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UN-GENTLE PERSUASION

We received an e-mail the other day – and the writer’s kind words just meant so much to us. Here they are:

“Dear people at Voice of Prophecy: Hello, there, my name is Mike . . . and I am Catholic. I hear a lot of people talk poorly about the Catholic Church, and it seems to me that every time I hear the Voice of Prophecy you have said nothing against the Catholic Church. I love hearing Lonnie talk about God; keep up the good work, and thank you for being there. Your friend in Christ, Mike.”

Well, I’d like to frame that and put it right here in our studio; I appreciate his generous statements very much. But I wonder, with a real stab of anxiety, if Michael would still send us this nice letter after what we’ve studied these past two weeks. Because in faithfulness to Scripture, as we’ve studied the ancient prophecies of Daniel chapter seven, we came to a painful conclusion. In considering the historical panorama of great animals or “beasts” that came along before Daniel’s astonished eyes, the power that followed them — described in verse eight as a “little horn” — unmistakably seems to be the Christian church of the Middle Ages. In other words, the Church of Rome. And tragically, the picture of the Church, AT THAT TIME, in that condition, is not a wholesome one. It was a force that would persecute saints. It would, by its words and deeds, actually end up speaking AGAINST God instead of on His behalf, taking unto itself the attributes and characteristics and functions and authority of God.

We’ve quoted from a couple of commentaries in this study; the one used by my own denomination — which admittedly is a Protestant body of work — has this to carefully report:

“[Pope] Gregory VII” — who died in 1085 A.D. — “proclaimed that the Roman Church had never erred and could never err, that the pope is supreme judge, that he may be judged by none, that there is no appeal from his decision, that he alone is entitled to the homage of all princes, and that he alone may depose kings and emperors.”

And you know, as we read a statement such as that, it does fall to faithful Christians everywhere to love people, and respect their own journeys of faith, but to also “speak the truth in love” . . . ABOUT INSTITUTIONS. Friend, please understand me. The “little horn” of Daniel’s prophecy wasn’t a person. It wasn’t a single believer, a priest here or a nun there, or even a pope. It was a Christian church that had fallen into error.

We have here in the office a book that is so old it doesn’t even have a print date on it, but was written by a Christian named John Foxe in the 16th century. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs is a tragic, heart-rending, dramatic telling of the dark stories that transpired during the Inquisition, where men and women were burned at the stake for opposing the church. The details just make you want to weep. What went on during those Dark Ages was horrible beyond what we can understand, and our recent glimpses by way of the Taliban and CNN reports are just a pale shadow of how people were persecuted for their faith. The New Catholic Encyclopedia has this frank confession:

“Under the influence of Germanic customs and concepts, torture was little used from the 9th to the 12th centuries, but with the revival of Roman law the practice was reestablished in the 12th century. . . . In 1252 [Pope] Innocent IV sanctioned the infliction of torture by the civil authorities upon heretics, and torture came to have a recognized place in the procedure of the inquisitorial courts.”

Over in Revelation, chapter 13, the apostle John describes this “beast” as uttering “proud words and blasphemies.” And even the Church’s official catechism, recently updated in 1995, says this:

“It is . . . blasphemous to make use of God’s name to cover up criminal practices, to reduce peoples to servitude, TO TORTURE PERSONS OR PUT THEM TO DEATH.”

I’m thankful, though, for the gentle, introspective tone in Dr. Maxwell’s commentary book, God Cares. He quietly asks:

“We are driven to ask ourselves how Christians could have been so cruel. We are reminded that Protestants also persecuted Catholics. And we recall that even born-again evangelicals can make ‘cutting’ remarks about one another and can eagerly destroy people’s reputations with unfounded gossip. Heaven help us all!”

And friend, we do have to let the tragedies of the past be the tragedies of the past. How many of our denominations could stand up under the scrutiny our friends in the Catholic communion of believers have been through? A writer to the Eternal Word web site noted that Pope John Paul II has issued something like 94 apologies “for different aspects of his Church’s history,” according to Vatican correspondent Corriere della Sera. And again, the Church’s official catechism has this as Item #2107:

“If because of the circumstances of a particular people special civil recognition is given to ONE religious community in the constitutional organization of a state” — and friend, let’s hope such a misguided thing never happens here in the United States of America — “the rights of ALL citizens and religious communities to religious freedom must be recognized and respected as well.” And over in Catechism Item #2297, under the heading of “Respect for Bodily Integrity,” we find these good words: “Torture which uses physical or moral violence to extract confessions, punish the guilty, frighten opponents, or satisfy hatred is contrary to respect for the person and for human dignity.”

Let me share just one more pastoral concern — and you can understand that I express this as a humble Protestant minister in the Seventh-day Adventist tradition. Here in Daniel 7, as we have thought about this “little horn,” the prophet tells us, in verse 25:

“He will speak against the Most High and oppress His saints AND TRY TO CHANGE THE SET TIMES AND THE LAWS.”

And how, we have to ask, did the church of the Middle Ages do this? Mervyn Maxwell shares a thought-provoking exchange, during the heat of the Reformation, between Martin Luther and the Church’s brilliant defender, Johann Eck.

“Scripture teaches,” said Eck, “‘Remember to hallow the Sabbath day; six days shall you labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath day of the Lord your God,’ etc. ‘Yet,’ continued Eck, ‘the church has changed the Sabbath into Sunday on its own authority, on which you [Luther] have no Scripture.’”

Now, friend, let me be as transparent as I can. We’re an Adventist ministry and we believe in the perpetuity and the power of the seventh-day Sabbath, as described in the Ten Commandments. And it is true that the infant Christian church moved from Sabbath worship to Sunday celebration fairly early in its development — certainly by the middle of the second century. You can read all about that in a number of good historical books, and there’s no question that those who participated in the change fervently loved the Lord Jesus Christ and wished to honor their resurrected Savior on what the Church soon called the Lord’s Day. But here’s a verbatim quotation from an earlier Catholic catechism, this one entitled The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, compiled by Peter Geiermann and dated 1957.

“Question: Which is the Sabbath day? Answer: Saturday is the Sabbath day. Question: Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday? Answer: We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.”

And all through the play and interplay of events predicted in these difficult-to-decipher books of Daniel and Revelation, two challenging questions must be considered. One: do we as the followers of Jesus obey God or men? And secondly: do God’s people have the right and the authority to compel the conscience in any way? Is coercion of worship, is asking the minority to accept the faith of the majority an acceptable thing or not? Down toward the end of Revelation is this chilling warning about the very last days of time:

“The beast” — here in chapter 13, the NIV Bible has this heading: “The Beast out of the Earth” — “was given power to give breath to the image of the FIRST beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refuse to worship the image to be killed. He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.”

Well, friend, those are disturbing images and issues for another radio Bible study. But I want to just embrace you today as a fellow believer, and invite you to press close to Jesus Christ and His pure gospel. It’s a gospel of free grace, of gentle persuasion, never of force. Whatever faith community you happen to be in, don’t accept the traditions of men over the inspired Word of God. And I mean that for me too — and all of my Adventist brothers and sisters. I mean it for my friend Mike, and the millions of faithful, dedicated Catholics who so earnestly love their Lord and Savior, Jesus. Any man, any woman, any boy and any girl who accepts Christ as their Redeemer is assured a home in heaven, in the eternal kingdom we find in the triumphant closing pages of both Daniel and Revelation, along with these words:

“Even so, come, Lord Jesus!”