A Most Important End-Time Sign: The Rise, Fall, and Restoration of the Temporal Power of the Papacy (Part 1)

Pope Francis is taking over the world of politics. The Vatican is once again a major player, and in some parts of the world, she already has absolute power. But Rome is far from finished. She is not content. She will never be satisfied until she becomes the most important worldwide superpower on earth. She yearns for the restoration of her former power, when she ruled over the kings of the earth in both a spiritual and temporal capacity. This Papacy needs to be taken very seriously, even as she sets out to capture more and more control over our world. We would know how close this current papacy is to obtaining total dominion if we only knew how she obtained it in the first place during the Dark Ages.

It all started back in the days of Emperor Constantine, when the church was but a small group of persecuted faithful people (Romans 1:7). Constantine, a lifelong sun-worshiping pagan, converted to Christianity only after he claimed that he was given a vision of the cross after his victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 AD. The persecution of Christians effectively came to an end in the following year, 313, when Constantine issued the Edict of Milan.

Constantine also encouraged his people to adopt Christianity. He built churches, he gave wealth and power to the Christian leaders, and he exempted the clergy from paying taxes. Constantine declared Sunday to be the official day of rest by passing the first Sunday law in 321 AD. This is how the pagan day of the sun became the official day of worship for Christians. Even though the emperor helped establish the political power of the church, and even though he claimed to be a Christian, he still prayed to the pagan Roman gods and supported their continued worship.

Constantine, the Christian in name only, occupied the throne of Caesar, and he used his power to protect the church, give it money and land, and issue edicts (laws) to advance the new corrupted Christian faith. In addition, Constantine used his political influence to convene the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD to resolve the controversies in the church and to unify the empire.

Overall, Constantine’s support for the Christian Church helped to increase its power and influence within the empire and laid the foundation for the dominance of Christianity in Europe for centuries to come. But the prophecies of Daniel 2 and 7 predicted that a little horn would soon arise. What happened next was prophetic. For some reason, Constantine decided to leave Rome, the seat of Roman power that had been the home of the Caesars for hundreds of years. Constantine abandoned Rome and established his headquarters in what is now known as Constantinople.

Constantine’s sudden departure left a power vacuum in Rome, which was filled by the leading bishop. Not long after, the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 5th century opened the door for the Catholic Church to gain even more political power. With the fall of pagan Rome, the church was seen as one of the few stable organized institutions, and it was able to step in and provide some order. Due to his vast amounts of land, wealth, and significant economic power, the presiding bishop of Rome became a powerful political figure. It was at this time that the “Little Horn” emerged and was to play a much greater role in the politics of the world.

The Rise of Little Horn’s Temporal Power

It is crucial to remember that the Papacy and its temporal power emerged from the union of religious and secular elements. It wasn’t 100% religious. The only reason the papacy was able to transform into the beast of Revelation was because it embraced numerous secular ideas.

J. A. Wylie, a renowned professor and historian, provided a clear explanation of this. Wylie authored more than 15 books about the history of the church in the Middle Ages. The History of the Waldenses; The History of Protestantism, Volumes 1-3; The Jesuits; The Papacy is the Antichrist; and The Papacy, Its History, Dogmas, Genius, and Prospects are just a few of the well-known books he wrote. J. A. Wylie’s work is so highly respected that over 30 sources from his writings were used in the book The Great Controversy, specifically in the following chapters: An Era of Spiritual Darkness, The Waldenses, John Wycliffe, Huss and Jerome, Luther’s Separation from Rome, Luther before the Diet, The Swiss Reformation, The Protest of the Princess, The French Reformation, and The French Revolution.

So if anyone should know about the rise and character of the Papacy, certainly J. A. Wylie would. Notice how Wylie described the very essence of the papacy and how it was able to obtain its temporal power. This is taken from Wylie’s book, The Papacy, Its History, Dogmas, Genius, and Prospects. I want you to be aware that what happened in the past is happening right in front of our eyes, and we will see how Pope Francis is following this to the letter by taking inspiration from Rome’s own history:

“What, then, is the Papacy? Is it a purely spiritual society, or a purely secular society? It is neither. The Papacy is a mixed society: the secular element enters quite as largely into its constitution as does the spiritual. It is a compound of both elements in equal proportions; and, being so, must necessarily possess secular as well as spiritual jurisdiction, and be necessitated to adopt civil as well as ecclesiastical action. But how does it appear that the Church of Rome combines in one essence the secular and spiritual elements? for the point lies here. It appears from the fundamental axiom on which she rests. There are but a few links in the chain of her infernal logic; but these few links are of adamant; and they so bind up together, in one composite body, the two principles, the spiritual and the temporal, and, by consequence, the two jurisdictions, that the moment Rome attempts to cut in twain what her logic joins in one, she ceases to be the popedom. Her syllogism is indestructible if the minor proposition be but granted; and the minor proposition, be it remembered, is her fundamental axiom:– CHRIST IS THE VICAR OF GOD, AND, AS SUCH, POSSESSES HIS POWER; BUT THE POPE IS THE VICAR OF CHRIST; THEREFORE THE POPE IS GOD’S VICAR, AND POSSESSES HIS POWER. To Christ, as the Vicar of God, all power, spiritual and temporal, has been delegated. All spiritual power has been delegated to Him as Head of the Church; and all temporal power has been delegated to Him for the good of the Church. This power has been delegated a second time from Christ to the Pope. To the Pope all spiritual power has been delegated, as head of the Church, and God’s vicegerent on earth; and all temporal power also, for  the good of the Church. Such is the theory of the popedom. This conclusively establishes that the Papacy is of a mixed character. We but perplex ourselves when we think or speak of it simply as a religion. It contains the religious element, no doubt; but it is not a religion;–it is a scheme of domination of a mixed character, partly spiritual and partly temporal; and its jurisdiction must be of the same mixed kind with its constitution. To talk of the popedom wielding a purely spiritual authority only, is to assert what her fundamental principles repudiate. These principles compel her to claim the temporal also. The two authorities grow out of the same fundamental axiom, and are so woven together in the system, and so indissolubly knit the one to the other, that the Papacy must part with both or none. The popedom, then, stands alone. In genius, in constitution, and in prerogative, it is diverse from all other societies. The Church of Rome is a temporal monarchy as really as she is an ecclesiastic body; and in token of her hybrid character, her head, the Pope, displays the emblems of both jurisdictions,–the keys in the one hand, the sword in the other” (J. A. Wylie, The Papacy, Its History, Dogmas, Genius, and Prospects p. 71, 72). [1]

There is a reason why Pope Francis is injecting himself and using his moral authority to persuade world leaders on a range of issues. Pope Francis knows exactly why he must directly engage policymakers on immigration, climate change, economic inequality, and every other secular and social issue today. There is a purpose for Pope Francis to engage the World Economic Forum, the United Nations, the World Council of Churches, the European Union, the World Trade Organization, the G7, the G20, the World Bank, and other world forums that play a significant role in shaping global politics and international relations. Pope Francis is fulfilling his prophetic role to restore the spiritual and temporal authority that it lost in 1798 when Rome received the deadly wound. She has not yet been fully healed, but she will be very soon, sooner than we think.

J. A. Wylie clearly said that the Papacy is not just a religious organization. It must engage the secular if it is to thrive and be what prophecy declared it to be. It was only after she received her deadly wound that Rome lost its temporal and secular influence. After 1798, the papacy was reduced to simply a “spiritual” realm and has been operating as a spiritual entity since then. It is only recently that we have seen the papacy, especially under Pope Francis, become a major global influence and policy maker in both the spiritual and political arenas. Pope Francis has taken the papacy to places where no Pope has been since 1798. This all means something. It means that when her temporal power is restored, the terrible scenes of papal dominion that were seen during her 1260-year reign will return.

“And let it be remembered, it is the boast of Rome that she never changes. The principles of Gregory VII. and Innocent III. are still the principles of the Romish Church. And had she but the power, she would put them in practice with as much vigor now as in past centuries. Let the principle once be established in the United States, that the church may employ or control the power of the State; that religious observances may be enforced by secular laws; in short, that the authority of church and State is to dominate the conscience, and the triumph of Rome in this country is assured” (Great Controversy, p. 580).

“God’s Word has given warning of the impending danger; let this be unheeded, and the Protestant world will learn what the purposes of Rome really are, only when it is too late to escape the snare. She is silently growing into power. Her doctrines are exerting their influence in legislative halls, in the churches, and in the hearts of men. She is piling up her lofty and massive structures, in the secret recesses of which her former persecutions will be repeated. Stealthily and unsuspectedly she is strengthening her forces to further her own ends when the time shall come for her to strike. All that she desires is vantage-ground, and this is already being given her. We shall soon see and shall feel what the purpose of the Roman element is. Whoever shall believe and obey the Word of God will thereby incur reproach and persecution” (Great Controversy, p. 581).

What was the Papacy’s Temporal Power like During the 1260-year Reign?

How horrifying were the scenes when the papacy ruled completely and unabatedly? A Protestant evangelist and author named Dr. H. Grattan Guinness wrote one of the most graphic accounts of the papacy’s reign of absolute temporal power. He wrote the following in his book Romanism and the Reformation, which was published in 1887, and described the time in history when Rome ruled without restraint. Brothers and sisters, these scenes are coming back again:

“Conscience constrains me. History compels me. The past, the awful past rises before me. I see The Great Apostasy, I see the desolation of Christendom, I see the smoking rains, I see the reign of monsters; I see those vice-gods, that Gregory VII, that Innocent III, that Boniface VIII, that Alexander VI, that Gregory XIII, that Pius IX; I see their long succession, I hear their insufferable blasphemies, I see their abominable lives; I see them worshiped by blinded generations, bestowing hollow benedictions, bartering lying indulgences, creating a paganized Christianity; I see their liveried slaves, their shaven priests, their celibate confessors; I see the infamous confessional, the mined women, the murdered innocents; I hear the lying absolutions, the dying groans; I hear the cries of the victims; I hear the anathemas, the curses, the thunders of the interdicts; I see the racks, the dungeons, the stakes; I see that inhuman Inquisition, those fires of Smithfield, those butcheries of St. Bartholomew, that Spanish armada, those unspeakable dragonnades, that endless train of wars, that dreadful multitude of massacres. See it all, and in the name of the ruin it has wrought in the Church and in the world, in the name of the truth it has denied, the temple it has defiled, the God it has blasphemed, the souls it has destroyed; in the name of the millions it has deluded, the millions it has slaughtered, the millions it has damned; with holy confessors, with noble reformers, with innumerable martyrs, with the saints of ages, denounce it as the masterpiece of Satan, as the body and soul and essence of antichrist” (Romanism and the Reformation, p. 146). [2]

For Rome, the 1260-year reign was one of the most glorious eras in all of human history. For Protestants, this period was seen as a blasphemous rejection of God and His word:

“Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.” 1 Peter 5:3.

“How striking the contrast between the overbearing pride of this haughty pontiff and the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who represents himself as pleading at the door of the heart for admittance, that he may come in to bring pardon and peace, and who taught his disciples, “Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant’.” (Great Controversy, p. 58).

We should never allow ourselves to forget that when the popes possessed unrestricted temporal authority, religious liberty and personal freedom were unknown, and it was only after the loss of power came to the papacy after 1798 and the subsequent rise of the Protestant Reformation that the blessings of freedom spread across the world. Men and women had become slaves before the rise of Protestantism broke the shackles of bondage. Praise God for the religious freedom that followed the papacy’s deadly wound. As evidenced by many of the constitutions that followed in Protestant nations, Protestantism upheld liberty of conscience and rejected papal dominion and the union of church and state.

Tragically, our freedoms are all about to disappear because Pope Francis is right now pushing globalist policies that will rob people of the freedoms and constitutional rights that individual states are supposed to uphold in order to protect them. In Part 2, we will see how Pope Francis is already working to make this happen. We will also see the roles that Rome’s daughters will play in the healing of the deadly wound. Rome does indeed have daughters, but they are subservient and are only following their mother’s command and example. Lastly, don’t make the fatal mistake in believing that Pope Francis is not a true Pope, or that he has been taken hostage by the globalists. Actually, the opposite is true. Such claims are made by people who are ignorant of their history, the Jesuit order, and the fact that Rome is a “chameleon” (GC 571) and is playing every side.

This current Pope is nobody’s slave, and he is not anyone’s hostage. He is positioning himself to come out on top in the endgame. We might be uninformed about how the papacy previously attained temporal power or naïve about what is occurring in our world right now, but let’s not speak like fools. Pope Francis has actually done more to restore the papacy and advance the Sunday law than any pope since 1798. Not only that, this papacy is on its way to bringing the entire world under its authority—pagans, Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Jews, Protestants, many Adventists, secularists, and even the non-religious. Ecumenism is absolutely essential for the healing of the deadly wound and the implementation of the Sunday law:

“When the leading churches of the United States, uniting upon such points of doctrine as are held by them in common, shall influence the State to enforce their decrees and to sustain their institutions, then Protestant America will have formed an image of the Roman hierarchy, and the infliction of civil penalties upon dissenters will inevitably result” (Great Controversy, p. 445).

When the churches come together, then the image of the beast is formed, not before. And no one, not even the apostate Protestant daughters, has done a greater job at fast-tracking Vatican II’s Decree on Ecumenism. In fact, Pope Francis has surpassed Vatican II with his encyclical, Fratelli Tutti. These and many other issues will be covered in Part 2.

Sources

[1] https://www.biblesnet.com/JA%20Wylie%20The%20Papacy%20Its%20History%20Dogmas%20Genius%20and%20Prospects.pdf

[2] https://archive.org/stream/RomanismAndTheReformationByHenryGrattanGuinness/Romanism%20and%20the%20Reformation%20by%20Henry%20Grattan%20Guinness_djvu.txt