Continued from Papal Theonomy And America Today by Ronald Cooke

The Ambition of the Papacy

The Papacy has never pretended to be out for anything but the absolute control of the world. (Augustine’s papal theonomy has now become a Reformed theonomy.) Rome does not attempt to hide the fact that it is the only true “Church” to which all others must return, and which God has ordained should rule the earth both temporally and ecclesiastically.

The strange thing today is that many Protestants seem to think that Rome has now given up her global pretensions. This is why all kinds of ecumenical overtures and dialogues are being pursued, and why accords can be signed.

However, some Roman Catholic writers, are still concerned about Rome’s political and social ambitions. Jean-Guy Vaillancourt, a Roman Catholic professor of Sociology at the University of Montreal, states:

Papal control over the laity is not an end in itself but rather a means to attain certain goals, some of which are political and economic rather than purely and uniquely religious. Since it is unlikely that the Vatican will abandon in the near future its preoccupation with, economic and political power… it seems rather inevitable that manipulative means of control will continue to be part of the standard operating policies of the Roman Catholic Church.¹

Vaillancourt then gives eight main spheres of operation in which Rome works to achieve the dominion she desires, and which she hopes will enable her to control the world:

1. ECOLOGICAL POWER, which is based on the physical control of material environmental conditions. An example of this is the use of territory, buildings, or real estate to control people.

2. REMUNERATIVE POWER, based on material or nonmaterial rewards or compensations. An example of this is the way Pius XII Foundation uses its funds to support some lay activities and not others.

3. COERCIVE POWER, based on physical or psychic violence. Examples of this are burning at the stake, torture, imprisonment, banishment, blackmail, removal from office, denouncement.

4. SOCIAL POWER, based on the use of structural organizational mechanisms such as Catholic Action congresses, peer-group pressures, rumors, social ostracism, use of the mass media, nepotism and selective recruitment.

5. LEGAL POWER, juridically founded, or simply based on bureaucratic and administrative norms. An example of this is the rule of secrecy. Another is censorship.

6. TRADITIONAL POWER, based on the use of traditional symbols, rituals, ideas, and sentiments. The cementing of loyalty through the Mass of a torch-lit procession would be an example of this kind of power.

7. EXPERT POWER, based on professional, technical, or scientific or purely rational arguments. An example of this would be the recourse to commission experts to bolster one’s position. The Pope’s speeches and encyclicals would be another example of this kind of power.

8. CHARISMATIC POWER, based on, exemplary or ethical prophecy. Examples of this are calls for social justice and equality used extensively in recent years.²

We could add at least two other sources of power to Vaillancourt’s eight:

9. Symbolic Power based on the “sacraments” of Romanism which keep many in submission to the “church.”

10. Spiritual Power by which it holds the deluded masses in check, and also in fear, by teaching the lying fiction of Purgatory.

Because of these powers, which are at work all the time, in countries all over the globe, the Papacy can control large segments of populations, and through this control it can pressure governments to follow the Vatican line. This occurs in many different countries in the world in 1996.

The Papacy, as a monolithic structure, wields enormous clout politically in many countries at the present time. Roman Catholicism, because of its global nature, is eminently qualified to overcome the resistance of almost any government, at any time, on those issues which it raises. It sees itself as the handmaiden of God, and believes its destiny is to fulfill the will of God. It views itself as the millennial hope of mankind. Time means very little to the aspirations of the Papacy. In its timeless effort, it views its opponents as those who temporarily hinder its progress, but who must give way, sooner or later, to the triumph of the Papacy.

As Dr. Walter Montano, the converted Roman Catholic priest noted, Rome regards herself as:

A perfect society, judge in its own cause, omnicompetent and self-sufficient. Anything that furthers its interests political or social, as well as religious, is considered to be according to the will of God.³

It moves through history like a cumbersome giant. Forcing its will when it can; pleading its cause when it cannot. Viewing itself as originated by Christ, calling Peter the first Pope, and viewing all others as enemies at worst, and prospects at best.

Never conceding to be in error and viewing itself as the sole repository of the truth. Men may come and go, opponents may come and go, but the church moves on unhindered to its manifest destiny.

The Roman Catholic “church” is like an absolute monarchy. The ecclesiastical hierarchy exercises complete power over the individual. It operates without elections while trumpeting out its deceptive praises of democracy. Only the Pope is elected, but even he must be chosen from the college of Cardinals all of whom are APPOINTED not elected. So it operates an elite closed-shop of only those appointed by their overseers. It rules according to the model of an absolute despotism with the Pope the supreme despot.

Roman Catholics may oppose the will of their church, and they do in many countries, but that does not make the church democratic, or even representative, nor does it CHANGE its goals or teachings one iota. The “church” recognizes that it may go through lean times in certain countries, but it remains poised to regain control whenever and wherever it can. Poland is a good example of how the church was imprisoned by a government for a time, but soon regained control again. It outlived its communist captors.

This is what makes Rome so unique. This is what destroys all other pretenders. Only Rome can qualify as the great antichristian usurper and pretender. Other aspirants all fall by their own weight.*

* A rebuilt Babylon in the Middle East can scarcely meet one of the elements of Mystery Babylon. Such elements as drunken with the blood of the saints; the great city which reigns over the kings of the earth; All nations have drunk of her fornication; in her was found the blood of the prophets, and of the saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth; she is the hold of every foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

Rome has centered its activities, in a great measure, upon both England and America in the past century. These were the two most Protestant nations on the earth, and two of the most powerful nations on earth, in the past century or so. Rome has sent more Jesuits to these two countries than any other countries in the world.

One has only to glance at these two countries NOW, to see the great changes which have occurred in them over the past 100 years. These two once-Protestant nations are now well on their way to becoming overrun by the Papacy. They have been subject to an unbelievable amount of Vatican propaganda in this century. This propaganda has had an enormous effect on the Protestant Churches if nowhere else. Even those, who purport to be evangelicals, are now succumbing to the pious platitudes of Rome.

In 1975, here in the United States, the Pastoral Plan of Action was set forth by the American Roman Catholic bishops. This pastoral plan (it had very little to do with the pastorate) was set in motion to enable the Roman Catholic “church” to become much more deeply involved in the politics of the United States. The formidable machinery of the “church” was put in gear ostensibly to fight abortion, but really to use the issue of abortion to enable the American Roman Catholic “church” to mobilize politically.

Just how well they have succeeded can be seen in the fact that the reconstructionists, the conservatives, the charismatics, some evangelicals, and even the neofundamentalists have all been taken in by Rome’s crusade. This is seen in the resolution passed by the PCA against the Evangelical-Roman Catholic Accord. The PCA stated its case against the works-religion of Roman Catholicism quite clearly but then added at the end:

The Presbyterian Church in America commends the Roman Catholic Church for its principled opposition to some of our national sins and believes that it is altogether proper for members of this church to be co-belligerents with Roman Catholics in these social and political endeavors.⁴

This is really a strange statement coming from men who are supposed to know theology. Surely one of the most heinous national sins America is guilty of in this generation is idolatry. In our study Apostasy and Optimism we dealt with how much God’s Word has to say about idolatry and the judgments of God which fall upon idolaters. I cannot make common cause with idolaters, for if I do, I bring myself under the judgment of God.

The fundamentalists of the Moral Majority sought to become co-belligerents with Rome. They soon found out that Rome merely used them for its own advantage. One writer pointed out after the rise of the Moral Majority:

None of us who has ever worked extensively with fundamentalist churches, or lived among fundamentalists ever took the claim that the Moral Majority was a fundamentalist organization seriously. One characteristic common among fundamentalists is a keen sense of individualism… They strongly resist the “herding” that characterizes other major denominations such as the Catholic Church…

In contrast, the Catholic Church with its keen sense of organization acquired over a two-thousand-year history, found the organization of the fundamentalists a relatively simple task [to take over] by providing the entire organization infrastructure, including the organization of the fifty autonomous state chapters and the organizations in the 435 congressional districts, with few exceptions.⁵

He later added: “The far more experienced and autocratic Catholic Church found the fundamentalists easy prey.”⁶

Rome has been on the job of either ruling the world, or trying to rule it, for the past 1600 years; so not only were the fundamentalists** of the Moral Majority easy prey, but the charismatics, the evangelicals, and the reconstructionists as well.

** The use of the word “fundamentalists” here is the popular use. Falwell and his Moral Majority NEVER represented TRUE fundamentalism. Falwell represented Neo-Fundamentalism which refused to accept the strict separatist position of historic fundamentalism and so was able then to work with Mormons, Roman Catholics, Jews, and anyone else to “save” America. We believe that America needs to be saved from Mormonism, Romanism, Judaism and all the other false cults and religions as well, if it is ever to be truly SAVED! And even if America goes down into complete oblivion, people still need to be saved from Mormonism, Judaism, Roman Catholicism, liberal Protestantism and a host of other false religions!

Rome has now used the issue of abortion to become a co-belligerent with those of the Reformed Faith. How tragic that some of our Reformed brethren cannot see the larger issue of papal power and papal manipulation.

Rome is working to gain respectability among Protestants. But she has not given up one of her false doctrines, or practices, to achieve her ends.

There is a battle against abortion to be fought today in America, but there is an even larger WAR to be prosecuted against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. The war against evil can NEVER be prosecuted, much less won, by joining with those whose allegiance is not to Christ. Those who preach another gospel, the Holy Spirit of God states, are to be ANATHEMA not cobelligerents!

Lehmann noted that the avowed objective of the Roman Catholic “church” was to destroy the political and social order that arose out of the Reformation. He said that Rome’s determination since the Reformation, was to replace the Protestant social order with a hierarchical confederation of states, similar to what had existed before Protestantism disrupted the authoritarian order of the medieval papacy.

This is also exactly what some theonomists would like to do. They desire to achieve what the papists and the Jesuits would like to achieve: a return to medievalism and an end of the Protestant Reformation.

Make no mistake, the reason why Rome is now considered a co-belligerent with the Presbyterian Church in America, in their combined “cultural struggle” is because certain men in the PCA have embraced the false idea of medieval theonomy. The impact this pipedream has had upon some Christians enables them to view the GREAT ANTICHRISTIAN APOSTASY of Roman Catholicism as a co-belligerent in their battle to save America; and in doing so to tacitly discard the very thing — the Reformation — that brought their church into existence.

References

1. Vaillancourt, J. P., Papal Power, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980, p. 175.

2. Ibid., p. 268.

3. Montano, Walter M., Behind the Purple Curtain, Cowman Publications, Los Angeles, California, 1950, p. 99.

4. The 23rd General Assembly of the PCA, “Response to Evangelicals and Catholics Together.”

5. Mumford, Stephen D., “The Catholic Church and Social Justice Issues,” The Humanist, July/August, 1983, p. 9.

6. Loc. cit.

(To be continued.)