The Papacy in Prophecy

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Sep 13, 1915

The Papacy in Prophecy

THERE are three distinct sets of prophecies of the rise, character, deeds, and doom of Romanism. The first is found in the book of Daniel, the second in the epistles of Paul, and the third in the letters and Apocalypse of John; and no one of these three is complete in itself. It is only by combining their separate features that we obtain the perfect portrait. Just as we cannot derive from one Gospel a complete life of Christ, but in order to obtain this must take into account the records in the other three: so we cannot from one prophecy gather a correct account of Antichrist; we must add to the particulars given in one those supplied by the other two. Some features are given in all three prophecies, just as the death and resurrection of Christ are given in all four Gospels. Others are given only in two, and others are peculiar to one. As might be expected from the position and training of the prophet who was a statesman and a governor in Babylon, Daniel's foreview presents the political character and relations of Romanism. The apostle Paul's foreview, on the other hand, gives the ecclesiastical character and relations of this power; and John's prophecies, both in Revelation 13 and 17, present the combination of both, the mutual relations of the Latin church and Roman state. He uses composite figures, one part of which represents the political aspect of Romanism as a temporal government, and the other its religious aspect as an ecclesiastical system.—“Romanism and the Reformation,” H. Grattan Guinness, D. D., F. R. A. S., London, J. Nisbet & Co., 1891, page 7.