At the beginning of June, Prime Minister Tony Blair had a 35-minute private audience with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican. Some information has been given about their conversation but a BBC correspondent has commented: “The big question is whether, in the course of this meeting, Mr Blair officially invited the Pope to England. The [Roman] Catholic Bishops of England have already asked the Pope to come – an offer politely turned down. But if, as was expected, Mr Blair did bring up the subject then that invitation would be much harder to ignore.” It seems clear, however, that the Pope will not visit Great Britain this year or next. Pope Benedict is an old man and does not seem to have the same degree of willingness as his predecessor to travel repeatedly to all parts of the earth, though visits to Germany, Spain and Turkey have been arranged for this year.
Many will have been saddened by the prime minister of a constitutionally-Protestant nation paying his respects to the Pope but will be thankful that a
papal visit is not to be inflicted again on this country in the immediate future. Many, on the other hand, will consider such attitudes to be sheer bigotry. But no. Scripture points to a “falling away” which can only have had its fulfillment in the papacy. Paul wrote: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thess 2:3,4). Calvin comments: “The day of Christ . . . will not come until the world has fallen into apostasy, and the rule of Antichrist has held sway in the church. . . . Paul . . . is not speaking of one individual [as the man of sin], but of a kingdom that was to be seized by Satan for the purpose of setting up a seat of abomination in the midst of God’s temple. This we see accomplished in Popery.”
He continues: Scripture represents God “as the Author of all holy observances; it teaches that righteousness and salvation are to be sought from Christ alone; and it assigns the means and the method. There is not one of these things which the Pope does not claim to be his own prerogative. He boasts that it is his right to bind men’s consciences with such laws as he pleases, and to consign them to eternal punishment. With regard to the sacraments, he either institutes new ones at his own whim, or corrupts and debases those which had been instituted by Christ. . . . He contrives means of attaining salvation which are wholly at variance with the teaching of the gospel . . . . What, I ask, does it mean to be lifted above all that is reckoned to be divine, if this is not what the Pope is doing?”
Where Scripture condemns, we should follow. So should nations and their governments.