To help organize our thinking, we will present eight thrusts in history, which facilitate the final shaping of events and issues, which we think of in Eschatology.

These eight thrusts are:

There is a certain logical and chronological sequence of these major thrusts. The first four have to do with human systems. The first two, CATHOLICISM and PROTESTANTISM, represent religious systems. For our purposes here, a religious system is an effort to organize our thinking and practices with respect to the Super-Natural, with respect to the Meta-Physical; with respect to the world beyond the here and now. They represent two distinct religious approaches.

Science represents a system of organizing our ideas and practices around Nature, as contrasted to Super-Nature, the Physical world as contrasted with the Meta-Physical world.

Politics, as we are referring to the term today, involves man's efforts to organize himself Socially, in terms of how Societies interact, in the shaping of Laws and Government.

These four systems are very vital for our understanding of the events that are shaping up: CATHOLICISM, PROTESTANTISM, SCIENCE, and POLITICS. And then we will get into the last of these four, which represent the actual shaping-up of these eschatological issues.

Now, in each of these first four systems, I want to look at in terms of two basic ideas; the principles and the authority by which they operate. That is, the MODUS OPERANDI, the basic grasp of reality of the authority by which they operate.

Then I want to also consider the impingement of this notion of authority on our system of government. As we talk about systems, I want to emphasize that we are not talking about individuals who adhere to these systems, as there is quite a variety of different thought within each of these systems.

It is the system that I want to have you understand. We are not making judgement about the quality of the people within the system; we are referring to the system itself, which will become clear as we go along.

As we look at Catholicism, we recognize that the center of authority within this system, by which they operate and which deserves the focus of their adherence, is the centrality of the Church, as it resides in the Pope. Now, the Church speaks primarily with respect to MORALS, although, because of the various teachings which they espouse with respect to morals, it does impinge on government, as we shall consider shortly. But it is the Church as personified in the leadership of one man that is Catholicism. There really has been no question about the authority of this system that resides in the Pope. The Pope is the central authority in the Church.

In the development of Church history since the days of Christ, the Church of Rome has engaged in a fairly successful struggle to establish their authority; very early in its history there were several tests that determined whether it was going to be able to exercise this authority or not. This Church grew out of the conflict between the Eastern and Western Cultures. Judaism had been a central thrust in the religious world, and through the development of the friction between the Jews and the Gentiles, the Catholic Church attempted to establish, and did establish, a rival thrust in religious history. The underlying cause of this may better be understood by reading chapters 5 and 6 of Dr. Bacchiocchi's book "From Sabbath to Sunday." Moving away from that which was considered Jewish and Eastern in its philosophy, to a more Western type of orientation, which was more Gentile. And one of the great symbols of this church to exercise its authority has been its claimed right to change times and laws. One of the polarizing factors in the development of this history to secure the allegience of the early church, away from those things which were essentially Jewish, was the symbol of Sunday. This came about as a backlash to Jewish uprisings at the time of Hadrian 135-156 A.D.

Catholicism exercised its authority at this and other points, but this became central. You could easily spend $200 photocopying the available documents, validating these claims, despite recent attempts, in Doctoral Dissertations, to shift the blame to the early Apostles and church. Since most of you are familiar with these claims, we'll not spend any time here.

The central idea of authority within the system, is the Pope and the capacity to secure the allegience of the adherents to his authority; especially when he speaks to matters of faith and morals.

Now, because this system adheres to this strong central church authority, it has had much to say about the operation of government. It does not believe in the diversity of opinion with respect to religious matters. There is about ten pages in a recent TIME Magazine devoted to this area, as well as several of the recent issues. The concept of authority has led this system to insist upon religious influence in government; ideally in which the Church controls the State. Many efforts have been made through out history for this system to control and regulate all of man kind through the structure of government. Because, if the Pope is the Vicar of Christ, and if it is his mission to govern the moral relationships of human beings, then there must be some kind of government support to disseminate this kind of authority. They have freely used where they could. By 250 A.D. the authority of Rome was becoming crystalized; by the middle of the 6th century it was well established. It was this period of time that we historically refer to as the Dark Ages; when the Church ruled the minds and consciences of men; and even Kings and Rulers bowed to this authority. We find that after a period of time, near the latter part of the eighteenth century, Bible prophecy speaks of a deadly wound being inflicted, in which its authority is greatly curtailed. If you will recall the historical moment, one of Napolean's generals, Boutier, took the Pope captive and imprisoned him, and thus unseated him in a very unceremonious fashion.

Within this system, we see a yearning and a desire which has never been relinquished to control the religious destiny of all people. The Church claims to be infallible in the area of Faith and Morals, and claims the right to exercise this authority through the government. Prophecy declares that the time will come when the deadly wound will be healed; and it is in the process of being healed at this time. But, it is not yet completely healed.

This represents now, the first system that we must consider, as a back-drop for the events to take place in the days to come.

The second system that I want you to think about, is Protestantism. Protestantism offers an antithesis to the Papal system; in fact the very idea of protest is in its' name. In contrast to the authority of a person on earth, who is to dictate in areas of morals and faith, the Protestant idea was a reaction to this; in which the Bible and the Bible only, was to be the rule they practiced. It is implicit in this idea, that the book represent a testimony about a Divine person, "Ye search the scripture, and it is not in them, that Ye have eternal life, but they testify of Me."

But as a norm for this earth, the Protestant idea is that the authority resides not in a church but in the Word of God. And from this authority derives the Priesthood of Believers, in which every man through this Word can come directly to the Throne of Grace, and this does not have to be mediated through any human system; that every man is a priest and every man can approach God through this Word, and not through some church system.

Now what has happened to Protestantism?

First of all, this idea of Biblical Authority has been eroded over a period of time; through what appears to be an apostacy, through worldliness, a concession to certain scientific ideas, in which with the passage of time, it seems very mythical to many Protestant leaders and Theologians that the Bible could really be true in the light of scientific discoveries. And with the passage of time, stemming from the sixteenth century, and with the development of higher criticism in the nineteenth century, the idea of Biblical Authority has been eroded so that no-longer is the Bible considered the supreme authority. In fact as we see the major thrust of Protestantism today, we would have to say, through the influence of the social gospel, the Bible at best is a collection of psychological goodies, wrapped in a very thin veneer of gospel belief. With the idea of this loss of Biblical Authority, there is also an erosion of the Protestant idea of separation of Church and State. Because after all, if every man is to be a priest himself then quite obviously it is important that he have the freedom to do so.

The Protestant idea forbids the notion that any government could take over and coerce the mind and thinking of the individual. And so the impingement of government on this idea is to keep Church and State separate. But with the erosion of strong Biblical Authority, has also come the erosion of thought that the government should be kept distinct from religious practices.

One of the great forces that reflects this erosion is the Ecumenical movement, which is really quite contrary to the basic Protestant ideas in which there should be diversity. And with this Ecumenical movement what has been a very strong bastion of defense against conformity to central ideas, the Ecumenical move- ment represents a thrust where everyone can get together under one roof. You see that in the psychological manifestation that this is really conforming to some of the cardinal Catholic ideas; that we should all be together, and that we have some central form of religion. In this Ecumenical movement a lot of consideration is being given as to how this nation can be unified in terms of its' religious morals.

We see here, a Catholic idea which has been weakened, but the basic ideas are still intact, waiting to be put into effect, at such time as is politically possible. The bastion of defense against these ideas has been Protestantism, but it has been weakened through loss of Biblical Authority and through the Ecumenical movement, where everyone is supposed to get together. This whole idea of unification, instead of the glory of diversity, has left Protestantism a very weak bastion against Catholic ideas.

Now hold that intact until we have considered some of these other thrusts.

Science represents one of the great alternatives to religious thinking that we have today. The basic authority we have in science, is not in some metaphysical ideas, not in a God, not in Super-Nature, but somehow in the measurement of nature. The central authority of all science is some form of measurement in space and time; something that we can grasp, something that we can inspect, measure, and experiment with. Keep this in mind, because this idea is going to become very influential in governing religious thought in the days to come. The basic authority of Science is in some form of measurement of space and time.

Science has traditionally not been very concerned with government; until recently, and there are two factors which have led scientists to become interested in governmental operation. Number One; because of the development of instru- mentation and the costly nature of scientific enterprise, government has become the main funding agency for the operation of science today. And more and more, government is calling the tune for scientific enterprise. There is another force within the scientific process which is getting science involved in government which is eventually going to lead to a conglomerate in which scientists are going to join religionists in a grand confederation. And that is the concern that scientists have today for the consequences for their discoveries. For the awareness that they have developed, and the understanding of natures' processes; Atomic Power is one. And for the possible consequences for good and evil. Scientists today are really infringing upon the historical tradition of religionists in that they are becoming concerned with moral issues; as to how science is to be used. So they are speaking quite frankly to governmental agencies, as to how the discoveries are to be integrated into society, and they are speaking to government insisting that certain laws be passed, that certain energies can be harnessed. For instance with Biologists and Geneticists and their studies which have had a lot to do with racial interaction. And so they are getting into the moral fray, as it were, and speaking out to government as to how it should be resolved. Psychologists and Sociologists are studying the interaction of human beings and they are becoming quite vocal as to the kinds of laws that should exist in society for the harmonious development and existence of peoples.

Now here is a group, speaking out of no religious conviction, but out of their moral concerns for social structure.

This fourth major thrust has to do with the structure of government and nature of social interaction, and the Laws of government. Basically the authority of politics resides with whoever starts the political system. If it is a King, then authority reside in the King, and he chooses to operate the government in any way he wishes. If it is a Dictatorship, it can be very tyranical. It might be run through a Bureau, or it might be run through a Committee. But that becomes the Authority, and the very fabric of government.

Within the United States, there has developed one of the most marvelous systems of political thought that the world has ever known. It is a form of Federal Government, Republicanism, whereby the authority resides not in a person, not in a bureau, but in the people themselves. A government of the people, for the people, by the people. It is through a system of representation and the forming of different sub-groups; through diversity, that Protestantism has been able to blossom in its finest sense, here in the United States. This has been foretold in Revelation 13, that this form of government would arise where-by there would be civil and religious liberty; for permitting plurality of thought. And if you don't like it in one State, you can go to another; and originally you could form your own State. The montage of all these states represents the government, but it is the people that represent the government, at least in this system.

But what has happened to this political thrust? That has been so designed, by God I think, to preserve the idea of religious freedom and the flourishing of religious thought? Look at it today, it has become corrupt. With the erosion of Biblical principles which originally was part of the thinking of the founding fathers, we can see the greed and the grasping and the loss of integrity by our politicians, in which instead of representing the people, it becomes a forum where they can obtain their own ends. And we live in the day when we can have a President and a Vice-President who can speak in glowing terms about integrity for other people, and when the chips are down they themselves are the worst representation of this integrity.

You'll notice in the Great Controversy, where Mrs. White speaks about corruption in government, leading to a situation where people are distrustful of truth and justice as mediated through government. Further-more we find that there is a force, an organized force which can make government bow-down. We see that force represented by Labor Unions, Political Action Committees, Special Interest Groups, and the Moral Majority. Which express the thought that anyone who wants to get organized and speak loud enough and get enough power behind it, government will bow-down.

Now we have a very interesting state of affairs, in which we have these four systems going to be a conglomerate; and we ask this question: How can this be? How can these systems really get together and shape final events? It seems like they are so disperat in their basic thinking. How can you ever get Protestants and Catholics together? How can you get religionists and scientists together, and how can you get politicians with scientists and religionists together in a country where we a have a Constitution that guarantees separation of Church and State? Now we get into the shaping-up of these final events in the fifth historical thrust.

| Check out this article on the BILDERBERGER Conferences |

| Return To The Previous Study (#1) | - | Proceed To Part II Of This Study | - | Go To The Next Study (#3) | - | Return To The Eschatology Directory |
| Return To The Main DIRECTORY | - | Return To Our HOME PAGE |

THIS PAGE HOSTED BY GET YOUR OWN