HEALING OF THE DEADLY WOUND
Let’s go back and look at the prophecy of the leopard-like beast in Revelation chapter 13:
Revelation 13:3 - “And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.”
We must pay great attention to this prophecy. It reveals that the beast, Papal Rome, will strike back with world dominance. All the world will wonder after, or admire greatly with reverence, Papal Rome. The Papal Roman Empire in the past mainly covered modern day Europe. The prophecy reveals that the new Papal Roman Empire will include the entire world. It will be given a new lease on life, “his deadly wound” will be healed.
Does Papal Rome exist today? What kind of power and influence does it have? In 1798 it appeared that Papal Rome was dead. It appeared that it would never have its monarchical power back. Another blow happened when its capital of Rome was overtaken by Italian forces in 1870 including Papal Rome’s beloved Vatican City, except the Apostolic Palace, the home of the papacy. Over the next 59 years the papacy refused to leave the Apostolic Palace in Vatican and declared itself “a prisoner in Vatican.” As the prophecy says they “were wounded to death.” From all appearances they would be like other empires who lost their dominance like Babylon, Medo- Persia, Greece, and Rome, never to come back. How could Papal Rome come back into world dominance as “a prisoner in Vatican” living under the shadows of Italy? Is this even possible? Remember again, Bible prophecy is extremely accurate. Let’s continue to study.
As you can imagine since 1870 Papal Rome worked with persistence to get its governmental sovereignty back. In 1929, the papacy negotiated a treaty with the government of Italy and its dictator Benito Mussolini known as the Lateran Treaty, also called the Lateran Pact. This treaty gave Papal Rome its monarchical governmental sovereignty back within the territory of Vatican, approximately 109 acres. The treaty also recognizes that the Catholic religion is the only official religion within the government of Papal Rome.
It is interesting to note that after the Lateran Treaty was signed the San Francisco Chronicle, February 12, 1929, wrote an article entitle “MUSSOLINI AND GASPARRI SIGN HISTORIC ROMAN PACT.” In part of the article it speaks about “healing the wound” of Papal Rome:
“The Roman question tonight was a thing of the past and the Vatican was at peace with Italy. The formal accomplishment of this today was the exchange of signatures in the historic Palace of St. John Lateran by two noteworthy plenipotentiaries, Cardinal Gasparri for Pope Pius XI and Premier Mussolini for King Victor Emmanuel III.
In affixing the autographs to the memorable document, healing the wound which has festered since 1870, extreme cordiality was displayed on both sides.” - The San Francisco Chronicle, February 12, 1929, p. 1
Did the San Francisco Chronicle know about the Bible prophecy of Revelation chapter 13? Not sure, but it is quite interesting that they would use those words that points to the “healing” of the wound of Papal Rome. Even though Papal Rome’s “wound” was not completely healed in 1929 it surely started the healing process.
Today, Papal Rome’s headquarters of the Catholic Church is still in Vatican. It is a religious governmental monarch on 109 acres surrounded by Rome, Italy. The Pope is both the leader of the church and sovereign leader of the Papal government also known as the Holy See. In other words, he is the “king”. He is both priest and absolute king. It is still the smallest nation on earth, but is growing in worldwide power and influence.
Quick Facts:
The papacy’s power and influence to “shape men’s minds” worldwide has grown very much since 1929 into the modern 21st tech century. Remember, according to Revelation’s prophecy the beast, Papal Rome, will once again have an empire, but this time it will cover the entire globe. It will be the head of the seventh empire, the last earthly kingdom.
The answer is found in its organizational system. Ellen White, who has written much on this subject in her classic book entitled, The Great Controversy says, “The Roman Catholic Church, with all its ramifications throughout the world, forms one vast organization under the control, and designed to serve the interests, of the papal see. Its millions of communicants, in every country of the globe, are instructed to hold themselves as bound in allegiance to the pope. Whatever their nationality or their government, they are to regard the authority of the church as above all other. Though they may take the oath pledging their loyalty to the state, yet back of this lies the vow of obedience to Rome, absolving them from every pledge inimical to her interests. History testifies of her artful and persistent efforts to insinuate herself into the affairs of the nations; and having gained a foothold, to further her own aims, even at the ruin of princes and people.” - Ellen White, Great Controversy, p. 580
Since 1929 until the present time, the papacy has been very intentional in creating formal governmental relationships and diplomacy worldwide. Over the years the papacy has been a key negotiator and diplomat at United Nations. Its most prized diplomatic relationship and direct political influence has been the United States of America, a world superpower after War World II. The current cozy relationship between the United States of America and the papacy would be shocking and appalling to many immigrants from the “old world,” Europe, who escaped the religious persecution of Papal Rome to the “new world,” America. They risked their lives to protest against the atrocities and errors of the papacy. The word “Protestant” refers to individuals and churches that oppose or “protest” the doctrines and influence of the papacy in all its forms. When the founders established the United States of America, it was based on Christian Protestant principles without the influence of the papacy. They saw Papal Rome as a danger to their religious freedom and the American’s way of life. John Adams, Second President of the United States, sums up the America’s thoughts of Papal Rome, “I have long been decided in opinion that a free government and the Roman Catholic religion can never exist together in any nation or Country.” - John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, December 3, 1813. Cappon, Adams-Jefferson Letters, 2: p. 571. Adams continues, “Liberty and Popery cannot live together.” - John Adam to Louisa Catherine Adams, May 17, 1821, Adams Papers (microfilm), reel 451, Library of Congress. General Marquis de LaFayette (1757-1834) who served in the American Continental Army concurs with Adams, “It is my opinion that if the liberties of this country – the United States of America – are destroyed, it will be by the subtlety of the Roman Catholic Jesuit priests, for they are the most crafty, dangerous enemies to civil and religious liberty. They have instigated most of the wars of Europe.” - James Chapman, Americanism Vs. Romanism, Or The CIS-Atlantic Battle Between Sam & Pope, p. 127.
To combat the Protestant principles of true religious freedom in America, Papal Rome deployed its most feared, diabolical, secretive, insidious, corrupt, ruthless, and murderous order of the Catholic church, the Jesuits, also known as the Society of Jesus. The order was founded in 1534 by Ignatius Loyola as a specialized “army” of priests to combat the Protestant Reformation. In general, a Jesuit will become whoever it needs to be in order to accomplish their goal. Not many years after America was established, the Jesuits covered themselves in Protestant “robes”. For example they became Baptist or Methodist students, teachers, preachers, and administrators, secretively inserting the papacy’s principles and errors. They successfully created schools in America that attracted even Protestant students. They established their first American Jesuit University in the heart of the nation’s capital, Georgetown University. Overtime the Jesuits were successful in infiltrating American politics, government, schools, and religious denominations.
Ellen White, who also researched and wrote about the Jesuits stated, “When appearing as members of their order [Jesuits], they wore a garb of sanctity, visiting prisons and hospitals, ministering to the sick and the poor, professing to have renounced the world, and bearing the sacred name of Jesus, who went about doing good. But under this blameless exterior the most criminal and deadly purposes were often concealed. It was a fundamental principle of the order that the end justifies the means. By this code, lying, theft, perjury, assassination, were not only pardonable but commendable, when they served the interests of the church. Under various disguises the Jesuits worked their way into offices of state, climbing up to be the counselors of kings, and shaping the policy of nations. They became servants to act as spies upon their masters. They established colleges for the sons of princes and nobles, and schools for the common people; and the children of Protestant parents were drawn into an observance of popish rites. All the outward pomp and display of the Romish worship was brought to bear to confuse the mind and dazzle and captivate the imagination, and thus the liberty for which the fathers had toiled and bled was betrayed by the sons. The Jesuits rapidly spread themselves over Europe, and wherever they went, there followed a revival of popery.” - Ellen White, Great Controversy p. 235
“There was no crime too great for them to commit, no deception too base for them to practice, no disguise too difficult for them to assume. Vowed to perpetual poverty and humility, it was their studied aim to secure wealth and power, to be devoted to the overthrow of Protestantism, and the re- establishment of the papal supremacy.” - Ibid, p. 234
By the time Abraham Lincoln became the 16th president of the United States, he could see the stealthy moves of Papal Rome and its future influences on America. He said, “I do not pretend to be a prophet; but though not a prophet, I see a very dark cloud on our horizon, and that cloud is coming from Rome. It is filled with tears of blood. The true motive power is secreted behind the thick walls of the Vatican, the colleges and schools of the Jesuits the convents of the nuns and the confessional boxes of Rome.” - Charles Chiniquy, Fifty Years in the Church of Rome, p. 115
Even though the Jesuits and Papal Rome were successful in setting up institutions in the U.S., American presidents resisted Papal Rome politically and kept a great distance away from the pope. However in 1919 that all changed when President Woodrow Wilson became the first U.S. President to visit Pope Benedict XV in Vatican on January 4, 1919. Forty years after the first U.S. president’s visit with the pope, the visits became more frequent. On December 6, 1959, President Dwight Eisenhower met with Pope John XXIII in Vatican. On July 2, 1963, the first Roman Catholic President John F. Kennedy met with Pope Paul VI in Vatican. On October 4, 1965, Pope Paul VI was the first pope ever to be allowed to set foot on American soil to meet with President Lyndon B. Johnson in New York City. On December 23, 1967, President Lyndon Johnson met with Pope Paul VI for the second time in Vatican becoming the first U.S. president to meet with the pope twice. Matter of fact, every single U.S. president since Eisenhower to our current day has met with the pope, multiple times in many cases. On October 6, 1979, Pope John Paul II met President Jimmy Carter in the White House. Pope John Paul II was the first pope to meet with the President of the United States in the White House.
By the 1980’s Papal Rome and the United States had formed a very engaging and comfortable relationship with each other. In 1984 President Ronald Reagan was the first U.S. president to establish a formal diplomatic relationship with the papacy when he officially appointed a U.S. Ambassador to Papal Rome. As a result of the bond that the U.S. has formed with the Vatican, both President Reagan and John Paul II are credited with the fall of the communist world superpower, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Over the last fifty years the United States and the papacy have developed a strong diplomatic and political relationship. On September 24, 2015, there was another major first time event. Pope Francis was the first pope ever to publicly address U.S. Congress lawmakers. This influence that the papacy now has on America’s lawmakers was the “dark cloud” that Abraham Lincoln referred to that will be filled with “tears of blood,” persecution. More about persecution later in this study.
This formal relationship with a world superpower and host of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City has opened up many doors to the papacy worldwide. The four popes over the last fifty years have spoken to the United Nations General Assembly. Pope Paul VI made an address to the UN in 1965. Pope John Paul II spoke twice, once in 1979 and again on the 50th anniversary of the UN in 1995. Pope Benedict addressed UN in 2008. Twenty years after Pope John Paul II spoke at UN’s 50th anniversary, Pope Francis spoke to many attentive ears at the UN General Assembly on their 70th anniversary on September 25, 2015. At that time it was the largest gathering of presidents and world leaders ever at the United Nations General Assembly to hear a pope speak.
Even though the papacy never applied to be a member of the UN, they were granted permanent observer state on April 6, 1964. “In that capacity, it has the right to attend all sessions of the United Nations