2 Thessalonians 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first… The term "son of perdition" occurs but once elsewhere, and that on our Lord's lips in reference to Judas. The parallel between His character and conduct and the Papacy — not any individual Pope, but the whole system — is most close. We conceive the Papacy to be here intended, because the features of type and prophecy here delineated fit no other subject. I. JUDAS AND THE BISHOPS OF ROME ALIKE WERE MINISTERS — OFFICIAL MEN IN THE CHURCH. The antiquity of the Church of Rome, and the dignity, authority, and vast influence of its bishops is undisputed. II. BOTH BETRAYED THE TRUST REPOSED IN THEM. How fearfully Judas did this we all know; and has not the Papacy? The trust committed to it was the "mystery of godliness," the maintenance of the gospel in its purity and simplicity, the care of Christ's flock, example not lordship. How was this trust fulfilled by successive bishops of Rome? They gradually began to seek for ascendancy, to accommodate the Scriptures to their own purpose, to vitiate the purity and simplicity of the gospel by tradition, ecclesiastical decisions, fables, and legends as of Divine authority, to set themselves more aloft, and to set the Saviour aside, usurping His preeminence by assuming the title of His vicars, as though He were not with His Church always. III. BOTH BETRAYED HIM INTO THE HANDS OF HIS ENEMIES TO DEATH. Judas literally, the Papacy in the persons of His persecuted representatives. Judas betrayed Christ into the hands of the civil power, and has not the wretched policy of Rome ever been to screen its own cowardice and heartlessness behind the pretended power of civil authority, to whom her victims after sham trials have been handed over for death? IV. BOTH BETRAYED THE LORD WITH A KISS. The Papacy makes a vain pretence of showing special homage to Christ. Witness its caricature of Christ's example when the Pope washes the feet of a few selected beggars, and the spurious honour given to Christ's dignity by the mediatorship of Mary and the Saints. V. BOTH BETRAYED THE LORD FOR MONEY. The covetousness of Judas gives point to the apostolic injunction to ministers not to be lovers of filthy lucre; but history is witness that the Papacy from the first has been given to filthy lucre. The requirements and ordinances which Rome has substituted for the ordinances of the gospel have been so many channels for wealth to flow into her treasury. Almost as soon as the Papacy rose on the ruins of the Pagan Empire she imposed the impious tax known as Peter's pence. But this is not all. Merchandize is made of Christ. Rome professes that her priests, in the mass, transubstantiate the wafer into Christ, and the mass is offered for the sins of men, for money; so that the priests must be paid as Judas for offering up the Lord Incarnate. And then she sells indulgences, deliverances from penance, prayers, etc., making salvation a matter of money. VI. BOTH BETRAY CHRIST AT THE INSTIGATION OF SATAN. We could not account for the structure of the Papacy except on this hypothesis. 1. If you trace back the policy of Satan to the beginning you find it to be threefold. (1) It was to blot out the idea of God. Hence we find no idolatry on the part of the ungodly before the flood. (2) Failing, then, to set aside religion altogether he corrupted it. No sooner was there knowledge of the true God than he introduced gods many; side by side with prophets, miracles, the Word of God, he set up soothsayers, magic, lying oracles and legends. (3) When Christianity was set up, and his pagan throne in Rome overthrown, he set up his Papal throne, and repeopled the deserted pantheon with idols for Christians to worship. So exactly has this come to pass that there is scarcely a pagan ceremony that has not its shadow in Popery, and its mission abroad is to paganize Christianity rather than to Christianize paganism. 2. Note the satanic characteristics of the Papacy. (1) There is no doubt that Satan has much to do with the lying wonders of heathenism, and the strange appearances of power with which Rome caricatures the miracles of Christ. Did not the Pope know that the winking picture which he sent crowns to adorn, and which he endorsed as a miracle, was a most barefaced imposture? (2) Satan fell by pride, and we need scarcely to be reminded of the awful arrogance of the Papacy. Look at the servile homage the Pope receives when men kiss his feet; and when on the day of his installation he is borne on the shoulders of bishops, and thrice adored; and when on the pontifical throne he is placed on the high altar where the Divine wafer rests, thus "sitting in the temple of God, shewing himself as if he were God and is worshipped." VII. BOTH FULFIL SCRIPTURE AND ACCOMPLISH WHAT GOD IN HIS DETERMINATE COUNSEL AND FOREKNOWLEDGE DECLARED SHOULD BE DONE. How these and other instances in which the wrath of man praises God is a mystery; but the existence of such a system of despotism, delusion, superstition, and cruelty, would be an intolerable burden on any ether hypothesis. But when we see it all foretold in revelation, and that it shall at last serve to magnify Christ, and tend to the glorification of His Church, we bow submissive and tarry the Lord's time. VIII. BOTH ARE BRANDED "THE SON OF PERDITION," BECAUSE OF THEIR FEARFUL DOOM (ver. 8). (Canon Stowell.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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; |
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