Religion has been a hot topic in the 2012 presidential campaign. One religion above the others seems to be mentioned more. Recently a comment by one of the presidential candidates caused a stir,
Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum said Sunday that he doesn’t believe in the separation of church and state, adding that he was sickened by John F. Kennedy’s assurances to Baptist ministers 52 years ago that he would not impose his Catholic faith on them.
“I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute,” Santorum, a devout Catholic, said in an interview from Michigan on ABC’s “This Week.”
Prophecy has already told us that our nation will “repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and Republican government”
When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with Spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and Republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan, and that the end is nearTestimonies for the Church 5:451. – {ChS 160.4}
So are we there? Is that where we are heading, with the topic of the “separation of church and state” taking center stage? Again from prophecy we know that “Rome never changes” and she is waiting for the opportune time.
The papal church will never relinquish her claim to infallibility. All that she has done in her persecution of those who reject her dogmas she holds to be right; and would she not repeat the same acts, should the opportunity be presented? Let the restraints now imposed by secular governments be removed and Rome be reinstated in her former power, and there would speedily be a revival of her tyranny and persecution. – {GC 564.2}
A well-known writer speaks thus of the attitude of the papal hierarchy as regards freedom of conscience, and of the perils which especially threaten the United States from the success of her policy: – {GC 564.3}
“There are many who are disposed to attribute any fear of Roman Catholicism in the United States to bigotry or childishness. Such see nothing in the character and attitude of Romanism that is hostile to our free institutions, or find nothing portentous in its growth. Let us, then, first compare some of the fundamental principles of our government with those of the Catholic Church. – {GC 564.4}
“The Constitution of the United States guarantees liberty of conscience. Nothing is dearer or more fundamental. Pope Pius IX, in his Encyclical Letter of August 15, 1854, said: `The absurd and erroneous doctrines or ravings in defense of liberty of conscience are a most pestilential error—a pest, of all others, most to be dreaded in a state.’ The same pope, in his Encyclical Letter of December 8, 1864, anathematized `those who assert the liberty of conscience and of religious worship,’ also ‘all such as maintain that the church may not employ force.’ – {GC 564.5}
“The pacific tone of Rome in the United States does not imply a change of heart. She is tolerant where she is helpless. Says Bishop O’Connor: ‘Religious liberty is merely endured until the opposite can be carried into effect without peril to the Catholic world.’… The archbishop of St. Louis once said: ‘Heresy and unbelief are crimes; and in Christian countries, as in Italy and Spain, for instance, where all the people are Catholics, and where the Catholic religion is an essential part of the law of the land, they are punished as other crimes.’… – {GC 565.1}
“Every cardinal, archbishop, and bishop in the Catholic Church takes an oath of allegiance to the pope, in which occur the following words: ‘Heretics, schismatics, and rebels to our said lord (the pope), or his aforesaid successors, I will to my utmost persecute and oppose.’”—Josiah Strong, Our Country, ch. 5, pars. 2-4. – {GC 565.2}
We know that it will be the people of the United States that would demand of their government a “Sunday Law”, so this does not mean that the president has to be a Catholic. But wouldn’t it be much easier? As we speak most of the justices on the supreme court are Catholic, and many if not most of congress. It was the Jewish leaders in the days of Christ that urged the common people to reject Christ.
Political corruption is destroying love of justice and regard for truth, and even in free America rulers and legislators, in order to secure public favor, will yield to the popular demand for a law enforcing Sunday observance.—The Great Controversy, 578, 579, 592 (1911). – {LDE 129.3}
Is Rome testing the waters, or is she so confident in what she have accomplished in America, that she is boldly telling us her plans?
We are here brothers and sisters,
An end is come, the end is come: it watcheth for thee; behold, it is come.
Ezekiel 7:6
“…prepare to meet thy God, O Israel”Amos 4:12
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