The Aims of Romanism by Mrs. E. G. White

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Feb 15, 1910

The Aims of Romanism

By Mrs. E. G. White

ROMANISM is now regarded by Protestants with far greater favor than in former years. Its defenders declare that the church has been maligned, and the Protestant world are inclined to accept the statement.

It is true that there are real Christians in the Roman Catholic communion. Thousands in that church are serving God according to the best light they have. They are not allowed access to God's Word, and therefore do not discern the truth. They have never seen the contrast between a living heart-service, and a round of mere forms and ceremonies.

God looks with pitying tenderness upon these souls, educated as they are in a faith that is delusive and unsatisfying. He will cause rays of light to penetrate the dense darkness that surrounds them. He will reveal to them the truth as it is in Jesus, and many will yet take their position with His people.

The System Out of Harmony

But Romanism as a system is no more in harmony with the Gospel of Christ now than at any former period in her history. The Protestant churches are in great darkness, or they would discern the signs of the times. The Roman church is far-reaching in her plans and modes of operation. She is employing every device to extend her influence and increase her power in preparation for a fierce and determined conflict to regain control of the world, to reestablish persecution, and to undo all that Protestantism has done.

Protestants have tampered with and patronized popery; they have made compromises and concessions which papists themselves are surprised to see, and fail to understand. Men are closing their eyes to the real character of Romanism, and the dangers to be apprehended from her supremacy. The people need to be aroused to resist the advances of this most dangerous foe to civil and religious liberty.

Many urge that the intellectual and moral darkness prevailing during the Middle Ages favored the spread of her dogmas, superstitions, and oppression; and that the greater intelligence of modern times, the general diffusion of knowledge, and the increasing liberality in matters of religion, forbid a revival of intolerance and tyranny. But it will yet be demonstrated that a day of great intellectual light is equally favorable for the success of the Papacy. The false science of the nineteenth century, which undermines faith in the Bible, will prove as successful in preparing the way for the acceptance of the Papacy, with its pleasing forms, as did the withholding of knowledge in opening the way for its aggrandizement in the Dark Ages.

General View of Geneva, Switzerland, where Some of the Great Battles of the Reformation Were Fought

The Trend of Protestantism

In the movements now in progress in the United States to secure for the institutions and usages of the church the support of the state, Protestants are following in the steps of papists. Nay, more, they are opening the door for popery to regain in Protestant America the supremacy which she has lost in the Old World. And that which gives significance to this movement, is the fact that the principal object contemplated is the enforcement of Sunday observance,—a custom which originated with Rome, and which she claims as the sign of her authority.

If the reader would understand the agencies to be employed in the soon-coming contest, he has but to trace the record of the means which Rome employed for the same object in ages past. If he would know how papists and Protestants united will deal with those who reject their dogmas, let him see the spirit which Rome has always manifested toward the Sabbath and its defenders.

Royal edicts, general councils, and church ordinances sustained by secular power, were the steps by which Sunday, the pagan festival, attained its position of honor in the Christian world. The first public measure enforcing Sunday observance was the law enacted by Constantine. This edict required townspeople to rest on "the venerable day of the sun," but permitted countrymen to continue their agricultural pursuits. Tho virtually a heathen statute, it was enforced by the emperor after his nominal acceptance of Christianity.

But notwithstanding all the efforts to establish Sunday sacredness, papists themselves publicly confessed the divine authority of the Sabbath, and the human origin of the institution by which it had been supplanted.

The records of the past clearly reveal the enmity of Rome toward the true Sabbath and its defenders, and the means which she employs to honor the institution of her creating.

The Word of God teaches that these scenes are to be repeated as papists and Protestants shall unite for the exaltation of Sunday.

Declared by Prophecy

The prophecy of Revelation 13 declares that the power represented by the beast with lamblike horns shall cause "the earth and them which dwell therein" to worship the Papacy—there symbolized by the beast "like unto a leopard." The beast with two horns is also to say "to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast;" and furthermore, it is to command all, "both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond," to receive "the mark of the beast." The United States is the power represented by the beast with lamblike horns, and this prophecy will be fulfilled when the United States shall enforce Sunday observance, which Rome claims as the special acknowledgment of her supremacy.

In homage to the Papacy the United States will not be alone. The influence of Rome in the countries that once acknowledged her dominion, is still far from being destroyed.

And prophecy foretells a restoration of her power: “I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” The infliction of the deadly wound points to the abolition of the Papacy in 1798. After this, says the prophet, “his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” Paul states plainly that the man of sin will continue until the second advent of Christ.

Marvelous in her shrewdness and cunning is the Romish church. She can read what is to be. She bides her time, seeing that the Protestant churches are paying her homage in their acceptance of the false sabbath, and that they are preparing to enforce it by the very means which she herself employed in bygone days. Those who reject the light of truth will yet seek the aid of this self-styled infallible power to exalt an institution that originated with her. How readily she will come to the help of Protestants in this work, it is not difficult to conjecture. Who understands better than the papal leaders how to deal with those who are disobedient to the church?

They Do Not See the End

Protestants little know what they are doing when they propose to accept the aid of Rome in the work of Sunday exaltation. While they are bent on the accomplishment of their purpose, Rome is aiming to reestablish her power, to recover her lost supremacy. Let history testify of her artful and persistent efforts to insinuate herself into the affairs of nations; and having gained a foothold, to further her own aims, even at the ruin of princes and people.

God’s Word has given warning of the impending danger. Let this be unheeded, and the Protestant world will learn what the purposes of Rome really are, only when it is too late to escape the snare. She is silently growing into power. Her doctrines are exerting their influence in legislative halls, in the churches, and in the hearts of men. She is piling up her lofty and massive structures, in the secret recesses of which her former persecutions will be repeated. Stealthily and unsuspectedly she is strengthening her forces to further her own ends when the time shall come for her to strike. All that she desires is vantage-ground, and this is already being given her. We shall soon see and feel what the purpose of the Roman element is. Whoever shall believe and obey the Word of God will thereby incur reproach and persecution.