Today In Prophecy

Change in the Papacy
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"And in her was found the blood of the prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth" (Revelation 18:24).

Pope Benedict, citing the mental and physical requirements of his position, stunned the Roman Catholic Church when he announced his resignation. He is the first pope to stand down voluntarily in 700 years. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany had been the 2005 choice of Catholic conservatives who believed that he would "correct the lackadaisical attitudes that have been able to creep into the lives of Catholics" according to the New York Times article that introduced his appointment. Many supporters say Benedict failed to address the hoped-for revival of the Church. Critics claim that his reign further deteriorated the image of the Church, given the clergy sex abuse scandal, the failure to bring back the Latin Rite schisms and his visible acceptance of Islam as a religious philosophy.

To be fair, Benedict’s predecessor, John Paul II, failed to officially address the widespread pedophilia in the church that continues to cost it millions of dollars. Some Catholic theologians say Benedict’s resignation will undermine the decisions of future popes and give strength to the arguments of critics who say the pope should be held personally accountable for the problems in the church.

The Change in Papal Respect

While popes still have ultimate authority in the Catholic Church, recent events show that popes no longer possess the autocratic power they once held inside the Vatican hierarchy. The pope can no longer threaten ex-communication as a punishment for disobeying rules. Even Ratzinger’s German intellectual bearing did not help him to deal with the huge organization he oversaw, warning his fellow cardinals before being elected, "I am not an administrator."

Benedict’s lack of organizational acuity came to a climax in February 2013 when his butler was sentenced for stealing sensitive internal letters to Benedict and leaking them to a book-writing journalist. This leaves a new pope with significant disarray within the Vatican bureaucracy.

Those closest to the Vatican say that the powerful Curia group makes decisions on everything from bishop appointments to church closings to marriage annulments and the disciplining of pedophile priests. Prayers to be included in the Mass are decided by committee at Rome and published in missal translations. Donations to the church are held by a Vatican bank whose lack of financial transparency has fueled bitter debate both within the Vatican and among European Union officials.

After 35 years of papal rule under "scholars" who paid little attention to the governance of the church, there is talk of electing a pontiff with a track record of dealing with a complicated bureaucracy. "There needs to be more coordination between the offices, more collegiality and communication," said Cardinal Walter Kasper, a German who retired in 2010 as head of the Vatican’s ecumenical office.

The Vatican’s organization has generally been pictured as a medieval court, with the pope as the absolute monarch possessing full executive, legal and judicial powers. In reality, there is a legal office, an economic office and an internal office that oversees the church’s 400,000 priests. Three tribunals oversee ecclesiastical cases and multiple departments oversee spiritual matters. In 1988, Pope John Paul issued "Pastor Bonus," a constitution for the various groups within the Vatican hierarchy.

Scriptural View of the Papacy

Papacy’s history is one of scandal, immoralities, anti-Semitism and the use of governments to inflict punishment on its enemies. It has sanctioned or conducted such atrocities as the Crusades and burnings at the stake of so-called heretics. In New Testament times, Jews and Christians alike applied the name "Babylon" to the city of Rome. The Bible describes Babylon as home to the great power of Imperial Rome which ruled over the kings of the earth (Revelation 17:18), sat on seven mountains (Revelation 17:9), was the center of world trade (Revelation 18:3), corrupted the nations (Revelation 17:2), and persecuted the saints (Revela- tion 17:6).

Beginning with Roman Emperor Constantine, the Roman Catholic Church united itself with the kings of the earth while claiming to be the true bride of Christ. Scriptures describe this as fornication: "And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication" (Revelation 14:8). John later writes "And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF EARTH" (Revelation 17:5). The abominations of symbolic Babylon infected all who came in contact with it. John said that this "woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet" and "decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication" (verse 4).

John’s description is based on a prophecy of the literal Old Testament Babylon: "For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them" (Jeremiah 25:15, 16). Jeremiah lists some twenty nations and then adds, "Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you. And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink" (verses 27, 28).

The final fall of Babylon is summarized in Revelation 18:21, "And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall the great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all." Whether or not the Church rises in one last surge before the final blow is delivered is of some debate amongst students of the Bible.

Most agree that prophecies suggest that the wealth now in the hands of the papacy and other similar organizational participants in this fornication will be taken and used for the advantage of the common good: "And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the LORD: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing" (Isaiah 23:18).

Today’s mounting problems within the Catholic Church and without are an indication that the entire false system of religion is teetering for a fall. What replaces it in God’s kingdom will be a true theocracy. Those victims of today’s pedophilia have most often been Catholics. Christ’s 1000-year Kingdom will give them a fresh start. Likewise, those innocents who followed the Church’s teachings through ignorance will also receive a fresh start. John says that there will be "no temple therein: for the Lord God the Almighty, and the Lamb are the temple thereof" (Revelation 21:22 ASV). There will be one church and all who believe will worship the one true God. What a glorious reign that will be!