Monday, November 21, 2011

World Constitution and Parliament Association Global Strategy Meeting and Celebration

Photo (Courtesy) http://www.cmseducation.org/article51/

WCPA GLOBAL STRATEGY MEETING AND CELEBRATION
CONCURRENT WITH THE 12th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF CHIEF JUSTICES OF THE WORLD
DECEMBER 9-13, 2011


WORLD PEACE AND UNITY CONVENTION CENTER, KAMPUR ROAD
CITY MONTESSORI SCHOOL OF LUCKNOW, INDIA
ALL WCPA MEMBERS, FRIENDS, AND OFFICERS INVITED


The World Constitution and Parliament Association (WCPA), working with the Institute on World Problems (IOWP) has had a productive summer and is looking forward to the coming year of rapid growth and expansion. We invite you to help us celebrate 53 years of accomplishment and plan our global strategy in relation to our rapid growth and expansion.
We have been invited by Dr. Jagdish Gandhi, Founder/Manager of CMS Lucknow, to participate in the International Conference of Chief Justices of the World and to hold our own WCPA Global Strategy Meeting on the last day of these events, December 13. We invite your participation in these events. Housing and meals will be provided at the World Convention Center by CMS. Participants are responsible for their own transportation costs. Registration is free. You should register both with CMS for the Chief Justices Conference and with WCPA. Visit www.wcpa.biz or www.worldproblems.net and www.cmseducation.org/article51/

What we have been doing:
Last May, with the help of WCPA Vice-President, Celina Garcia, from Costa Rica we sent copies of the Earth Constitution in Spanish to all heads of state in Latin America (with copies of the Constitution in Portuguese to Brazil). A WCPA delegation will be returning to Costa Rica in September to meet with Latin American Ambassadors and again present them with a copy of the Earth Constitution in Spanish.
In June, WCPA Secretary-General, Glen T. Martin, was interviewed on CMS Television in Lucknow, India concerning our organization and its global work. This interview can be viewed on our website at www.wcpa.biz.
We also held lectures and seminars in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Bangalore, India, and Chennai, India. We met with leaders of Sri Aurobindo’s World Union in Pondicherry.
In Chennai, with the help of the energetic Board of Directors of our Chennai Chapter and WCPA Vice-President, Professor R. Ananthanarayanan, we held a week-long series of events, including an all-day program presented to some 800 students and faculty at a college near Chennai.
At the end of July, we held a 3 day seminar in New York State for IOWP/WCPA friends and members from around the United States. Plans and opportunities have come out of this seminar that we can discuss at the coming Global Strategy Meeting in Lucknow. At the same time, WCPA Chapters in individual countries have been growing and flourishing, such as the notable chapter in Kumasi, Ghana, under the leadership of Bishop Emmanuel Mensah.


Please begin making plans now to participate in this important Chief Justices Conference and WCPA Global Strategy Meeting and Celebration.
Glen T. Martin, Secretary-General

Sponsored by the World Constitution and Parliament Association
North America Office: 313 Seventh Avenue, Radford, VA 24141 USA
Fax: 1 (540) 831-5919 gmartin@radford.edu, govt_rules@yahoo.com, www.wcpa.biz

Asia Office: New No. 40, Old No 212/1, St.Mary’s Road, Mandaveli, Chennai – 600 028, Tamil Nadu, India
Ph: 044 – 24939233/ 24936945 Mob: 94440 86760
Africa Office: B.P. 680, Kara, TOGO, WEST AFRICA fax: 228-660-1104 and 228-900-0578

WCPA GLOBAL STATEGY MEETING AND CELEBRATION
REGISTRATION FORM

You must also register for the Chief Justices Conference at the CMS website above.

Your name_____________________________________________________________________________

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Organization name (print clearly)___________________________________________________________

Your Address:

Street__________________________________________City_______________________________

Mailing code _______________________Country________________________________________

Email _____________________________Web site________________________________________

Phone________________________ Passport number (if applicable) ___________________________


Relationship to WCPA:
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Fill out this form, copy it, and email to WCPA through gmartin@radforrd.edu.


IOWP fax: 1-540-831-5919


Source

Tahrir Square (Egypt) Part II


Sunday, November 20, 2011

Conspiracy of Silence

Containing very disturbing but important information, Conspiracy of Silence is a banned documentary about a nationwide child abuse ring in the US back in the 80s and 90s, implicating people all the way to the upper echelons of government. With the ongoing Catholic church abuse scandals, the Holly Greig case and a whole history of cases implicating people within the UN, social services and major corporations such as DynCorp with activities ranging from organised child abuse to international sex slave trafficking, Conspiracy of Silence examines the truly dark aspect of humanity too horrific for many to even consider.

Obama Turns to Autopen to Keep Government Running

NOVEMBER 17, 2011, 6:16 PM ET

President Barack Obama will still be traveling overseas this weekend when time runs out to sign legislation to keep the government from shutting down, so he’ll sign the bill remotely by invoking a little-used mechanism that allows the White House to mechanically affix his signature to documents, an administration official said.

Air Force One taxis as President Barack Obama arrives at Bali air force base in Denpasar on Thursday, ahead of the East Asia Summit. (Bay Ismoyo/AFP/Getty Images)

The House on Thursday narrowly passed a bill to extend funding for the bulk of federal agencies through mid-December and set in place funding for a handful of them for the rest of the 2012 fiscal year, a move that is expected to be followed by the Senate. The deadline for signing the legislation to avoid a government shutdown is midnight on Saturday. But Mr. Obama will be in Bali, Indonesia, attending a summit of East Asian nations at that time. The White House could have shipped him the legislation, as is sometimes done, but there is little time.

Instead he’ll sign it via autopen, a machine imprint of the president’s signature that can be used at his direction. It will be only the second time in history that a president – Mr. Obama, in both cases — has used the option to sign legislation.

“At this time, the president is scheduled to arrive in D.C. on Sunday morning and the next CR will need to be signed by Saturday to continue normal government operations,” the administration official said in an email, referring to the legislation known as a continuing resolution..

The autopen is not without controversy. Last May, Mr. Obama became the first president to use it to sign legislation when he extended several provisions of the Patriot Act that were set to expire while he was traveling in Europe. Some Republican lawmakers raised objections at the time.


Source

Obama: Social Justice in Catholic Church Has Had 'Profound Influence' on Me




Published July 07, 2009

FOXNews.com



President Obama said the Catholic Church's long tradition of social justice has had a "profound influence" on him -- just days before he is to meet with Pope Benedict XVI on his first trip to Italy.


Obama told FOX News that he looks forward to reading the encyclical, a "circular letter" titled "Charity in Truth," published by the Vatican.


The encyclical -- set to be published on the eve of the G8 summit -- has been seen as a message from the pope to leaders of advanced nations who will convene in L'Aquila, Italy,on Wednesday.


"Specifically, I think that social justice derives from individuals having the freedom to pursue their own ideas of happiness and pursue prosperity using their blood, sweat, and tears," Obama told FOX News on Tuesday. "I also think that opportunities are provided to individuals through civic institutions like religious organizations. And I also (think) the government plays an important role."


The president said Catholicism impacted his life in the beginning of his political career when he was doing organizing work in Chicago.


"I've spoken in the past of my admiration for Cardinal Bernardin, who was somebody who was steeped in that tradition," he said. "I think the Holy Father has consistently spoken out on these issues. I'm sure he will again."


Joseph Bernardin served as Archbishop of Chicago from 1982 until his death in 1996.


Pope Benedict has been working on the encyclical since 2007, but has delayed issuing it. It has since been updated to reflect current issues like the economic crisis, according to the Vatican.


This is the third encyclical for the pope. He wrote "God is Love" in 2006 and "Saved by Hope" in 2007.



FOX News' Eve Zibel contributed to this report.



Source: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/07/obama-social-justice-catholic-church-profound-influence/?test=latestnews#ixzz1eGMVy5dC

Ian Paisley retires from ministry

Paisley tells east Belfast congregation he intends to write his autobiography


Ian Paisley
Ian Paisley founded his breakaway church in 1951 after a split with the main Presbyterian church. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod



















Ian Paisley has retired from ministry in the fundamentalist Protestant church he founded 60 years ago.

The 85-year-old has stepped down from his role as a minister in the Free Presbyterian Church.

Paisley told the Martyrs Memorial Church he helped build in East Belfast of his decision on Sunday. He intends to devote his time to writing his autobiography.

The former first minister of Northern Ireland founded his breakaway church in 1951 after a split with the main Presbyterian church over its embrace of ecumenism and greater links with the Roman Catholic church.

Addressing his congregation at the church on the Ravenhill Road Paisley informed them of his intention to finally pen his memoirs.

"I will be telling some stories that will make some people laugh and others blush," he said.

For most of its six decades in existence Paisley was moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church. Despite being a relatively small denomination it wielded enormous political influence on rightwing unionist politics. During the years of the Troubles the Free Presbyterian Church became the Democratic Unionist party-at prayer.

Almost all the leading figures of the party, which Paisley founded in the early 1970s, were members of the church. The exception was his closest aide and confidant Peter Robinson, the current first minister, who was a member of the Independent Methodist church.

During his long tenure as head of the Free Presbyterians, Paisley embarked on several high-profile moral crusades, including an unsuccessful battle to oppose the legalisation of homosexuality in Northern Ireland. In response to Paisley's Save Ulster From Sodomy campaign the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Movement depicted the DUP leader as an "ayatollah" who was the enemy of individual freedom in Northern Ireland.

Free Presbyterians in the DUP also used their influence on councils to close parks and playgrounds on Sundays and even opposed a rock concert by ELO in a Ballymena leisure centre because it was being held on a Sunday.


Source


Saturday, November 19, 2011

Ouidah, Benin in pictures

Grand Popo & Ouidah, Benin, December 12 - 13, 2007 Slideshow: Modernnomad67’s trip to Ouidah, Benin was created by TripAdvisor. See another Ouidah slideshow. Create your own stunning free slideshow from your travel photos.

Pope visits cathedral in African voodoo city


Sat Nov 19, 2011 1:54pm GMT

* Pope visits capital of West African voodoo

* Pope says Africa should not be exploited for dubious ends (Recasts, changes dateline, adds quotes, details)

By Philip Pullella

OUIDAH, Benin, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Pope Benedict on Saturday visited the city considered the capital of voodoo in West Africa, praying at a Catholic cathedral just across the street from a large voodoo temple with a pit full of pythons.

While the pope was inside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception to sign a papal document on Africa, several dozen voodoo priests and their wives sat outside their temple in curiosity and in a gesture of welcome.

"For them, the pope is the top of the top," said Alexandre Ayite, a Benin diplomat in the receiving line in the cathedral.

A sign painted on the wall outside the voodoo complex read 'Temple of the Pythons' and a statue of a bare-breasted woman holding several snakes stood by the entrance. Inside was a small stone house with about two dozen large and baby pythons.

A voodoo priest put five or six around his neck and arms for a visiting reporter. Dressed in red, the snake priest and others dressed in white said they had nothing against the pope's visit.

Inside the cathedral, the pope ceremoniously signed a papal document on Africa in which he reflected on the results of a 2009 synod of African bishops which took place at the Vatican.

The document was mostly of a religious nature, but in its brief section on AIDS, the pope avoided directly addressing the issue of the use of condoms to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS.

He sparked controversy when he last came to Africa in 2009, telling reporters on his plane condoms could spread AIDS. The Vatican later said his remarks were taken out of context.

In the document, the pope said AIDS was, above all, an ethical problem. He called for a "change in behaviour" and repeated the church's teaching that the best way to fight AIDS is sexual abstinence, rejection of sexual promiscuity and fidelity within marriage.

He did not use the word "condom" in the document, which repeated synod statements on the need for Catholics in Africa to have good relations with Islam and traditional religions while not relinquishing any part of their identity.

The pope's visit to Ouidah was also to pay tribute to the tomb of one of Benin's most famous native sons, Cardinal Bernardin Gantin, who worked in the Vatican for many years in a number of top church positions. He died in 2008.


EXPLOITATION

Earlier on Saturday, the 84-year-old pope said the developed world could not continue to look down on Africa "with the judgmental tone of a moralizer" and must come up with real partnership solutions to solve the continent's many problems.

He made his appeal in an address to officials of Benin, including President Thomas Boni Yayi and the diplomatic corps, on the second day of his trip to the West African nation.

"Too often our mind is blocked by prejudices or by images which give a negative impression of the realities of Africa, the fruit of a bleak analysis," he said.

"It is tempting to point to what does not work; it is easy to assume the judgmental tone of the moralizer or of the expert who imposes his conclusions and proposes, at the end of the day, few useful solutions."

He also repeated his condemnation of violence by anyone in God's name.

"No religion and no culture may justify the appeal or recourse to intolerance and violence," he said. "To use the revealed word, the sacred scriptures, or the name of God to justify our interests, our easy and convenient policies or our violence, is a very grave fault."

He said on Friday before he arrived that he chose Benin as the sole venue to deliver his papal document because in some ways the country was exemplary.

Benin made one of Africa's few peaceful transitions to democracy in 1990 after a period of Marxist-Leninist rule that had been supported by the former Soviet Union and Cuba.

Unlike some of its neighbours where inter-religious strife is rife, particularly Nigeria, Benin also enjoys mostly peaceful coexistence among Christianity, Islam and traditional religions.

At an inter-religious meeting in the Italian city of Assisi last month, the pope said he felt "profound shame" for the use of violence by some in the Catholic Church over the course of the centuries, a reference to the crusades and the use of force by missionaries in the New World.

The pope also said on Saturday that the rest of the world should not see Africa merely as a place whose vast resources of energy, minerals, agriculture and people "are easily exploited often for dubious ends". (Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Sophie Hares)


Source


Related:

Pope calls for religious harmony

November 19 2011 at 03:07pm

Associated Press

Pope Benedict XVI called for “true inter-religious dialogue” on the second day of his trip to West Africa's Benin.

The 84-year-old pope made his comments during a morning meeting with members of Benin's government, religious leaders and heads of diplomatic missions to the country.

He also spoke of the need to depict a fairer, more objective image of the African continent. “Too often, our mind is blocked by prejudices or by images which give a negative impression of the realities of Africa,” he said.

“It is tempting to point to what does not work; it is easy to assume the judgemental tone of the moraliser or of the expert who imposes his conclusions and proposes, at the end of the day, few useful solutions.”

The pontiff is halfway through his second trip to Africa since becoming leader of the Roman Catholic Church in 2005. His first trip to the continent was to Cameroon and Angola in 2009. That trip that was overshadowed by a comment suggesting that use of condoms worsens the spread of Aids in Africa.

Among the highlights of this trip is the release of an 87-page papal document that outlines the role of the Church on the African continent. The pope will also visit the port of Ouidah Saturday, where voodoo temples stand near the port where Christian missionaries first arrived in Benin 150 years ago.

The pope will also pray privately at the tomb of Cardinal Bernardin Gantin Saturday. Gantin, a close friend of the pontiff, was the highest-ranking sub-Saharan African in the Roman Catholic Church at the time of his death in 2008. - Sapa-dpa


http://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/pope-calls-for-religious-harmony-1.1181971?showComments=true
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Look at Things Eternal


We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Cor. 4:18.

If the church will put on the robe of Christ's righteousness, withdrawing from all allegiance with the world, there is before her the dawn of a bright and glorious day. God's promise to her will stand fast forever. . . . Truth, passing by those who despise and reject it, will triumph. Although at times apparently retarded, its progress has never been checked. . . .

Endowed with divine energy, it will cut its way through the strongest barriers and triumph over every obstacle.

What sustained the Son of God during His life of toil and sacrifice? He saw the results of the travail of His soul and was satisfied. Looking into eternity, He beheld the happiness of those who through His humiliation had received pardon and everlasting life. His ear caught the shout of the redeemed. He heard the ransomed ones singing the song of Moses and the Lamb.

We may have a vision of the future, the blessedness of heaven. In the Bible are revealed visions of the future glory, scenes pictured by the hand of God, and these are dear to His church. By faith we may stand on the threshold of the eternal city, and hear the gracious welcome given to those who in this life co-operate with Christ, regarding it as an honour to suffer for His sake. As the words are spoken, "Come, ye blessed of my Father," they cast their crowns at the feet of the Redeemer, exclaiming, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. . . .

Honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." Matthew 25:34; Revelation 5:12,13.

There the redeemed greet those who led them to the Saviour, and all unite in praising Him who died that human beings might have the life that measures with the life of God. The conflict is over. Tribulation and strife are at an end. Songs of victory fill all heaven as the ransomed ones take up the joyful strain, Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and lives again, a triumphant conqueror.

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Maranatha
, p.333.
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Friday, November 18, 2011

Thanksgiving comes early in Burlington City


Volunteer Shauna Simmonds. left, dishes out yams to Rose Bickle of Burlington Township during the second annual Burlington Seventh Day Adventist Church community celebration at the Quaker Meeting House and Conference Center on High Street on Wednesday.


Posted: Thursday, November 17, 2011 5:45 am | Updated: 12:00 pm, Thu Nov 17, 2011.

Members of the Burlington Seventh-Day Adventist Church cooked and served a traditional turkey meal at the Burlington Quaker Meetinghouse and Conference Center on High Street on Wednesday.

Apron-clad volunteers smiled and dished up the buffet while folks of all walks of life dug into the holiday feast and peeked into gift bags filled with toiletries and other essentials. Medical screenings and chair massages, new features this year, were also part of the package.

Friends Rose Bickle and Jounita McHugh were impressed.

“Everything was delicious,” said Bickle, of Burlington Township, adding that she’d gotten her blood sugar tested.

McHugh, of Lumberton, just stuck to the savory cuisine.

“If I’d have gotten a chair massage, I’d have fallen asleep,” she said.

The meal was made possible by $3,000 collected from Adventist members and 25 cheesecakes donated by Mother’s Kitchen, a bakery on Veterans Drive. The spacious dining room and professional kitchen at the meetinghouse served as the ideal venue.

Adventist Pastor Daniel Duffis worked the room, grinning and taking candid digital photos. Duffis said the community meal carries out the helping-hands vision of the church, which has operated on Conover Street for 120 years.

“We think this is really reaching out. For some people, it’s the only Thanksgiving they’ll get,” he said.

Duffis said that unlike corporate-funded charities, the meal was paid entirely by donations from the church’s 75 members.

They also gave freely of manpower. Event coordinator Marilyn Mapp of Burlington Township said 25 volunteers, including teenagers, helped prepare and serve the meal, and that a committee was assigned to take care of shopping for the food and getting the word out.

“My brothers and sisters at church are really, really good. A major difference this year is the youth involvement,” said Mapp, a church member for nine years.

Attendance was down from last year’s 200 visitors, likely because of the rainy weather, she said.

Still, nothing went to waste as the servers switched from serving hot plates to packing the extras in to-go boxes.

The Meetinghouse and Conference Center, which has lodging space in addition to cooking and dining facilities, frequently hosts traveling groups and other nonprofits of different faiths. Center director Carol Strawson spoke of the excitement that preceded the much-needed brunch.

“People were knocking on the door yesterday, asking about it,” Strawson said. “It’s really wonderful.”

Jeannie O’Sullivan: 609-871-8068;

email: josullivan@phillyBurbs.com; Twitter: @jeannieosulliva


Source


Adventist Media Center in the News!




Created dateSep 20, 2011 Last editSep 20, 2011 at 2:05 PM
by Seth Wade; Source: Ventura County Star, swade@sdamedia.com
[News]

Ventura County Star
Posted: 09/17/2011
By: Amy Bentley

Simi Valley is home to an unusual nonprofit Christian media center and television studio where a host of radio and television broadcasts on various topics are produced with the goal to reach listeners worldwide.

The Adventist Media Center is a state-of-the-art media center and production studio at 101 W. Cochran St. It is owned and operated by the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists and provides communications through partnerships with various...
Read more here

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Founder of the "baby hatch hospital" honored with Medal of Merit


Founder of the "baby hatch hospital" honored with Medal of Merit

18.11.2011:


Berlin, 09.11.2011 [APD-CH]. Gabriele Stangl, pastor of the Waldfriede Adventist hospital in Berlin-Zehlendorf, received the Medal of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (awarded by the Federal President Christian Wulff) from the mayor of the Steglitz-Zehlendorf district, Norbert Kopp, in Berlin. The district office justified the award in a press release, as follows: "Mrs. Stangl advocates for women suffering psychosocial distress and for their babies in an impressive way: she started the 'baby hatch project' in the Waldfriede hospital in Berlin-Zehlendorf in 2000." Thus, desperate mothers can anonymously leave their babies in that baby hatch.


Gabriele was born in 1961 in Braunau am Inn, Austria. She studied theology and education at the Austrian Seventh-day Adventist Bogenhofen theological seminary. She also taught Hebrew, Old Testament subjects and German language for foreigners there, before starting to work as chaplain at the Wittelsbach Adventist nursing home, in the upper Bavarian Bad Aibling. She has been chaplain at the Waldfriede Hospital in Berlin since 1996. Three years ago, the "Association of Adventist Women", a private lay organization in Seattle, Washington State, named Gabriele Stangl "Woman of the Year 2008".


Bernd Quoss, managing director of the Waldfriede hospital, praised the "hard work structure" of the "baby hatch" founded by Pastor Stangl, who has now gained public recognition through this award. He stressed that the chaplain had done this work almost exclusively in her spare time and that she had had to struggle with a great deal of opposition.


The "cradle", as the "baby hatch" is called at Waldfriede hospital, is a green box. It is secluded at the rear of the clinic’s building A and is accessible by a single entrance which is not video-monitored. If a mother opens the hatch and puts her newborn in the baby hatch, sensors trigger a delayed alarm from the continuously manned gatehouse so that the mother has enough time to leave the area undetected, reported Stangl. The baby will be immediately brought to the nursery and placed under medical care. The hospital informs the youth office, which hands care over to a specially trained foster family. The mother can take back her child during the following eight weeks. If she doesn't do so, the baby is put up for adoption.


Pastor Stangl developed the idea of the baby hatch during her work as a hospital chaplain. "An 80-year-old woman spoke only on her deathbed about the killing of her child. A pregnant woman had to be sent away by the hospital because she was not ready to reveal her identity. When I heard that in Hamburg a baby hatch had been set up, I had the idea that a hospital is best suited for such a thing. I've found support not only in our clinic, but also among competent authorities", said Stangl.


About 20 newborns have been laid in the "baby cradle" over the last ten years and some 110 women have given birth anonymously in the hospital. "But 95 percent of the women who gave birth anonymously with us eventually found the courage to give up their anonymity after intensive psychological support", said Pastor Stangl. Sometimes, after a few months, mothers showed up to report that their children had been placed in the "cradle". One out of three women finally keeps the baby. But most of the other women who give their babies up for adoption want their children to find out later who their mother is. The average age of these women is between 27 and 34. "Each of these women is terrified for various reasons that her pregnancy might become known", said the hospital chaplain.


By: APD-CH



Source

P.S. An Adventist Woman pastor wearing a necklace??? The New Theology is here!


A History of the Foundation of Futurism and Preterism


The papacy suffered a major setback through the Reformation. The help of the monastic orders was sought, but they were so decadent that they had lost the respect of the people. The Dominicans and Franciscans, peddling relics and indulgences, had become the butt of ridicule and mockery.

At this crisis Loyola and his companions offered their services, to go wherever the pope should designate, as preachers, missionaries, teachers, counselors, and reformers. A new order was created, authorized in 1540, which infused a new spirit and spread rapidly in Europe. Like a wounded giant, Romanism arose in desperation to recover her lost prestige and shrunken territory.

Their ambitious goal was to become the universal and principal order of the Roman church. Though they took the name Society of Jesus (Jesuits), the Protestants termed them Jesuwider (against Jesus).

Their influence was immediately felt. They grew more powerful and comprehensive year by year, employing science, art, culture, politics, foreign missions, trades and industry. They began to preach, as Protestants were accustomed to do, in the streets and marts, coming to be among the most eloquent preachers of the age. The churches were too small to accommodate the multitudes that flocked to hear them. At Rome, they were scattered throughout the various churches. Then they began to spread throughout Italy, Portugal, Germany, and especially Austria and Bavaria. They hemmed in the Protestant movement on all sides. Some cities, such as Ingolstadt and Cologne, opened their doors; others opposed them.

In 1558 Lainez was elected second general of the order. At the Council of Trent he successfully exerted his power and skill in behalf of papal supremacy. The Jesuits became entrenched in universities throughout various countries. They were among the best teachers in the land. Even Protestants began to send their children to them because of the scholastic progress they could make.

The conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism was basic and irreconcilable. The Romanist believed in the authority of the church; the Protestant, in that of the Bible. The one yielded his conscience to the priest; the other to God alone. The Romanist believed in the pope as the visible representative of Christ on earth; the Protestant looked, instead, upon the pope as Antichrist. The one regarded the church—meaning the hierarchy—as the depository of all spiritual truth; the other looked upon the clergy as ministers of the church, not as the church itself. The Romanist, satisfied with the teaching of the church, was content to leave the Bible to the learned; the Protestant, on the other hand, held that it was to be diligently and reverently studied, by all, as the word of God. The one dreaded its spread as tending to heresy; the other multiplied translations as the assurance of soundness, and sought to introduce them to every household. Between the time of Luther’s appeal to a general council, in 1518, and the convening of the Council of Trent in 1545, Bibles in German, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, and English (Tyndale’s New Testament and Coverdale’s complete Bible) had been published, and the Reformation established in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, and England.

The two systems stood forth in absolute and irreconcilable opposition at the Council of Trent, where the council expressly condemned what the Reformation taught.

The Council of Trent—beginning in 1545 under Paul III and ending in 1563 under Pius IV—crystallized its actions into decrees that became permanent law of the Catholic church. Reformation truths were there rejected and stigmatized as pestilential heresy. In one sense Trent became the culmination of the Counter-Reformation. It was Rome’s definitive answer to the Reformation.

The molding Jesuit influence was attested to by the fact that the two noted Jesuits, Salmeron and Lainez, who served as the pope’s theologians, and who had been enjoined by Loyola to resist all innovation in doctrine, were invited to preach during the council. They soon ingratiated themselves into the good will of the delegates. And by their unusual knowledge of the fathers, the conclusions of scholastic philosophy, and of Catholic doctrine, they came to wield a preponderant influence in the council.

Introduce Futurist Counterinterpretation

For some time following the launching of the Reformation, Roman Catholic leadership carefully avoided exposition of the prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse. They seemed unable to parry the force of the incriminating Protestant applications of the prophecies concerning Antichrist, which were undermining the very foundations of the Catholic position. Upon the first outbreak of Luther's antipapal protest two Catholic doctors, Prierias and Eck, in the true spirit of the Fifth Lateran Council (1512-1517), had boldly reasserted the Lateran theory and declared the papal dominion to be Daniel's fifth monarchy, or reign of the saints, and identified the existing Roman church with the New Jerusalem.

But the reformers, with declarations by pen and voice, forcefully stated that the Papacy was the specified Antichrist of prophecy. The symbols of Daniel, Paul, and John were applied with tremendous effect. Hundreds of books and tracts impressed their contention upon the consciousness of Europe. Indeed it gained so great a hold upon the minds of men that Rome, in alarm, saw that she must successfully counteract this identification of Antichrist with the Papacy, or lose the battle. The Jesuits were summoned to aid in the extremity, and cleverly provided the very method needed both for defense and for attack.

From the ranks of the Jesuits two stalwarts arose, determined to lift the stigma from the Papacy by locating Antichrist at some point where he could not be applied to the Roman church. It was clearly a crisis of major proportions.

Two Conflicting Alternatives Brought Forth

Rome’s answer to the Protestant Reformation was twofold, though actually conflicting and contradictory. Through the Jesuits Ribera, of Salamanca, Spain, and Bellarmine, of Rome, the Papacy put forth her futurist interpretation. Almost simultaneously Alcazar, Spanish Jesuit of Seville, advanced the conflicting preterist interpretation. These were designed to meet and overwhelm the Historical interpretation of the Protestants. Though mutually exclusive, either Jesuit alternative suited the great objective equally well, as both thrust aside the application of the prophecies from the existing Church of Rome. The one (preterism) accomplished it by making prophecy stop altogether short of papal Rome's career. The other (futurism) achieved it by making it overleap the immense era of papal dominance, crowding Antichrist into a small fragment of time in the still distant future, just before the great consummation. It is consequently often called the gap theory.

According to the Protestants, the vision of Babylon and the supporting Beast is divinely interpreted in chapter 17 of the Apocalypse. It was on this that the Reformers commonly rested their case—the apostate woman, the Roman church; the city, seven-hilled Rome; the many waters, the many peoples; the Beast, the fourth, or Roman beast of Daniel; the sixth head, the Caesars; and the seventh, the popes.

Roman Catholics as well as Protestants agree as to the origin of these interpretations. The Roman Catholic writer G.S. Hitchcock says:

The Futurist School, founded by the Jesuit Ribera in 1591, looks for Antichrist, Babylon, and a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, at the end of the Christian dispensation.

The Praeterist School, founded by the Jesuit Alcasar in 1614
, explains the Revelation by the Fall of Jerusalem, or by the fall of Pagan Rome in 410 A.D.” (G.S. Hitchcock, The Beasts and the Little Horn, p. 7.)

Similarly, Dean Henry Alford (Protestant), in the "Prolegomena" to his Greek Testament, declares:

“The founder of this system [Futurist] in modern times…appears to have been the Jesuit Ribera, about A.D. 1580." (Henry Alford, The New Testament for English Readers, vol. 2, part 2, p. 351 [bottom numbering].)

“The Praeterist view found no favour, and was hardly so much as thought of , in the times of primitive Christianity. … The View is said to have been first promulgated in anything like completeness by the Jesuit Alcasar … in 1614.” (Ibid, pp. 348, 349 [bottom numbering].)

Francisco Ribera (1537-1591).

About 1590 Ribera published a 500-page commentary on the Apocalypse, denying the Protestant application of Antichrist to the Church of Rome. Ribera’s death at fifty-four halted the preparation of further commentaries. Those that were printed passed through several revised editions—at Salamanca about 1590, Lyons and Antwerp in 1593, Douay in 1612, and Antwerp in 1603 and 1623.

Since its inception his basic thesis has been virtually unchanged. He assigned the first few chapters of the Apocalypse to ancient Rome, in John’s own time; the rest he restricted to a literal three and a half year’s reign of an infidel Antichrist, who would bitterly oppose and blaspheme the saints just before the second advent. He taught that antichrist would be a single individual, who would rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, abolish Christian religion, deny Christ, be received by the Jews, pretend to be God, and conquer the world—all in this brief space of three and one half years!

Places Antichrist’s coming at the close of the seals
Places trumpets under the seventh seal
Death of the witness is literal time
Antichrist's persecutions last three and one half years
Judgements upon Rome for ultimate apostasy—in Revelation 17 Ribera admits the woman to be not only pagan Rome but also Rome Christian after a future falling away from the pope. (Francisco Ribera, Sacram Beati Ioannis … Apocalypsin Commentarij, chap. 14, pp. 282, 283).
Repudiates Augustinian earthly millennium
Antichrist’s reign counted by literal days
Babylon is Rome past and future, not present

Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621), focused his attack on the year-day principle.

Capitalized on Luther’s hesitation over Apocalypse
Main assault centered on year-day application
Assigns symbols to past and future, thereby eliminating application to the long papal ascendancy of the Middle Ages.
Exploits variations on time of the Antichrist

The heart of Bellarmine’s thesis was both clever and plausible, though deceptive. (1) Antichrist is an individual Jew, and not an apostate Christian system. (2) Therefore the length of his exploits must harmonize with the life period of one man—three and one half literal years, and not 1260 years.

Luis de Alcasar (1554-1613), Spanish Jesuit of Seville.

Made the seals the early expansion of apostolic Christianity
God’s longsuffering, warnings, and punishments were allotted to the Jews
The trumpets were judgments on fallen Judaism
The two witnesses—the doctrine and holy lives of the Christians
After the persecutions Christianity would arise with new glory and convert many Jews
Revelation was the apostolic church, bringing forth the Roman church
The first beast of Revelation 13 declared to be the persecuting arrogance of pagan Rome—the second beast, its carnal wisdom
Revelation 17, the mystical meaning of idolatrous ancient Rome
Revelation 18, its conversion to the Catholic faith


LeRoy Edwin Froom, The Prophetic faith of Our Fathers, The Historical Development of Prophetic Interpretation, Vol. 2, Review and Herald, Washington, D.C., 1948, excerpted, pp. 464-532.