p. 576 | Germany and the Pope

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 14, 1915

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 36.

Germany and the Pope

THE dispatches say that the German papers, in commenting on some of the recent utterances of Chancellor Von Bethmann-Hollweg, declare that “the chancellor’s remarks were considered in clerical spheres as confirmation of the reports that Germany would appreciate the initiative of the pope in behalf of peace.”

One of the things that needs to be watched most closely by the student of prophecy is the rising sentiment among all the nations that the power of the papacy must be more directly and effectively used among the nations. One of the things that must come in order for the prophecies to be fulfilled will be a great ecclesiastical despotism. The world is in such a condition that it is turning instinctively to ecclesiastical power with the hope that it will be able to exert influences that will quiet the turbulent waters of social and national life.

Nominal Protestantism, federated together as a political power, will be the leader in this despotism in the New World, and Catholicism will be the great leader in the Old World. The prophecies make this point clear and strong, and one of the mightiest warnings that God has ever given is proclaimed against it through His word. Whether we be Protestant or Catholic, we need to study these things, not from the narrow partisan standpoint, but from the standpoint of the eternal truth of the living God. Our partisan and church affiliations alone will not save us in the storm that is bursting over the world. The only thing that can stand the test will be the personal experience of the true Christian who knows the great truth of the Bible for himself, and who has a personal, living contact with the infinite Christ.