Studies in the Scriptures, Volume 7: The Finished MysteryRussell, C. T. (Charles Taze)
Religion
Studies in the Scriptures, Volume 7: The Finished Mystery
Russell, C. T. (Charles Taze)
Bible -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.; Jehovah's witnesses -- Controversial literature
And they worshipped the beast.—“The following, called The Adoration, is
still a part of the ceremony connected with the installation of a new
pope: ‘The pope is lifted up by the cardinals and placed by them upon the
altar‐throne. One of the bishops kneels, and the singing of _Te Deum_ [We
praise thee, O God] begins. Meantime the cardinals kiss the feet and hands
and face of the pope.’ A coin representing this ceremony, struck in the
Papal mint, bears the words, ‘Whom they create, they adore.’ ”—B. 316.
Saying, Who is like unto the beast.—What other character in history ever
made such claims or received such homage?—Rev. 18:18.
AND who is able to make war with him.—“When, in A. D. 455, the city of
Rome was invaded and plundered by the Vandals, and all around was distress
and desolation, Leo, the bishop of Rome, improved the opportunity for
impressing upon all, both barbarians and Romans, his claim of spiritual
power. To the rude and superstitious barbarians, already greatly impressed
by what they saw about them, of Rome’s greatness and wealth, Leo, arrayed
in his pontifical robes, exclaimed: ‘Beware! I am the successor of St.
Peter, to whom God has given the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and against
whose church the gates of hell cannot prevail; I am the living
representative of divine power on the earth; I am Cæsar, a Christian
Cæsar, ruling in love, to whom all Christians owe allegiance; I hold in my
hands the curses of hell and the benedictions of Heaven; I absolve all
subjects from allegiance to kings; I give and take away, by divine right,
all thrones and principalities of Christendom. Beware how you desecrate
the patrimony given me by your invisible king; yea, bow down your necks to
me and pray that the anger of God may be averted.’ ”—B. 295.
13:5. And there was given unto him a mouth.—The mouth of Antichrist is one
of its leading characteristics.—B. 305; Dan. 7:8, 11, 25.
Speaking great things and blasphemies.—“How evident it must be to the
simplest minds that Papacy’s great swelling words and boastful claims
have, one and all, been blasphemies. The establishment of a counterfeit
Kingdom of God was a libel upon God’s government, a gross blasphemy, and a
misrepresentation of His character and Plan and Word. God’s character, i.
e., His ‘name,’ was blasphemed in the thousand monstrous edicts, bulls and
decretals issued in His name, by the long line of those who claimed, as
vice‐gerents, to represent His Son by the titles, appropriate only to the
Father or to Christ, which they have applied to themselves; and God’s
Tabernacle, the true Church, was blasphemed by the false system which
claimed to take its place.”—B. 306; Dan. 7:8, 20, 25.
And [power] IT was given unto him to [continue] DO WHAT HE WILL.—He still
continues, though he can no longer do what he will.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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