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"And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." -Revelation 7:2-3
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The Great Controversy - Appendix
Last Chapter | GC Index AppendixGeneral NotesPage 679Page 50. [Return to Page: 50] Titles. --In a passage which is included in the Roman Catholic Canon Law, or Corpus Juris Canonici, Pope Innocent III declares that the Roman pontiff is "the vicegerent upon earth, not of a mere man, but of very God;" and in a gloss on the passage it is explained that this is because he is the vicegerent of Christ, who is "very God and very man." See Decretales Domini Gregorii Papae IX (Decretals of the Lord Pope Gregory IX), liber 1, de translatione Episcoporum, (on the transference of Bishops), title 7, ch. 3; Corpus Juris Canonici (2d Leipzig ed., 1881), col. 99; (Paris, 1612), tom. 2, Decretales, col. 205. The documents which formed the Decretals were gathered by Gratian, who was teaching at the University of Bologna about the year 1140. His work was added to and re-edited by Pope Gregory IX in an edition issued in 1234. Other documents appeared in succeeding years from time to time including the Extravagantes, added toward the close of the fifteenth century. All of these, with Gratian's Decretum, were published as the Corpus Juris Canonici in 1582. Pope Pius X authorized the codification in Canon law in 1904, and the resulting code became effective in 1918.For the title "Lord God the Pope" see a gloss on the Extravagantes of Pope John XXII, title 14, ch. 4, Declaramus. In an Antwerp edition of the Extravagantes, dated 1584, the words "Dominum Deum nostrum Papam" ("Our Lord God the Pope") occur in column 153. In a Paris edition, dated 1612, they occur in column 140. In several editions published since 1612 the word "Deum" ("God") has been omitted. Page 50. [Return to Page: 86] Infallibility. --On the doctrine of infallibility as set forth at the Vatican Council of 1870-71, see Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, vol. 2, Dogmatic Decrees of the Vatican Council, pp. 234-271, where both the Latin and the English texts are given. For discussion see, for the Roman Catholic view, The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 7, art. "Infallibility," by Patrick J. Toner, p. 790 ff.; James Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of Our Fathers (Baltimore: John Murphy Company, 110th ed., 1917), chs. 7, 11. For Roman Catholic opposition to the doctrine of papal infallibility, see Johann Joseph Ignaz von Doellinger (pseudonym "Janus") The Pope and the Council (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1869); and W.J. Sparrow Simpson, Roman Catholic Opposition to Papal Infallibility (London: John Murray, 1909). For the non-Roman view, see George Salmon, Infallibility of the Church(London: John Murray, rev. ed., 1914). Page 680Page 52. [Return to Page: 52] Image worship. --"The worship of images . . . was one of those corruptions of Christianity which crept into the church stealthily and almost without notice or observation. This corruption did not, like other heresies, develop itself at once, for in that case it would have met with decided censure and rebuke: but, making its commencement under a fair disguise, so gradually was one practice after another introduced in connection with it, that the church had become deeply steeped in practical idolatry, not only without any efficient opposition, but almost without any decided remonstrance; and when at length an endeavor was made to root it out, the evil was found too deeply fixed to admit of removal. . . . It must be traced to the idolatrous tendency of the human heart, and its propensity to serve the creature more than the Creator. . . ."Images and pictures were first introduced into churches, not to be worshiped, but either in the place of books to give instruction to those who could not read, or to excite devotion in the minds of others. How far they ever answered such a purpose is doubtful; but, even granting that this was the case for a time, it soon ceased to be so, and it was found that pictures and images brought into churches darkened rather than enlightened the minds of the ignorant--degraded rather than exalted the devotion of the worshiper. So that, however they might have been intended to direct men's minds to God, they ended in turning them from Him to the worship of created things." --J. Mendham, The Seventh General Council, the Second of Nicaea, Introduction, pages iii-vi. For a record of the proceedings and decisions of the Second Council of Nicaea, A.D. 787, called to establish the worship of images, see Baronius, Ecclesiastical Annals, vol. 9, pp. 391-407 (Antwerp, 1612); J. Mendham, The Seventh General Council, the Second of Nicaea; Ed. Stillingfleet, Defense of the Discourse Concerning the Idolatry Practiced in the Church of Rome (London, 1686); A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2d series, vol. 14, pp. 521-587 (New York, 1900); Charles J. Hefele, A History of the Councils of the Church, From the Original Documents, b. 18, ch. 1, secs. 332, 333; ch. 2, secs. 345-352 (T. and T. Clark ed., 1896), vol. 5, pp. 260-304, 342-372. Page 53. [Return to Pages: 53, 574] The Sunday Law of Constantine. --The law issued by the emperor Constantine on the seventh of March, A.D. 321, regarding a day of rest from labor, reads thus: "All judges and city people and the craftsmen shall rest upon the venerable Day of the Sun. Country people, however, may freely attend to the cultivation of the fields, because it frequently happens that no other days are better adapted for planting the grain in the furrows or the vines in trenches. So that the advantage given by heavenly providence may not for the occasion of a short time perish." --Joseph Cullen Ayer, A Source Book for Ancient Church History (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1913), div. 2, per. 1, ch. 1, sec. 59, g, pp. 284, 285. The Latin original is in the Codex Justiniani (Codex of Justinian), lib. 3, Page 681title 12, lex. 3. The law is given in Latin and in English translation in Philip Schaff's History of the Christian Church, vol. 3, 3d period, ch. 7, sec. 75, p. 380, footnote 1; and in James A. Hessey's Bampton Lectures, Sunday, lecture 3, par. 1, 3d ed., Murray's printing of 1866, p. 58. See discussion in Schaff, as above referred to; in Albert Henry Newman, A Manual of Church History (Philadelphia: The American Baptist Publication Society, printing of 1933), rev. ed., vol. 1, pp. 305-307; and in Leroy E. Froom, The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Assn., 1950), vol. 1, pp. 376-381.Page 54. [Return to Pages: 54, 266] Prophetic dates. --An important principle in prophetic interpretation in connection with time prophecies is the year-day principle, under which a day of prophetic time is counted as a calendar year of historic time. Before the Israelites entered the land of Canaan they sent twelve spies ahead to investigate. The spies were gone forty days, and upon their return the Hebrews, frightened at their report, refused to go up and occupy the Promised Land. The result was a sentence the Lord passed upon them: "After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years." Numbers 14:34. A similar method of computing future time is indicated through the prophet Ezekiel. Forty years of punishment for iniquities awaited the kingdom of Judah. The Lord said through the prophet: "Lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year." Ezekiel 4:6. This year-day principle has an important application in interpreting the time of the prophecy of the "two thousand and three hundred evenings and mornings" (Daniel 8:14, R.V.) and the 1260-day period, variously indicated as "a time and times and the dividing of time" (Daniel 7:25), the "forty and two months" (Revelation 11:2; 13:5), and the "thousand two hundred and threescore days" (Revelation 11:3; 12:6). Page 56. [Return to Page: 56] Forged writings. --Among the documents that at the present time are generally admitted to be forgeries, the Donation of Constantine and the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals are of primary importance. "The |
