THE FULFILLMENT OF THE VISION OF DANIEL (Cont'n.) PART 6

THE RAM
2 And I saw in a vision; and it came to pass, when I saw, that I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in a vision, and I was by the river of Ulai. 3 Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. 4 I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great.

. Daniel 8:2-4
After the death of King Nebuchadnezzar and in the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, God again revealed the continuation of the diverse Horn with eyes like the eyes of man to Daniel. According to this vision, Daniel saw a RAM which had two high horns where one was higher than the other. The ram represent the same little horn that came out from the ten horns which was diverse from the first and which had eyes like the eyes of man and which plucked up three kings. This is the Byzantine Christianity, and the two horns represent the East and West Roman Catholic Church - Rome and Byzantium (Constantinople). Early in 313, Constantine and fellow Emperor Licinius reached an agreement at Milan that they would grant freedom of religion to the Christians and other religions and restore church property.

From the verse 4, "I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great", the church began to be expanded to the westward (-Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands), northward (- United Kingdom of Great Britain, Northern Ireland) and southward (- the deserts of Arabia in the Middle East and the Sahara in North Africa) and no beasts (kings) were able to stand before it.

The spreading of Christianity started with the Crusaders. The background to the Crusaders was set when the Seljuk Turks decisively defeated the Byzantine army in and cut off Christian access to Jerusalem. The Byzantine emperor, Alexis I, feared that all Asia Minor would be overrun so He called on western Christian leaders and the papacy to come to the aid of Constantinople by undertaking a pilgrimage or a crusade that would free Jerusalem from Muslim rule. The crusaders comprised military units of Roman Catholics from all over western Europe, and were not under unified command. The main series of Crusades, primarily against Muslims in the Levant, (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Palestinian Authority, Cyprus, Turkey's Hatay province) and some regions of Iraq or the Sinai Peninsula, occurred between 1095 and 1291.

Their emblem was the cross - the term "crusade" is derived from the French term for taking up the cross. Many were from France and called themselves "Franks," The term "crusade" is also used to describe religiously motivated campaigns conducted between 1100 and in 1600 in territories outside the Levant usually against pagans, heretics, and peoples under the ban of excommunication for a mixture of religious, economic, and political reasons. Countless number of people had suffered death through the crusaders. But then, the Crusaders expanded the Church to the outside territories of the empire westward, northward and southward. There was vast difference between the early Church and the Roman Christianity in the evangelical ministry. Conversion in the early Church was by the demonstration of the Holy Spirit and power but in the Roman Christianity, forced conversion was the order which filled the churches with unregenerate people.

According to the prophesy, the higher horn came up last, which means the Pope at Rome became greater later than the one at Constantinople, and he claimed the Papal Supremacy and became the universal father to Christianity. Papal supremacy refers to the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church that the pope, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ and as pastor of the entire Christian Church, has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered. Critics claim that, in brief, "the Pope enjoys, by divine institution, supreme, full, immediate, and universal power in the care of souls". O God! What a great Apostasy the Church has entered into!

The Lord Jesus Christ entrusted the universal care of souls into the safekeeping of the divine Holy Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit that was to be His substitute, the Lord promised that, "when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (John 16:8). The Holy Spirit convicts of sin as He makes the sinner realize his lost condition and convicts him of his need of Christ's righteousness. He it is who brings a soul dead in sin to life.

This miracle of grace is spoken of in Scripture as, "the exceeding greatness of His power to us ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead" (Ephesians 1:19). The majesty, greatness and indescribable power of the true office of Vicar of Christ are such that a believer stands in awe of His divine Person. Any human being who lays claim to the office of Vicar of Christ seems totally absurd and blasphemous.

Next, the Bishops of Rome claimed to be "The vicar of the prince of the Apostles, that is, the vicar of Peter. Thus, in the early fifth century, Bishop Innocent I (401-417 A.D.) insisted that Christ had delegated supreme power to Peter and made him the Bishop of Rome. Following this, he held that the Bishop of Rome as Peter's successor was entitled to exercise Peter's power and prerogatives. Boniface III, who became Bishop of Rome in 607, established himself as "Universal Bishop," thus claiming to be vicar and master of all other bishops.

It is truly significant that Joseph Ratzinger was elected as the new Pope as Benedict XVI (April 2005). Before this, he headed up the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith [formerly known as the Office of the Inquisition] . Archconservatives in the Church of Rome warmly welcomed him; however, he will not be acceptable to many American Catholics because of his hard-line stance. This rigid position was seen clearly in the document that he issued on September 5, 2000 called, "Dominus Iesus". In that document, he boldly decreed that the Roman Catholic Church is the only "instrument for the salvation of all humanity".

Dogmatically, he also rules out evangelical churches from being considered as, "Churches in the proper sense," when he proclaimed, "the ecclesial communities which have not preserved the valid Episcopate [that is, ruler-ship by Roman Catholic bishops] and the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic mystery [that is, partaking of Mass (the Lord's Supper) in the manner of Roman Catholics, including their teaching that the priest miraculously transforms the wine and bread into the actual blood and flesh of Jesus Christ], as not Churches in the proper sense."

The creation of the term papal supremacy dates back to the 6th century, which was the beginning of the rise of the Bishops of Rome to the position of not just religious authority, but the power to be the ultimate ruler of the kingdoms within the Christian community, Christendom, which it has since retained. Note: ". and the higher came up last". This was what Paul spoke about in 2Thessalonians 2:3-4 "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; 4 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, shewing himself that he is God".

The Byzantine Papacy was a period of Byzantine domination of the papacy from 537 to 752, when popes required the approval of the Byzantine Emperor for Episcopal consecration, Pope Gregory I (590-604) was a major figure in asserting papal primacy and gave the impetus to missionary activity in northern Europe, including England. In 1054 came the first major split from Roman administration of the church, the Eastern Orthodox and the Western Orthodox, which is the same Catholic Church.

The Council of Trent and the Lateran Council of 1215 AD gave the priests the power to remit sins, which were a gross insubordination against God, for only God alone can remit sin. This shows that he equates himself equal to God and needs to be worshipped. From the election of Pope Martin V, of the Council of Constance in 1417, to the Reformation, Western Christianity was largely free from schism as well as significant disputed papal claimants. Martin V returned the papacy to Rome in 1420. It was not until 1870 AD that the Vatican Council proclaimed the Pope infallible in all his decisions pertaining to the Catholic Church.

Papal infallibility is a dogma of the Catholic Church which states that, in virtue of the promise of Jesus to Peter, the Pope is preserved from the possibility of error when, "in the exercise of his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, in virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole Church". Is this what we call the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ? Did Peter or Paul remit sins? Matthew 23:7-10 "And (they) love greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi (teacher, teacher), 8 But be not ye be called Rabbi (teacher): for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. 9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ".

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