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Protestantism at Half Staff
Reflections on Papacy and Protestantism at the death of John Paul II
Larry Kirkpatrick
Preached at Mentone Seventh-day Adventist Church and first Published on GreatControversy.org on April 9, 2005.
Document URL: http://www.greatcontroversy.org/gco/ser/kir-protestantismhs.php
We are witness this week to the passing of a man who will doubtless be recalled as one of the last and foremost figures of history. The Papal reign of John Paul II had much to do with raising the profile of Roman Catholicism in an age in which many would think it unexpected. He played a critical roll in the collapse of the Soviet Union, transforming our world into one dominated by a mono-poled superpower—the very superpower predicted by prophecy to one day “exerciseth all the power of the first beast [The Papacy] before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed” (Revelation 13:12), and will soon say “to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads” (Revelation 13:14-16). Yes. And the leader of this lone superpower flew Air Force One to Rome this week.
Never before has an American President attended a papal funeral. The office of the pope at which formerly kings trembled and waited sometimes even barefoot in the snow, is returning to its former glories. Just a few short hours ago the chief dignitaries and heads of state of planet earth gathered in Rome for a funeral, the likes of which, again, this planet has never seen, indeed, this universe has never seen.
This nation founded on the principles of republicanism (representational government) and Protestantism (religious liberty), by executive order lowered her government flags to half-staff “As a mark of respect for His Holiness Pope John Paul II.” The march of prophetic fulfillment continues apace, and all the world is on its way to wondering after the beast. This week past has been one long Roman Catholic television commercial, and the next promises the same. Events like this, currently in process, allow us to take a temperature, to try to read the prophetic odometer.
We make no judgment concerning the pope’s ultimate salvation. He stood for many things with which we will readily agree. We cannot read his heart. His understanding of his position and of the claims made by the Papacy is not ours to measure. Because of Christian charity we are more than ready to grant him his sincerity.
Again, we can mourn with those who mourn, we can realize that for Roman Catholics around the world, the event is a one of sadness and sorrow. They have lost their leader whom they have been taught to look to. We can sympathize with these people, living up to all the light they have, who naturally mourn this loss.
However, as heirs of the Protestant Reformation launched 500 years past, we insist on holding the Papacy responsible for its teachings and actions. Bloody footprints track the hemoglobin of martyrs to the door of the Roman Catholic Church. We know the testimony of prophecy. This Papal power will one day soon return to her former persecutions. She will again compel consciences. She will again torture and maim those who hold to the Bible and who disagree with her corrupt dogmas.
If Protestants are ready to lower their flags to half staff in obeisance to the Papal power now, what will they do under threat of death decree?
In the Place of Christ?
But let us study God’s Word. Who—biblically—is the head of the church? Colossians 1:17, 18 answers. “And He [Jesus Christ] is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church: Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence.”
But the Pope is called the Vicar of Christ. A dictionary definition of “vicar” is, “one deputed or authorized to perform the functions of another; a substitute in office; a deputy.” In fact, the papacy teaches concerning this vicar, this head of the church, that (we quote the current Catechism of the Catholic Church, hereafter CCC):
CCC100 The task of interpreting the Word of God authentically has been entrusted solely to the Magisterium of the Church, that is, to the Pope and to the bishops in communion with him.
CCC 862 …The Church teaches that ‘the bishops have by divine instruction taken the place of the apostles as pastors of the Church, in such wise that whoever listens to them is listening to Christ and whoever despises them despises Christ and Him who sent Christ.’
CCC 869 …Christ governs her [the church] through Peter and the other apostles, who are present in their successors, the Pope and the college of bishops.
CCC 882 …The Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire church, has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power that he can always exercise unhindered.
CCC 984 …The risen Christ entrusted to the apostles the power to forgive sins when He gave them the Holy Spirit.
Here then is a power claiming exclusive final authority to interpret Scripture, that failure to listen to them is failure to listen to Christ and is despising Christ Himself, that a man is in the place of Christ, having power over all churches, even to the place where he may—blasphemy of blasphemies—forgive sins. He thinks he is the head of the church. But what does Daniel say?
I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things (Daniel 7:8).
The foremost features of a head are eyes and mouth. These are the chief facial features for reception and origination of language. You have to have a mouth to speak great things. The head of the church is Christ. But Rome claims that the pope is Christ’s Vicar, His deputy, His substitute on earth. What other falsehoods has that church told the world?
In the Place of the Holy Spirit?
Turn now with me to the gospel of John, chapter 14:26 and see. The Pope is a Usurper, for the role of supreme teacher was given by Jesus not to any man, but to the Holy Spirit:
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you (John 14:26).
Again,
Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth (John 16:13).
Our Lord promised that this infallible teacher would abide with us forever:
And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever (John 14:16).
The pope has assumed a position reserved for the Holy Spirit of God.
Christ is the Head of the Church. The Holy Spirit is the one sent to take His place on earth, and no man. How plainly we see that the pope is a false figure, a religious predator, a taker of what is not his own, a teacher of untruth rather than truth, and a false head, a leader astray. In our day of political correctness we may be blind, but hear now the clarion warning of Reformers of centuries past…
Voice of a Great Cloud of Witnesses
Hear the Protestant Reformers:
John Wycliffe:
The Pope of Rome, he is the very Antichrist and not Christ's vicar on earth.” (De Papa; A. Pope or Antichrist?; Wycliffe, Selected English Writings, pp. 70-72).
Martin Luther:
It was in the year 1517, when the profligate monk Tetzel, a worthy servant of the Pope and the Devil—for I am satisfied that the Pope is the agent of the Devil on earth—came among us selling indulgences, maintaining their efficacy, and impudently practising on the credulity of the people. When I beheld this unholy and detestable traffic taking place in open day, and thereby sanctioning and encouraging the most villainous crimes, I could not, although I was then a young Doctor in Divinity, refrain from protesting against it in the strongest manner, not only as directly contrary to the Scriptures, but as opposed to the canons of the Church.
John Calvin:
Some persons think us too severe and censorious when we call the Roman pontiff Antichrist. But those who are of this opinion do not consider that they bring the same charge of presumption against Paul himself, after whom we speak and whose language we adopt… I shall briefly show that (Paul’s words in 2 Thessalonians 2) are not capable of any other interpretation than that which applies them to the Papacy (John Calvin, Institutes).
John Wesley:
He is in an emphatical sense, the Man of Sin, as he increases all manner of sin above measure. And he is, too, properly styled the Son of Perdition, as he has caused the death of numberless multitudes, both of his opposers and followers… He it is … that exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped … claiming the highest power, and highest honor … claiming the prerogatives which belong to God alone (from “Antichrist and His Ten Kingdoms,” John Wesley, p. 110).
Many of these wrote while the faith of martyrs kindled still the smoke of burning pyres. The work of murder yet fresh. They wrote the truth. It is hard for us to hear them, for we live in, and are the product of, a flabby and superficial age.
One person on the internet, referring to citations like those above, made this observation:
It takes time and courage to study the doctrines of Rome but the more you dig into the error the more you see how antichristian it is. This system has never been able to answer such a simple question: What must I do to be saved? Instead it darkened the truth behind a cloud of sacrifices, indulgences, countless intercessors and other substitutes of the Gospel of Christ. The Roman Church has truly changed since the times of these brave man of God. She has become sweet and seductive as a prosti____ to attract compromisers (Maclej Bialy, July 6, 2004).
And the Testimony of the Spirit of Prophecy
Powerful though those men of God cited were, none manifested the Spirit of Prophecy. After the book of Revelation was given about 100 A.D., the voice of the prophet is not heard until we come down to the Advent Movement, and then Ellen White. God spoke to man again. Through the pen of Ellen White, the following was given to those who would believe:
The church that holds to the word of God is irreconcilably separated from Rome. Protestants were once thus apart from this great church of apostasy, but they have approached more nearly to her, and are still in the path of reconciliation to the Church of Rome. Rome never changes. Her principles have not altered in the least. She has not lessened the breach between herself and Protestants; they have done all the advancing. But what does this argue for the Protestantism of this day? It is the rejection of Bible truth which makes men approach to infidelity. It is a backsliding church that lessens the distance between itself and the Papacy.
It is souls like Luther, Cranmer, Ridley, Hooper, and the thousands of noble men who were martyrs for the truth’s sake, who are the true Protestants. They stood as faithful sentinels of truth, declaring that Protestantism is incapable of union with Romanism, but must be as far separated from the principles of the Papacy as is the east from the west. Such advocates of truth could no more harmonize with ‘the man of sin’ than could Christ and his apostles. In earlier ages the righteous felt that it was impossible to affiliate with Rome, and, though their antagonism to this system of error was maintained at risk of property and life, yet they had courage to maintain their separation, and manfully struggled for the truth. Bible truth was dearer to them than wealth, honor, or even life itself. They could not endure to see the truth buried under a mass of superstition and lying sophistry. They took the word of God in their hands, and raised the standard of truth before the people, boldly declaring that which God had revealed unto them through diligent searching of the Bible. They died the cruelest of deaths for their fidelity to God, but by their blood they purchased for us liberties and privileges that many who claim to be Protestants are easily yielding up to the power of evil. But shall we yield up these dearly bought privileges? …The Protestant world seems to be asleep. Protestants are losing the mark of distinction that distinguished them from the world, and they are lessening the distance between themselves and the Roman power. They have turned away their ears from hearing the truth; they have been unwilling to accept light which God shed upon their pathway, and are therefore going into darkness (Signs of the Times, February 19, 1894).
Let’s summarize some of that…
- The church that holds to the word of God is irreconcilably separated from Rome.
- Protestants are retreating to Rome in anticipation of reconciliation with her.
- Rome never changes.
- All the rapproachment with Rome is on the Protestant end.
- Bible truth rejected means movement toward even more unfaithfulness.
- True Protestants declare that union with Rome is impossible.
- In Roman Catholicism, truth is buried “under a mass of superstition and lying sophistry.”
- Those who remained faithful did so only “through diligent searching of the Bible.”
- At the cost of their lives they purchased for us liberties and privileges many today are cheaply surrendering.
- Protestantism a century ago was declared to be “going into darkness.”
The testimony of history is telling. The testimony of inspiration is grim. The testimony of this past week should give us renewed clarity about where we stand on the prophetic odometer.
A telling episode from a millennium ago helps us understand the Papacy, a duel between Emperer Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII. In 1076 the Pope made this declaration:
O blessed Peter, prince of the Apostles, by thy favor, not by any works of mine, I believe that it is and has been thy will, that the Christian people especially committed to thee should render obedience to me thy especially constituted representative. To me is given by thy grace the power of binding and loosing in Heaven and upon earth. Wherefore, relying upon this commission, and for the honor and defense of thy Church, in the name of Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, through the power and authority, I deprive King Henry, son of the emperor Henry, who has rebelled against thy Church with unheard-of-audacity, of the government over the whole kingdom of Germany and Italy, and I release all Christian men from the allegiance which they have sworn or may swear to him, and I forbid anyone to serve him as king. I bind him in the bonds of anathema in thy stead and I bind him thus as commissioned by thee, that the nations may know and be convinced that thou art Peter and that upon thy rock the son of the living God has built his Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Hist 151, Barefoot in the Snow, Canossa, 1077, http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/hist151-pohl-old/October18.pdf).
In 1077 Henry IV, the Emperor of Germany was compelled by the above declaration of anathema to seek the forgiveness of the pope. Henry was dressed as a penitent and stood barefoot in the snow for three days outside the Castle of Canossa where Pope Gregory was quartered until granted audience and forgiveness by Gregory VII. After this event, he said in many of his letters that it was his duty “to pull down the pride of kings.”
Neither George Bush nor any other world leader who attended the Papal funeral was forced to stand outside in the snow. But to see the president of the United States bowing and before the deceased body of the man who represents antichrist is a bitter sight. All the accolades of Protestants mark the fact that we are in a new day, and Christendom labors under the illusion that Rome has changed. Truly, Protestantism is at half staff this day. It utters no protest but rather pays homage to the office of antichrist.
Who is in Communion With Rome?
The Roman Catholic Church wants all churches to come under her authority, to be in communion with her. Are we in communion with her? Consider these teachings:
CCC 1035 The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell where they suffer the punishments of hell, ’eternal fire.’”
Do you affirm the existence of hell and its eternity? Do you hold that immediately after death the lost descend into hell for punishment in eternal fire? If you do not, you cannot be in communion with Rome.
CCC 1378 Worship of the Eucharist. In the liturgy of the Mass we express our faith in the real presence of Christ under the species of the bread and wine by, among other ways, genuflecting or bowing deeply as a sign of adoration of the Lord.”
Are you ready to take the papal wafer from the hand of the priest to your tongue? Are you ready to bow before that bread first in worship of it? If you are not, you cannot be in communion with Rome.
CCC 1393 ...The Eucharist cannot unite us to Christ without at the same time cleansing us from past sins and preserving us from future sins.... Because I always sin, I should always have a remedy.
Again, the Mass makes the Eucharist your magic pill. Upon the utterance of the priest “hic est enim corpus meum” the bread is transformed into the body of Christ. If you cannot accept this, you are not in communion with Rome.
CCC 1477 This treasury includes as well the prayers and good works of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They are truly immense, unfathomable, and even pristine in their value before God. In the treasury, too, are the prayers and good works of all the saints, all those who have followed in the footsteps of Christ the Lord and by their grace made their lives holy and carried out the mission of the Father entrusted to them. In this way they attained their own salvation and at the same time cooperated in saving their brothers in the unity of the Mystical Body.
And
CCC 2027 …Moved by the Holy Spirit, we can merit for ourselves and for others all the graces needed to attain eternal life, as well as necessary temporal goods.
If you refuse to believe in the treasury of the saints, that men (besides Christ) may merit salvation, that some may produce such great merit that the overflow can be shared with others, you cannot be in communion with Rome.
CCC 2175 For Christians its [Sunday] ceremonial observance replaces that of the Sabbath.
CCC 2188 In respecting religious liberty and the common good of all, Christians should seek recognition of Sundays and the Church’s holy days as legal holidays.
Are you ready to accept that the Roman Catholic Church has—legitimately—transferred the Sabbath observance to Sunday? That Sunday observance should be legislated? If not, you cannot be in communion with Rome.
Nor have we here addressed such teachings as Purgatory, Confession to a priest, indulgences, praying to Mary, and a thousand even more abominable teachings than these. Friends, I declare to you this day, I am not in communion with Rome. We are not in communion with Rome. Her teachings do not harmonize with the Bible. They are the teachings of antichrist, the man of sin, the wh___ and prosti____ foretold in the Revelation.(words left incomplete in order to prevent internet search engines from blocking this page).
The president has no business in Rome nor do we. If Protestants are ready to fly their flags at half staff for the antichrist, we cannot. Hundreds of millions of honest-hearted, converted, truly Christian Roman Catholic people living up to all the light they have may hold to these teachings. But where are God’s own, ready to take the truth to them and help them see it?
Conclusion
Think, my friends. What is next on the satanic agenda? Coming at us in swift darkness is the compulsion of conscience again. Just as fast as Protestantism is going into darkness, just so fast we may be assured a movement for the observance of Sunday is occurring in the darkness. And after, the mark of the beast. In that day those whom we have been slow to warn will be at risk of wondering after the beast. Even this past week we have been under the shadow of this training.
We cannot hide our colors. We are unalterably opposed to the teachings of the Papacy. We are irremediably out of communion with Rome, for Rome is irremediably out of communion with the teachings of God’s Word. Let us never forget what we stand for and what we are. Though seemingly all Protestantism flies its flag at half staff in this our day, the truth remains. God calls us to be faithful sentinels. May He grant us strength to resist every inroad. May He strengthen us to stand in our day as Daniel’s three friends stood in theirs (Daniel chapter three). Surely a curse rests upon any church institution that voluntarily flies its flag at half staff for the antichrist and does not repent. God grant us unbending knees no matter what comes. May this be our prayer as followers of Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Amen. GCO
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