ANTICHRIST PAPACY

Answers In-Depth to Questions about Christianity

The Papacy Is NOT Anti-Christ

QUESTION: Recently I attended a prophecy conference at a local non-Catholic church. At first I
could not believe my ears. As time went on, though, with an open Bible in my hand, it all began to
make sense. About three days into the conference, Mr. Nelson, our talented leader, made a
rather compelling case from the Bible that the line of popes is the predicted Anti-Christ. By
changing one of the the Ten Commandments (the one about the Sabbath), the papacy revealed
its true identity by its wicked arrogance. I am seriously considering dropping my Catholic
connection in order to become a Seventh-Day Adventist. Much is riding on your answer to my
question, which is this, "Is the papacy the Anti-Christ?" Answered by Rev. Paul L. Rothermel

The short answer is, "No," but you will almost certainly need a detailed response.

You spent several days listening to "many biblical proofs" of the opposite viewpoint. You could hardly do this without trusting
the leader, at least to some degree. You will likely not be able to break free from these serious errors unless you can trust that I
know the Seventh-Day Adventist position well. If you remember the details of the conference, you will know that Seventh-Day
Adventists believe the following:

1) Down through history, but especially since the days of the Reformation, many faithful Christian leaders have taught that the
papacy is the Anti-Christ predicted in the Bible. Since the mid-nineteenth century, God has confirmed this doctrine by means of
His revelations to Mrs. Ellen Gould White, who manifested the end-time "spirit of prophesy" as God's delegated servant.

2) Since the papacy arose after the break-up of the Roman Empire into ten kingdoms (Daniel 7:24), it is "the man of sin"
predicted by St. Paul to arise after the restraining power of the Emperors is removed (Second Thessalonians 2:6-7). After the
last Roman Emperor lost power in 476 A.D., Justinian made the pope the highest ranking Patriarch (533 A.D.) and had troops
drive the Goths from Rome (538 A.D.), so that the pope would be free to exercise supreme jurisdiction.

3) Of the ten kingdoms which arose after the break-up of the Roman Empire, "the little horn" of Daniel chapter 7 displaced three
(Daniel 7:8,20,24). Through its allies, the papacy engineered the conquests of the Heruli (493 A.D.), the Vandals (534 A.D.) and
the Ostrogoths (538 A.D.). This left only the papacy and seven kingdoms (the Anglo-Saxons, Alamanni, Burgundians, Franks,
Lombards, Suevi, Visigoths).

4) This proud "little horn," which is also "the Beast" of Revelation, exercised dominion for 1260 "days" (Daniel 7:25, 12:7,
Revelation 11:2-3, 12:6,14, 13:5). Since a "day" stands for a year in symbolic prophecies (cf. Numbers 14:34, Ezekiel 4:6,
Daniel 9:24-27), this "little horn" reigned for 1260 years, while the true church was hiding from persecution (Revelation 12).

5) The papacy dominated history exactly 1260 years, from 538 A.D. until 1798 A.D. The papacy is "the Beast" mortally wounded
by a sword (Revelation 13:12-14), because Pope Pius VI was captured and imprisoned by the French general Berthier in 1798,
the 1260th year of the papacy's reign.

6) This wound was miraculously healed (Revelation 13:3,12,14), and "the Beast" continues until Christ's Second Advent
(Revelation 19:7-20). Because of the 1929 Concordat with Mussolini, the papacy regained a little of its former power.

7) Of all the kingdoms predicted in the Bible, the papacy is unique in that it is religious as well as political. Both the harlot and
the beast of Revelation chapter 17 are inspired symbols of the papacy. Since a symbolic woman in the Bible always stands for a
church, the religious power of the papacy "rides upon" its ruthless political power.

8) The predicted harlot ("mystery Babylon") is Roman, rich, religious, wicked, worldwide in influence, and clothed in purple and
scarlet! All of this fits the papacy well.

9) The beast of Revelation chapter 17 is the same reality as the first beast of Revelation chapter 13 (sometimes simply called
"the Beast"), the "little horn" of Daniel chapter 7, "the man of sin" of Second Thessalonians chapter 2, and "the Anti-Christ" of
Second John verse 7.

10) The second beast of Revelation chapter 13 is the United States of America. This country will one day serve the papacy
("the Beast") by enforcing a death penalty upon all who do not keep Sunday holy (this Sunday-keeping will be "the mark of the
Beast"). The seventh-day Sabbath is the testing truth of the last days.

11) "The Beast" can be identified by the mysterious number: 666 (Revelation 13:17-18). The numerical value of the Latin words
inscribed on the pope's miter, "Vicarius Filii Dei," his official title, adds up to 666. Latin is the official but dead language of the
papacy, which is "a king of fierce countenance" who understands "dark sentences" (Daniel 8:23).

12) The papacy has blasphemed God in several ways. It has proudly attempted to change God's Moral Law by changing the
Sabbath to Sunday, by dropping the Second Commandment against idolatry, and by covering this act by splitting the Tenth
Commandment in two. The papacy has also accepted worship as God and claims to be able to forgive sins, something only
God can do. So the papacy is "the little horn" of Daniel 7:8,11,20,25, "the man of sin" of Second Thessalonians 2:3-4, and "the
Beast" of Revelation 13:1,5,6, 17:3.

13) The papacy denies that the Savior took on the exact human nature which all of us have. The papacy denies the Incarnation
by dogmatizing that the human nature of Jesus has always been perfect, without any tendency toward sinning. The truth is that
both Jesus and Mary were born with a fallen human nature just as all of us are (Romans 8:3), even though Jesus never sinned.
So the papacy is "the Anti-Christ" of Second John 7.

14) Since it is a fact that the papacy killed millions of faithful Christians down through the ages, it is the worst religious
persecutor the world has ever known. As such, it is clearly "the little horn" of Daniel 7:21,25 and "the Beast" of Revelation 13:7,
17:6, 18:24, 19:2. It will kill again when the future Sunday law is enforced.

As the above points show, the Seventh-Day Adventist doctrine of the Anti-Christ is really built upon several fundamental beliefs
or assumptions. Since Adventism rises or falls on its rather anti-Catholic eschatology, fruitful discussions between informed
Catholics and Adventists will require much earnest probing of the validity of the following fifteen basic beliefs or assumptions:

FIRST SDA ASSUMPTION: Justinian and his successors were not Roman Emperors.

A CATHOLIC RESPONSE: Adventists quickly identify the ten horns of the fourth beast in Daniel 7:7 with the ten toes of the
image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel 2. By taking the ten horns to be the Western kingdoms that replaced the Roman
Empire after it fell in 476 A.D., they seem to be ignoring history as well as the Bible. The two iron legs of the image represent
the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire. Each foot presumably has five toes, but the Adventist position
seems to pretend that the foot of the Western Empire has ten toes! The Roman Empire was much more than a European
reality, and it did not end in 476 A.D. It lasted until 1453 A.D., when the Eastern "leg" fell to the Turks. If the Emperors must be
removed for "the man of sin" to be revealed (Second Thessalonians 2:6-7), then the papacy cannot be that "man" before 1453
A.D. The World Book Encyclopedia calls Justinian I, "the ruler of the eastern Roman Empire from 527 to 565." It has a picture of
him with the caption, "Justinian the Great was Roman Emperor in the A.D. 500's," and the entry says that "he tried to unify the
Roman Empire in a single Christian faith." Romulus Augustulus was not the last Roman Emperor; he was only the last Emperor
of the Western Roman Empire.

SECOND SDA ASSUMPTION: Each "day" of symbolic prophecy stands for a year.

A CATHOLIC RESPONSE: Adventists believe that time in a symbolic prophecy is always to be taken symbolically. They use
Numbers 14:34, Ezekiel 4:4-6, and Daniel 9:24-27 in order to prove their case. But how does this approach fit the symbolic
prophecy of John 2:19? Since "temple" is a symbol for Christ's body, it looks like a "day" can mean a "day" in an important
symbolic prophecy. Numbers 14:34 itself is not a prophecy. It is a report of how God promised to punish the wilderness
generation for disbelieving the spies. He clearly told them His scale of judgement. For every "day" the spies spent searching out
the land, Israel would wander "a year" in the wilderness. When God said "forty days" to the Israelites, He meant forty days, not
forty years, and when He said "forty years," he meant forty years, not 14,600 years (40 x 365). This passage does not establish
the Adventist point, nor does Ezekiel 4:4-6, which is God's command to Ezekiel to perform a symbolic action. Because Ezekiel
was a mortal man (he could hardly lie down for 430 years!), God shortened a year to a day of symbolic action. (Adventists
would be on firmer ground with this so-called "proof" if God had lengthened a day to a year, but He did not.) He told Ezekiel to
lie on his left side, one day for every year of Israel's sin, and then on his right side, one day for every year of Judah's sin. When
God said "day" to Ezekiel, He clearly meant day, and when He said "year," He clearly meant year. How can this establish
anything more than the truth that God can make one day's worth of symbolic action signify one year's worth of sin? Daniel 9
also falls short of proving the day-year principle. The Hebrew of Daniel 9:24-27 does not have "week" or "weeks" in it. The word
so translated simply denotes a unit of seven; it does not tell us how long the unit is. Context does. We know that the unit of
seven (the same Hebrew word) in Daniel 10:3 means seven "days" because of 10:2, its context. We know that the unit of seven
in Daniel 9:24-27 means seven "years" because of 9:1-2, its context. Other prophecies actually harm the Adventist position.
Since "tree" is a symbol for King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4:14-16, his humiliating fate is predicted in a symbolic prophecy.
Why are the "seven times" of this prediction exactly 2520 real days, not 2520 years, in the explanation (vv. 25,32) and in the
fulfillment ("days" in verse 34), if it is true that a day in symbolic prophecies is alway equal to a year? The "time, times and half a
time" in Daniel 7:25 is half of Nebuchadnezzar's "seven times" in Daniel 4, yet Adventists make it 180 times longer instead. They
say that "the Beast's" mortal wound occurred in 1798, after the 3 1/2 times of "the little horn." But the Scriptures may even
suggest that the "1260 days" of "the Beast's" persecution follow, not precede, the infliction of the deadly wound (Revelation
13:3-7). This would mean that, since "the Beast" who is said to have been mortally wounded in 1798 continues until the Second
Advent, and since a day equals a year, Jesus will not return until over a thousand years from now! So it seems that there is no
hard evidence that each "day" of symbolic prophecy stands for a year. This means that only Mrs. White's authority can
guarantee that "1260 days" (or "a time, times and half a time") means 1260 years. Why did many in the early Church, such as
Irenaeus, take the 3 1/2 times of prophecy to mean three and a half literal years instead of 1260 years? Why do we not find a
day-year interpretation of the Bible until medieval times? Why were the first to use the day-year approach medieval Jews who
rejected Christ? Could the answer to all three of these questions be that the Apostolic understanding of prophecy did not
include this day-year principle? In fact, the first Christian we know to have used this approach (Joachim of Floris) was a
medieval Catholic scholar who wanted to exalt the pope. Ironically, Adventists claim that futurism and preterism are wrong
because these were first practiced by medieval Catholics who wanted to exalt the pope. They like to present the first generation
of Protestant Reformers as a united front against such approaches. But Adventist scholar Leroy E. Froom rightly observes that
John Calvin was essentially a preterist (The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2, p.439).

THIRD SDA ASSUMPTION: Most of the book of Revelation does not predict events occurring within the lifetimes of its first
readers.

A CATHOLIC RESPONSE: Seventh-Day Adventists reject futurism and preterism for the continuous-historical approach. This
has several weaknesses, especially since Revelation is an unsealed book (Revelation 22:10). It is hard to understand how the
first-century readers in Asia Minor could have any inkling, much less a lively expectation, of largely Western European events
so far in the future. Nor would it have done them any conceivable good if they had understood them. Even centuries after many
of the allegedly predicted events have occurred, only Adventists seem able to identify these Adventist concerns with any degree
of certainty. It seems that most of Revelation does predict events occurring within the lifetimes of its first readers. Through John,
Jesus addressed those who needed to hear his encouraging message, the churches of Asia (Revelation 22:16). Since
Revelation 1:3 plainly says that "the time is at hand," most of its prophecies must deal with the near future ("things which must
shortly come to pass"--v.1). So that there can be no misunderstanding, the conclusion of the book repeats this very same
viewpoint by means of the very same phrases used in the introduction (Revelation 22:6,10). Unlike Daniel (Daniel 12:4), the
book of Revelation is to remain unsealed, because the events it predicts are "at hand." Adventists place the fulfillments of most
of the prophecies of Revelation hundreds of years after the time of St. John. While this approach may fit the sealed book of
Daniel, it does not fit the unsealed book of Revelation, which has no less than thirteen references that point to its fulfillment in
the near future (Revelation 1:1,3, 2:16, 3:11, 11:14, 22:6,7,10,12,20). John believes that members of his own generation are
able to experience the plagues predicted in the book (Revelation 22:18). Revelation concentrates upon God's judgements on
the Roman rulers who are creating a crisis for the churches by persecuting Christians. It is more about the last days of pagan
Rome than it is about the end times of the world, although it quickly paints in broad strokes the resurrection, judgement and
beyond as a means of encouraging those who are being persecuted by "the Beast." Since John expected the wise ones in the
seven churches of Asia Minor (many of them from Jewish backgrounds--Revelation 2:9,14, 3:9) to calculate the Beast's identity
by means of 666 (Revelation 13:18), it should not surprise us that the Beast is Nero, the evil, idolatrous and blasphemous
Emperor who first persecuted Christians. The Hebrew spelling of Nero's name adds up to 666. In Greek, his name even fits the
corrupted reading, 616. Nero's persecution of Christians lasted exactly 3 1/2 years. "The Beast" is this king. It is also a kingdom
(its seven heads are seven kings, the dynasty of the Caesars, including Nero) (Revelation 17:10). The "ten horns" are perhaps
lower powers that control the provinces of the Empire. St. John's readers recall "the little horn's" uprooting of three of the ten
horns on Daniel's fourth beast to make seven, the divine number, in order to symbolize its attempt to deify "the Beast," to give it
divine power, while ignoring the human reality of itself, thus making eight and a situation ripe for God's judgement. Since "the
Beast" has long since been cast into the lake of fire through the progressing power of Christ in His gospel, and since the
second beast of Revelation 13 ("the false prophet") cooperates with and supports and magnifies "the Beast," the second beast
represents the pagan leadership of the Emperor Cult, not the United States of America! Whatever the Lord asserts through the
Biblical writers is true and certain. All prophecies are fulfilled exactly as intended, but some are expressed in figurative language
(Psalm 22:6,12,16,21, Isaiah 53:7,9,10, Malachi 4:5 with Matthew 17:12, Matthew 12:20, 21:15-16, cf. Numbers 12:6-8, 1
Corinthians 9:9-10). Revelation, which claims to be prophetic (Revelation 1:1-3), is apocalyptic literature, a type of Semitic,
prophetic writing full of symbolism. It was intended to be a dramatic presentation of inspired visions and relevant insights of an
ancient Near Eastern prophet named John, not history written beforehand in the orderly way we modern Westerners like to see
it written.

FOURTH SDA ASSUMPTION: A "woman" in prophecy always stands for a church.

A CATHOLIC RESPONSE: The angel tells John that the woman is the city of pagan Rome. It's that simple! The angel who
spoke to John in Revelation 17:7-18 was surely from God and promised to tell John what the symbolism of the whore of
Babylon meant (v.7). But whenever someone explains symbolism, he always intends to speak literally. It would be nonsense to
claim to explain symbolism by hiding it under new symbols. Now the angel tells John that this woman is in fact pagan Rome, "the
great city which has sovereignty over the kings of the earth" (v.18). It is a city, not a church. Although the harlot spreads
religious perversion, the accent is upon her political dominance. The angel explains the beast first and in great detail, because
the beast is much more difficult to understand than the harlot is. Can Catholics be blamed for preferring to believe this angel
rather than Mrs. White? Adventists follow the angel's definition of the waters in Revelation 17:15 yet choose to ignore the same
angel's definition of the Babylonian whore. If Adventists are wrong about this woman (even as they claim to have erred about
the place of the "cleansing of the sanctuary" in 1844), might they not also be wrong about the "woman clothed with the sun?" It
seems more natural for Jesus to bring forth the true church than for this church to bring forth Him (Revelation 12:5,13). But even
if we were to grant their interpretation of Revelation chapter 12 is partly right, how can Adventists account for the presence of
the true church between 1798 and 1844? Revelation 12:14 does not say that it will be in the wilderness 1306 days, but rather
1260. But, on their interpretation, if she is not in the wilderness after 1798, then she is out in the open. But where? Where, oh
where, during this forty-six-year period is there a Sabbath-keeping church with "the spirit of prophecy" any place in the world?

FIFTH SDA ASSUMPTION: The "harlot" and "the Beast" and "the little horn" and "the man of sin" and "the Anti-Christ" and the
papacy are the same sinister end-time reality.

A CATHOLIC RESPONSE: It is easiest to argue that "the little horn" and "the Beast" are the same reality. But in Revelation
chapter 17, the interpreting angel does not identify "the Beast" and "the harlot." He gives them very different interpretations.
This is significant. Also, since the only revealed aspect of the "Anti-Christ" in John's epistles involves his denial of the
Incarnation, and since nothing is revealed about the Christology of "the Beast," "the little horn," or "the man of sin," the Bible
alone is insufficient to judge them to be the same sinister reality. It seems certain that "the man of sin" in Second Thessalonians
chapter two is not the papacy for the following reasons: a) If one judges from this passage alone, "the man of sin" appears to be
a specific human being, not a system or series of human beings. Here "the man of sin" is called "the son of perdition."
Elsewhere, this refers to a specific person, Judas Iscariot. The simplest explanation is preferable. b) Abstract rather than
personal terms would be used to describe a system. Here several personal terms are used. c) Although such personal phrases
could be used of each person as he occupies a certain office, what else is here said of "the man of sin" cannot be shown to fit
each and every pope, if it can even be said to fit one pope. d) If one judges from this passage alone, since "the man" is singular,
not plural, no succession is asserted or implied, especially since the article makes it an emphatic singular. Throughout this
passage, the singular is repeatedly used of this sinister man. e) Unlike the very symbolic books of Daniel and Revelation, this
paragraph in 2 Thessalonians appears to be as plain and as prosaic as a mere report of a future fact. Since symbolic passages
are generally more unclear than prosaic ones, it is better to make Daniel and Revelation fit Second Thessalonians rather than
the other way around. f) In this passage the apostasy precedes the "man of sin," who epitomizes it, but many conservative
Protestant historians would say that the papacy preceded the apostasy. g) The simplest explanation appears to have prevailed
in the earliest centuries. Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Hippolytus (who wrote the oldest surviving commentary on the book of Daniel),
Tertullian, Origen, Chrysostom, Cyril of Jerusalem, Lactantius, Jerome, and Augustine all took "the man of sin" to be a specific
person of the future. h) Most of the Protestants who treat the popes as a unit in this passage elsewhere tend to emphasize their
disunity. i) While "the man of sin" is said to oppose all idols (false gods) as well as the true God (Second Thessalonians 2:4),
almost all anti-Catholic Protestants, who say the popes oppose the true God, still say that the popes teach idolatry (and join
their followers in venerating statues), while all orthodox Catholics, who say the popes oppose all idols, insist that the popes do
so out of submission to the true God. j) "The man of sin" does not acknowledge any Supreme Being other than himself, but
each pope sincerely prays to God, humbly calls himself "the servant of the servants of God," and professes the Apostles',
Nicene and Athanasian Creeds. k) No pope has ever presented himself as God, but only as God's special representative on
earth (His vicar), although in the long history of the papacy, a few people have used some very extravagant, adulatory language
of the pope. l) If the papacy is "the man of sin," who takes his seat in the "temple OF GOD," then the Roman Catholic Church is
at least part of the true Church, since it would belong to God. (This is Martin Luther's very argument in his 1528 treatise
Concerning Rebaptism.) m) This passage gives the distinct impression that the time of "the man of sin" will be relatively short.
Early Church Fathers like Pseudo-Barnabas and Irenaeus taught that the reign of "the man of sin" would be short, not long, but
the papacy has had a rather long history. n) Saint Paul seems to be influenced by Jewish tradition, and Jewish tradition seems
always to have held that the Anti-Christ is a specific person. o) Except for Saint Peter, what pope while he was living and
functioning as the pope was ever seen to perform miracles? p) One has to go back to a time near the Reformation in order to
find what appears to be a truly wicked pope. "The man of sin" seems to have more in common with "Gog" of Revelation 20:8-9
(cf. Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39) than he does with "the Beast" or "the little horn." Both "the man of sin" and "Gog" are leaders of
an apostate multitude who have been deceived by Satan, try to enter triumphantly into a holy place of God, and are destroyed
by fire from heaven in the later days of God's people before the resurrection of the dead.

SIXTH SDA ASSUMPTION: A title of a corporate entity or system of succession qualifies as "the name" of a "man."

A CATHOLIC RESPONSE: If someone is intent on judging the pope according to Revelation 13:18, then he must do so fairly.
He must calculate the number of "his name," not a title. The name of the present pope is John Paul II. "Vicarius Filii Dei" is a
title but not the title of the Pope, who has many titles. At least in 1915, it was written on the papal miter, according to "Our
Sunday Visitor." It is doubtful that it is on the papal miter today. This Latin title definitely does not add up to 666 as it is normally
written (in a horizontal line), since smaller numerals preceding larger ones must be subtracted, not added. When this is done, its
correct reckoning is 650 ("VICarIVs fILII DeI" = 94 + 4 + 49 + 1 + 1 + 500 + 1 = 650), not 666. Adventist publications often write
these letters in a vertical column so that they can add all of the numerical values instead of subtract some. This way they can
best appear to calculate 666 (5 + 1 + 100 + 1 + 5 + 1 + 50 + 1 + 1 + 500 + 1 = 666). For example, instead of counting IV as 4
(5 - 1 = 4), they would count it as 6 (5 + 1 = 6) by writing the I ABOVE the V instead of aside of it (U=V). Any school boy can
spot this as a trick. Using the same trick to expose it, Dr. David Goldstein derives 666 from the name of the founder of the SDA,
"eLLen goVLD VVhIte" (50 + 50 + 5 + 50 + 500 + 10 + 1 = 666). Recently an SDA pastor defended the legitimacy of the SDA
claim but seriously disputed the accuracy of Goldstein's play on Mrs. White's name by making two points of criticism: 1) it is
improper to treat a "W" as if it were two U's, a double U (two U's = two V's = 5 + 5 = 10), and 2) Mrs. White is a woman, not a
"man" as Revelation 13:18 requires. But the Greek word for "man" in this verse is the word for a "human being," not the word for
a "male." Mrs. White was a human being. She was also of English descent. Otto F. Ege in The Story of the Alphabet comments
that "our Anglo-Saxon forefathers" introduced the W (wen) in the middle ages. (In exact terms, it was not an addition but an easy
consonantal differentiation from the existing consonantal V, according to David Diringer.) According to Ege, the French always
called the wen "double vay," and "in English it may be said to represent double U, as its name indicates" (p.16). If the Anti-Christ
had a French name with "vay's", you can bet that Seventh-Day Adventists would be counting any vay as 5, and a double vay as
5 + 5! But enough tricks for now.

SEVENTH SDA ASSUMPTION: God has revealed how His people are to number the Ten Commandments.

A CATHOLIC RESPONSE: It is true that Lutheran and Catholic catechisms shorten the Bible's form of several of the Ten
Commandments in order to aid memory. But they are not dropping the Second Commandment. The inspired writers of the Bible
never numbered each Commandment. This is why the Lutherans never came to the Seventh-Day Adventist conclusion.
Lutherans number the Ten Commandments the way Catholics do. The Adventist's Second Commandment is part of the First
Commandment of Catholics and Lutherans. The adult edition of the Baltimore Catechism has always asked the question, "When
does the First Commandment forbid the making or the use of statues and pictures?" The clear response: "The First
Commandment forbids the making or the use of statues and pictures only when they promote false worship." In a copy of the
English translation of the Roman Catechism, "ordered by the Council of Trent, edited under St. Charles Borromeo, published by
decree of Pope St. Pius V," one finds fourteen pages devoted to the Second Commandment as numbered by Catholic tradition
and eight pages devoted to the Second Commandment as numbered by Adventists. The Bible itself never numbers them, and
the Jews continue to number them differently than either Catholics or Adventists do.

EIGHTH SDA ASSUMPTION: Christians should keep holy the seventh-day Sabbath.

A CATHOLIC RESPONSE: Where is there any proof that anyone before Moses was commanded to rest on Saturdays? Why is
the word "Sabbath" lacking in the book of Genesis, and why is there no record of mankind resting on the day God rested? Why
did the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:21, 28-29) not state that Gentile Christians are bound to keep the Sabbath? Why do the Old
Testament prophets often reprove Israelites for Sabbath-breaking, but never Gentile nations, although they point out many of
their crimes? (The Sabbath is not mentioned in the forty-two chapters of Job.) If the Sabbath Commandment is forever binding
on every human being, why do Orthodox Jews believe that no one was obliged to keep the Sabbath before the exodus? The
Sabbath law was new to Israel because Moses needed to explain it carefully to the wilderness wanderers (Exodus 16:13-30).
(Exodus 13:3 shows that "remember" in Exodus 20:8 need not imply any antiquity for Sabbath-keeping.) Nehemiah 9:13-14
asserts that God "madest known unto them" the Sabbath Commandment on Mount Sinai. The seventh-day Sabbath is the sign
of the Sinaitic Covenant, which was made only with the sons of Israel (Exodus 31:17, Ezekiel 20:12,20). There are many
parallels between the Sabbath in Exodus 31:12-17 and circumcision in Genesis 17:9-14, since both were covenantal signs to
last as long as God's covenant with Israel lasted. The entire Sinaitic Covenant, including the Ten Commandments (Exodus
34:28, Deuteronomy 4:13, 9:9,11,15, First Kings 8:9,21), became obsolete with the redemption wrought by Jesus Christ
(Second Corinthians 3:3-18, Ephesians 2:15, Colossians 2:14-16). In the many Old Testament references which list the terms
used in Colossians 2:16, "Sabbath(s)" always refers to the weekly Sabbath. Jesus symbolically fulfilled this sign of the Old
Covenant, just as He fulfilled its other sign, circumcision (Colossians 2:11-13). The moral principles embodied in the Decalogue
were true before the Sinaitic Covenant was established and are still binding even after it has been abolished. The "Sabbath
rest" that remains for the people of God in Hebrews 4:9 cannot mean keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, since specific groups
who were sabbath-keepers did not enter into this "Sabbath rest" (Hebrews 3:11,18,19). The seventh day as such is not a moral
issue. As the Catechism of the Council of Trent shows, official Catholic teaching is that the Sabbath law is different from most of
the Decalogue in that it has both a moral and a ceremonial aspect. This catechism also teaches that the Apostles, NOT THE
CHURCH AFTER THE TIME OF THE APOSTLES, changed the CEREMONIAL aspect from Saturday to Sunday. Adventist
publications regularly ignore the fact that the Catholic Church does not claim an ability to change MORAL Law. The Church
does not claim to have abolished the seventh day observance APART FROM THE APOSTLES. Vatican II calls Sunday an
apostolic feast day. Adventism officially presents the Catholic Church as an arrogant religious organization claiming to have
exercised blasphemous power to change God's Moral Law after the Apostles were long gone. This is an incredible distortion of
reality. Today Adventists are agreed that Sunday-keeping came after the deaths of the Apostles. But they seem to disagree on
when. Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi, the leading SDA scholar on Sabbath history, claims that Sunday-keeping began in Rome
about 135 A.D. But in The Great Controversy, Mrs. White wrote, "In the first centuries the true Sabbath had been kept by all
Christians" (p.52). If this is God's Word because of the inspiration of Mrs. White, how can Dr.Bacchiocchi claim to be a loyal
Seventh-Day Adventist and still teach that there was only one century in which all Christians united in keeping the seventh day?

NINTH SDA ASSUMPTION: All religious art forms are idols.

A CATHOLIC RESPONSE: God commanded the making of cherubim (Exodus 25:19-20) and the making of an image that
represented Christ crucified (John 3:14-15), although this was not a crucifix. The Ten Commandments forbid bowing before
idols, but not all religious art forms are idols. Our statues of the saints do not take away from Christ's mediation. Pope John Paul
II often quotes First Timothy 2:5. On the basis of Christ's one mediatorship, the Apostle Paul exhorts all Christians to intercede
for others, as in First Timothy 2:1. He writes that all Christians should act as go-betweens because Jesus is the unique
go-between! Even the saints in heaven pray, as found in Revelation 5:8, 6:10, and 8:3. The Spirit reveals to them our prayer
needs, according to Romans 12:4 and 15. But their prayers and ours are answered only through Christ. Statues remind us of
their ministry to us. When Catholics recite the Apostles' Creed, we profess belief in "the communion of the saints." The Church
understands this phrase to include the doctrine that all faithful Christians are "saints." A saint means a "holy one," and there are
clearly degrees of holiness (Second Corinthians 7:1, Hebrews 12:14). Only some Christians who have lived and died in the
highest degrees of holiness are canonized by the Church. But this more common usage among Catholics of the word "saint"
does not contradict its biblical usage. Now, it is a fact that the Commandments forbid making and bowing before idols. But any
thinking Protestant who has ever prayed with his family in front of a nativity set on Christmas Eve knows that not every statue is
an idol. If the three white angels hanging in many Adventist churches are not idols, then Catholic statues and pictures are not
idols either. We do not pray to them. In fact, Catholic catechisms teach that idolatry is a serious sin. In Revelation 19:10, St.
John is rebuked for adoring an angel as a manifestation of God, not for asking an angel to join him in prayer to God. This verse
is not at all dealing with the invocation of saints. Since the same book of the Bible teaches that "all saints" (Revelation 8:3, cf.
5:8), including those in heaven, pray, about what do they pray and for whom, if not for the needs of us on earth? It is true that
God does not need the assistance of any saint to save and protect someone on earth. But, while He does not need the prayers
of all saints, He desires them. Catholics know that dead Christians join us as well as living ones. The same Spirit that moves me
to desire St. Paul to pray for me is also telling St. Paul about this prayer request of mine. Dead saints do not hear our vocal
chords rattle. All Christians should pray for all other Christians (Ephesians 6:18). The Bible records that a deceased Jeremiah
prayed much for God's people (Second Maccabees 15:14). In heaven, the spirits of just men are perfect in love (Hebrews
12:23). Dead Christians are still part of Christ's Body and know our struggles (Romans 12:4,15). They still have the Spirit of
God, Who can reveal to them our true prayer needs. Two thousand years of living in Christ's Body have convinced the Church
that God indeed does reveal our prayer needs to dead saints. If we can have pictures of dead loved ones whom we respect, we
can have statues of saints. These are reminders, not idols. Philip Schaff, the noted nineteenth century Protestant historian,
remarks in his Creed Revision in the Presbyterian Churches (1890): "To say that Papists are idolators is a colossal slander on
the oldest and largest Church in Christendom, and is untrue, unjust, uncharitable and unchristian" (p.36). The claim that all
religious art forms are idols is a fruitless attack. Neither Catholics nor Adventists practice idolatry. But the wise Adventist will
notice that the Catholic view of the saints assumes a belief in the conscious existence of people after they die. Here there is an
honest difference of opinion about Scriptural teaching. Adventists equate life with existence (death = non-existence), while
Catholics and Biblical writers see death as an existence opposite that of life (death = separation from God or one's
body--Genesis 2:17, Matthew 10:28, John 11:26, Philippians 1:23, Hebrews 12:23, Revelation 6:9).

TENTH SDA ASSUMPTION: The desire to commit adultery (lust) is the same sin as the desire to steal from your neighbor
(envy / greed).

A CATHOLIC RESPONSE: The early papacy was not strong enough to tamper with the Tenth Commandment. Over a century
before the papacy begins to reign according to Adventists, already Augustine pointed out that coveting a neighbor's spouse is a
different violation than coveting a neighbor's goods, since giving into these desires causes two different violations, committing
adultery and stealing. Since Catholics and Protestants agree that the Commandment against adultery is not the same as the
Commandment against stealing, it is only logical that there should be two separate Commandments against the desires to do
these acts, the Ninth Commandment against lust and the Tenth against envy / greed.

ELEVENTH SDA ASSUMPTION: At least some popes acknowledged themselves to be the Supreme Being Himself.

A CATHOLIC RESPONSE: Such a charge is very hard to prove. It is as incredible as a charge that God was acknowledging
Moses as the Supreme Being when He told him that he would be as God to Aaron (Exodus 4:16). St. Paul teaches that it is the
place of God to judge, and yet legitimate secular government does some of this for God (Romans 13). Why not also legitimate
religious authority (cf. Psalm 82)? What proof exists that any pope aspired to be God instead of to exercise divine authority as
was delegated to him by God? How can any Adventist today judge that these popes of the past were proud and assertive, and
intoxicated with a passion for power, praise, and opulence, unless he or she can read hearts across the chasm of time! Since
only God can read hearts (First Kings 8:39), it seems some Adventists are claiming to hold the place of God on earth in these
matter!

TWELFTH SDA ASSUMPTION: Jesus did not give certain men the authority to forgive sins through His name and by means of
His Spirit.

A CATHOLIC RESPONSE: God has never given the exclusive right to a mere mortal to forgive sins, if by "exclusive" one means
"apart from Christ." But Jesus forgives sin under the title of "the Son of Man" rather than "the Son of God" (Matthew 9:6). It
seems that Adventists are as wrong as the Pharisees, since the people concluded that God "had given such power unto men"
(Matthew 9:8)--"men" is plural. Jesus confirms this viewpoint by giving the Apostles His power to forgive sins after the
resurrection (John 20:23). They do so by means of the Spirit (v.21). When the Catholic priest says, "I absolve you," he means
that Christ absolves through him. The person confessing always asks pardon from God in a prayer expressing a firm resolve to
live a changed life.

THIRTEENTH SDA ASSUMPTION: By present standards, human nature before the Fall is not quite as human as human
nature after the Fall.

A CATHOLIC RESPONSE: How does giving Jesus Christ the kind of human nature that Adam and Eve had before the Fall
render Him incapable of participating in our feelings when we are tempted and tried? This would mean that between Eve's fall
and his own, Adam could not feel for Eve or be tempted! But then, Adam could never have fallen! Jesus is the New Adam, even
as Mary is the New Eve. It is fitting that the New Creation should begin with human nature as it was before the Fall. Romans 8:3
does not say the Jesus came in sinful flesh, but that He came in the likeness of sinful flesh. When we say that something is like
something else, we mean that they share some difference as well as some sameness. The holy flesh of Jesus was the same as
sinful flesh in that it was truly human flesh, but unlike sinful flesh in that it was not sinful or tending toward sinning. Jesus
received His holy flesh from Mary's holy flesh, but this does not mean that Mary did not need a Savior. Human beings facing
trials and troubles need saviors, whether they are sinful or not. Jesus Himself committed His earthly anxieties to "Him that was
able to save Him" (Hebrews 5:7). Jesus' Savior was the Father, yet Jesus was neither saved from sin nor out of sin. Catholics
believe Mary had many trials and troubles and that she was saved by Christ from entering sin, not out of sin (Luke 1:47). Mary
was saved from sin (but not out of sin) by Jesus at the earliest possible moment. This means that God chose to do a miracle to
keep her from inheriting Adam's sin. She was saved all her life, for the sake of her great vocation as the Mother of God. This is
reasonable. The dogmas of Mary's Immaculate Conception and Assumption into heaven are as warranted as the primitive
tradition of Mary as the New Eve. In the Old Testament, who came from Adam without original sin except Eve? If Eve had never
sinned, would not her earthly life have culminated in a heavenly transformation? The leaders of the second-century church
(Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, and Tertullian) on all three continents of its existence (Europe, Asia and Africa) insisted on the doctrine
of the Mary-Eve parallel. Such a three-fold cord is not quickly broken. Cardinal Newman notes how their striking coincidences
and their antithetical complementarity point to an Apostolic origin for the parallel. Irenaeus was a faithful disciple of Polycarp,
who was a faithful disciple of the Apostle John. We must not underestimate the ability as well as the desire of these early church
leaders to preserve what the Apostles offically taught, in whatever medium they taught it (Second Thessalonians 2:15). Martin
Luther always insisted on Mary's perpetual virginity, and John Calvin wrote against the notion that Jesus had blood brothers
and sisters. Heinrich Bullinger, the able successor of Ulrich Zwingli, believed in Mary's Assumption into heaven. All the main-line
Reformers agreed with the Catholic Church that human nature as it was before the Fall was fully human and that Jesus Christ
assumed this nature.

FOURTEENTH SDA ASSUMPTION: The Catholic Church has killed millions.

A CATHOLIC RESPONSE: Where is there any reliable evidence that the Inquisitions killed over 50 million people, or that "the
Catholic Church admits" to killing these millions, or that "the Catholic Church" has ever had an official policy of persecution?
Adventists like to portray the papacy as killing multitudes of heretics continuously for 1260 years. But the first known case of
capital punishment for heresy since the execution of Priscillian in 385 A.D. occurred when King Robert of France had thirteen
heretics burned at Orleans in 1022 A.D. Any religion, including Seventh-Day Adventism, with assured beliefs in absolutes that
dictate moral actions will appear somewhat intolerant (cf. the Apostolic book-burning of Acts 19:18-20). Yet H. C. Lea, the
Protestant historian who has likely done the most research into the Spanish Inquisition, reports, "Before the Lutheran revolt
there was much liberty of thought and speech allowed throughout Catholic Europe" (A History of the Inquisition of Spain, vol.3,
p.411). The Old Testament suggests that Moses put to death far more people than Torquemada did (cf. Exodus 32:27,
Numbers 25:5, and Deuteronomy, chapter 17). Moses instituted burning as capital punishment for priests' daughters caught in
sexual immorality (Leviticus 21:9). Moses put to death violators of the Law, whether they repented or not (Hebrews 10:28), while
the Inquisitions sentenced to death only incorrigible heretics. The coat of arms of the Spanish Inquisition included an olive
branch, which symbolized clemency for heretics who repented. The medieval papacy was known for its tolerance. According to
Jewish historian Cecil Roth, "Only in Rome has the colony of Jews continued since before the beginning of the Christian era,
because of all the dynasties of Europe, the papacy not only refused to persecute the Jews of Rome and Italy, but throughout
the ages popes were protectors of the Jews." Just as Christians have tended to exaggerate the number of their own who were
martyred legally under the pagan Roman Empire (W. H. C. Frend concludes that between the first Pentecost and the last
persecution in the Empire, the total number of martyrdoms did not exceed 5000 souls), so too Protestants have tended to
exaggerate the number of heretics who were put legally to death while the papacy reigned. The English Black Legend greatly
distorted the "facts" about Catholic acts of persecution. Adventists often rely upon John Foxe and Juan Llorente. The Columbia
Encyclopedia notes that John Foxe's Book of Martyrs "is highly prejudiced and not altogether trustworthy." Father Juan Llorente
was a late eighteenth century official of the Spanish Inquisition who was removed from office because of suspected
embezzlement. He became unorthodox under Masonic influences and admitted to burning Inquisitorial documents that
contradicted his written viewpoints. His statistics are generally recognized by scholars to be grossly inflated in order to portray
the Inquisition in a bad light. Edward Peters expresses the results of recent scholarship when he reports, "The best estimate is
that around 3,000 death sentences were carried out in Spain by Inquisitorial verdict between 1550 and 1800, a far smaller
number than that in comparable secular courts" (Inquisition, p.87). Seventh-Day Adventists regularly confuse what any Catholic
writer says with what "the Church teaches," and what any leading Catholic does with what the Church does. Even a pope is not
the Church and can be seriously misguided. Just because some Catholics killed people does not mean that the Church did.
Even during New Testament days, some Christians acted so wickedly as to kill--or hate--other Christians (James 4:1-2, First
John 3:15). For someone assessing the truth claims of a religious group other than his own, practices that are inconsistent with
its teachings but occur among some of its members should clearly not carry the same weight as its practices consistent with its
teachings. Vatican II's "Decree on Religious Liberty" is evidence that religious persecution is not the official policy of the Roman
Catholic Church. Sadly, her policy against persecution is relatively recent, although she has always taught what Christ taught.

FIFTEENTH SDA ASSUMPTION: Mrs. White displayed the end-time "spirit of prophecy."

A CATHOLIC RESPONSE: There are thousands and thousands of different ways of interpreting the symbols in the book of
Revelation, some better than others. But the only way to know for sure which interpretation is correct is to have an infallible
interpreter. Catholics claim to have one. And Adventists claim to have one, too, because they claim that Mrs. White's writings
are as inspired as the Bible itself. But since they believe that the chief way a person can know that Mrs. White had this
end-time office is through a proper interpretation of Revelation (12:17, 19:10), they are asking us to assume that of which they
seek to convince us. This is arguing in a vicious circle. (But if we do assume that Mrs. White was inspired, it seems more
accurate to say that Seventh-Day Adventism once had the "spirit of prophecy" rather than has it now. Mrs. White is the only
inspired person Adventists acknowledge since 1844, yet she has been dead for almost seventy-five years. Without a living
end-time prophet, Adventists can claim to have the "letter of prophecy" in her books, but how can they credibly claim to have the
"spirit" of it?) Today many Adventists are questioning Mrs. White's infallibility. In a recent book published by Review and Herald
and entitled The Sanctuary: Understanding the Heart of Adventist Theology, SDA scholar Roy Adams asserts that Mrs. White
claimed that SDA beliefs are not infallible ("The fact that certain doctrines have been held as truth for many years by our people
is not a proof that our ideas are infallible") (p.11). But would not Mrs. Ellen White's repeated claim to communicate God's Word
require all her teachings to be infallible, including her teaching that no SDA teachings are infallible? She clearly refutes herself.
THE END.

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