I need faith to believe that Jesus is coming in the clouds of heaven. I need faith to believe that the dead are going to rise. I need faith to believe that “the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed” (Dan. 2:44). But I don’t need faith to believe in the role of Rome, Papal Rome, as the first beast in Revelation 13.
Are you kidding? The same prophecy that predicts the future coming of God’s “kingdom which shall never be destroyed” is one of the prophecies that has already shown us the role of Rome in the last days.
Daniel 2, 7, and 8
In Daniel 2, one power arises after ancient Greece and, though changing form, exists until supernaturally destroyed at the end of time. In Daniel 7, one power arises after ancient Greece, a persecuting and blaspheming power, a power that will think to changes times and laws (Dan. 7:25)—and though changing form this same power exists until supernaturally destroyed at the end of time. In Daniel 8, one power arises after ancient Greece, a persecuting and blasphemous power that exists until supernaturally destroyed at the end of time (Dan. 8: 17, 19)
What power arises after ancient Greece, a persecuting and blasphemous power that remains until the end of time? It is solely, only, and totally Rome, a power that had already made a grand entrance early in the New Testament. “And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered” (Luke 2:1)
Next, this same power—which three times Daniel shows will exist until the end of the world—this same power reappears, but now in Revelation 13:1-10, where it is depicted by imagery directly from Daniel 2, 7, 8, the chapters that unmistakably reveal it in history in the first place. And its whole appearance in Revelation is the context of persecution regarding worship of the Creator or “the image of the beast” (Rev. 13:15).
What else could this beast be, which has a deadly wound that is healed (Rev. 13:3), but Rome—now in the Papal phase?
In Place of Christ
Meanwhile, imagine if the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists claimed that it, and it alone, possessed all the merits of Christ, and that if you wanted to be saved you needed to go through the institution of the church itself. That is, because the church alone possesses those merits, it alone can give them to you. You can find salvation but only through it, the church itself. In other words, what we know that we get, one-on-One, though faith in Jesus, Rome claims comes through it, the Roman Catholic Church, instead.
If the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists claimed that prerogative for itself, that we find salvation only through it, we would be appalled, and rightly so. Yet this is exactly what Rome does, the Rome that some apologists among us are so eager to defend, even claiming “commonalities” between us.
Antichrist does not mean only “against Christ” but also “in place of Christ,” and Papal Rome itself, by its very claims for itself, puts itself in the place of Christ. It’s no wonder that for centuries the Protestant Reformation was fueled by rejection of this blasphemy and apostasy. And only because so much of Protestantism has lost its prophetic way (focusing on wars in the Middle East instead) that this foundational truth, a truth that cost untold numbers their lives, has been all but forgotten today.
Even among some of us as well. One Adventist apologist for Rome, so far removed from understanding either what we teach, or what Rome teaches, or both— recently talked about how Adventists and Catholics share the same mission of “preaching the gospel.” Preaching the gospel? What antichrist preaches is not the gospel.
Ellen White
Next, critics among us claim that our position about Rome is based on Ellen White, specifically The Great Controversy. They act as if she herself was the one who created this position, and that we adhere to it only because of her.
Come on! Almost all Protestants, for centuries, had this view of Rome, including early Adventists, who believed it long before she wrote The Great Controversy. Whatever prophetic light the Lord gave her about church history and Rome, which she put in the book, simply fleshed out what the Adventist Church had already believed about Rome and last day events.
Our prophetic message about Rome and the mark of the beast were not Ellen White creations any more than our theology about the Sabbath or the state of the dead were, either.
This is an important truth that we must always keep in mind.
Like it not, we can’t proclaim the three angels’ messages without warning about Rome.
Hostile to Roman Catholics
Over the years, but even more recently, the claim is that we Adventists are “hostile” to Roman Catholics, or that we even “hate” them. This reminds me of the front-loaded question, “Have you stopped beating your wife yet?”
It’s the same principle here. In my 45 years in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, I have never come across anything remotely hostile to individual Roman Catholics. Even when pastors preach (which is rare anymore) on Rome, I have never heard them promote any hostility to those who are in the Roman Catholic Church. I have been friends with many Roman Catholics, and my theological beliefs about their church never influenced my feelings about them any more than my beliefs about other churches did about the people in those churches. The prophecies about Rome have been, and still are, irrelevant to how I relate on a personal level to Roman Catholics, and I suspect it’s that way with the vast majority of Seventh-day Adventists as well.
In 1980, I was listening to a series by an Adventist evangelist named Jere Webb, the sermons that prompted me to join the church. When talking about Rome in prophecy, Pastor Webb said something like, “I don’t want to offend anyone, or hurt anyone.” Then, I remember him saying, “I especially don’t want to hurt anyone.” His sensitivity made a big impression on me, and it reflects how our evangelists so often deal with this topic in public meetings.
The claim, then, that we are hostile to Roman Catholics is as false as all the rest of the polemics by those in the church who want to steer us away from the three angels’ messages.
Three Angels’ Messages
And here is, really, the rub. We have been called to proclaim the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14:6-12, which warns against the mark of the beast. And because the beast is Rome, we can’t be faithful to what we have been called to proclaim without warning about the beast, Rome.
But don’t take my word for it. Or the Adventist Church’s. Or Ellen White’s. Take Scripture’s. Read Daniel 2, where one power arises after ancient Greece and exists to the end of the world, when it’s supernaturally destroyed. The same in Daniel 7: one power arises after ancient Greece and exists until supernaturally destroyed at the end of the world. In Daniel 8, even after Greece itself is named for us (Dan. 8:21), one power arises after it, a persecuting and blasphemous power supernaturally destroyed at the end. How much faith do you need to see all this? Most of it is already past history.
And this same power reappears, now in Revelation 13, as the first beast. Like it or not, this first beast is Rome. And, like it not, we can’t proclaim the three angels’ messages without warning about it.
