NOTICE the number 7 as a sign of completeness?
Note the light of the moon as the light of the sun? Political completeness as in the book of Maccabees
NERO blasphemed against God by aggressively enforcing emperor worship - down to getting the Sanhedrin to authorise Emperor worship in the temple grounds itself.
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NOT CORRECT ACCORDING TO THE DEFINITION OF BLASPHEMY IN THE BIBLE!
Blasphemy
The scriptures give us several examples of blasphemy:
Mark 2:5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. Mark 2:6 But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, Mark 2:7 Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only? John 10:32 Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? John 10:33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.
Rev 2:9 I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.
So, a man falsely claiming the power to forgive the sins of men, a man falsely claiming to be God on earth, and men falsely claiming to be the true church of God are all clearly defined as blasphemy. Note the following:
Priests and bishops are, as it were, the interpreters and heralds of God, commissioned in his name to teach mankind the" law of God, and the precepts of a Christian life—they are the representatives of God upon earth. Impossible, therefore, to conceive a more exalted dignity, or functions more sacred. Justly, therefore, are they called not only angels,' but gods.3 holding, as they do, the place and power and authority of God on earth. But the priesthood, at all times an elevated office, transcends in the New Law all others in dignity. The power of consecrating and offering the body and blood of our Lord and of remitting sin, with which the priesthood of the New Law is invested, is such as cannot be comprehended by the human mind, still less is it equalled by, or assimilated to, any thing on earth. Source: The Catechism of the Council of Trent (The Roman Catechism), Sacrament of Holy Orders, Dignity of this Sacrament.
Power of Consecrating
The third great power of the priestly office is the climax of all. It is the power of consecrating. "No act is greater," says saint Thomas, "than the consecration of the body of Christ." In this essential phase of the sacred ministry, the power of the priest is not surpassed by that of the bishop, the archbishop, the cardinal or the pope. Indeed it is equal to that of Jesus Christ. For in this role the priest speaks with the voice and the authority of God Himself.
When the priest pronounces the tremendous words of consecration, he reaches up into the heaven, brings Christ down from His throne, and places Him upon our altar to be offered up again as the victim for the sins of man. It is a power greater than that of monarchs and emperors. It is greater than that of saints and angels, greater than that of Seraphim and Cherubim. Indeed, it is greater than the power of the Virgin Mary. While the blessed virgin was the human agency by which Christ became incarnate a single time, the priest brings Christ down from heaven, and renders Him present on our altar as the eternal victim for the sins of man-not once, but, a thousand times! The priest speaks and lo! Christ the eternal and omnipotent God, bows His head in humble obedience to the priest's command.
[pg.271] Of what sublime dignity is the office of the Christian priest who is thus privileged to act as the ambassador and the vicegerent of Christ on earth. He continues the essential ministry of Christ - he teaches the faithful with the authority of Christ, he offers up again the same sacrifice of adoration and atonement which Christ offered on Calvary. No wonder that the name which spiritual writers are especially fond of applying to the priest is that of "alter Christus." For the priest is and should be another Christ.
Source: Faith of Millions, by Reverend John A. O'brien, Copyright 1938, published by Our Sunday Visitor, Huntington Indiana, page 270, 271.
Thus the priest may, in a certain manner, be called the creator of his Creator, ...
"The power of the priest," says St. Bernadine of Sienna, "is the power of the divine person; for the transubstantiation of the bread requires as much power as the creation of the world."
As the Word of God created heaven and earth, so, says St. Jerome, the words of the priest create Jesus Christ.
Source: The Dignity and Duties of the Priest or Selva, by St. Alphonsus de Liguori, translated from the Italian, edited by Eugene Grimm, copyright 1927 by Very Rev. James Barron, C.SS.R, pgs. 32, 33.
"In this moment, the priest quite literally becomes Christ Himself: his own personality is blotted out; it is absorbed in that of the everlasting priest who is, at one time, the offered victim and the supreme officiant." Source: This is The Mass, Henri Daniel-Rops, Fulton J. Sheen, Yousuf Karsh, trans. with annotations by Alastair Guinan, New York: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1965. First ed. 1958, p. 118. Nihil Obstat: Robert E. Hunt, S.T. D., Censor Librorum. Imprimatur: Thomas A. Boland, S.T.D. Archbishop of Newark.