Rome has changed, but it doesn’t matter

Technically, I am still a Catholic. Even after getting kicked out of the house when I became Adventist, I was never anathematized. Therefore, as a Catholic, I can speak with authority! Rome changes and Rome never changes.

As I showed in my previous article, Sunday laws are inevitable. So why do we spill digital ink debating the relation of Rome to blue laws? Whether the papacy or the Protestant world or the combined duo make them, they are coming. Bible prophecy makes the future clear. History engraved with iron pen the persecutions and the corruptions. Any changes—real or faked, deep or superficial—in between the past and the future will not change what is prophesied. I’m content to watch things play out and teach people to focus on issues, not institutions or personalities.

For example, when I was young I went camping for the first time. The other guys told me to beware of skunks in the area, but I did not want to show my newbie ignorance and ask them what a skunk looked like. That very evening I discovered they have black and white stripes and turn around to spray you with a foul-smelling, penetrating liquid. What was more important for me to know, the name or the characteristics?

Is Protestant church-statism any better than Catholic church-statism? The name doesn’t matter so much as the principle involved.

I was born the year of Vatican 2. My dad helped in the national transition from the Latin mass to English missalettes (quarterlies for church). The American Catholic church definitely changed.

However, official Catholicism still does not subscribe to righteousness by faith alone, sola scriptura, and Christ as our only mediator. Rome can sign documents and publish encyclicals until the world runs out of paper, but the theology will remain non-Protestant. Therefore, its leadership will remain unconverted and unguided by the Spirit of Christ.

Therefore, when conditions worsen and desperate measures look appealing, the temptation will be overpowering. This will be especially true after many Catholics respond to the everlasting gospel in the form of the loud cry. Like France after the Huegonots were purged, the remaining institution will become a “hold of every foul spirit.” It does not take prophecy to tell us that. This is the way human nature and human movements work.

Rome’s current positions on religious liberty may or may not be sincere. Who am I to judge? Why do I need to judge? Future events will make all secret motives public.

Over time, my dad’s attitude softened towards me. Yelling and condemning stopped. Yet, I was the “black sheep causing spiritual death in the family” until the day he died. Change? No change? It does not matter how you define it. We were never able to unite in Christ. I always had to keep up my guard against his unbiblical criticisms.

Even if I should forget its name when I grow old, I will never forget the little black stripey critter that sprayed me from its butt. Church-state systems are never good, no matter their name, no matter their claim.