“Roman Catholic principles will be taken under the care and protection of the state. This national apostasy will speedily be followed by national ruin” (Review and Herald, June 15, 1897).
Let me begin these reflections with a summary of a speech by the current Spanish historian and speaker, Cesar Vidal. He lectured on the subject of Protestantism and Individual Freedom in contrast to Catholic political principles and counter-reformation. The documentation he gives is formidable. What interests me most is the following:
1. The Reformation introduced a trajectory of freedom—from a massive medieval submissiveness to the state—towards individual emancipation by its emphasis on the Bible. With Luther's requirement of submission of the conscience to the Word of God and not to the Holy roman Empire, individual liberty was introduced which opened the doors to a new modern era.
2. By putting the Bible at the center of theology, a remarkable increase in knowledge, the sciences and a general quality of life was introduced.
Johannes Kepler discovered that the earth is not flat, and nothing happened to him.
Galileo Galilei found the same thing, but by living in a Catholic culture, this belief nearly cost him his life.
3. The Catholic Church has always exalted poverty as a virtue, and promoted a welfare policy in behalf of the poor. The Reformation, on the other hand, dignified work, and referred to Gen 2 which says that God put man in Eden to till and keep it. Instead of giving a poor man a fish, it was better to teach him to fish.
Many Jews and Protestants living in Catholic countries, became itinerant merchants in the Middle Ages to be able to maintain their freedom and independence. For this reason also they were terribly persecuted.
The Roman Catholic Church wanted to control everything and everyone. But in the Netherlands, Protestantism became a refuge for Jews, they managed to establish the world’s first bank at the beginning of the 17th Century, allowing for radical progress in contrast to the backwardness or slow economic progress of Catholic countries.
4. Vidal also tells us that in almost all the 20th Century, 64% of Nobel Prizes were granted to Protestants; 24% to Jews; and 12% to atheists, Catholics and other ideologies. This fact tells us a lot of things about the trend of the different ideologies that are encompassing the different political and religious milieus today.
There have been no dictators in Protestant countries, especially since the Protestant American Revolution. But in Catholic, Atheist and Islamic countries, dictatorship has commonly been seen as a positive way to achieve a better society.
The founders of the United States of America came from Protestant Puritans, with the exception of a Catholic mason (which makes us question the kind of Catholicism he professed). Again, it is the Bible that brought freedom to Protestant countries. In the background, confession to God alone and not to a Catholic priest makes the people conscientiously responsible for their acts, and not dependent on human imposters who pretend to occupy the place of God with the ability to grant forgiveness of sins.
5. In the painting works of Diego Velázquez in Spain, and Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn in the Netherlands—both genius painters at the beginning of the seventeenth century, Vidal sees a different vision of the world. One lived in a Catholic country, and the other in a Protestant country. Velázquez was not free to choose the motifs of his paintings. He was constrained to paint many vain and useless princes and kings, dwarves taken from Greek mythology, and drunk people. This is what he encountered in the Catholic country where he lived. Rembrandt, instead, painted a woman on a loom because as a painter, he dignified physical work, and her subjects reflect the Protestant philosophy of life that is based on the Bible.
The Current Pope Fosters a Welfare Policy
Pope Francis fosters a welfare policy in behalf of the poor that many political leaders now want to impose throughout the world, even in a Protestant country like the USA. He sees the pandemic as an opportunity to transform the world and society at large, because everything is now being shaken. He expects that many rich people will be stripped of their excessive wealth, so that society can be leveled. It is what he calls social justice.
I heard the same sentiments expressed by Alberto Fernández, the current president of Argentina, where more than one thousand companies are in bankruptcy due to an excessive and exaggerated quarantine of nearly ten months. He publicly said that he agrees with pope Francis that the pandemic is helping the world make a more righteous society, with many rich people becoming poorer, leveling society with a new distribution of wealth. This is also the view openly expressed by socialist Justin Trudeau, the Canadian first minister, who believes that the pandemic will help us to build a new more righteous economic system and to take care of the planet to stop climate change.
Behind the scenes, what the church and some of the rulers want is to seize the companies which fail under a long quarantine in order to control them, making people dependable on the state and the church as well, a policy that was consistently fostered by the popes in the Middle Ages. Climate change or global warming is used as leverage to achieve that socialist goal.
Actually, care of the planet (“our common house” in the Pope’s terminology), requires us not to exploit the earth. But if we do not till the earth and utilize its resources, we will multiply poverty which will end in national ruin. This is the same socialist view that is causing many in the USA and in the world to believe that with a new leftist government in the USA, freedom of trade, travel and work will be lost.
Material discomfort can always be exploited in poor Catholic Latin American countries and other third world nations to destabilize their governments. But in order to achieve a transformation of the political system in the USA, it was necessary to discover a potential source of social unrest. Once found, they could fight to obtain social justice, fomenting and capitalizing on general discontent among the people. The road to resentment in the USA was found in racial, gender, and immigration contentions.
Again, in the background, the new political trend wants absolute control of trade and industry, as well as control of the people. The Pope himself says openly what others repeat here and there, that no one has an absolute right to private property. For the Pope, wealth is the dung of the devil, and it has to be distributed as a manure or fertilizer among poor people to use it properly.
Individual Property at Stake
Pope Francis believes that no one has unlimited rights to private property. In his view—followed by many politicians, jurists and lawyers of the world today—whom the Pope is constantly calling to the Vatican for lectures on these issues—an expropriation of individual properties is legitimate when its use will presumably contribute to the ‘common good’. Thus, the Pope is requiring an intervention in a country like Brazil to hinder the exploitation of the Amazon, supposedly for protecting our planet. And Pope Francis' fellow Jesuit, Emmanuel Macron, president of France, is a strong supporter of that intervention. Sovereignty of a country is, in their view, to be submitted to a common good for all nations, with the spirit of the encyclicals “Laudato Si” and "Fratelli Tutti". Our question is: Is the Pope’s view not a totalitarian view of the world? Is it not an apocalyptic approach like that foretold in Rev 13:16-17?
Steven Greenhut, an American economist has responded that Pope Francis is wrong. The title of his document is, “Pope Francis Is Wrong. Property Rights Are Human Rights.” In his view, “the Pope conveniently forgets that as a property-rights-based market economy has expanded, grueling poverty has receded worldwide.” Under this fact, the requirement of the Pope of private expropriation of goods and properties for a presumable common good carries misery and poverty.
It is noteworthy that many political and religious Catholic leaders do not agree with the presumable leftist view of the current Pope. In this context, even in the Catholic Argentina, there are politicians who hate their fellow countryman Pope Francis. It is interesting how, among them, Milei Sacadisimo, an Argentinian politician and economist, is accusing the Pope of violating the Commandments of God, more definitely the tenth commandment, which requires not to covet the property of others. The papal socialist agenda, in his view, wants to steal the private goods of the people, industries and companies. In his view, evil is sitting with Pope Francis in the midst of the church. And he believes that the triumph of the left in the USA will weaken not only the USA but also the whole world, bringing a tremendous disaster onto Western civilization. See in Spanish.
Can we neglect the contradiction of a social justice required by the Pope, who lives in a mansion with golden roofs, and sits on a golden or marble throne surrounded by two sculptured cherubim as the Bible represents God? (Isa 37:16). Who, among the disciples of the Lord, feigned an interest in the poor in order to steal that money for himself? (John 12:5). What did the kings of the nations do to wield power over them? Was it not to pretend to fight for the poor in order to be called “Benefactors,” and “exercise authority over them”? (Luke 22:25).
The Biblical Approach Confirmed by the Spirit of Prophecy
In my book, Jubilee and Globalization. The hidden intention, I deal with the principles revealed by God for dealing with poverty. God didn’t dampen the enterprising spirit of people, but called for a break every seven years to cancel debts, free slaves, and give land and animals a rest (Deut 15; Exod 21; 23:9-10). Every fifty years, the Lord required the return of property to the original owners who had received their properties by God’s concession when He Himself distributed the land to the tribes of Israel (Lev 25; see Num 34; Josh 14).
Since John Paul II, we have seen the popes trying to act like God, imposing an international Jubilee, requiring the rich nations to forgive the debts of the poor nations, and organizing solidarity movements among the masses to fight for their rights in Catholic countries. But unfortunately, the Lord didn’t divide the properties of nations fifty years ago, so He is not responsible for the unequal condition of the world today. Therefore the popes cannot dream of a righteous world which could go back to a righteous original distribution of goods performed by God through the Urim and Thummim.
Before the Bolshevik communist revolution, E. G. White warned us that:
“There are many who urge with great enthusiasm that all men should have an equal share in the temporal blessings of God. But this was not the purpose of the Creator. A diversity of condition is one of the means by which God designs to prove and develop character. Yet He intends that those who have worldly possessions shall regard themselves merely as stewards of His goods, as entrusted with means to be employed for the benefit of the suffering and the needy” (PP 535).
“It was not the purpose of God that [in this world of sin] poverty should ever leave the world. The ranks of society were never to be equalized; for the diversity of conditions which characterizes our race is one of the means by which God has designed to prove and develop character. Many have urged with great enthusiasm that all men should have an equal share in the temporal blessings of God; but this was not the purpose of the Creator. Christ has said that we shall have the poor always with us. The poor, as well as the rich, are the purchase of His blood… The cares of this life and the greed for riches eclipse the glory of the eternal world. It would be the greatest misfortune that has ever befallen mankind if all were to be placed upon an equality in worldly possessions” (CH 230).
What do we need to do? Must we take to the streets to protest for the defense of our human rights? As citizens in a democratic country, we can do that. But the apostle James warns us against this kind of action. There are many worldly ideologies that run in the undercurrent of these protest movements. For this reason, the apostle puts before us a wonderful hope. The coming of the Lord is near. He will grant an extraordinary rich inheritance in the new earth to those who accept the principles of His government (Jas 5). Because our Father in heaven is rich, and He wants to share with us His wealth.
Conclusion
It is unbelievable that in a Protestant country like the USA, the greatest talents revealed in the Nobel Prizes by Protestants during the 20th Century are not represented on the Supreme Court of the United States, which is composed by six Catholics and three Jews (no Protestant judges). It is also incredible that the newly projected president is a Catholic politician, who openly promotes Pope Francis’ agenda on social equality, and intends to foster his agenda to combat the alleged climate change. A recent USA poll shows a new evangelical society and a new Catholic society who became more secularized and don’t believe what their parents believed in every point. Is this one of the reasons for that change in political principles?
The USA is being shaken because of a pandemic that is destroying economies worldwide. Many who don’t know the prophecies are warning of changes that are coming with the loss of freedom and capital. Some even fear a civil war, which at a first glance seems improbable today. But nothing should surprise us. It is not an easy enterprise to completely change the nature of this country.
Capitalism was always seen as a Protestant mark of freedom (see John W. Robbins, Ecclesiastical Megalomania. The Economic and Political Thought of the Roman Catholic Church). So, a renunciation of economic freedom implies a welfare system of government which will implement a Catholic philosophy with the ultimate end of controlling the world. This is a mark of authority that it is being proposed to the world, which neglects the Commandments of God. But, will the world finally agree to being refashioned in the “image” of a medieval institution?
As a matter of fact, a Sunday law which replaces the true Seventh Day Sabbath of the Lord, will not liberate the world from its imminent ruin. Calamities will not cease under a fake Sabbath. Political and moral corruption opens the door for demons to cause destruction. The ruin of the nation and of the world is coming. The coming of the Lord with His reward is near.
Let us prepare for the greatest conflict that we will have to soon face! And then, we will see the Lord coming in His glory to redeem His people.
Dr. Alberto R. Treiyer was born in the Adventist community of Libertador San Martín, Entre Ríos, Argentina. Dr. Treiyer is an author, and has a doctoral degree in theology from the University of Strasbourg, France. He has served as the director of the theological department at the Adventist Antillian College in Puerto Rico, where he taught for six years. He has also taught at the University of La Sierra, and Columbia Union College, as well as theology in Costa Rica and Columbia. Alberto is now a retired pastor, giving seminars, and writing books and papers that support our distinctive message.