Continued from The Papal System – XXXII. No Salvation for Protestants.

John tells us of a ferocious beast, or anti-christian system, that should make war upon the saints of God, and overcome them; that should perform great wonders; that should exercise dominion over all kindreds, tongues and nations, and receive worship from all that dwell upon the earth whose names are not written in the book of life, and that should be deceived by his pretended miracles.

The number of the beast is given by John, Rev. xiii. 18. Irenaeus, commenting on the number six hundred and sixty-six says: “As matters are thus, and the number is found in all the genuine and ancient copies, and as they who saw John attest, reason itself shows that the number of the name of the beast is indicated by the Greek letters which it contains;” and he then shows that the requisite number is found in

Transliterated from Koine Greek as Lateinos. The numbers of each Greek letter add up to 666.

and he fixes upon this name because the Latin government was destined, as he supposed, to be the last of all. Ireneus lived very near John’s time, and made a remarkable guess. It was natural to suppose that the Greek tongue should be selected to find the numeral letters, for John wrote in it, and so did Roman authors in his day, and Irenaeus himself used it. Eusebius alludes to this exposition of the number of the beast by Ireneus, showing that the saying attributed to him is authentic and that it excited general interest in the fourth century.

It is a singular circumstance, in connection with the word Latin, or Lateinos, that though from thirty to seventy nations are said to have been represented in the Vatican Council of 1870, the discussions, speeches, and canons and decrees of that assembly were all in the Latin language.

It is also a notable fact that Pope Vitalian was the first to ordain that public worship should be celebrated in the Latin tongue, in the year six hundred and sixty-six, the year with the same number as the beast!

The principal service of the Catholic Church is the mass; every other part of her worship is a mere ornament or appendage of that imaginary sacrifice, and throughout the world THE MASS MUST BE CELEBRATED IN LATIN. (Mass in Latin was finally stopped from the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council in 1963.)

The Council of Trent declares that, “although the mass contains much instruction for the faithful, yet it does not seem expedient to the fathers that it should be performed everywhere in the vulgar tongue.” And in all lands the great oblation of Rome is offered up in the language of Horace and Virgil, of Cicero and Sallust.

The “Latin Church ” is one of the proper names of the mighty papal sect, just as the “Greek Church ” describes a great Eastern denomination. This is an extraordinary name in view of John’s beast with his number. And yet it is one of the common designations of the Catholic world.

The whole public documents of the popes; and of the Roman court, intended for the ecclesiastical authorities of all lands, have been written in Latin from the earliest times; and are still communicated in the same grand old tongue. The Word of God, in the original Hebrew and Greek languages, was open to the popes. And yet, strange to say, the Council of Trent, passing the original Scriptures by, gave its solemn approval to the Vulgate Bible, a version in the Latin tongue. And from that time, the revision and translation of the Monk Jerome has been the only Bible of the Catholics. If in any land there is a Romish translation, it is from the Latin Vulgate, not from the inspired Greek and Hebrew.

In view of these very remarkable facts, it seems morally certain that the Latin papacy is the beast of John which should perform prodigies of iniquitous deeds against God and his saints.

Continued in XXXIV. The Sincerity of Catholic Priests

All chapters of The Papal System by William Cathcart

Download a PDF file of this article.

Please follow and like us: