“Romanism as a system is no more in harmony with the gospel of Christ now than at any former period in her history. The Protestant churches are in great darkness, or they would discern the signs of the times. The Roman Church is far-reaching in her plans and modes of operation. She is employing every device to extend her influence and increase her power in preparation for a fierce and determined conflict to regain control of the world, to re-establish persecution, and to undo all that Protestantism has done. Catholicism is gaining ground upon every side.” The Great Controversy, 565, 566
Rome has a great history behind her of 1,500 years of exercising supremacy and control over the nations of the world. At this moment, she is moving in Eastern Europe, in Russia, and in Mexico. She is moving in the United States. In one month, our President goes to meet with the pope at the Vatican. This President is Jesuit-trained; and from all indications, he is forming his policy, at home and abroad, in accordance with the general features of liberal Jesuitism that have developed since Vatican II. Rome is moving very swiftly. Through His inspired Word, Christ enables us to cut through the propaganda of the media of our day to get to the bottom of what is happening.
A Roman Catholic conservative author has written that the United States Civil War was a religious war. In her astounding book, The Star Spangled Heresy, Americanism, 110, Solange Hertz writes, “One aspect of the Civil War which has been studiously ignored by establishment historians is its character as a war of religion. Protestants found themselves pitted against Catholics and Anglo-Catholics in a death struggle over two incompatible ways of life.” There is no getting around the fact that the only foreign power to recognize the Confederacy and receive its envoys was the Vatican from whose vantage point in the already-threatened papal states the issues could be distinguished with excessive clarity. When the U.S. authorities remonstrated with the Vatican, Secretary of State Cardinal Antonelli, for providing asylum to Confederates, according to an official report, the Cardinal replied that he intended to take such rebels under his special protection. Mary Surratt’s son, John, sought for complicity in Lincoln’s assassination, was even admitted into the papal states.
A physician friend recently sent me a most significant document. It is an article entitled The Vatican and Russia, by Deacon Herman Ivanov Treenadzaty, of the St. Nicholas Parish in Lyon, France. It opens to us a field of view of Rome’s activity with reference to Russia for hundreds of years. You see, ever since the split with Eastern Orthodoxy in A.D. 1054, Rome has been the implacable enemy of Greek and Russian Orthodoxy. This man, obviously a Russian Orthodox cleric living in Lyon, France, delivered the lecture in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, at the 24th Russian Youth Congress in the Jubilee Year of the Millennium of the Baptism of Rus’. He states, “It appears to us that Roman Catholicism is a great danger, threatening both present and future Russia; more dangerous than communism which is already on the decline.” And I would submit that it would not be so much on the decline as might be thought. It is assuming a new form because Rome has, in its encyclical, indicated that she is not in favor of the Stalinistic type of communistic or the laissez faire capitalism, but wants a middle path between the two. Quoting from Dostoyevesky, a Russian writer. He states that, “Roman Catholicism is more dangerous than atheism since it presents to us a profane and desecrated Christ, usurping the earthly throne. The pope took the sword and added lies, intrigue, deception, fanaticism and villiany.” Ivanov then comments that Catholicism is dangerous precisely because it offers a counterfeit Christ.
Ivanov reviewed hundreds of years of Russian history with reference to all of the political, psychological, and diplomatic efforts that the Vatican has made to try to overthrow Orthodoxy in Russia, showing how the Vatican has tried to rewrite the history of the introduction of Christianity to Russia. He reveals how propaganda was introduced through the media in Russia to try to destabilize the situation and pave the way for the Vatican to increase its power there. And even this current pope, today, is part of this picture, he points out. Soon after the overthrow of the czar Nicholas II in 1917, the Fatima visions which have indicated that if certain conditions were fulfilled, Russia would be converted to the papacy. It is now believed that those conditions have been met and that Perestroika is the conversion of Russia to the papacy.
All this sheds light on the gigantic struggle between Orthodoxy and the papacy. It reveals that though historians believed that the Crimean War was largely a human, political, and inter-governmental war, the archbishop of Paris, at the start of the Crimean War, declared that “it is a sacred deed, a God-pleasing deed, to ward off the Orthodox heresy, subjugate, and destroy it with a new crusade. This is the clear goal of today’s crusade. Such was the goal of all the crusades, even if all their participants were not fully aware of it. The war which France is now preparing to wage against Russia is not a political war, but a holy war. It is not a war between two governments or between two peoples, but it is precisely a religious war and other reasons presented are only pretext.” And then he comments that the case could not be more clearly stated.
He pointed out that the Vatican found the destruction of the czar, who had been the protector of Orthodoxy, and the Bolshevik Revolution a great opportunity to gain control in Russia and how disappointed they were when things did not work out the way that they had expected. And yet, they felt that somehow communism could alter the whole picture in Russia so that ultimately the Vatican could move in and take advantage of the devastation wrought by communism.
Why is this so significant? Well, by the early 1980s, more than half of the Orthodox priests in Eastern Europe were prepared to accept the primacy of the pope; and Rome realized that the time had come to strike. Using the solidarity Labor Union, which had been largely developed and fostered by the papacy, she began a chain of evolution in Eastern Europe that toppled one government after another with breath-taking speed.
Rome wants to radicalize nations, to drive them into left wing and right wing, and then, out of the insecurity that develops because of the contending factions, she feels that she can take advantage of the situation to impose a new order. This is exactly what took place in pre-war Germany. The communists were fighting the Free Corps which ultimately became the Nazi Wehrmacht. Both national socialism in Germany and international socialism in Russia had the same common basis. Friederick A. Hayek, an Austrian-born author who was a co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1974, has written several volumes exposing how the very principles that led to Nazism’s triumph in Germany and Stalinist communism’s triumph in Germany and Stalinist communism’s triumph in Russia are at work in the Western countries through socialism. We are now, in our nation, going into an enormous plunge of socialism based upon the thinking that has been developed in the Institute of Policy Studies. The social security card which was to be kept inviolately secret when it was introduced, never to be known publicly, has now essentially become our national ID card. Now, when through a health care program you have to fill out forms in order to get any medical assistance, delineating every aspect of your life, and the government can begin to control people from birth to death, all your privacy is gone.
The Russian constitution, under the USSR, made provision for religious liberty; but it also stated that if the security of the state was at risk, then those liberties could be suspended in the name of protecting the state. The very same thing happened in World War II in America when tens of thousands of Japanese were interned under the Preamble of the Constitution that it was for the common good. Socialism has, at its basis, the basic Jesuit principle that the end justifies the means.
The European Community is headed by Jacques Delors who is a devout Roman Catholic. When he took control about ten or eleven years ago, he took the European Community from a state of shambles and made it into a very dynamic force. Now we have the North American Free Trade Agreement which is similar in nature.
We have had in our country, for decades now, the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. This organization is now exerting enormous influence in this country. In his book, Secret, F. Stephen Powell documents how the Institute for Policy Studies, started by a communist a number of decades ago, has now found hundreds of front organizations for influencing American policy. It reveals that some of the top advisors to Bill and Hillary Clinton are some of the chief figures in this organization which has worked closely with the KGB for years.
Speaking of the treaty-making power of the United States, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “I say the same as to the opinions of those who consider the grant of the treaty-making power as boundless. If it is, then we have no Constitution.” On April 11, 1952, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles said, “Treaties make international law and also they make domestic law. Under our Constitution, treaties become the supreme law of the land. Treaty law can override the Constitution. Treaties, for example can cut across the rights given the people by their constitutional Bill of Rights.” What better way to repudiate the Constitution than to bring in a whole new framework of law. How acquainted are you with the North American Free Trade Agreement? It was written in such ambiguous language that there is a ninety-man commission that will be required to interpret it. Does that sound familiar?
Do you remember what happened to the Bohemians? When Rome wanted to subjugate Bohemia, she brought against them the greatest forces in Europe. She marshaled all of the nations of Europe, virtually, against little Bohemia. She gave the promises of paradise to thieves and murderers and brigands if they would only join and fight against Bohemia and subjugate it for the papacy. But as long as the Bohemians were faithful to the Lord, they could not be overcome, even by the most mighty armies. But there came a day when Bohemia decided to enter into a treaty with Rome. Rome granted all kinds of liberties, but they reserved the right to interpret this treaty. Bohemia was thrown into civil war, and it was a great catastrophe.
Now think of a ninety-man commission, with thirty from Mexico, thirty from Canada, and thirty from the United States. What is the religion of Mexico? There is a large portion of Canada which is French Canadian, which is what religion? Much of the rest of Canada is Anglican which is a step-sister; in fact, Solange Hertz calls them Anglo-Catholics. And then there is the United States. What is the premier school that produces foreign service personnel, the excerpts on international law? Georgetown University, the premier Jesuit university form which Bill Clinton graduated. The administration has chosen to keep secret the names of the people who will be on the commission from United States. They were going to release, them, but then they decided to keep them secret.
Meanwhile, from the Washington Post, Sunday, April 17, 1994, I read, “Clinton Policy Allows Public Housing To Be Searched Without a Warrant.” As you know, this has becoming a growing issue. “The Clinton administration yesterday introduced a new policy to permit police without warrants to raid and search apartments in gang-ridden public housing, but said the plan will not violate the constitutional rights of tenants.”
Harry Martin, editor of the Napa Sentinal, who has been editor and involved in at least six different defense intelligence magazines, has released the contents of a secret memo from the White House regarding the plans of the Administration to completely exterminate private weapons ownership and even camouflage clothing, ultimately, or anything having to do with anything that will enable the citizenry to resist a tyrannical government. This is the very reason, according to our founding fathers, why the Second Amendment was included in the Bill of Rights.
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John F. Kennedy conceived of the plan for all of the armies of the world’s nations to be downscaled gradually, while an international force, such as the UN, would be continually building up and increasing in power. Now, as our nation’s military is scaled back, there are reports of foreign vehicles, foreign military aircraft, and other troops pouring in.
At the same time, we see the UN decide to invade Somolia without being asked to come, setting a precedent for UN intervention. We see environmental laws blanketing the globe and a call for an environmental police force to enforce this internationally.
We know, according to Revelation 17, that ultimately there will be a grand unity of the nations. “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.” Revelation 17:12-14
Commenting on this passage, the Spirit of Prophecy tells us, that, “‘These have one mind.’ There will be a universal bond of union, one great harmony, a confederacy of Satan’s forces. ‘And shall give their power and strength unto the beast.’ Thus is manifested the same arbitrary, oppressive power against religious liberty, freedom to worship God according to the dictates of conscience, as was manifested by the papacy, when in the past it persecuted those who dared to refuse to conform with the religious rites and ceremonies of Romanism. In the warfare to be waged in the last days there will be united, in opposition to God’s people, all the corrupt powers that have apostatized from allegiance to the law of Jehovah.” Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 7, 983
The law of Jehovah is the foundational question. The law of God is the expression of His character. It is the foundation of His government, and rebellion against His law is rebellion against God. “In this warfare the Sabbath of the fourth commandment will be the great point at issue; for in the Sabbath commandment the great Lawgiver identifies Himself as the Creator of the heavens and the earth.” Ibid., So we have been warned that there is going to be a grand confederacy at the end of time. There will be a grand union, a grand harmony of all of the forces opposed to God’s law; and it will ultimately come down to the testing of spiritual loyalty to God and to His law or else unity with these forces that have confederated themselves against the government of God.
“Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph! For the Lord Most High is awesome; He is a great King over all the earth. He will subdue the peoples under us, and the nations under our feet. He will choose our inheritance for us, the excellence of Jacob whom He loves. Selah.” Psalm 47:1-4. He is awesome in His power. His glory, and His majesty. He will arise one day and vindicate the honor of His law which has been violated by puny man. These little specks of dust down here think to enter into rebellion against the great King of the universe.
God calls upon us to have spiritual loyalty in these last days, to know our King, and to act upon His principles. For the gospel of Jesus Christ provides a solution for every human contingency that we may be called upon to face in these last days so that we may emerge as overcomers—more than overcomers—triumphant in Christ.
The End