Assuming Divine Prerogatives by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 4, 1910

Assuming Divine Prerogatives

By F. M. W.

It is the nature of sin to seek its own exaltation. This was the object of its author in his rebellion against God. He declared, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.”

Cast down from high heaven, Satan sought to instil into the human family the same unholy purpose which possessed his own heart. He promised the race, on condition of rebellion, “Ye shall be as gods.” This evil principle he made the pivotal idea of the great counterfeit systems of religion by which he has sought to turn men from righteousness. Out of this principle have grown the deification of the dead, the veneration of relics, Mariolatry, and all the evils and abuses incident to the creation of this false ideal of worship.

But while paganism worshiped as gods its dead heroes, ascribing to them the possession of divine attributes, it was reserved for the development of that system named by the Holy Scriptures the “mystery of iniquity,” under the fulness of the light of the gospel dispensation, to evolve a system of false worship even more Heaven-defying than the most presumptuous paganism.

The apostle Paul says that this mystery of all evil was working in his day, and would later develop into the “man of sin,” opposing himself to God, and exalting himself “above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.”

The prophet Daniel, looking down through the long vista of the ages, beholds this same power speaking great words against the Most High, wearing out the saints, and by its own teachings and mandates opposing the laws and ordinances of high Heaven.

It requires no special gift of discernment to see that these prophetic utterances meet their fulfilment in the great papal system of religion. This is the great antichristian power against which the church is so clearly and so emphatically warned.

Taking to itself the name Christian, the better to accomplish its purposes, and borrowing for its uses the rites and ordinances of paganism, which, with skilful modification and adaptation, it has sought to employ most subtly for its own ends, the papal hierarchy has built, upon the ruins of obsolete and crumbling pagan beliefs, a system more destructive of the divine plan of salvation and more arrogant in its daring assumptions, than the systems of error it supplanted.

Paganism contented itself for the most part with deifying its dead heroes. Romanism canonizes its dead heroes, and deifies its living ones. Thus it is enabled the more effectively to exert unbounded power over its credulous followers.

The great head of the system it invests with the attribute of infallibility. He is named the Vicar of Christ, Lord God the Pope. In his hand are the resources of divine grace, to be dispensed or withheld at will. He can remit sin, or refuse absolution at pleasure. And not only does the head of the system clothe himself with these divine attributes, but every priest and prelate claims to possess them in greater or less degree.

These assumptions of Rome are strikingly expressed in the words of “Father” Bleckmann, in a sermon delivered recently in St. Mary’s church, Michigan City, Ind., on the occasion of the celebration of his first mass by “Father” Heslion, a newly consecrated priest. We are indebted to the Evening Dispatch of Michigan City, of June 20, 1910, for the quotations which follow. Mr. Bleckmann speaks first of the dignity of the priesthood:—

If we consider the dignity to which God has raised the priest, we can not find one greater in the whole universe. If we consider the duty he will henceforth have to perform, we must honor him not only above men, but even above the angels; and if we look at the person whom he represents, we must acknowledge there is none greater either on earth or in heaven. . . . Gifted with the power of God as is the priest, he is greater even than the patriarchs, greater and more exalted than the prophets of old. . . . The priest of the Catholic Church is greater than the prophets of old, who beheld the Redeemer only from afar, and in the dim future. The priest beholds him present before his eyes; yea, he touches with his very hands the long-wished-for Redeemer, and offers him to our Heavenly Father. He carries him through the streets to the sick and the dying. He receives him into his heart, and nourishes the souls of the faithful with the precious blood of the Holy One.

Not only does the priest declare himself greater than the prophets of old, but he claims to occupy a more exalted station than the heavenly potentates:—

It is the priest alone who has the power to declare the sinner either a true child of God, in the state of his grace and friendship; or to pronounce him the slave of the devil, groaning under the yoke of sin. For to the priest alone did Christ address these words, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose sins you shall forgive,” etc. It is in this wonderful power given to priests that the mighty princes of heaven, angels and archangels, must yield to poor mortals.

The saints in heaven, Mr. Bleckmann asserts, may obtain for us many graces, and especially the Virgin Mary, who is the queen of saints and angels, whose “prayers are all-powerful with God,” and whose “very name is the terror of hell;” “but not even she can forgive a single sin.” But of the priest he says:—

Go where you will throughout heaven or earth, and you will find but one created being who can forgive the sinner, who can free him from the chains of sin and hell, and that extraordinary being is the priest of God.

This, it might seem, were enough to assume for poor, fallen man; but not so: even the Omnipotent is subject to the priestly word:—

But the priest has still a greater power. He exercises authority over the souls of men; and at the same time he has power over the Almighty God himself in the sacrifice of the mass. At the sound of his voice in the holy sacrifice, “Hoc Est enim Corpus Meum,” he changes bread into the true and living body of the Lord, and wine into his true blood. With a word he calls the God of heaven and earth from his abode in the kingdom of heaven down upon the altar to take up his dwelling in the humble stable of the tabernacle.

So great, indeed, is this power given to the priest, according to this speaker, that he could possess no more. God exhausted his resources, subordinating not only men and saints and angels to the priestly function, but literally placing himself in the priest’s hands, to be handled, carried about, and dispensed, according to priestly pleasure:—

Verily, indeed, does God seem to have exhausted all the treasures of his power and mercy in establishing the priesthood. Ah, indeed, when we see the priests of the Catholic Church, weak, sinful men, as they are, gifted with a power which angels could not and did not dare to claim, when we see them possessing power over God himself, possessing power to bear him, to give him to whom they will, to hold him in their hands, we can not help exclaiming, in amazement, O wondrous miracle! O unheard-of power!

These are not the words of an isolated priest, nor of one living a thousand years ago, in the so-called era of darkness and superstition; but the claims of a great system of religion in this our own day, as might be shown by quotations from authoritative Catholic Church publications. By this teaching the Lord Jesus Christ is brought down from his position as the one true Mediator between God and man, and the priest of Rome is exalted as his superior. These words of “Father” Bleckmann are but an echo of the purpose which possessed the heart of Lucifer in the beginning of his sinful reign. They are a striking fulfilment of the divine prediction of the work of this antichristian power.

It is for us to labor to give Christ his rightful place in the hearts and worship of men. It is for us to seek to enlighten those who are deluded by the sophistry of this false teaching. It is not against the adherents of the system that we are to war, but against the evil principles involved. There are many noble men and women in the Catholic Church today, who are following the best light they know. Doubtless there are priests of Rome who believe, as did Paul of old, that by their ministrations they are verily doing God service. But God has sent the light of his gospel into the

world to clear away the fog, the mysticism, and the delusions of error, and reveal to those who are seeking to know the better way, a knowledge of the truth, and the beauty of righteousness as it is in Christ Jesus the Lord.

With love for God and our fellows, let us seek to let the light of truth shine, in order that Christ may be revealed in his true and rightful position as the head of the church and the Saviour of the race; and that man may be brought to salvation through the merits of his grace, and not be left to seek to climb up to heaven through man-made devisings.

F. M. W.