The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

they had the Truth, and they fully trusted the Giver. Thus the Master could say, 'Thou hast
kept My Word, and hast not denied My name.'
"During the Philadelphian period, especially during the first and the last phases of it, the
faithful have either been obliged to come out of the nominal temple or have been cast out
for their straight testimony. The reward promised them is that they will be, not simply an
unimportant part, but a vital one--a pillar in the true and eternal Temple--a part which
cannot be removed while the structure exists. During their trial state their names were cast
out as evil. They were branded as infidels and heretics."
Concerning the necessity of Divine interference in behalf of the cause of Truth during
those times, it has been truthfully said:
"A system which travesties the truth, hardens the conscience, enslaves the mind, corrupts
the heart, which buries the Bible, prostitutes the ministry, profanes the sacraments,
persecutes the saints, betrays and butchers the flock of Christ, and outrages all that is
sacred and all that is Divine--deserves and demands to be exposed, detested, judged,
destroyed, and swept out of an injured world.
"And God raised up the Reformation to do this work of protest, exposure, condemnation,
and deliverance. . . . He who had raised up the Prophets and Apostles in olden times, He
who raised up confessors and witnesses in the Middle Ages, raised up reformers in the
sixteenth century, lion-like men, to undertake this mighty enterprise and accomplish this
glorious work. . . . We wish to invite your special attention to the fact that the convictions
of the Reformers with reference to the character of the Papal Church, and the duty of
separation from it, were largely derived from their study and interpretation of the
prophetic Scriptures. . . . To the Reformers, Rome was the 'Babylon' of the Apocalypse, and
the Papal pontiff the predicted 'Man of Sin.' Separation from the Church of Rome and from
its pontifical head, was regarded by them as a sacred duty. They urged on all Christian
persons within the Church of Rome, the Apocalyptic command, 'Come out of her, My
people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.' To
them separation from Rome was not separation from Christ, but from Antichrist. This was
the principle upon which they began and prosecuted the work of the Reformation, The
principle which directed and supported, and rendered them invincible."
Reformers saw Man of Sin in prophecy
In the fall of 1520 Luther printed a treatise on the Babylonish Captivity of the Church. In this
treatise Luther called the Papacy "the kingdom of Babylon." A little later he boldly
denominated the Papacy the "Man of Sin" (2 Thess. 2), and exhorted all Christian princes
to shake off his usurpations. In another publication he says:
"When Daniel saw the terrible wild beast which had ten horns, which, by the consent of all
is the Roman Empire, he also beheld another small horn come up in the middle of them.
This is the Papal power, which rose up in the middle of the Roman Empire."