Commemorating the Reformation after 500 Years: Just a Misunderstanding?

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Adventist Theological Society

Michael Hasel

What is the Sea Beast Doing Today

Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for being with us throughout this day.

And as we begin this presentation, which looks at current events, we ask that you would guide our hearts and minds.

We're speaking here about a system, a system that has been in place for hundreds of years.

I still remember just before this event happened, I was living on the island of Cyprus with my family.

We had gone to church on a particular Sabbath.

In fact, it was our first Sabbath at this church, the only church on the island of Cyprus, the only Seventh-day Adventist church there.

Cyprus at that time was the headquarters of the Middle East Union of the Seventh-day Adventist church.

And I remember the first Sabbath that we were at the church there, the new church that we were going to be attending, another person came at the same time.

He had driven 2 hours across the island to be at church that day, and it was the first time he had ever set foot in a Seventh-day Adventist church.

Joe had been raised in Ireland as an Irish Catholic.

Joe was retired with his wife on the island of Cyprus, and Joe had been attending, faithfully, the Catholic Church with his wife every Sunday.

But in retirement, realizing that there was a lot of time in retirement and Not really being interested in just spending all that time at the beach Joe began to watch a lot of television And somehow as he scanned the channels, he came across 3ABN and the Hope Channel.

And he began to watch, captivated by the things that he was hearing for the first time in his life.

He listened to the Hope Channel and 3ABN for over a year, wondering who this group was.

When he went back to visit his daughter in England, he tried to look up a Seventh-day Adventist church, and not being very well acquainted with the Internet, he decided that he would, well, get some help from his younger daughter, and he found that there was a church on the island of Cyprus.

By that time, he had already been convinced that the seventh-day Sabbath was the Sabbath of the Bible.

He had been convinced that there was a sanctuary in heaven and that Jesus was serving as high priest in the heavenly sanctuary.

And for Joe, that was not simply a matter of geography for him.

For Joe, this was a revelation into a completely different system than he had been raised in.

A few weeks later, as Pope John Paul II was ailing in health, 1 of the pastors of that church said, we need to pray for the Pope and for the people.

Because he says, you don't understand what it feels like to be deceived for 66 years.

We need to pray for everyone, he said, but somehow I just can't come to praying for the Pope.

A few days later, all over the screens, in Cyprus, on all 3 channels, live, was the funeral of Pope John Paul II.

Never had so many leaders in history come together for the funeral of a religious leader.

According to USA Today, never has such a funeral drawn the interest of so many.

Here is a map of the world representing the prime ministers and presidents of countries that were present at the papal funeral.

Those that were not there were watching on television like myself.

An amazing choreographed media production, a masterpiece of public relations as the simple casket was surrounded by the cardinals and the heads of state and other dignitaries.

The ecumenical patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, or Istanbul, was in the honorary first seat in the sector reserved for delegates from churches not in full communion with the Holy See.

This was the first time in history that an ecumenical patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church attended a papal funeral since the Great schism in 1054, almost a thousand years earlier.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, then Rowan Williams, was also present at the papal funeral, the first time since the Church of England broke with the Catholic Church in the 16th century.

Of course, we are all familiar with this picture, which was broadcast around the world, 3 former presidents kneeling before the casket.

In Revelation 13, Protestant reformers had read this for centuries and concluded that what was being spoken of by this beast coming out of the sea.

Then I stood on the sand of the sea and I saw a beast rising up out of the sea having 7 heads and 10 horns, and on his horns 10 crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name.

Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion.

The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority." Protestants had identified that sea beast power with none other than the papacy.

And we'll continue to move through this passage a little bit later on.

Based on the prophecy of Daniel 2 and the prophecies of Daniel 7 and 8, this power that first is described as legs of iron that continue down into the feet of iron mixed with clay, Daniel 2 verse 41 through 42, whereas you saw the feet and toes partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided, so the kingdoms shall be partly strong and partly fragile." Many had interpreted this iron, these iron legs to be Rome and had interpreted the spread of the various European powers in the toes and the feet.

Paralleled with Daniel chapter 7, Daniel chapter 8, Revelation 17 and 13, we see these 10 kingdoms being referred to again and again.

Linking the apocalyptic prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, as had been unlocked by reformers and Reformation thinkers for centuries.

Identifying the 1 power from which they believed they needed to separate themselves from.

Martin Luther writes, the 2 beasts, the papal empire and the imperial papacy, he declared, brings the secular sword under its control.

State power mingled with religious power.

And Zwingli and Melanchthon and Calvin and others all were unanimous in identifying this Little Horn power with the papal power.

Several of these reformers gave up their lives, and I'm going over a little bit of what we had talked about earlier this morning.

Both John Knox and Thomas Cranmer and many hundreds, thousands of others died at the edge of the sword, died in the flames because of their belief in sola Scriptura and the upholding of the Bible and the Bible only as their creed.

They would not be guided by a magisterium.

They would be guided by the holy Word of God.

Ellen White writes in The Great Controversy, page 439, speaking of Revelation chapter 13, she describes, she says, in Chapter 13 is described another beast like unto a leopard to which the dragon gave his power and his seat and great authority.

This symbol, as most Protestants have believed, represents the papacy, which succeeded to the power and seat and authority once held by the ancient Roman Empire." The ancient Roman Empire, we see this twofold aspect that she speaks about in Daniel 8 chapter 9 through 11, I mean verses 9 through 11.

Speaking of the little horn, and out of 1 of them, 1 of the 4 winds, came forth a little horn, which waxed exceedingly great toward the south and toward the east and toward the pleasant land." That meant it was coming, by the way, from the west.

"'And it waxed great even to the host of the heaven, and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground and stamped on them.

Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host." So first we have this horizontal movement as he's moving through, and then suddenly we have this vertical movement.

He magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of the sanctuary was cast down.

Now We've gone through a number of lectures today, both in art and also in history, and we've looked at how this papal power was connected, how the Reformers connected this papal power, but we've also looked at some of the Catholic artillery that went back towards the Reformers, but it's also very interesting to see how the Catholics themselves view their connection with ancient Rome.

It's very clear in their artwork, it's very clear in their architecture, it's very clear in their writings.

And I know my wife did not give me permission today to do this, but I'm gonna steal a little of her thunder.

She wrote a very nice paper on this when she was a student at Emory University, and I want to look at 1 of these scenes.

She talked earlier about the power of the Baroque period as a triumphal movement initiated by Catholicism to show its triumph over Protestantism, and that the flowery Baroque style made its way into churches all across the world, not only in the old world, but also in the new world.

What the popes also did was that they, and this was commissioned by Benedict, I believe, the 14th, they wanted to use the latest in cartography and science to map Rome and to map the world.

In fact, when you visit the Vatican today, you will go through halls covered with maps.

Because world domination has always been the goal of the Catholic Church.

And the map that they wanted to create of Rome, the Eternal City, was commissioned by the Pope and was to put in, was to be put in place by a artist and geographer by the name of Jean-Baptiste Nolly.

Now what's interesting about the map is that it's the first truly accurate map of Rome, even though it was done in the 18th century.

If you put a Google Earth image over the top of this, it will be right on.

Using not such sophisticated technology, it took Noly years to map out every building, every street.

He would go inside of churches and take internal measurements to make sure he got everything right.

We're not going to focus on the map of Rome today.

What we're going to focus on is the frame below on which this map, which frames the map above.

In the center, you see a plaque with Benedict, I think it says Benedict XIV, and on 1 side, on the right-hand side, you see the visages or the vistiges of ancient Rome.

And on the other side, you see the glory of the Roman church.

We're going to look at these a little bit more closely, and I don't know why it's a little bit, ah, this is a lot clearer.

Maybe I should have Giselle come up and do this for us because she knows more about it than I do.

That's So I don't steal too much of her thunder, you see.

It's like they tell you what they're thinking.

So we don't have to say anything new that they haven't been saying about themselves already.

Usually when the goddess Roma is sitting down, She's celebrating a victory because when she's standing up, she, Roma, the goddess Roma was the goddess of war.

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What is the Sea Beast Doing Today

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