“All the World Wondered after the Beast”
It seems difficult for us sometimes to see how God will fulfil his word when conditions and environments are so opposite to the very things which he has declared must come to pass. But the child of faith, the person who believes that God cannot lie and cannot deny himself, knows that what God has declared he will surely bring to pass. Isa. 14:24, 27; 46:10, 11; 55:10, 11. The Bible plainly declares that just before the end of all things the Papacy will have so regained her power and influence that all the world will wonder after the beast. Rev. 13:3. Many people seemed to find it hard to believe this and similar statements in days gone by, as it appeared that the power of the Papacy was waning. But as they have watched the papal power growing in strength and influence, many have come to recognize that there is a possibility of such a thing’s really happening. Especially has this been noticeable since the outbreak of the present war, and the accession of Benedict XV to the papal chair. Recently an incident occurred which shows how easily the word of God can be fulfilled, and the rapid strides being made toward the accomplishment of this word. Since the war began in Europe, a little over two years ago, many millions of Jews have become involved. Nearly every nation of Europe has a large number of the children of Abraham among its inhabitants, and many of these Israelites have enlisted in the war. It has been estimated that nearly a million Jews have already been killed, besides tens of thousands captured and wounded. It seems that the Jews are often persecuted and killed even by the people they endeavor to benefit. In Poland this has been especially the case; and within the last year and a half the children of Abraham have suffered terribly in that territory. If half the reports which reach us are true, conditions are terrible, and probably a million Jews have been maimed and starved and killed in these bloody massacres. There exists in America a committee among the Jews, known as the American Jewish Committee, whose duty it is to look after the general interests of the Jews. This committee interests itself also in affairs Jewish outside of the United States. The American Committee decided to appeal to the Pope, asking him to intercede with the Polish clergy to ameliorate the condition of the Jews. In their petition to the Pope in behalf of the Jewish people in papal lands, the American Jewish Committee has the following to say:— “YOUR HOLINESS: The petitioners, who are citizens of the United States of America and adherents of the Jewish faith, have learned with increasing horror of the unspeakable cruelties and hardships visited upon their coreligionists in various belligerent lands. . . . Far beyond the sufferings which this calamity has inflicted upon those of other faiths, . . . the Jews have been marked for special persecution, and have been subjected to oppressive measures not borne by their compatriots of other creeds. Passion and prejudice have been fomented against our unhappy brethren, . . . until their lot has ceased to be endurable. In some of the lands where they have long resided, their very neighbors are bent upon their annihilation. . . . We submit herewith ascertained facts which tell but in small part the hideous truth.” “Fully persuaded that had Your Holiness been acquainted with these facts, the Holy See would at once have exercised the profound moral, ethical, and religious influence with which the Roman Catholic Church is endowed, upon those who regard Your Holiness as their shepherd, but who have unfortunately participated in this persecution, with all due veneration we now approach the Supreme Pontiff for succor in this the bitter hour of our need, knowing the exemplary humanity for which Your Holiness is justly distinguished.” The Jews praying to the Papacy! Who could have dreamed of such a thing? “With all due veneration we now approach the Supreme Pontiff for succor in this the bitter hour of our need.” Think of the Jews’ venerating the Papacy in the hour of their need! Is this what David would have done? Did Daniel do this? Was this what Samuel would have done in the hour of need? What did Joshua do when he was in sore distress because his brethren were killed and hurt by the people of Ai? Did he turn to the former persecutors of the people of God, the Egyptians, and venerate them and pray to them? The Jewish people praying to the Papacy to stop doing the very thing which they claim they have the right to do, the very thing which they did by law to the Jews for hundreds of years! Now the children of these very Jews who were so brutally treated and so bitterly persecuted venerate the Papacy, and pray to her to help them in the time of their trouble. Were it not that the Bible said that the world would wonder after the beast, it would seem hard to believe such a thing possible. The Saviour told the people when he was on earth that they would kill him. They protested, and claimed that they would do no such thing. But they did; for what he said, must come to pass. So today it is written that all the world will wonder after the beast, and the word of the Lord is surely being fulfilled. The Papacy, seeking to reëstablish herself, is prepared to embrace every opportunity which will further her own political aims. A few decades ago had the Jews made a request such as their recent petition, in all probability they would have received little consolation. But today the Jewish people have become a power in political, social, and commercial life, and their influence is greatly felt in many lands. England has one or more Jews in her cabinet and in her administrative department; Germany has several Jews who are leaders in her government life, French Jews hold important positions in the army and in the government; and the Papacy no doubt sees the great advantage it may be to her to take note of this appeal of the children of Abraham. As a result of this petition of the American Jewish Committee to the Papacy to use her good offices in behalf of Abraham’s seed, Pope Benedict wrote a reply which is highly prized by the Jews. Last February, when the Pope sent his reply to the Jewish Committee through his secretary of state, many of the Hebrews were jubilant over the fact that not only did the Pope take note of their request, but he also wrote the reply in such a form that they considered he had done them a great service. As the editor of the American Hebrew (New York), one of the most influential Jewish journals in American Jewry, says in an editorial of April 21, 1916:— “The document emanating from the Vatican, in the form of a letter addressed to Louis Marshall, as president of the American Jewish Committee, is virtually an encyclical, in response to the dignified, powerful review of the Jewish tragedy abroad, submitted by the American Jewish Committee.” In the same editorial he further says:— “It is gratifying that so powerful a voice, so influential a force, particularly in the regions where the Jewish tragedy is now being enacted, has been raised, calling for equality and for the law of love. It is bound to have a far-reaching, beneficent effect.” The editor of the American Hebrew seems so delighted at the friendliness of the Papacy that he says in the same editorial:— “The Pope was not content with his lofty utterances only, which might have been construed in certain quarters as merely a decorative expression of beautiful generalities. He has followed his encyclical with directions to the Catholic clergy in Poland, admonishing them to use their best endeavors to put an end to the persecution which has prevailed there.” The Jews ought to understand the Papacy’s way of dealing in generalities. How it has come to pass that this sop which has been thrown to the Jews has been so literally devoured by the children of the persecuted, is truly beyond the ken of the ordinary mind. But what is this wonderful reply of the Vatican which has caused so much joy to the Jewish people? In this encyclical, Benedict says:— “Moreover, in his paternal heart, pained by the spectacle of the existing horrible war, the Supreme Pontiff feels in this moment, more deeply than ever, the necessity that all men shall recollect that they are brothers and that their salvation lies in the return to the law of love, which is the law of the Gospels.” “The Supreme Pontiff, . . . as the head of the Catholic Church, which, faithful to its divine doctrine and to its most glorious traditions, considers all men as brethren and teaches them to love one another.” We would that the Jews felt happy because they had accepted the declaration that the law of love is the law of the Gospels; not because the Papacy said it, but because the Word of God itself declares that the law of the Gospels is the law of love. But is it true that the Papacy has taught all men to be brethren? Did she exemplify this during the Dark Ages, when the Papacy inclosed the Jewish people in those terrible quarters in Rome, and had them penned in every night as dumb brutes are quartered, and allowed to go out in the morning as animals to their feed? Did she show the Jews during the Middle Ages that all men were brethren, when every Sunday they were compelled to go to the Christian church to hear the bishop preach, and were flogged if they did not pay strict attention? Does this jubilation among the Jews indicate that they are ready to accept the Papacy’s view of salvation as outlined by Benedict? Are the children of Abraham entirely oblivious to the days of old when their ancestors were whipped, flogged, hounded, and dogged by the professed believers of the Holy See? It is evident that the Jewish people in appealing to the Papacy for help have lost their faith in the mighty God of Israel, and in the faith of their fathers. When the fathers were in distress, they turned to the living God. They inquired into the reason of all their troubles, and the Lord heard them in their distresses and sent deliverance to them. The Jews have lost sight of the Bible, the ground and pillar of the truth, and have turned away from the truth to the traditions of men. They will find no help from this course, even as the king of Israel found no help in asking counsel of Baalzebub the god of Ekron. However, the Bible has said, “All the world wondered after the beast.” We see this statement being fulfilled on every hand. Thousands and tens of thousands of the Jewish people are giving up the Sabbath of the Lord; and while they have no regard religiously for Sunday, they are preparing to be among the multitudes who will be ready to follow the beast when all the world will wonder after it. Let us help the lost sheep of Israel to see the meaning of this thing that so many are jubilant over; let us in this latest influence of the Papacy over the Jewish people recognize that the cords are tightening, and that the world is soon to see the final act in earth’s great tragedy.