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—Galen Frysinger.

Rome to Regain Control of the World

The Prediction

For centuries papal Rome was involved in immorality, corruption, wars, torture, murder, and intrigue. Most Protestants and some Catholics of yesteryear therefore concluded that the papacy had to be the antichrist of prophecy, and with that opinion Ellen White agreed.

Ellen White identified the deadly wound of the beast (Rev. 13:3) as being the papacy's loss of power in 1798 at the hands of Napoleon Bonaparte. The later healing of that wound she predicted would be the papacy's regaining of its lost supremacy, and she claimed that Rome was actively trying to regain her lost power:

The Roman Church is far-reaching in her plans and modes of operation. She is employing every device to extend her influence and increase her power in preparation for a fierce and determined conflict to regain control of the world, to re-establish persecution, and to undo all that Protestantism has done.—Great Controversy, pp. 565, 566, bold added. God's word has given warning of the impending danger; let this be unheeded, and the Protestant world will learn what the purposes of Rome really are, only when it is too late to escape the snare. She is silently growing into power. . . . Stealthily and unsuspectedly she is strengthening her forces to further her own ends when the time shall come for her to strike. All that she desires is vantage ground, and this is already being given her. We shall soon see and shall feel what the purpose of the Roman element is. Whoever shall believe and obey the word of God will thereby incur reproach and persecution.—Ibid., p. 581.

Really? Is the Vatican bent on regaining control of the world and rekindling persecution?

Before we continue, one thing should be pointed out. Daniel 8:24 says that the little horn's "power shall be mighty, but not by his own power." Through the centuries the papacy controlled the minds of men by getting others to do her bidding. While her power was indeed "mighty," it was only so because of the might of the kings and nations that supported her. Thus, any regaining of its previous power would likely involve control of world leaders and their policies, not direct ownership of the entire globe.

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