DID YOU KNOW?
It has been announced that Pope Leo XIV will receive the 2026 Liberty Medal for promoting “religious liberty,” “freedom of conscience,” and “freedom of expression.” The ceremony is set for July 3, 2026, on Independence Mall in Philadelphia—on the eve of America’s 250th anniversary.
That is remarkable.
Historic Protestant America once saw Rome as the great enemy of liberty of conscience. And history gives good reason why. For centuries, Rome did not champion the American ideal of religious liberty. In fact, the 'Syllabus of Errors' (Pius IX, 1864) explicitly condemned the proposition: “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church.” Pope Gregory XVI also denounced liberty of conscience as an “absurd and erroneous proposition” in 'Mirari Vos' (1832). And the 'Syllabus of Errors' linked broad civil and religious liberty with “the pest of indifferentism.”
Nor should we forget the darker record of the past. The Inquisition was established under papal authority to combat heresy, and dissenters were often branded as heretics and suppressed rather than granted liberty of conscience.
Yet now, in a striking historical irony, an American institution built around the Constitution and the First Amendment is honoring the pope as a champion of religious freedom.
That does not erase history. It shows how dramatically the image of the papacy has changed in the public mind.
And that matters, because Revelation does not merely predict the existence of the beast—it predicts the admiration of the world for it. “All the world wondered after the beast” (Rev. 13:3). It also shows Protestant America leading the earth to honor that system.
We are watching the old barriers fall, the old warnings forgotten, and the world being conditioned to see Rome not as a persecuting power of prophecy, but as a moral guide for the nations.
The final issue will not stay merely symbolic forever.
Revelation says the time is coming when admiration will give way to enforced worship.
Bible students should be watching.
It has been announced that Pope Leo XIV will receive the 2026 Liberty Medal for promoting “religious liberty,” “freedom of conscience,” and “freedom of expression.” The ceremony is set for July 3, 2026, on Independence Mall in Philadelphia—on the eve of America’s 250th anniversary.
That is remarkable.
Historic Protestant America once saw Rome as the great enemy of liberty of conscience. And history gives good reason why. For centuries, Rome did not champion the American ideal of religious liberty. In fact, the 'Syllabus of Errors' (Pius IX, 1864) explicitly condemned the proposition: “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church.” Pope Gregory XVI also denounced liberty of conscience as an “absurd and erroneous proposition” in 'Mirari Vos' (1832). And the 'Syllabus of Errors' linked broad civil and religious liberty with “the pest of indifferentism.”
Nor should we forget the darker record of the past. The Inquisition was established under papal authority to combat heresy, and dissenters were often branded as heretics and suppressed rather than granted liberty of conscience.
Yet now, in a striking historical irony, an American institution built around the Constitution and the First Amendment is honoring the pope as a champion of religious freedom.
That does not erase history. It shows how dramatically the image of the papacy has changed in the public mind.
And that matters, because Revelation does not merely predict the existence of the beast—it predicts the admiration of the world for it. “All the world wondered after the beast” (Rev. 13:3). It also shows Protestant America leading the earth to honor that system.
We are watching the old barriers fall, the old warnings forgotten, and the world being conditioned to see Rome not as a persecuting power of prophecy, but as a moral guide for the nations.
The final issue will not stay merely symbolic forever.
Revelation says the time is coming when admiration will give way to enforced worship.
Bible students should be watching.
DID YOU KNOW?
It has been announced that Pope Leo XIV will receive the 2026 Liberty Medal for promoting “religious liberty,” “freedom of conscience,” and “freedom of expression.” The ceremony is set for July 3, 2026, on Independence Mall in Philadelphia—on the eve of America’s 250th anniversary.
That is remarkable.
Historic Protestant America once saw Rome as the great enemy of liberty of conscience. And history gives good reason why. For centuries, Rome did not champion the American ideal of religious liberty. In fact, the 'Syllabus of Errors' (Pius IX, 1864) explicitly condemned the proposition: “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church.” Pope Gregory XVI also denounced liberty of conscience as an “absurd and erroneous proposition” in 'Mirari Vos' (1832). And the 'Syllabus of Errors' linked broad civil and religious liberty with “the pest of indifferentism.”
Nor should we forget the darker record of the past. The Inquisition was established under papal authority to combat heresy, and dissenters were often branded as heretics and suppressed rather than granted liberty of conscience.
Yet now, in a striking historical irony, an American institution built around the Constitution and the First Amendment is honoring the pope as a champion of religious freedom.
That does not erase history. It shows how dramatically the image of the papacy has changed in the public mind.
And that matters, because Revelation does not merely predict the existence of the beast—it predicts the admiration of the world for it. “All the world wondered after the beast” (Rev. 13:3). It also shows Protestant America leading the earth to honor that system.
We are watching the old barriers fall, the old warnings forgotten, and the world being conditioned to see Rome not as a persecuting power of prophecy, but as a moral guide for the nations.
The final issue will not stay merely symbolic forever.
Revelation says the time is coming when admiration will give way to enforced worship.
Bible students should be watching.
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