The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

espect in which they were held; to maintain that they were the vicegerents of heaven; to
claim for themselves sacredness of character and of person [pictured, as we have already
explained, in the "diadems" on the heads, now transferred to the horns]; and to secure
from the people a degree of reverence which was in fact idolatrous. Never was this more
marked than in the times when the Papacy had the ascendancy, for it was its policy to
promote reverence for the power that sustained itself, and to secure for itself the idolatrous
veneration of the people."
Along this line another has called attention to the fact . . .
". . . that when, in AD 455, the city of Rome was invaded and plundered by the Vandals,
and all around was distress and desolation, Leo, the bishop of Rome, improved the
opportunity for impressing upon all, both barbarians and Romans, his claim of spiritual
power. To the rude and superstitious barbarians, already greatly impressed by what they
saw about them of Rome's greatness and wealth, Leo, arrayed in his pontifical robes,
exclaimed: 'Beware! I am the successor of St. Peter, to whom God has given the keys of the
kingdom of heaven and against whose church the gates of hell cannot prevail; I am the
living representative of Divine power on the earth; I am Caesar, a Christian Caesar, ruling
in love, to whom all Christians owe allegiance; I hold in my hands the curses of hell and
the benedictions of heaven; I absolve all subjects from allegiance to kings; I give and take
away, by Divine right, all thrones and principalities of Christendom. Beware how you
desecrate the patrimony given me by your invisible King; yea, bow down your necks to
me and pray that the anger of God may be averted.'"
Great swelling words of blasphemy
"And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and
power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth
in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that
dwell in heaven.--Ver. 5,6.
"In its true significance, the word 'blasphemy' is applicable to any indignity offered to
God. Bouvier defines it thus: 'Blasphemy is to attribute to God that which is contrary to His
nature, and does not belong to Him--and to deny what does.'--See Webster's Unabridged
Dictionary under heads of Blasphemy and Blasphemously. And in evidence that this is the
sense in which the word 'blasphemy' is used in the Scriptures, notice the manner in which
our Lord and the Pharisees used it: . . . --John 10:33,36; see also Mark 14:61-64.
"With this, the proper definition of 'blasphemy,' before us; how evident it must be to the
simplest minds that Papacy's great swelling words and boastful claims have, one and all,
been blasphemies. The establishment of a counterfeit Kingdom of God was a libel upon
God's government, a gross blasphemy, and a misrepresentation of His character and Plan
and Word. God's character, i.e., His 'name' was blasphemed in the thousand monstrous
edicts, bulls, and decretals issued in His name, by the long line of those who claimed, as
vicegerents, to represent His Son; and God's tabernacle, the true Church, was blasphemed
by the false system which claimed to take its place--which claimed that its faithful were the