This week the Vatican took another large step towards
bringing not only Protestants, but the entire world, under its authority.
In a public address Saturday, July 6, 2014, Pope Francis “lamented the abandoning of the traditionally Christian practice of not working on Sundays, saying it has a negative impact on families and friendships. … While he said poor people need jobs to have dignity, he indicated that opening stores and other businesses on Sundays as a way to create jobs wasn't beneficial for society.
Francis said the priority should be "not economic but human," and that the stress should be on families and friendships, not commercial relationships. He added: "Maybe it's time to ask ourselves if working on Sundays is true freedom."
He said that spending Sundays with family and friends is an "ethical choice" for faithful and non-faithful alike.”
As you may already know, in February of 2014 Pope Francis
sent his close friend, Episcopal Bishop Tony Palmer, to a Charismatic
Evangelical Leadership Conference hosted by Kenneth Copeland where he acted as
an envoy for the Vatican and declared that Luther’s protest is over, urging
Protestants to come back home to their mother church, Roman Catholicism. He also showed a video recorded on Palmer’s
iPhone of Pope Francis urging the same.
In May, the Pope met with United States President Barack
Obama to discuss religion and politics, as well as the relationship between
church and state.
Then in June, a delegation of religious and political
leaders were sent to Rome to meet with the Pope regarding the growing
ecumenical movement. Among the
delegation was a U.S. Senator from Utah and the mega church pastor Joel Osteen.
Also in June, the Pope brought together the presidents of
Israel and Palestine to pray for peace.
And now in July, the Pope calls for the entire world,
religious and non-religious, to observe Sunday as the day of rest.
For years people have wondered how it is that the Scriptures
could prophecy that the Roman church would rise again to a position of power
and influence over the entire world after its control was so weakened by the
Protestant Reformation and finally broken when Napoleon’s General marched into
Rome itself and removed the Pope from his throne in 1798.
Just 100 years ago it was unthinkable due to prejudice
alone. All Protestant churches still
held the beliefs of the reformers that the Papacy was the anti-Christ, the
little horn of Daniel 7 and 8, and the sea-beast of Revelation 13.
Common knowledge of the Papacy’s place in Bible prophecy created
such a prejudice against Roman Catholics that it wasn’t until 1961 that the
United States would allow a Catholic to become President. John F Kennedy was the first and only
Catholic President.
From the establishment of the Supreme Court in 1789 until 1990’s,
for over 200 years, Protestants had been given an absolute majority of
seats. Of the 112 Supreme Court
Justices, 91 have been Protestants. Only
12 have been Roman Catholics. Today, Roman
Catholics control 6 of the 9 Supreme Court Seats. The remaining 3 are Jewish. There are no Protestants on the Supreme
Court.
What was once unthinkable is today being seen
everywhere. The Roman Catholic Church,
responsible for more deaths and torture than any other power in history, is
rising again. Her deadly wound is
healing and she is regaining the power and influence that were hers during the
1,260 years of her reign, the dark ages.
How is this happening?
The Protestant churches have abandoned the Bible-truths taught by the
reformers: the prophecies that all point to the Roman Catholic Church as the
antichrist power! They have, in the last
100 years, fallen away from the historical interpretation of Bible Prophecy and
have accepted Futurism and Preterism, both of which came from a Roman Catholic
order, the Jesuits, as part of the counter-reformation of the 16th
century.
The world, when finally able to read the Scriptures for
themselves, in their own language, began showing that the evils committed by
the Roman Catholic Church were all prophesied in the Bible! In response, the Catholics developed their
own interpretation to combat the Protestants.
They declared that all these prophecies did not, in fact, apply to
themselves, the Roman Catholic Church, but instead applied either to events in
the future (futurism) or applied to events all in the past (preterism).
But there is at least one church which remains faithful to
the Reformer’s historicist interpretation of Bible prophecy, which reveals
events as they unfold throughout history from the time they’re given until the
consummation of all things, the second coming of our great God and Saviour,
Jesus Christ. Amen.
So, the Protestant churches slowly but surely accept the
Papacy’s interpretation of prophecy and, because of this, eventually forget all
that the Bible reveals about the power that rose from the broken Roman Empire:
The Church of Rome. Which leads us to
today, where the Roman Catholic Church is again rising to a position of power
and influence all over the world.
It is prophesied that Protestants and Catholics will unite,
and together will cause civil government to force the observance of
Sunday. I urge you to remain faithful to
the Bible, which declares that the Seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your
God, and to keep it holy.
"Perhaps the boldest thing, the most
revolutionary change the Church ever did, happened in the first century. The
holy day, the Sabbath, was changed from Saturday to Sunday. "The Day of
the Lord" (dies Dominica) was chosen, not from any directions noted in the
Scriptures, but from the Church's sense of its own power. The day of
resurrection, the day of Pentecost, fifty days later, came on the first day of
the week. So this would be the new Sabbath. People who think that the
Scriptures should be the sole authority, should logically become 7th Day
Adventists, and keep Saturday holy." Sentinel, Pastor's page, Saint
Catherine Catholic Church, Algonac, Michigan, May 21, 1995
''The [Roman Catholic] Church changed the
observance of the Sabbath to Sunday by 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.
In this matter the Seventh-day Adventist is the only consistent Protestant.''
The Catholic Universe Bulletin, August 14, 1942, p. 4.
"... you may read the Bible from
Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the
sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of
Saturday, a day which we never sanctify." The Faith of Our Fathers, by
James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, 88th edition, page 89.
Originally published in 1876
Q. Have you any other proofs that they (Protestants) are not
guided by the Scripture?
A. Yes; so many, that we cannot admit more than a mere specimen into this small work. They reject much that is clearly contained in Scripture, and profess more that is nowhere discoverable in that Divine Book.
Q. Give some examples of both?
A. They should, if the Scripture were their only rule, wash the feet of one another, according to the command of Christ, in the 13th chap. of St. John; —they should keep, not the Sunday, but the Saturday, according to the commandment, "Remember thou keep holy the SABBATH-day;" for this commandment has not, in Scripture, been changed or abrogated;... Rev. Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism; New York in 1857, page 101 Imprimatuer
A. Yes; so many, that we cannot admit more than a mere specimen into this small work. They reject much that is clearly contained in Scripture, and profess more that is nowhere discoverable in that Divine Book.
Q. Give some examples of both?
A. They should, if the Scripture were their only rule, wash the feet of one another, according to the command of Christ, in the 13th chap. of St. John; —they should keep, not the Sunday, but the Saturday, according to the commandment, "Remember thou keep holy the SABBATH-day;" for this commandment has not, in Scripture, been changed or abrogated;... Rev. Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism; New York in 1857, page 101 Imprimatuer
At the Council of Trent, held between 1545
and 1563, the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church met in response to the
Protestant Reformation. There were some
Catholics who believed that the church should, in fact, abandon tradition and
accept the Scriptures alone as the standard of authority.
Finally, after a long and intensive mental
strain, the Archbishop of Reggio came into the council with substantially the
following argument to the party who held for Scripture alone: "The
Protestants claim to stand upon the written word only. They profess to hold the
Scripture alone as the standard of faith. They justify their revolt by the plea
that the Church has apostatized from the written word and follows tradition.
Now the Protestants' claim, that they stand upon the written word only, is not
true. Their profession of holding the Scripture alone as the standard of faith,
is false.
PROOF: The written word explicitly enjoins the observance of the seventh day as the Sabbath. They do not observe the seventh day, but reject it. If they do truly hold the Scripture alone as their standard, they would be observing the seventh day as is enjoined in the Scripture throughout. Yet they not only reject the observance of the Sabbath enjoined in the written word, but they have adopted and do practice the observance of Sunday, for which they have only the tradition of the Church. Consequently the claim of 'Scripture alone as the standard,' fails; and the doctrine of 'Scripture and tradition' as essential, is fully established, the Protestants themselves being judges."
There was no getting around this, for the Protestants' own statement of faith -- the Augsburg Confession, 1530 -- had clearly admitted that "the observation of the Lord's day" had been appointed by "the Church" only.
The argument was hailed in the council as of Inspiration only; the party for "Scripture alone," surrendered; and the council at once unanimously condemned Protestantism and the whole Reformation as only an unwarranted revolt from the communion and authority of the Catholic Church; and proceeded, April 8, 1546, "to the promulgation of two decrees, the first of which enacts, under anathema, that Scripture and tradition are to be received and venerated equally, and that the deutero-canonical [the apocryphal] books are part of the canon of Scripture. ...
PROOF: The written word explicitly enjoins the observance of the seventh day as the Sabbath. They do not observe the seventh day, but reject it. If they do truly hold the Scripture alone as their standard, they would be observing the seventh day as is enjoined in the Scripture throughout. Yet they not only reject the observance of the Sabbath enjoined in the written word, but they have adopted and do practice the observance of Sunday, for which they have only the tradition of the Church. Consequently the claim of 'Scripture alone as the standard,' fails; and the doctrine of 'Scripture and tradition' as essential, is fully established, the Protestants themselves being judges."
There was no getting around this, for the Protestants' own statement of faith -- the Augsburg Confession, 1530 -- had clearly admitted that "the observation of the Lord's day" had been appointed by "the Church" only.
The argument was hailed in the council as of Inspiration only; the party for "Scripture alone," surrendered; and the council at once unanimously condemned Protestantism and the whole Reformation as only an unwarranted revolt from the communion and authority of the Catholic Church; and proceeded, April 8, 1546, "to the promulgation of two decrees, the first of which enacts, under anathema, that Scripture and tradition are to be received and venerated equally, and that the deutero-canonical [the apocryphal] books are part of the canon of Scripture. ...
