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Home » Publications » Free Presbyterian Magazine » 1978 » November 1978 » Notes and Comments

Notes and Comments

Church of Scotland and the Pope

It was reported on the media that the Moderator and Principal Clerk of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland were to attend the inauguration of the late Pope. Such action by ministers of our National Church is surely a gross betrayal of those Protestant principles to which the Church of Scotland professes to adhere. The acknowledgment of the anti-Christ in this way is an indication of the awful blindness that has overtaken the leaders of the National Church. Have these ministers not turned their backs on the Reformation of the 16th century and turned their faces once more on the superstition and idolatry of the Roman Catholic system?

The Death of Pope John Paul

So soon — only 33 days — after his election as Pope, Pope John Paul I was called to his account. His death came as a shock to the Roman Catholic Church and condolences and tributes poured in, not only from Roman Catholic leaders, but from the leaders of the Protestant Churches as well. So blinded have Protestant leaders become that the death of a Pope is taken as the signal for universal mourning.

For our part, we cannot mourn over the passing of one who arrogated to himself the titles and prerogatives of the Divine Redeemer and claimed to be Christ’s Vicar on earth. We are warranted to pray for the destruction of anti-Christ, and no doubt the sudden demise of the late pontiff was in answer to the prayers of those who entreated the Lord, “Let his reign be short.” May the death of Pope John Paul signal the approaching end of the Papal system.

Men little realise what they are doing when they defy God. So is it with those who aspire to and obtain the office of Pope in the Church of Rome. Little do such realise that they are at the head of a system destined for destruction. Nor do they lay to heart that God is not mocked and that what a man soweth so shall he also reap.

No doubt before this appears in print another Pope will have been elected if the necessary amount of consent can be obtained among the Cardinals for his election. If so, neither can we wish for this Pope that his reign be long. Rather do we pray that Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots, be speedily destroyed.

In Revelation we read of the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony that they held, crying with a loud voice: “How long, O Lord, holy and just, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” The answer given to them was that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. How much longer they may have to wait we know not — it may not be long now — but certain it is that the blood of the martyrs shall be avenged on that diabolical system in whose skirts is found the blood of so many saints.

Let us not be deceived by the 20th Century winsomeness of the Roman Catholic Church. Behind that mask is all the subtlety and malignity of Satan and the same age old enmity to Christ and His kingdom. Were it in her power again, far from accommodating or even tolerating Protestant Christianity, she would do all in her power to stamp out Christ’s Name and Cause in the earth.

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