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The Man of Sin

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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 16, 1864

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 24, No. 12.

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The Man of Sin.

THINK of Paul's description of the man of sin, how he should sit in the temple of God showing himself that he is God, and even more than this, exalting himself above all that is called God; and then mark how strikingly this is fulfilled in the papacy; as shown in the following testimony from a work by M. Gaume. This work was approved by nine bishops and archbishops, and by pope Gregory xvi; and as a token of his appreciation of the said work, the pontiff sent him the cross of the order of St. Sylvester. The extract from the book reads as follows:
"What human tongue can describe the dignity of the priesthood, and the greatness of the priest. The first man was great, who established as the king of the universe, commanded all the inhabitants of his vast dominion, who obeyed him. Moses was great, who by a word divided the waters of the sea, and caused the entire people to pass dry shod between its suspended masses. Joshua was great who said to the sun, 'stand still,' and the sun obeying, stood still at the voice of a mortal. The kings of the earth are mighty, who command armies, and shake the world by the sound of their names. But behold! There is a man still greater; there is a man who daily, when it pleases him, opens the gates of heaven, addresses himself to the Son of the Eternal, to the Monarch of worlds, and says, 'Come down from your throne, come.' Obedient to the voice of this man, the word of God by whom all things were made, leaves instantly the abode of glory, incarnates himself in the hands of this man, more mighty than kings, than angels, than the august Mary: and this man says to him, 'You are my son, this day I have begotten you; you are my victim,' and he allows this man to immolate him, to place him wherever he wishes, and he gives him to whomsoever he chooses. This man is the priest!
The priest is not only almighty in heaven, and over the body of the God-man, but he is also almighty upon earth and over the mystical body of Jesus Christ. Behold a man is fallen into the hands of the Devil; what power will be able to deliver him? Call to the assistance of this unhappy man the angels and arch-angels, only Michael himself, chief of the heavenly host, conqueror of Satan and his revolted legions, they never will be able to sever the chains of the sinner who has placed his confidence in the wicked one; . . . the priest can do it.
"Much more. Suppose that the Redeemer visibly descends in person to his church, and stations himself in the confessional to administer the sacrament of penance, while a priest occupies another. The Son of God says, I absolve you, and the priest says also, I absolve you, and the penitent finds himself absolved just as much by one as by the other."
"Thus the priest, mighty like God, can instantly snatch the sinner from hell, render him worthy of paradise, and a slave of the Devil make a son of Abraham, AND GOD HIMSELF IS OBLIGED TO SUBMIT TO THE JUDGMENT OF THE PRIEST, to grant or refuse his pardon according as the priest may grant or refuse absolution. THE SENTENCE OF THE PRIEST PRECEDES, GOD SUBMITS TO IT. Can any one conceive of a greater power?"
"Above all that is called God, or that is worshiped?" How better could Paul have described the pretentions of the man who puts forth the audacious claims here uttered. Could blasphemy go further than to represent a man as saying "to the Son of the Eternal, to the monarch of worlds, Come down from your throne, come!" and then affirming that he who made all things, instantly leaves the abodes of glory, &c., that God himself is obliged to submit to the judgment of the priest; and that the sentence of the priest precedes, God submits to it? Let us be thankful that this man of sin, this son of perdition, this arrogant usurper, this blasphemer of God, his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven, and this persecutor and destroyer of the saints of the Most High, is soon to be destroyed with the spirit of Christ's mouth, and the brightness of his coming.