Continued from Tom Friess – Romanism and the Reformation Part 2.

Transcription

Good morning, welcome to Inquisition Update. My name is Tom Friess and I’ll be your host for the next hour. Thanks for tuning in, everybody.

This morning I’m anxious to resume our reading and discussion of the book Romanism and the Reformation by Henry Grattan Guinness, a true Bible-believing Christian who holds the historicist view of Bible prophecy. Henry Grattan Guinness explodes the orthodox teaching, that teaching which has now become orthodox in the churches today, called Futurism. Futurism, in my estimation, is the greatest deception going today, and it is my pleasure, privilege, and blessing to get to do what I can do to restore the majority view, the historical view, that was held by Protestants and all Christian believers prior to the rise of Futurism, the historical view of Bible prophecy.

Lecture 2 in this book is entitled The Daniel Foreview of Romanism, and this is on page 35 in this particular book. The author writes,

Allow me to commence this lecture by reading to you Daniel’s description, that is the prophet Daniel’s description, of the divinely designed hieroglyph by which the history of Rome was prefigured. He has previously described the hieroglyphics of the Babylonian, the Persian, and Grecian empires, and then he says,

“After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth. It devoured and break in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it, and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. 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 a man, and a mouth speaking great things.

I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool. His throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him. Thousands, thousand, thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The judgment was set, and the books were opened. I beheld then, because of the voice of the great words which the horns spake, I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.

I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things. These great beasts which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth.

But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever. Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass, which devoured, break in pieces, and stamp the residue with his feet. And of the ten horns which were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before him three fell, even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows.

I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them, until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High. And the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. Thus he said, the four beasts shall be the fourth kingdom upon the earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.

And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise, and another shall arise after them, and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings, and he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws. And they shall be given unto his hand until a time and times, and a dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.

And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.

In these verses you have the entire story of the papacy, and what is more, you have its future as well as its past, the judgment of God as to its moral character and deserts. And how vivid the coloring, how graphic the picture! I wish I could paint, or better still, display in action before your eyes such a dreadful and terrible and exceedingly strong wild beast, with its brazen claws and iron teeth and ravening ferocious nature, with its ten horns and its strange head-like Little Horn, able to see and speak and blaspheme the Almighty, so as at last to bring down destruction on the beast itself.

I wish I could let you watch it, rendering and tearing its enemies, breaking their bones in pieces, devouring their flesh, and in wanton, fierce ferocity, stamping on and trampling with its brazen clawed teeth what it cannot consume.

If you had learned the ABC of the language of hieroglyphics, you would at once recognize that such creatures as this are figures of godless nations, godless empires, kingdoms which are brutal in their ignorance of God, in their absence of self-control, in their bestial instincts, which love bloodshed and are reckless of human agony, selfish, terrible, cruel, mighty. They represent and recall proud military heroes like Julius Caesar, who trampled down all that opposed them, cruel despots who oppressed their fellows, reckless conquerors like Tamerlane or Napoleon, to whom the slaughter of millions of mankind was a matter of no moment.

This is the generic signification of all such hieroglyphs. But we’re not left to guess the meaning and application of this particular monster. The symbol has a divine interpretation.

Quote, the fourth beast, we read, shall be the fourth kingdom upon the earth. That beyond all question was Rome, as all historians agree. The fourth and last of the great universal empires of antiquity.

The monster represents Rome, her whole existence as a supreme or ruling power, after the fall of the Greek or Macedonian beast before her attacks in B.C. 197. It represents, therefore, the history of Rome for over 2,000 years in the past, and on into a time still future. For be it well noted, this beast ravages and rules, and his characteristic Little Horn blasphemes and boasts, right up to the point when empires like the wild beast come to an end, and the Son of Man and the saints of the Most High take the kingdom and possess it forever.

It is important that we should clearly grasp one great historical fact. For instance, the rule of Rome has never, since it first commenced, ceased to exist, save once, and only once for a very brief period of time, during the Gothic invasions. It has changed in character, as we have seen, but it has continued.

Rome ruled the known world at the first advent of Christ, and still rules hundreds of millions of mankind, and will continue so to do right up until the second advent of Christ. So this prophecy teaches, for not until the Son of Man takes the dominion of the earth and establishes a kingdom that shall never pass away, is the monster representing Roman rule destroyed. The rule of Rome, we repeat, has never ceased.

It was a secular pagan power for five or six hundred years. It has been an ecclesiastical and apostate Christian power ever since, that is to say, for twelve or thirteen centuries. There lay a brief period between these two stages, during which professing Christian emperors ruled from Rome, followed by an interval when, for a time, it seemed as if the great city had received a fatal blow from her Gothic captors.

It seems so, but it was not so, for the Word of God cannot be broken. The rule of Rome revived in a new form, and was as real under the popes of the thirteenth century as it had been under the Caesars of the first. It was as oppressive, cruel, and bloody under Innocent the third as it had been under Nero and Domitian.

The reality was the same, though the form had changed. The Caesars did not persecute the witnesses of Jesus more severely and bitterly than did the popes. Diocletian did not destroy the saints or oppose the gospel more than did the Inquisition of papal days.

Rome is one and the same all through, both locally and morally. One dreadful wild beast represents her, though the symbol, like the history it prefigures, has two parts. There was the undivided stage, and there has been the tenfold stage.

The one is Rome pagan, the other Rome papal. The one is the old empire, and the other the modern pontificate. The one is the empire of the Caesars, the other is the Roman papacy.

I speak broadly, omitting all detail for the present. We shall find more than that when we come by and by to John’s later foreview. Daniel’s was a distant view in the days of Belshazzar, too distant altogether for detail. No artist paints the sheep on the hillside if the hill be fifty miles off. He may sketch its bold outline, but he omits minor detail. So Daniel’s distant foreview, dating from twenty-five hundred years ago, shows the two great sections of Roman history, the undivided military empire followed by the commonwealth of papal Christendom, the latter as truly Latin in character as the former.

And he shows the end of Rome at the second advent of Christ. But he refrains from encumbering his striking sketch with confusing political details. He does not fail, however, to delineate fully the moral and religious features of the power ruling from Rome during the second half of the story, the power symbolized by the proud, intelligent, blasphemous, head-like Little Horn of the Roman beast.

To this he devotes, on the contrary, the greater part of the prophecy. And I must ask you now carefully to note the various points that prove this horn to be a marvelous prophetic symbol or hieroglyph of the Roman papacy, fitting it as one of Chubb’s keys fits the lock for which it is made, perfectly and in every part, while it refuses absolutely to adapt itself to any other.

The main points in the nature, character, and actings of this Little Horn, which we must note in order to discover the power intended, are these.

Number one, its place within the body of the fourth empire.

Number two, the period of its origin, soon after the division of the Roman territory into ten kingdoms.

Number three, its nature, different from the other kingdoms, though in some respects like them. It was a horn, but with eyes and a mouth. It would be a kingdom like the rest, a monarchy, but its kings would be overseers, or bishops and prophets.

Number four, its moral character, boastful and blasphemous, great words spoken against the Most High.

Number five, its lawlessness. It would claim authority over times and laws.

Number six, its opposition to the saints. It would be a persecuting power, and that for so long a period that it would wear out the saints of the Most High, who would be given into its hand for a time.

Number seven, its duration, quote, time, times, and a half, unquote, or 1,260 years.

Number eight, its doom. It would suffer the loss of its dominion before itself was destroyed, quote, they shall take away its dominion. To consume and destroy it to the end, unquote.

Here are eight distinct and perfectly tangible features. If they all meet in one great reality, if we find them all characterizing one and the same power, can we question that that is the power intended? They do all meet in the Roman Papacy, whose history I have just briefly recalled. And we are therefore bold to say it is the great and evil reality predicted.

A few words on each of these points to convince you that this is the case.

Number one, its place. No one can question that the Papacy is a Roman, as distinguished from a Greek or an Oriental power. Its seat is the seven-hilled city. Its tongue is the Latin language of Caesar and of Pliny and Tacitus. Its church is the Church of Rome, and is the only church that is or ever has been named from a city. Others have been named from countries or from men. The papal church alone bears the name of a city, and that city is Rome. The Papacy fulfills the first condition, therefore.

Number two, its time. We have shown that the last Bishop of Rome and the first Pope was Boniface III in AD 607. Now the Western Empire of Rome came to an end with the fall of Romulus Augustulus in AD 476, that is 130 years earlier. During that time, the ten kingdoms were forming in the body of the old empire, and during that time, the simple pastor of the church was transformed into a Pope. The Little Horn grew up among the ten. The Papacy developed synchronistically with the Gothic kingdoms.

Number three, its nature. The power symbolized by the Little Horn is, of course, a kingdom, like all the other ten. But it is not merely this. It is diverse or different from all the other ruling dynasties with which it is associated. It is a horn of the wild beast, but it has human eyes and a human voice, denoting its pretensions to be a seer or prophet or a teacher. It takes the oversight of all the ten. It is an overseer or bishop, and it has, quote, a mouth speaking great things, unquote.

Its paramount influence depends not on its mere material power, for it is small as a kingdom, a Little Horn, but on its religious pretensions. Does not this exactly portray the Papacy? Was it not diverse or different from all the Gothic kingdoms amid which it existed? Was it a mere kingdom? Nay, but a spiritual reign over the hearts and minds as well as the bodies of men. A reign established by means not of material weapons, but of spiritual pretensions.

It was founded not on force, but on falsehood and fraud and the superstitious fears of the half-civilized and ignorant Gothic kingdoms. The Popedom has always been eager to proclaim its own diversity from all other kingdoms. It claims, quote, a princedom more perfect than every human princedom, unquote, surpassing them, quote, as far as the light of the sun exceeds that of the moon, unquote.

It arrogates to itself a character as superior to secular kingdoms as man to the irrational beasts. Its laws are made not with the best human wisdom, but auctoritate scientia eqplanitudine, which the fullness of divine knowledge and the fullness of apostolic power.

Now, Henry Grattan Guinness is painting a picture that cannot be mistaken. Henry Grattan Guinness is literally pinning the tail of the dragon upon the papacy. The papacy is the biblical, historical, and prophetic Antichrist, and Henry Grattan Guinness is proving it by Scripture and by history. Two of the most powerful witnesses of this truth. The Bible has not changed, and neither has history. Now, he continues. He says,

Is not the papacy sufficiently diverse from all the rest of the kingdoms of Western Europe, to identify it as the Little Horn? What other ruling monarch of Christendom ever pretended to apostolic authority, or ruled men in the name of God? Does the Pope dress in royal robes? Nay, but in priestly garments. Does he wear a crown? Nay, but a triple tiara, to show that he reigns in heaven, earth, and hell. Does he wield a scepter? Nay, but a crozier or crook, to show that he is the good shepherd of the church.

Does his subjects kiss his hand? Nay, but his toe. Verily this power is diverse from the rest, but in great things and little. It is small in size, gigantic in its pretensions.

It is, or was for centuries, one among many temporal kingdoms in Europe. It is the only one which claims a spiritual authority and universal dominion. The salient feature here is, quote, the mouth speaking very great things, unquote.

Great words spoken against the Most High. And, quote, a look more stout than his fellows, unquote. Audacious pride and bold blasphemy must characterize the power that fulfills this point of the symbol.

We ask then, has the papacy exhibited this mark also? Time would fail me to quote to you verbatim its great words, its boastful self-glorifications, and its outrageous blasphemies against God. You will find pages of them quoted in my work on the approaching end of the age, and volumes filled with them exist, for papal documents consist of little else. The papal claims are so grotesque in their pride and self-exaltation that they almost produce a sense of the comic, and that feeling of pitying contempt with which one would watch a frog try to swell itself into the size of an ox.

I must, however, mention some of the claims contained in these great words which will show you the nature of papal blasphemies. It is claimed, for instance, that, quote, no laws made contrary to the canons and decrees of Roman prelates have any force, unquote. That, quote, the tribunals of all kings are subject to the priests, unquote.

That, quote, no man may act against the discipline of the Roman church, unquote. That, quote, the papal decrees or decretal epistles are to be numbered among the canonical scriptures, unquote. And not only so, but that the scriptures themselves are to be received only, quote, because a judgment of the holy pope innocent was published for receiving them, unquote.

It is claimed that, quote, emperors ought to obey and not rule over pontiffs, unquote. That even an awfully wicked pope who is a, quote, slave of hell, unquote, may not be rebuked by mortal man because, quote, he is himself to judge all men and be judged by none, unquote. And, quote, since he was styled God by the pious Prince Constantine, it is manifest that God cannot be judged by man, unquote.

They claim that no laws, not even their own canon laws can bind the popes, but that just as Christ being maker of all laws and ordinances could violate the law of the Sabbath because he was Lord also of the Sabbath, so popes can dispense with any law to show that they are above all law.

It is claimed that the chair of St. Peter, the see of Rome is, quote, made the head of the world, unquote, that it is not to be subject to any man, quote, since by the divine mouth it has exalted above all, unquote.

In the canon laws of the Roman pontiff is described as, quote, our Lord God the pope, unquote, and said to be, quote, neither God nor man, but both, unquote.

But the climax of assumption, the key of the arch of papal pretensions is probably to be found in the celebrated extravagant of Pope Boniface VIII, the unum sanctum, which runs thus, quote, all the faithful of Christ by necessity of salvation are subject to the Roman pontiff who judges all men, but is judged by no one, unquote.

Quoting again it says, this authority is not human, but rather divine, therefore we declare, assert, define, and pronounce that to be subject to the Roman pontiff is to every human creature altogether necessary for salvation, unquote.

Can you believe the audacity to say that to be saved you must be subject to the Roman pope? Are not these the words of Antichrist, another Christ, usurping the authority of Jesus on the earth?

He continues, all these claims were incessantly and universally urged all down the centuries by popes of Rome, and are still advanced as boldly as ever in official decretals, bulls, extravagance, decisions of canonists, sentences of judges, books, catechisms, sermons, and treatises of all kinds.

There’s no mistaking what they amount to. The pope claims divine inspiration. His words are to be received as the words of God. No laws can bind him. He is supreme over all. The very scriptures derive their authority from him. Implicit obedience to him is the only way to salvation. He is exalted above all, supreme over all nations, kings, emperors, princes, bishops, archbishops, churches, over all the world. He is as God on earth, and as such to be worshipped and obeyed.

Let me quote you from his own lips some of the great words of the Little Horn. The following language affords a mere sample of thousands of such blasphemies.

Quote, the greatness of priesthood began in Melchizedek, was solemnized in Aaron, continued in the children of Aaron, perfected in Christ, represented in Peter, exalted in the universal jurisdiction, and manifested in the pope.

So that through this preeminence of my priesthood, having all things subject to me, it may seem well verified in me that was spoken of Christ. Quote, thou hast subdued all things under his feet, sheep and oxen, and all cattle of the field, the birds of heaven and fish of the sea, etc. Where it is to be noted that by oxen, Jews and heretics, by cattle of the field, pagans be signified.

By sheep and all cattle are meant all Christian men, both great and less, whether they be emperors, princes, prelates, or others. And by birds of the air, you may understand angels, and potentates of heaven, who be all subject to me, in that I am greater than the angels, and that in four things, as aforedeclared, and have power to bind and loose in heaven, and to give heaven to them that fight in my wars.

Lastly, by the fishes of the sea are signified the souls departed in pain or in purgatory. Quote, all the earth is my diocese, and I am the ordinary of all men, having the authority of the king of all kings upon subject. I am all in all, and above all, so that God himself and I, the vicar of God, have but one consistory, and I am able to do almost all that God can do. In all things that I list, my will is to stand for reason, for I am able by the law to dispense above the law, and of wrong to make justice, in correcting laws and changing them.

Wherefore, those things that I do, be said not to be done of man, but of God. What can you make of me but God? Again, if prelates of the church be called and counted of Constantine for gods, I then, being above all prelates, seem by this reason to be above all gods. Wherefore, no marvel if it be in my power to change times and times, to alter and abrogate laws, to dispense with all things, yea, with the precepts of Christ.

For where Christ bideth Peter put up his sword, and admonishes his disciples not to use any outward force in revenging themselves, do not I, Pope Nicholas, writing to the bishops of France, exhort them to draw out their material swords? And whereas Christ was present himself at the marriage in Cana of Galilee, do not I, Pope Martin, in my distinction, inhibit the spiritual clergy to be present at marriage feasts, and also to marry? Moreover, where Christ biddeth us lend without hope of gain, do not I, Pope Martin, give dispensation for the same? What should I speak of murder, making it to be no murder or homicide to slay them that be excommunicated? Likewise, against the law of nature, item against the apostles, also against the canons of the apostles, I can and do dispense. For where they in their canon command a priest for fornication to be deposed, I, through the authority of Sylvester, do alter the rigor of that constitution, considering the minds and bodies also of men to be weaker than they were then. After that, I have now sufficiently declared my power in earth, in heaven, in purgatory.

How great it is! And what is the fullness thereof in binding, loosing, commanding, permitting, electing, confirming, disposing, dispensing, doing and undoing, etc. I will speak now a little of my riches and of my great possessions, that every man may see by my wealth and abundance of all things, rents, tithes, tributes, my silks, my purple miters, crowns, gold, silver, pearls and gems, lands and lordships. For to me pertaineth first the imperial city of Rome, the palace of the Lateran.

The kingdom of Sicily is proper to me. Apulia and Capua be mine. Also the kingdom of England and Ireland. Be they not, or ought they not to be, tributaries to me? To these I adjoin also, besides other provinces and countries, both in the Occident and the Orient, from the North and the South, these dominions by name.

And here he continues with a long list of the nations that he claims to be his own personal possessions. Now continuing he says,

“What should I speak here of my daily revenues? Of my firstfruits, annets, pauls, indulgences, bowls, confessions, indults and rescripts, testaments, distensations, privileges, elections, freebends, religious houses and such like, which come to no small mass of money. Whereby what vantage cometh to my coffers, it may partly be conjectured, but what should I speak of Germany, when the whole world is my diocese? As my canonists do say, and all men are bound to believe, except they will imagine, as the Manichaeans do, two beginnings, which is false and heretical. For Moses saith, in the beginning God made the heaven and the earth, and not in the beginnings. Wherefore, as I began, so I conclude, commanding, declaring and pronouncing, to stand upon necessity of salvation for every human creature to be subject to me.”

These quotes are taken from Fox’s Book of Martyrs, also known as Acts and Monuments, Volume 4, page 145.

Have you ever heard or even dreamed of greater blasphemies against the throne of Almighty God? It is futile to allege that the papacy does not make these claims and speak these great words against God, but in His name and as His representative. The answer is patent. This prophecy foretells what the power predicted would do, not what it would profess to do.

Does the papacy give God the glory, or does it glorify itself? Facts cannot be set aside by false pretenses. Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, the head of a Christian church would not overtly array himself against Christ. If he does so, it would be under semblance of serving him.

And here the author gives us a note to demonstrate the absurdity, the blasphemy of the usurpations of the papacy as king of kings and lord of lords. He says,

“Let us suppose a rebel in some distant province to forge the royal seal in handwriting and pretend to act in the name of the sovereign. He then claims to himself entire and unreserved allegiance. He abrogates whatever laws he pleases and enacts contrary ones in their place. He enforces his own statutes by the severest punishments against those who still adhere to the old laws of the kingdom. He clothes himself in the robes of state, applies to himself the royal titles, claims immunity from the laws, even of his own enacting, and pretends that all the statutes derive their sole force from his sanction and must borrow their meaning from his interpretations.

Last of all, he banishes strips of their goods, imprisons, and puts to death all those subjects who abide by the laws of the king and reject his usurpation. Surely in this case, the pretense of governing in the monarch’s name does not excuse but aggravates the rebellion. It lessens greatly, it is true, the guilt of the deceived subjects, but increases in the same proportion the crime of their deceiver.” This from Burke’s work entitled, The First Two Visions of Daniel.

What greater example could there be to describe the papacy? Now he continues, “The papacy has abundantly branded on her own brow this particular of the prophecy, the boastful, blasphemous claim to divine authority and absolute dominion. It has assumed divine attributes, and even the very name of God, and on the strength of that name claimed to be above all human judgment.

Number 5. Lawlessness was the next feature we noted in The Little Horn. We have given above some specimen of the Pope’s claim to set aside all laws, divine and human. Quote, The Pope has also annulled the only surviving law of paradise, confirmed by the words of Christ. The Lord ordained, quote, what God hath joined together, let no man put asunder, unquote. The Pope ordains, quote, we decide also that according to the sacred canons, the marriages contracted by priests and deacons to be dissolved, and the parties brought to do penance, unquote.

The papacy has further annulled the second commandment, given on the mount by the very lips of God, in theory by the childish and false distinction between heathen idols and Christian images, and in practice by hiding it from the people and blotting it out from the catechisms of general instruction. That’s right, in the Roman Catholic catechisms, the second commandment is omitted. That commandment forbidding the making and the bowing down and worshiping images and idols is completely gone from Roman Catholic catechisms.

The Pope has further annulled the main laws of the gospel. He forbids the cup to the laity, although the Lord himself has commanded, quote, drink ye all of it, unquote.

He forbids the people of Christ in general to use the Word of God in their own tongue, though Christ himself has charged them, quote, search the scriptures, unquote. He forbids the laity to reason or converse on the doctrines of the gospel, though St. Peter has commanded them, quote, be ye ready to give a reason of the hope that is in you, unquote. The Pope finally sanctions the invocation of saints and angels, though St. Paul has warned us, quote, let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility or worshiping of angels, unquote.

Though St. John has renewed the charge to the disciples of Christ, quote, little children, keep yourselves from idols. And an angel from heaven renews the caution in his words to the same holy apostle, the Apostle John, quote, see thou do it not, for I am thy fellow servant. Worship God, unquote.

Number six, systematic and long-continued persecution of the saints is one of the most marked features of the Little Horn of prophecy. It is predicted that he should, quote, wear out the saints of the Most High, unquote. His first great characteristic is blasphemous opposition to God.

His next salient feature is oppressive cruelty toward men. And just as Christ allowed his people to suffer ten persecutions under the pagan emperors of Rome, so he allowed his faithful witnesses to be worn out by the cruelties of papal Rome, quote, they shall be given into his hand, unquote. The church has to tread in the footsteps of Christ himself, who resisted unto blood striving against sin and was put to death by the power of Rome.

She is called to the fellowship of his sufferings. And while they secured the salvation of our race, hers have not been unfaithful, for the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.