Think To Change Times And Laws:
Daniel 7:25 In The Catechism Of The Catholic Church
Dan 7:25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
In this verse, the word "times" refers to the prophetic set times of God found in the Bible, with an emphasis on God's Sanctuary and the pre-advent judgment. The word "laws" refers to the Ten Commandments of God, with an emphasis on the Sabbath commandment. This is evident from the corresponding message of Rev 14:7. The 3 1/2 times refers to a prophetic period of 1260 years (538 A.D. - 1798 A.D), after which the little horn's dominion would cease, the breach of God's Sabbath law would be repaired, and the gift of prophecy would be restored to the true church. This pairing of the "law and the prophets" just before the second coming was prophesied in the Old Testament:
Mal 4:4 Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.
Mal 4:5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
The restoration of the gift of prophecy before the second coming is also prophesied by Joel:
Joel 2:1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;
...
Joel 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
Joel 2:29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
Joel 2:30 And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
Joel 2:31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
Note however that when God's law is transgressed in apostasy, the gift of prophecy is removed:
Lam 2:8 The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together.
Lam 2:9 Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD.Ezek 7:26 Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumour shall be upon rumour; then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients.
Jer 18:18 Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.
Jer 26:4 And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; If ye will not hearken to me, to walk in my law, which I have set before you,
Jer 26:5 To hearken to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent unto you, both rising up early, and sending them, but ye have not hearkened;
Jer 26:6 Then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.Neh 9:26 Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind their backs, and slew thy prophets which testified against them to turn them to thee, and they wrought great provocations.
Prov 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
Isa 30:9 That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:
Isa 30:10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
Isa 30:11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.Zec 7:11 But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.
Zec 7:12 Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts.
Zec 7:13 Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the LORD of hosts:
Zec 7:14 But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate.Prov 28:9 He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.
So, based on the above testimony, we would expect that the little horn of Daniel 7:25, who opposes God's laws by thinking to change the Sabbath, would also oppose the gift of prophecy that is to be manifested in the true church before the second coming. This is because by transgressing God's law in apostasy, the prophetic gift is lost. We turn now to the most recent Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding the Sabbath:
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Sunday - fulfillment of the sabbath 2175 Sunday is expressly distinguished from the sabbath which it follows chronologically every week; for Christians its ceremonial observance replaces that of the sabbath. In Christ's Passover, Sunday fulfills the spiritual truth of the Jewish sabbath and announces man's eternal rest in God. For worship under the Law prepared for the mystery of Christ, and what was done there prefigured some aspects of Christ:107
107 Cf. 1 Cor
10:11. |
That the Roman Catholic Church claims to have substituted Sunday for the Sabbath is well documented from history. I will cite one striking example:
63. ... Christians, called as they are to proclaim the liberation won by the blood of Christ, felt that they had the authority to transfer the meaning of the Sabbath to the day of the Resurrection. ...
67. ... Christians will naturally strive to ensure that civil legislation respects their duty to keep Sunday holy. ...
68. ... Sunday rest then becomes "prophetic" .... — Pope John Paul II, Dies Domini.
It only remains to examine what the Catholic Church has to say regarding the gift of prophecy, that the Bible clearly teaches is to be restored to the saints of God just prior to the second coming.
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III. CHRIST JESUS -- "MEDIATOR AND FULLNESS OF ALL REVELATION"25 God has said everything in his Word 65 "In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son."26 Christ, the Son of God made man, is the Father's one, perfect and unsurpassable Word. In him he has said everything; there will be no other word than this one. St. John of the Cross, among others, commented strikingly on Hebrews 1:1-2:
There will be no further Revelation 66 "The Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new and definitive Covenant, will never pass away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ."28 Yet even if Revelation is already complete, it has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries. 67 Throughout the ages, there have been so-called "private" revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ's definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the Magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church. Christian faith cannot accept "revelations" that claim to surpass or correct the Revelation of which Christ is the fulfillment, as is the case in certain non-Christian religions and also in certain recent sects which base themselves on such "revelations". 25
DV 2. |
The phrase "public revelation" is explained at the Catholic Answers web site:
Public revelation is binding on all Christians, but private revelation is binding only on those who receive it. The Catholic Church teaches that public revelation was completed, and therefore was concluded, with the death of the last apostle (Vatican II, Dei Verbum 4), but private revelation has continued.
So, paragraph #66 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church explicitly denies that the public gift of prophecy will be manifested in the church before the second coming. This is in direct opposition to the teaching of scripture, as demonstrated in Joel and Malachi above. Jesus tells us that there is a direct association between keeping God's commandments and the gift of prophecy:
John 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.
John in the Revelation also confirms that the end time remnant church both keeps the Ten Commandments of God, and possesses the gift of prophecy:
Rev 12:17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Rev 19:10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Rev 22:9 Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.
The Apostle Paul also states that the spiritual gift of prophecy (1 Cor 12:4-11, Eph 4:11-13) will be present in the remnant church:
1 Cor 1:4 I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;
1 Cor 1:5 That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;
1 Cor 1:6 Even as the testimony of Christ (Rev 19:10) was confirmed in you:
1 Cor 1:7 So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:
1 Cor 1:8 Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.The place of the Lord's sanctuary was cast down.
The earthly Aaronic priesthood that offered sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem ended when Jesus was crucified, which was symbolized by the vail of the temple being torn in half. As our only high priest, Jesus now ministers to repentant sinners in a heavenly sanctuary.
Heb 4:14-16 (KJV)
14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into
the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we
are, yet without sin.
16 Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help
in time of need.
But, this is denied by the little horn:
Dan 8:11 (KJV) Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down.
Pope Tells Catholics Not To Seek Forgiveness Directly From God!
28. ... It is good to renew and reaffirm this faith at a moment when it might be weakening, losing something of its completeness or entering into an area of shadow and silence, threatened as it is by the negative elements of the above-mentioned crisis. For the sacrament of confession is indeed being undermined, on the one hand by the obscuring of the mortal and religious conscience, the lessening of a sense of sin, the distortion of the concept of repentance and the lack of effort to live an authentically Christian life. And on the other hand, it is being undermined by the sometimes widespread idea that one can obtain forgiveness directly from God, even in a habitual way, without approaching the sacrament of reconciliation. A further negative influence is the routine of a sacramental practice sometimes lacking in fervor and real spontaneity, deriving perhaps from a mistaken and distorted idea of the effects of the sacrament.
Source: Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation
RECONCILIATION AND PENANCE, dated December 2nd, 1984.
