in whole or in part, a vernacular (common language) version of the Bible without approval of the Bishop.”
The Roman Catholic Church is forced to use the Bible today. She even professes great love for it, and uses it supposedly to prove her doctrines.
However, Roman Catholicism has relegated the Bible to second place in comparison with human tradition.
I will cite three references in substantiation of this statement:
A. Catholic Belief: A Short and Simple Exposition of Catholic Doctrine, 388 pages, by J. F. De Bruno, D.D., Benziger Brothers, New York (official Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat of the Roman Catholic Church)
“Like two sacred rivers flowing from Paradise, the Bible and divine Tradition contain the word of God, the precious gems of revealed truth.
”Though these two divine streams are in themselves, on account of their divine origin, of equal sacredness, and are both full of revealed truths, still, of the two, TRADITION is to us more clear and safe.”
B. The Faith of Our Fathers, Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore. National Headquarters of the Holy Name Society, New York, pp. 89, 90. (official Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur of the Roman Catholic Church)
“Third – A rule of faith, or a competent guide to heaven, must be able to instruct in all the truths necessary for salvation. Now the Scriptures alone do not contain all the truths which a Christian is bound to believe, nor do they explicitly enjoin all the duties which he is obliged to practise.
“We must, therefore, conclude that the Scriptures alone cannot be a sufficient guide and rule of faith. . . . because they are not of themselves clear and intelligible even in matters of the highest importance, and because they do not contain all the truths necessary for salvation.”
“. . . A Pope’s letter is the most weighty authority in the [Roman Catholic] Church.” – p. 93
C. The Roman Catholic [Church] Council of Trent (Jan. 18, 1562) declared that Tradition stood above Scripture:
“We have no argument with tradition so long as it harmonizes with the Bible, but the moment tradition contradicts the Bible, we must reject tradition and cling to the Bible. The Bible only is infallible. The Bible – the Word of God is our highest authority.”
Roman Catholicism and the Sabbath:
The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, by Peter Geierman, p. 50:
Q What is the third commandment?
A The third commandment is: Remember that thou keepeth holy the Sabbath day.
Q. Which is the Sabbath day?
A. Saturday is the Sabbath day.
Q. Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
A. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.
D. The Catholic Universe Bulletin, the official newspaper of the Cleveland Diocese, Aug. 14, 1942:
By what authority did the [Roman Catholic] Church change the observance of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday?
The Church changed the observance of the Sabbath to Sunday by the right of the divine, infallible, authority given to her by her Founder, Jesus Christ. The Protestant, claiming the Bible to be the only guide of faith, has no warrant for observing Sunday. The Seventh-day Adventist is the only consistent Protestant. finish
P. 18
22. Roman Catholicism and the Pope.
The Roman Catholic Church has made many amazing claims for her Leader, the Pope, down through the ages.
Some of these claims are as follows:
“Thou art another God on Earth.”
“The Pope can modify (change) divine law.”
“The Roman Pontiff holds the primacy (rulership) over the whole world.”
“The Pope is. . . . king of heaven, and of earth, and of the lower regions.”
“It is necessary to salvation for every human being to be subject to the Roman Pontiff.”
Pope Boniface VIII declared, “I am Caesar – I am Emperor.”
“Union of minds. . . . requires . . . complete submission, and obedience of will to the Church and to the Roman Pontiff as to God Himself.”
The Pope declared, “We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty.” (Encyclical)
“The Papacy aimed at. . . . a universal sovereignty over all sovereigns. . . . the Pope, who was to be the master and arbiter of all other temporal authorities.”
“Thou art Father of princes and kings, Ruler of the world.”
Study carefully the following documented official Roman Catholic claims for her Pope:
“For thou art the Shepherd, thou art the Physician, thou art the Director, thou art the Husbandman; and finally, thou art another God on Earth.” – Christopher Marcellus, Oration in the Fifth Lateran Council, Session IV (1512), in Mansi SC, Vol. 32, col. 761 (Latin).
“The Pope is of so great authority and power that he can modify, explain, or interpret even divine laws. . . . The Pope can modify divine law.” “Hence the Pope is crowned with a triple crown, as king of heaven and of Earth, and of the lower regions (Infernorum).” – Lucius Ferraris, art. 2 “Papa” in Prompta Bibliotheca (“Handy Library”), vol. 6, (Venetiis Venice) Gasper Storti 1772, p. 29 (Latin).
“We define that the Holy Apostolic See and the Roman Pontiff holds the primacy over the whole world.” – Council of Florence, Session XXV (July 6, 1439) Definitio, in Mansi SC, vol. 31, col. 1031 (Latin).
“’Every human creature’ Subject to . . . That there is one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church we are impelled by our faith to believe and to hold. . . this we do firmly believe and . . . openly confess . . . and outside of this [R. C. Church] there is neither salvation or remission of sins.”
“In this Church and in its power there are two swords, to wit, a spiritual and a temporal. . . .”
“Both, therefore, the spiritual and the material swords, are in the power of the Church, the latter indeed to be used for the Church, the former by the Church, the one by the priest, the other by the hand of kings and soldiers, but by the will and sufferance of the priest.”
“We, moreover, proclaim, declare and pronounce that it is altogether necessary to salvation for every human being to be subject to the Roman Pontiff.” – Pope Boniface VIII, Bull Unam Sanctam, 1302.
“The Papal theory; . . . made the Pope alone God’s representative on Earth and maintained that the Emperor received the right to rule from St. Peter’s successor [the Pope]. . . . It was upheld by [Popes] Nicholas I, Hildebrand, Alexander III, Innocent III, and culminated with Boniface VIII at the Jubilee of 1300 when, seated on the throne of Constantine, girded with the imperial sword, wearing a crown, and waving a sceptre, he shouted to the throng of loyal pilgrims ‘I am Caesar – I am Emperor.’” – Alexander Clarence Flick, The Rise of the Medieval Church (Reprint: New York, Burt Franklin, (1959), p. 413.
“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.” – Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter “On the Chief Duties of Christians as Citizens”, January 10, 1890, Trans. In The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII (New York: Bensiger, 1903), p. 193.
p. 20
“We [the Papacy / Pope] hold upon this Earth the place of God Almighty.” – Pope Leo XIII, Encyc. “The Reunion of Christendom”, June 20, 1894.
“What the Papacy aimed at was not simply to be a temporal power by reason of sovereignty over a little Italian state, but to exercise a universal sovereignty over all sovereigns by reason of the spiritual office of the Pope, who was to be the master and arbiter of all other temporal authorities.”
“All the Popes of the last six centuries have worn the triple tiara. According to present-day Roman Catholic authorities, its three crowns signify ‘universal episcopate, supremacy of jurisdiction, and universal supremacy.’ In the coronation of all Popes – including Pius XII, on March 12, 1939 (and presumably any thereafter) – the tiara is placed on the candidate’s head with the words: ‘Receive the tiara adorned with three crowns and know that thou art Father of princes and kings, Ruler of the world, Vicar of our Saviour Jesus Christ.’ If this phraseology had not been sanctified by long usage, it would not have been coined in this generation to express the relation of the Pope to the political and social order; but it would not have been created in the first place if it had not meant then what it says – ‘Ruler of the world’.” – Paul Hutchinson and Winfred E Garrison, 20 Centuries of Christianity: A Concise History (1st ed.), p. 120.
p. 20
23. Roman Catholicism and the Roman Catholic Priesthood.
A. “Our Sunday Visitor”, leading Catholic periodical, July 27, 1947
“The laity have reverence for their priests. . . the priest is their father, he is head of every family, the people bring him their most intimate difficulties with the feeling that if there is a solution, father will find it. They know that father has power over God’s body. At his word, God comes down from heaven and becomes visible before their eyes. He alone may touch God with his fingers. The laity cannot.”
C. Ferraris’ Ecclesiastical Dictionary, art. ‘Pope’
“The Roman Catholic Priest – Another God on Earth”
“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. 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. Hence the Pope is crowned with a triple crown, as King of heaven, and of Earth, and of the lower regions. Moreover, the superiority and power of the Roman Pontiff by no means pertains only to heavenly things under the earth, but are even over angels, than whom 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 should 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. The Pope can modify divine law, since his power is not of man, but of God.”
D. “Faith of Millions. The Credentials of the Catholic Religion”, Revd. John A. O’Brien, Ph.D., LL. D., with preface by his Eminence Cardinal O’Connor, Archbishop of Boston, and Introduction by His Eminence Dennis Cardinal Dougherty, Archbishop of Philadelphia, pp. 268-269
“The Roman Catholic Priest – Another Christ”
“The second great power of the priestly office is that of pardoning. When the priest raises aloft his right hand and pronounces the words of pardon over the sinner in the tribunal of confession, the shackles of sin are torn from the soul of the penitent. The priest pardons as effectively as if the words fell from the lips of Christ. . . The hand of the priest reaches up beyond the horizon of the sky, and with golden keys unlocks the treasury of God’s mercy and forgiveness and applies them to the souls of men.”
“The third great power of the priestly office is the climax of all. It is the power of consecrating. . . . For in this role the priest speaks with the voice and the authority of God Himself. When the priest pronounces the tremendous words of consecration, he reaches up into the heavens, brings Christ down from His throne, and places Him upon our altar to be offered up again as the victim for the sins of man . . . not once but a thousand times! The priest speaks, and lo, Christ the eternal and omnipotent God, bows His head in humble obedience to the priest’s command . . . for the priest is and should be another Christ.”
E. ”Tesoro Del Sacerdote” (Treasury of the Priest) by Jose Mach, vol. 1, p. 16
“Be holy, O priest, because you are representing, or should I say, identifying yourself with the person of the Son of God. You are another Jesus Christ, a mediator between God and men: you have all His office, you are clothed in His power, you continue His mission, you have to do what He did, and what Jesus Christ would do if He were here in your place.”
[This paragraph quoted in ‘The Other Side of Rome’ by John B. Wilder (Zondervan Pub.)
p. 25
“Mary of the United States, Mother of the United Nations” by Daniel A. Lord, S.J. (The Queen’s Work)
“Here and now Catholic America is exulting in the great wisdom and foresight that prompted the American Bishops a hundred years ago to consecrate the United States to Mary of the Immaculate Conception.” – p. 3
“With gratitude for the past and hope for the future, with a happy sense of what America permitted to the Church and with a glowing hope of what the Church could do for America, the Bishops sat together in the Council of Baltimore to plan for their beloved country.”
“They must present America with a splendid gift.”
“To the eternal honor of those bishops and to the lasting good of America they chose exactly the right gift. The Bishops of America gave America a Mother. To the infant country they gave the fairest woman in all history. To democratic America they gave the only Queen that the country would ever know or accept. – p. 10
“Solemnly they dedicated the United States of America to Mary Immaculate.”
“By the gesture of these early Bishops America took its place among those other nations that loved and honoured Mary in special ways.” – p. 11
“The gesture that gave Mary to America, and America to Mary.” – p. 14
“Mary, Mother of God, is, we believe, Mother of America and of all Americans.” – p. 27
“The race of heroic imitators of Mary, the Catholic Nuns, will never disappear from our country so long as Mary remains Mother of America.” – p. 28
“There still remains however the terrifying thought that the majority of Americans remain Mary-less, Motherless. Is there a more terrifying word in the world than the word orphaned or motherless? If the words mother, motherhood, and Mother Mary, are in themselves beautiful, the words orphaned and motherless are frightening, appalling, bleakly and, Americans simply must not remain Motherless where Mary is concerned. The thought is repellent. A hundred years ago America was given to Mary, and Mary to America.” – p. 29 (Note: The Roman Catholic Church claims to be the ‘Mother Church’ or Mater Ecclesia.)
“Until we reach eternity, we shall not know what Mary has done for her America.”
“I doubt whether we ourselves have really tried to give Mary to America.” – pp. 30, 31
“All Americans would come to think instinctively of Mary and grow to love her if American Catholics were as marked by her characteristics as are the good children of any great mother.”
“We can in words keep telling America that it belongs to Mary.” – p. 32
“One hundred years ago the American bishops gave Mary to America. What is the possibility of our giving Mary to the world today? Never before was there a better moment for something fundamental to unite the world. The world craves unity. Unity in a dozen forms is being offered. Perhaps Mary is the answer.” – p. 33
“If a handful of Catholics were able a hundred years ago to give Mary to America, why could not this enormous, international body of Catholics living in all the countries of earth give the world to Mary and give Mary to the world?” – p. 35
“Perhaps Mary is the hope, the real hope of a united world.”
“If Mary was given to America one hundred years ago with such happy results, what might not happen to the world if we gave the world to Mary in a solemn act of dedication and consecration?” – p. 36
“A century ago America became Mary’s.”
“Mary of the United States, be the Mother of the United World.” – p. 37
[Note: The Roman Catholic Church seeks to hold primacy (rulership) over the whole world.]
p. 29
“A SUMMONS TO AMERICANS” by C. Stanley Lowell
POAU Pamphlet
“I once asked a Jesuit priest if this really represented the aim of Rome. He admitted that it did, but added: ‘You Protestants need have no cause for alarm. It will be a long time before Catholics are in a majority and we are able to establish a true Church-State relationship in the United States.’ That is to say, we Protestants needn’t worry until it’s too late to do anything about it.”
“WHAT ROME REALLY WANTS”
“There is no doubt about what Rome wants. We have a made-to-order demonstration in [Fascist] Dictator [General] Franco’s Spain. In that country Protestants are second-rate citizens, cruelly discriminated against, driven into the ghetto. They are treated exactly as the Pope likes to see them treated.
“Protestant churches are permitted no distinctive markings. Prayer meetings in private homes are often broken up by police. Courts impose heavy fines on these hapless victims of bigotry. The Baptist Church in Madrid is one of many the police have closed and sealed. Union Theological Seminary, the only institution for training of Protestant ministers in Spain, was closed by police in January of 1956. Explaining this outrage the Spanish Ambassador to the United States, Jose Ma. De Areilza, blandly said: ‘If the Roman Catholic Church believes it professes the true religion, why should it be subjected to adverse propaganda to rob it of its faith?’”
“Protestant marriage and funeral services are forbidden in Spain. A Protestant cannot send his children to school unless he consents to having Roman Catholic teaching forced on them. Two young men of the Navy, members of the Assembly of Brethren in Vigo, Spain, received sentence[s] of two years in prison for refusing to genuflect at a Roman Catholic Mass which Navy law had required them to attend. The Higher Court of Justice re-affirmed their sentence and advised them that repetition of their ‘crime’ would bring repetition of the sentence.”
“Franco’s Gestapo, prompted by the minister Cardinal Segura, has again raided the British Bible Society headquarters and confiscated 30,000 Bibles. These dangerous books must be kept from the people. John Sutherland Bonnell, the eminent clergyman, after visiting throughout Europe, declared he would rather be a Protestant minister in any country behind the Iron Curtain than in [Franco’s] Spain. Spain is a country that has experienced everything and learned nothing. Yet this is the Roman Catholic ideal. The Pope himself never tires of referring to this miserable place and its miserable people as ‘Christian Spain’. Let us remember, too, that it is the wicked and indecent regime of [General] Franco that our government has helped maintain with its generous gifts. Here is a free people subsidizing bigotry.”
“OUT OF BOUNDS” by Glen L. Archer, Elective Director, POAU
In an address delivered at Constitution Hall, Jan. 21, 1954
“Dr. E. L. Elson, the President’s pastor, said on Reformation Day Sunday, ‘Where the Roman Catholic Church is dominant, you regularly find Communism stronger than where the free churches are dominant.’”
“The root of the problem is to be found in the ‘Infallibility’ principle. As Dr. Robert J. McCracken, Minister of the Riverside Church, New York, said on Reformation Sunday, 1953: ‘The Pope is today the last absolute monarch in the world. . . . What makes the Roman Catholic Church’s hatred of Communism such a tragic irony is that at point after point it is no less autocratic and totalitarian. It [the Roman Catholic Church] dislikes a free press, free churches, free schools. It operates the censorship principle. It has never officially repudiated belief in persecution. . . . To this day the charge given to the Pope at his coronation reads thus: ‘Know that thou art the Father of princes and kings, the lord of the Earth, the representative in the world of our Saviour Jesus Christ.’ Today as in the sixteenth century the Papacy is both a religious and a political institution, modelled closely on the pattern of the Imperialism of the Roman Empire, with all the apparatus of an earthly monarchy, including troops, police, secular officials, a diplomatic corps.’”
“TOLERANCE” by C. Stanley Lowell
POAU Truth Series, No. 2
“In Spain 28 Protestant churches that were open under the Republic have been closed by the Franco Government at the request of the [Roman Catholic] Church and they remain closed. Additional closures occur almost monthly. Protestant prayer meetings are broken up and the ‘guilty’ are fined or jailed. Protestant marriages and funeral services remain snarled up in hopeless [bureaucratic] red tape. Union Theological Seminary of Madrid, the only center for the training of Protestant clergy in Spain, has been closed by police. No charges, no due process, no explanation, no nothing. They just closed it. The Spanish Ambassador, Jose Ma. De Areilza, speaking before the John Carroll Society in Baltimore blandly said: ‘If the Roman Catholic Church believes it professes the true religion, why should it be subjected to adverse propaganda to rob it of its faith?’”
“A Roman Catholic actionist wrote a letter to the editor of the Jesuit publication, Rainbow of Peace. He wanted to know if it was alright to disrupt Protestant services and beat up the worshipers. The editor replied that it was proper to break up the Protestant services and destroy their church equipment, but that no one should be killed. ‘(The Protestants) do a great deal of harm,’ he wrote. ‘Some human laws may tolerate it; divine law is opposed to it. Those who have no other means of counter-acting the harm may therefore create disorder in the churches without harming people. . . . Protestant Bibles, prayer books, tables, chairs, robes and other objects used in their sacrilegious services . . . should be destroyed.’”
This is Catholicism for you. This is what it will be like when Catholicism gets the upper hand in America. Notice, I did not say, ‘This is what it would be like IF Catholicism got the upper hand in America,’ but ‘This is what it will be like WHEN Catholicism gets the upper hand in America.’ For this is exactly what will take place.
We know from the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy that eventually all of the world will be united under one head – Roman Catholicism. We know also that her false Sabbath [and other false doctrines] will be forced upon mankind by law. We know that the fires of persecution will once again be kindled, that great suffering is ahead for God’s true followers. Are we now preparing for it by perfecting characters that will stand the test of the ages, the test of fire, the test of hunger, thirst, cold, sickness, ridicule, disgrace, torture and even death in some cases? Are we now settling into the truth, both intellectually and spiritually so that we cannot be moved?
A Letter from Elder B. W. Mattison, President of Hawaiian Mission of SDAs, Feb. 15, 1961.
“You may recall that in a recent communiqué from the General Conference Religious Liberty Department, it mentioned that on Oct. 3, two Seventh-day Adventists were executed here in the Western Hemisphere [Colombia, South America] for their faith. Just this morning information has come to my desk that since that time, five additional Seventh-day Adventists have been put to death here in the Western Hemisphere [Latin America]. Certainly, although we don’t discuss it much, it points up that very, very serious conditions lay just before us. Pray earnestly, and endeavour by the grace of God tp lead our people to a deeper sense of their own closeness to God and dependence upon Him.
Pacific Union Recorder, January 7, 1957, p. 6
I think of our work in Colombia, South America, where during 1956 our work suffered the following: 10 churches disbanded, 3 churches closed, 9 members killed, 89 laymen imprisoned, 49 members punished and wounded, 21 workers imprisoned, 87 colporteurs imprisoned, 234 members fled [their] homes in order to save [their] life, one knifed to death, 3 awaiting baptism in September [were] killed, and 3 little boys killed by the sword while singing our Gospel hymns in the village square. Yes, you and I have been spared suffering that many of our believers have passed through. Yet, we must realize that prophecy gives us no comfort concerning the future exercise of our religious rights here at home [U.S.].
POAU “Truth Series” Leaflet No. 2, by C. Stanley Lowell, Associate Director, POAU
“In 50 instances since 1950, priest-incited mobs have demolished Protestant churches. Protestants have been beaten and killed by Roman Catholic fanatics while the local police [in Colombia, South America] connived in the outrages.”
Roman Catholicism and Communism
p. 33
Roman Catholicism and Communism are deadly enemies BUT – Where is Communism growing the most rapidly in the world today? Where is the most fertile field for Communism? Precisely: in the most Catholic of Catholic countries – Italy, Spain, Mexico, Colombia, South America. All Latin America and Italy are on the verge of going Communist.
POAU Pamphlet by Glenn L. Archer, Executive Director of POAU, p. 9
“Then Dr. Blake reiterates what non-Catholics have long known and what Dr. E. L. Elson, the President’s [President Eisenhower’s] pastor, said on Reformation Sunday, ‘Where the Roman Catholic Church is dominant, you regularly find Communism [and Fascism and other extreme forms of Absolutism and Totalitarianism] stronger than where the free churches are dominant.’”
p. 34
POAU Pamphlet: “Can Catholicism Win America?” by Harold Fey, Editor, “Christian Century”
“It’s [Roman Catholicism’s] real weakness, in spite of its numbers, wealth and outward trappings, is accurately demonstrated by its incapacity to prevent the growth of the largest Communist party in Europe in Italy, and the second largest in France, both Roman Catholic countries.”
Roman Catholic countries are the very hotbeds of Communism.
Roman Catholicism, which keeps the people in bondage to ignorance, poverty, privation, want and very hard labor, prepares the way for Communism.
“Communism, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism – What is the Truth?” by C. Stanley Lowell
POAU ‘Truth Series’ No. 4, Tract
“The facts are the exact opposite of the Romanist assertion. A Latin America that continues much longer under the inhibiting yoke of Roman Catholic clericalism will be a lead pipe cinch for Communism. The Roman Catholic faith is no bulwark against Communism. It is, on the contrary, the point par excellence of Communist penetration. The crude medievalism of the Hierarchy, its uncritical obstructionism, its slavish adherence to educational and medical codes long since outmoded, its long record of hostility to the public good – all this invites Communism and encourages it.”
“What are the facts? Spain today is a seething cauldron with a Communist underground that may erupt any day. Practically every one of the Latin American countries has an imposing Communist conspiracy. We have poured $6 Billion into Italy in an effort to keep that country from going Communist – Italy, the home of the Pope and the center of his power. Yet more than a third of the Italian voters regularly vote the Communist ticket. At a recent election, the Rome municipal government just missed going Communist by an eyelash. Roman Catholic-dominated lands reek with Communists. This is an almost complete contrast with Protestant lands where Communists are few. The Roman Catholic, as found in many locales, is ignorant, superstitious and servile [to the Roman Catholic Church]. As such, he is a ready mark for the Communists.”
“In a sermon preached at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, he [the Rev. Charles Roach of St. Saviour’s Church, Croydon, England] said: ‘It is frequently said that the Roman Catholic Church is the greatest bulwark against Communism, yet the membership of the Communist Party in Italy is far greater than in [Soviet] Russia. It is very large in France, and, though underground, in Spain. You would not be surprised at this if you had ever lived in a country where Roman Catholics are in a majority.’”
“By their dictatorship, control and denial of freedom, the Roman Catholic Church is in effect a breeder of Communism.”
Roman Catholicism and President [John F.] Kennedy
p. 35
President Kennedy, as is well known, is the first Roman Catholic to hold that position in the United States.
He has come out publically on the side of separation of Church and State. He declares that our Constitution forbids the use of public funds for parochial schools, etc.
This is good as far as it goes. However, many believe that, quietly and in secret, behind the scenes in government, many things are being done to further the cause of Catholicism. Some believe that the President’s pronouncements are merely a smoke screen.
If the President is a loyal son of the Roman Catholic Church, he will eventually have to come into line with the ‘infallible’ pronouncements of the Pope.
The Catholic leaders in our nations are biding their time until the right moment comes – until they clearly have the majority and the power to force the last fatal step upon what was once Protestant America.
President Kennedy is still an obedient servant of the [Roman Catholic] Church.
POAU Leaflet “Clericalism in Today’s World”
“While Mr. Kennedy was a member of the United States house of Representatives, he received an order from Dennis Cardinal Dougherty of Philadelphia not to attend an Interfaith banquet in Philadelphia Hotel. He obeyed the directive, saying, ’As a loyal son of the Church I have no alternative but not to come.’” – (Church and State Monthly Review, Nov. 1960)
A good example of how the President really feels about the Constitution of the United States is revealed in a slip [up] he made recently as it is recorded for us in the ‘San Diego Union’ newspaper, Wed., Sept 5, 1962:
“Our Constitution – Is it just a scrap of paper?”
“President Kennedy says that while the U.S> Constitution is a remarkable document, we have to remember that it was designed for an agrarian society which feared the power of central government. In the long history of the presidency there has not been a more casual dismissal of the basic instrument of our system of government and of our freedoms.”
“Mr. Kennedy’s remarks were off the cuff to an assembly of high school students brought to Washington to study the value of government service. The President of the United States, standing on the lawn of the White House, told them the Constitution was written during a period of isolation, that it does not provide an automatic to the future in that all we have to do is follow the very clear precepts it lays down for us, and it will have to be made to work in a different world from the day in which t was written, both at home and abroad. . . . “
“In accepting the presidency, Mr. Kennedy took an oath ‘to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic.’ A million men have fallen in its name. Are we now going to say it is only a scrap of paper?”
The Roman Catholic Church is content for the time being to lay low and await the inevitable. She works in reference to continents and centuries.
A Roman Catholic Priest recently said, “In 80 years, Roman Catholics will be in the majority in the United States. History is on our side. It is only a matter of time.”
Paul Hutchinson makes the following statement in his book, ‘The New Leviathan’
“There is reason to believe that the old issue of Church and State, or of Church against State will soon be upon us in a fury unknown for a thousand years. Are we ready for that storm? Do we comprehend from how many quarters it is likely to blow?”
Other books:
American Freedom and Catholic Power, 350 pages – Paul Blanchard (The Beacon Press)
The Future of Catholic Power, 28 pages – Paul Blanchard, POAU
Church and State, 64 pages – prepared by the J.M. Dawson Studies in Church and State, The Supreme Council, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, So. Juris, USA
Roman Catholicism and Change – Has She Changed?
It is one of the proud boasts of the Roman Catholic Church that she never changes! This is quite a statement in the light of her constant, continuous changing through the centuries. The more she changes, the farther she gets away from the Bible, the deeper her apostasy. I have a list of 100 doctrines which the Roman Catholic Church has changed and which are contrary to the Bible. The following is a brief list of some of her doctrines which she has changed, invented, borrowed, corrupted, down through the centuries. Take a good look at them and then you be the judge as to whether or not she never changes. [But her claims to supremacy over the whole world, Papal infallibility, and Religio-political world power do not change.]
Taken from the ‘List of Heresies and Human Inventions Adopted and Perpetuated by the Roman Catholic Church in the Course of 1,600 Years’ by the Scripture Truth Society
Veneration of angels and dead saints 375 AD.
The worship of Mary, and her title as ‘Mother of God’ 431 AD.
The doctrine of Purgatory 593 AD.
The Latin language for universal worship 600 AD.
Prayer directed to Mary and the dead saints 600 AD.
The Papacy [the Papal Monarchy] and the title of ‘Pope’ 610 AD.
The kissing of the Pope’s feet 700 AD
The temporal power of the Popes 750 AD
Canonization of dead saints 995 AD.
The Mass developed as the sacrifice of Christ and made obligatory 1079 AD.
The celibacy of the Priesthood 1079 AD.
The Inquisition of Heretics 1148.
The sale of Indulgences 1190.
The dogma of Transubstantiation 1215.
Confession to the priest at least once a year 1215 AD.
The Bible forbidden to laymen and placed on the Index of Forbidden Books [Index Librorum Prohibitorum] 1229 AD.
The cup taken from the people in the Mass 1414
The doctrine of Purgatory proclaimed as dogma 1439.
Tradition of the Church declared to be equal with the Bible [in terms of doctrinal authority] by the Council of Trent 1545.
The Apocryphal books added to the Biblical canon 1646.
Separation of Church and State condemned 1864.
Papal Infallibility proclaimed as dogma for the Church 1870.
Pope Pius X condemns many discoveries of modern science as ‘Modernism’ 1907.
The public schools condemned by Pope Pius XI, 1930.
Other changes which have come are:
The counterfeit ‘sabbath’ [Sunday observance]
The Immortality of the soul
The eternal unending punishing of the wicked
Money [paid] for Masses – 1100 AD
Separation of Church and State condemned – 1864.
p. 38
Roman Catholicism and You.
“You have as much liberty in the United States as one can ever hope to have anywhere at any time. Make the most of it, for you will not always have it.” - Dr. Karl Barth, Swedish theologian
“The day is not distant, and it may be very near, when we shall all have to fight the battle of the Reformation over again.” – Robert Peel, 1840
“The banner of truth and Religious Liberty held aloft by the founders of the Gospel church and by God’s witnesses during the centuries that have passed since then, has, in this last conflict, been committed to our hands.” – Acts of the Apostles, pp. 68, 69, Ellen G. White
“Many free countries have lost their liberties, and ours may lose hers; but if she shall, be it my proudest plume, not that I was the last to desert, but that I never deserted her.” – Abraham Lincoln, quoted in POAU Pamphlet, ‘Out of Bounds’
“The servant of the Lord has told us to ‘arouse and come to the front. Be staunch to defend your Religious Liberty’.” – Review and Herald, Jan. 1, 1889
We can all help much by being true maximum Christians and by supporting the entire [SDA] church program to the utmost – at home and abroad. God is working through His organised [SDA] church for the finishing of His work on the earth. Let us support the entire church program to the best of our ability.
Catholicism is Baptized Paganism
Many pagan practices of the heathen religions were brought into the Christian church [in Roman times and especially in the time of Emperor Constantine] in order to lure the heathen into it. A few of these pagan practices are as follows:
Incense – Lamps – Candles – Holy water – Images (e.g. of Mary and the Christ-child, saints) – Rosaries – Wedding rings – Golden altars – Priestly robes – the Tonsure (shaven crown) - Sunday observance in the place of the Sabbath, etc.
The example set by [Pope] St. Gregory in an age of persecution was impetuously followed when a time of peace succeeded. In the course of the fourth century two movements or developments spread over the face of Christendom, with a rapidity characteristic of the [Roman] Church; the one ascetic, the other ritual or ceremonial. We are told in various ways by Eusebius, that [Emperor] Constantine, in order to recommend the new religion [Christianity] to the heathen, transferred into it the outward ornaments of to which they had been accustomed in their own. It is not necessary to go into a subject which the diligence of Protestant writers has made familiar to most of us. The use of temples, and trees; incense, lamps and candles; votive offerings on recovery from illness; holy water; asylums; holy days and seasons, use of calendars, processions, blessings on the fields, sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure, the ring in marriage, turning to the east, images at a later date, perhaps the ecclesiastical chant, and the Kyria Eleison [Kyrie Eleison?], are all of pagan origin, and sanctified by their adoption into the Church.” – An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, by John Cardinal Henry Newman, (Longmans) 1920.
p. 39
CLOSING EVENTS Study 3
CATHOLICISM : THE THREEFOLD UNION – End of Part 2
ELDER GORDON COLLIER
[Excerpts]