Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, vol. 4

January 29, 1889

“The Papacy. Daniel Seventh” Bible Echo and Signs of the Times 4, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

“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 brake 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 man, and a mouth speaking great things.” Daniel 7:7, 8. BEST January 29, 1889, page 42.1

Since the four beasts represented the four universal empires of earth (Daniel 7:17, 18), it follows that the fourth beast represents the fourth kingdom, or Rome, of whose iron monarchy we have already read. BEST January 29, 1889, page 42.2

But Daniel was not completely satisfied with the first answer given by the angel. From his connection with Nebuchadnezzar’s dream he must have known the main features of these four kingdoms; but there were some particular is upon which he desired more light. “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, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet; and of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom 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.” Daniel 7:19, 20. BEST January 29, 1889, page 42.3

The answer to this request was given as follows: “Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, ...and the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise; and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.” Daniel 7:23, 24. BEST January 29, 1889, page 42.4

The fourth beast was the fourth kingdom, or Rome, and the ten horns, it is plainly stated, “are ten kings that shall arise,” that is, ten parts into which the Roman empire should be divided. This division is mentioned in Daniel 2:41. It was unaffected by the incursion of the barbarous tribes which dismembered the Roman empire in the fourth and fifth centuries, the history of which is so graphically described by Gibbon. BEST January 29, 1889, page 42.5

After the division of the Roman empire was completed, which was in A.D. 476, another power was to arise, and in its rise was to pluck up three of the first kingdoms by the roots. There is so general an agreement by all commentators in regard to this “little horn” which had “eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things” (Daniel 7:8), that we risk nothing in saying at once that represents the papacy. The characteristics given in Daniel 7:8, 20, 21, 25, are met and the papacy, and in no other power. It uprooted three kingdoms to make room for itself; and as if to show the fulfillment of the prophecy, the pope’s tiara is a triple crown. Such a crown is worn by no other ruler. The three kingdoms that were plucked up will be named at a little further on. BEST January 29, 1889, page 42.6

“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.” Daniel 7:25. If we find that these three specifications apply to the papacy, then it will be useless to look further before an application of the little horn. We will consider them in detail. BEST January 29, 1889, page 42.7

1. “He shall speak great words against the Most High.” It is a notorious fact that the pope is styled the “Vicar of the Son of God,” indicating that he fills the office of Christ. Paul, speaking of the papacy, which he calls the “man of sin” (2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4), says that he “exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worship.” This is a parallel to Daniel 7:25. It is fulfilled in the pope’s claim to have power to grant indulgences, a thing which God himself has never promised to do. Further, it is fulfilled in the papal dogma of infallibility. This dogma was ratified by the council of 1870, and the following is a portion of the decree:- BEST January 29, 1889, page 42.8

“And since by the divine right of apostolic primacy the Roman pontiff is placed over the universal church, we further teach and declare that he is the supreme judge of the faithful, and that in all causes, the decision of which belongs to the church, recourse may be had to his tribunal, and that none may re-open the judgment of the apostolic see, than whose authority there is no greater, nor can any lawfully review its judgment.”—The Vatican Decrees, by Dr. Philip Schaff. BEST January 29, 1889, page 42.9

Although this dogma was ratified in 1870, it has been held for centuries, as is shown by the following monstrous assertion in one of the Roman decretals:- BEST January 29, 1889, page 42.10

“If the pope should become neglectful of his own salvation, and of that of other men, and so lost to all good that he draw down with himself innumerable people by heaps in the hell, and plunge them with himself into eternal torment, yet no mortal man may presume to reprehend him, forasmuch as he is judge of all, and to be judged of no one.”-Quoted by Wiley, History of Protestantism, book 5, chap. 10. BEST January 29, 1889, page 42.11

Monsignor Capel, who was private chaplain to Pope Pius IX., in a pamphlet entitled, “The Pope; the Vicar of Christ; the Head of the Church,” gives a list of titles and appellations that had been given the pope in various church documents, and from this list we select the following:- BEST January 29, 1889, page 42.12

“Most Divine Head of all Heads; Holy Father of Fathers; Pontiff Supreme over all Prelates; The Chief Pastor, Pastor of Pastors; Christ by Unction; Melchizedek in Order; High Priest; Supreme Bishop; Key-Bearer of the Kingdom of heaven; Supreme Chief, Most powerful Word; Vicar of Christ; Sovereign Bishop of Bishops; Ruler of the House of the Lord; Apostolic Lord and Father of Fathers; Chief Pastor and Teacher and Physician of Souls; Rock, against which the proud Gates of Hell prevail not; Infallible Pope; Head of all the Holy Priests of God; Chief of the Universal Church; Bishop of Bishops, that is, Sovereign Pontiff.” BEST January 29, 1889, page 42.13

These titles, and many others equally blasphemous, including “The Lion of the Tribe of Judah,” the pope receives as his own by right. In our own enlightened age, this title has been given to Pope Leo XII. by his servile flatterers, in whose eyes “His Holiness” is a divine being. No other power on earth has ever so opposed an exalted itself against all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that the pope sitteth in the temple of God, “setting himself forth as God.” 2 Thessalonians 2:4, revised version. BEST January 29, 1889, page 42.14

2. “And shall wear out the saints of the Most High.” When we come to this particular, the evidence is overwhelming. Both time and language would fail to do justice to the matter. Prominent among papal atrocities is the massacre of St. Bartholomew’s day. On the 24th of August, 1572, was begun in Paris one of the most horrible, and cold-blooded massacres that history records, but-that of the Huguenots. The king himself, Charles IX., took part in it, of shooting down many of those who were attempting to escape the fury of his soldiers. The number slain throughout France on this occasion is placed by the best authorities at seventy thousand. BEST January 29, 1889, page 42.15

But the saints were to be worn out. This implies more than outright slaughter. We quote one paragraph from the account of the imprisonment of the Waldenses when, at the command of Louis XIV., who was the obedience servant of the pope, they had been driven from their valleys:- BEST January 29, 1889, page 42.16

“We know not if ever before an entire nation were in prison at once. Yet now it was so. All of the Waldensian race that remained from the sword of their executioners were immured in the dungeons of Piedmont! ...And how were they treated in prison? As the African slave was treated on the ‘middle passage.’ They had a sufficiency of neither food nor clothing. The bread dealt out to them was fetid. They had putrid water to drink. They were exposed to the sun by day and to the cold at night. They were compelled to sleep on the bare pavement, or on straw so full of vermin that the stone floor was preferable. Disease broke out in these horrible abodes, and the mortality was fearful. ‘When they entered these dungeons,’ says Henri Armand, ‘they counted fourteen thousand healthy mountaineers, but when, at the intercession of the Swiss deputies, their prisons were opened, three thousand skeletons only crawled out.”-History of Protestantism, book 16, chap. 13, paragraph 18. BEST January 29, 1889, page 42.17

How many millions of martyrs have been put to death in the name of Christianity, by that most unchristian and antichristian power, the papacy, will never be known until the dead, small and great, stand before God. In this way, perhaps, more than by its wonderful pretensions and blasphemous titles, has the papacy spoken great words against the Most High; because, since it professes to be Christian, it has caused the enemies of Christ to revile the Christian religion, which they ignorantly supposed to be responsible for so many outrages. The papacy has done more to make infidels than all other causes combined. BEST January 29, 1889, page 42.18

3. “And think to change times and laws.” The Papacy has not hesitated to lay impious hands even upon the laws of God, and has remodeled the ten commandments to suit herself. To allow for her image worship, she has expunged the main portion of the second commandment, adding the remainder to the first, and has divided the tenth in order to make the number good. BEST January 29, 1889, page 42.19

Without stopping to discuss whether or not the Bible authorizes the change from the Sabbath of the commandment to the first day of the week, it is sufficient to note that the Catholic Church claims that it has made the change by its own authority, thus arrogating to itself the power to undo the decrees of God. That it does expressly set itself above the Bible, is further shown by the following from “A Sure Way to Find Out the True Religion“:- BEST January 29, 1889, page 42.20

“Lastly, the keeping holy the Sunday is a thing absolutely necessary to salvation; and yet this is nowhere put down in the Bible; on the contrary, the Bible says, ‘Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy’ (Exodus 20:8), which is Saturday, and not Sunday; therefore, the Bible does not contain all things necessary to salvation, and, consequently, cannot be a sufficient rule of faith.”-Pages 95, 96. BEST January 29, 1889, page 42.21

But the Bible is a more sure and sufficient guide in all things. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Timothy 3:16, 17. “Every word of God is pure; he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.” Proverbs 30:5, 6. Whatever varies in the slightest degree from the Scripture standard, must be wrong. He who adds to his words will be found to be a liar. Now, since the papacy does add to the words of the Lord, and boasts of its power to do so, it follows that it is one with that system of religion of which Paul says that its votaries “changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator.” Romans 1:25. It puts a man in the place of God, and boasts of its power to change the words of God, and to command the consciences of men, contrary to the decrees of God; and thus it exalts itself above God. What greater words could be spoken against the Most High? BEST January 29, 1889, page 42.22