John
I can see that you put a lot of time, thought, and care in your response, and I appreciate it greatly.
Concerning my referrences to anti Catholic writers, I don't want to be guilty of flinging out unsubstantiated claims. Let me clarify what I said about E.G. White, because her heretical works are something that all Christians should be aware of, being that the Adventist Church to date works hard to continue to promote them.
Ellen Gould White came on the scene after the raptures predicted by William Miller failed to occur. She was one of many who claimed to have visions and special revelation, and gaining preeminence among them to become a leader and a known prophetess. Some of the works you may be familiar with is
The Great Controversy and
The Desire Of The Ages.
The Great Controversy is often marketed as
America In Prophesy. These books are published and put into the hands of non-Adventists, while attempting to conceal its real source.
These books are filled with White's version of end time events. Her eschatology is focused on Rome being the New Babylon and the Pope being the antichrist. The main weapon of the the Church, and indeed, the mark of the beast, in her opinion, is the institution of Sunday worship which she says most protestant denominations are unduly influenced by unaware.
In fact she wrote over 50 works that cover every detail of religious life and her works fill the libraries of every Adventist Church. They are considered very close to the Bible itself in inerrency.
Though E.G. White was the first to publish seriously anti-Catholic books, protestants are also greatly influenced by Loraine Boettner's book
Roman Catholicism. If you never read this book or heard of it, you can be certain that any anti Catholic books you have read contain referrences to this book. It is an unabashed hatchet job, that I'm sure you understand as an educated man, can be written about any person or organization, to make them seem suspicious and shady. The book is not based on facts and uses very few genuine Catholic sources, but instead is a misrepresentation of the truth using every witness or work that paint the Catholic Church in a negative light.
Concerning the antichrist, here is what we know based on an honest look at scriptures. He would likely be Jewish and rise out of the tribe of Dan. He would have strong appeal to Jews and would superimpose himself on their expectations of a coming messiah. (They wouldn't even consider a catholic) The temple of God he sits in cannot be the Vatican, but rather temple prophesied to be rebuilt in Jerusalem. The antichrist will be a counterfeit Christ and will probably have many similarities to the life of Christ, to include a claim to virgin birth and a resurrection from death. And just as surely as there is a holy Trinity, the antichrist will constitute a member of the unholy trinity.
In fact every work that portrays the Roman Catholic Church as the Whore of Babylon is way off base. They presuppose that end time events will center on Rome, when in fact all of scriptural prophesy make it clear that Israel will be the epicenter, all other nations playing trivial roles. The problem here is the practice of interpreting scripture according to hateful sentiment instead of the righteous practice of "rightly dividing the word of truth." 2 Tim 2:15
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My hope is that the members here will not, in preexisting antisentiment of the Catholic Church, haste to be duped by those authors with sinister agenda whose truth twisting tactics closely mimic those of Satan himself.
Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen. Eph 6:24
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