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Christendom’s Union Under Papal Control

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 14, 1907

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 84, No. 7.

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Christendom’s Union Under Papal Control

THE tendency toward a union of Christendom under papal control is recognized by others than Seventh-day Adventists, as will be seen by the following from a paper published at Allegheny, Pa.:—
A paper on “Present Tendencies of Romanism” was read before the Presbyterian ministers’ association yesterday by Rev. Dr. Daniel Russell, pastor of the Bellefield church. Dr. Russell said the paper had grown out of his experience while being nursed through an attack of typhoid fever in a Catholic hospital in Rome.
Dr. Russell said he believed the present-day tendency is toward a union of Christendom. He stated that the Catholic and Protestant churches are not so far apart as many people think; that nine tenths of the doctrines and practises of the two bodies are identical.
Dr. Russell does not look with disapproval upon this union, and yet he knows, as all Christendom must know, that such union can not come without a recognition of the pope’s authority and infallibility, and an acceptance of all the claims he makes as vicegerent of the Son of God and “corrector of heretics.” There is much truth in what Dr. Russell says. The greater portion of professed Protestantism has never completely thrown aside the unscriptural teachings of the Roman Church, such as infant baptism, the keeping of Sunday, the immortality of the soul, and the eternal torment of the wicked. While these children of the papacy have been fostered, the “protest” of Protestantism has been stronger in name than it has in fact. Therefore the present strong drift back toward Rome is not to be wondered at. The drawing together of the two bodies is not a mutual movement. Rome stands where she always has stood, and apostate Protestantism is moving slowly but surely into the shadow of her tabernacle. It is no time for us to lose hope while the prophecies of God’s Word are working out before our eyes.