WHAT'S

HAPPENING?

BY

SANDRA ROBINSON

PART I

TIME MARCHES ON

CONTENTS

Chapter 1 History In Brief

Chapter 2 The Destruction of Jerusalem

Chapter 3 History of the Church

Chapter 4 The Importance of the Reformation

Chapter 5 Closer to Home

CHAPTER 1

HISTORY (IN BRIEF)

To start with, I am listing (briefly) actual real-life events, from the beginning of history to the present, with some dates, to give you an idea of when they actually happened. I have followed this with detailed descriptions of what actually happened in some of the important events in history. I found this very interesting, personally, so hope you do too.

THE BEGINNINGS: EVENTS IN PRE-HISTORY

3761 Creation

B.C. Adam and Eve in the Garden

Cain and Abel

Noah and the Flood

The Tower of Babel

ANCESTORS OF THE ISRAELITES

2000 Abraham comes to Canaan c.1900 B.C.

B.C. Isaac is born to Abraham

Jacob is born to Isaac

Jacob has twelve sons who become the ancestors of the twelve

tribes of Israel. The most prominent of these sons is Joseph, who

becomes adviser to the King of Egypt.

ISRAELITES IN EGYPT

1700 B.C. The descendants of Jacob are enslaved in Egypt c.1700-1250

1300 B.C. Moses leads Israelites out of Egypt c.1250 B.C.

The Israelites wander in the wilderness 40 years. During this time

Moses receives the Law on Mount Sinai. c.1250-1210 B.C.

THE CONQUEST AND SETTLEMENT OF CANAAN

12OO B.C. Joshua leads the first stage of the invasion of Canaan c.1210 B.C.

Israel remains a loose confederation of tribes, and leadership is

exercised by heroic figures known as the Judges: Othniel, Ehud,

Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Abimelech, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon,

Abdon, Samson, Samuel.

THE UNITED ISRAELITE KINGDOM

1100 B.C. Reign of Saul c.1030-c.1010 B.C.

Reign of David c.1010-c.970 B.C.

1000 B.C. Reign of Solomon c.970-c.931 B.C.

THE TWO ISRAELITE KINGDOMS

950 B.C. Judah (Southern Kingdom) Israel (Northern Kingdom)

Kings Kings

Rehoboam 931-913 Jeroboam 931-910

Abijah 913-911

Asa 911-870 Nadab 910-909

Baasha 909-886

900 B.C.

Elah 886-885

Zimri 7 days in 885

Omri 885-874 Prophets

Ahab 874-853 Elijah

Jehoshaphat 870-848 “

Ahaziah 853-852 “

Joram 852-841 Elisha

850 B.C. Jehoram 848-841 “

Ahaziah 841 “ Athaliah 841-835 Jehu 841-814 “

Joash 835-796 “

“

800 B.C. Jehoahaz 814-798

Jehoash 798-783

Amaziah 796-781

Jeroboam II 783-743

Uzziah 781-740

“

“ “

Amos “

“ Jonah 750 B.C. “ “

“ “ “

Prophets Zechariah 6 months “ “ “

in 743 “ “

“ Jotham 740-736 Shallum 1 month “ “

“ in 743 Hosea

Isaiah Menahem 743-738 “

“ “ Pekahiah 738-737 “

“ Micah Ahaz 736-716 Pekah 737-732 “

“ “ Hoshea 732-723

“ “ Fall of Samaria 722

“ Hezekiah 716-687

THE LAST YEARS OF THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH

700 B.C. Manasseh 687-642

650 B.C. Prophets

Amon 642-640

Josiah 640-609

“

“ “ Zephaniah

Jeremiah Nahum

600 B.C. Joahaz 3 months in 609 ”

Jehoiakim 609-598 “ Habakkuk

Jehoiachin 3 months in 598 “ “

Zedekiah 598-587 “ “

587 B.C? Fall of Jerusalem July 587 or 586 “ Ezekiel

The Temple was destroyed for the Jeremiah “

first time, by Nebuchadnezzar, “

Babylon. “

THE EXILE AND THE RESTORATION TO THE HOMELAND

The Jews were taken into exile in Babylonia

550 B.C. PERSIAN RULE

Edict of Cyrus allowed Jews to return 538 Daniel

Ezra, Nehemiah

(Esther married to Ahasuerus)

Foundations of new Temple laid 537 Haggai, Zechariah

500 B.C. Obadiah

450 B.C. Restoration of the walls of Jerusalem 445-443

Malachi

Joel?

400 B.C. THE TIME BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS

. Alexander the Great established Greek rule in the Eastern and

Mediterranean region 333 B.C.

Countries of the Eastern Mediterranean ruled by the Ptolemies, descendants of one of Alexander's generals, who had conquered Egypt, 323-198 B.C.

200 B.C. Countries of the Eastern Mediterranean ruled by the Seleucids, descendants of one of Alexander's generals, who had conquered Syria, 198-166 B.C.

Antiochus Epiphenes 175-164 B.C. Ruled Israel and desecrated temple.

Jewish revolt under Judas Maccabeus re-established Jewish

independence. Israel is ruled by Judas' family and descendants, the Hasmoneans 166-63 B.C.

100 B.C. The Roman general Pompey took Jerusalem 63 B.C. Israel ruled by puppet kings appointed by Rome, one of whom was Herod the Great, who ruled from 37 B.C. to 4 B.C.

THE TIME OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

Birth of Jesus c. 6 B.C.

[The present era was calculated to begin with the birth of Jesus Jesus Christ, that is, in A.D.1 (standing for Anno Domini 'in the year of our Lord'). However, the original calculation was later found to be wrong by a few years, so that the birth of Christ took place about six years “before Christ”.]

A.D. 1 Visit to Zacharias by Gabriel, struck dumb. Miracle conception of virgin Mary. Visit to Elizabeth and Zacharias. Birth of John the

Baptist. Jesus' birth at Bethlehem. His family escaped to Egypt.

Returned to Nazareth. Jesus lost in Jerusalem. Ministry of John the Baptist. Jesus worked as carpenter. Baptism of Jesus by John. Jesus was tempted 40 days/nights in wilderness.

A.D. 30 The beginning of Jesus' public ministry with miracle at wedding in Cana, miracles and healings.

Death of John the Baptist

A.D. 33 Jesus' betrayal, desertion by disciples, death and resurrection. Acts of the Apostles.

Conversion of Paul (Saul of Tarsus) c. A.D. 37.

A.D. 40 Ministry of Paul c. A.D. 41-c. A.D. 65.

Persecution of Christians by Romans.

Final imprisonment of Paul c. A.D. 65

A.D. 70 In A.D. 70, the Roman General Titus was sent to Jerusalem to crush Jewish resistance against the Roman Empire. He destroyed one of the most magnificent temples in the entire world, in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

A.D. 100 A.D. 117, Hadrian became emperor of Rome. Promised he would rebuild the city of Jerusalem.

A.D. 130 In AD 130, Hadrian broke his promise to the Jewish people, and named rebuilt Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina, and built a temple to Jupiter (Satan), erected on Mount Zion, desecrating the site of the Holy Temple. This was an abomination of desolation. Hadrian made an attempt to obliterate the Jews' name and existence from the pages of world history. He decreed that all the maps in the Roman Empire would no longer read Judea but would read Palestine after the name of the ancient enemies of Israel (Philistines).

Persecution of real Christians came in waves, punctuated by periods of relative tolerance and tranquility.

A.D. 200 203 Alexandria, persecutions: roastings, impalings, beheadings of Christians.

A.D. 250 250 Persecution of Christians everywhere by Emperor Decius. Martyred thousands, including Bishops of Rome, Antioch, Jerusalem. Made all carry certificate stating he had sacrificed to gods.

253-60 Emperor Valerian forbade all Christian worship, and specifically focused on the execution of church leaders.

A.D. 300 303 The Great Persecution under the Emperor Diocletian and his co-emperor, Galerius. Bibles and churches were destroyed, all Christian worship was forbidden, and all clergy imprisoned. All citizens of the empire had to sacrifice to the pagan gods on pain of death. Phrygia was wiped out, as all were Christians.

311 Constantine's Edict of Toleration.

313 Constantine and Licinius' Edict of Milan. Freedom from persecution led to apostasy, the church married the world, result: Roman Catholic Church. Paganization took over the official church.

March 7, 321, Constantine's decree making Sunday a public holy day, to celebrate Christ's resurrection, that laid the foundation for their apostasy, although true believers worshipped on the Sabbath.

c.337, Council of Laodicea officially endorsed that first National Sunday Law. Shortly afterwards, candles were burned before images and prayers made to them. Gradually the apostasy deepened. Encouraging the hatred of the Jewish commandments, and all things Jewish, encouraged the abandonment of the Sabbath as the official worship day, and the Feasts of the Lord were aban- doned for being Jewish, so Sunday became the official “Christian” worship day.

As though purgatory, prayers for the dead, and paid indulgences for sin were not enough, the terrible Inquisition, on an “official” basis, began to slay Christians – and also seize the property of wealthy Catholics. Millions were to die under its stroke.

Later on, to secure worldly gains and honours, the Roman church was led to seek the favour of the great men of the earth, and having thus rejected Christ, she was induced to yield allegience to the representative of Satan – the bishop of Rome.

The pope has arrogated the very titles of Deity. He styles himself “Lord God the Pope”, assumes infallibility, and demands that all men pay him homage.

Ignorance of the scriptures would prevent the truth getting out, so, for hundreds of years, the circulation of the Bible was prohibited. The people were forbidden to read it or to have it in their houses, and unprincipled priests and prelates interpreted its teachings to sustain their pretensions. Thus the pope came to be almost uni- versally acknowledged as the viceregent of God on earth, endowed with authority over Church and State.

Throughout the next 1750 years, the Roman Catholic Church

persecuted the true believers by torturing them to get them to renounce their faith, and killing them when they did not. The accession of the Roman Church to power marked the beginning of the Dark Ages. As her power increased, the darkness deepened.

A.D. 600 Mohammed (A.D.570-632) started his religion, intending to rule the world by wiping out all infidels, especially Christians and Jews. His followers conquered countries, and set up Califates, but there were lots of varieties of Islam and they fought each other constantly.

A.D. 700 A.D.787 Second Council of Nicea finalized the establishment of image worship as a necessary part of Catholic worship. Rome presumed to expunge the second commandment from the law of God, forbidding image worship, and to divide the tenth command- ment, in order to preserve the number.

A.D. 1066 William the Conqueror (Duke of Normandy) usurps King Harold's throne in England, by order of Pope Gregory VII.

1095 C.E. The Turkish Ottoman Empire tried to convert Europe to Islam.

Pope Urban II declared the first Crusade (1095 C.E., common era).

A.D. 1200 (Compared with the persecution of heresy in Europe from 1227 to 1492, the persecution of Christians by Romans in the first three centuries after Christ was a mild and humane procedure.)

Medieval Inquisition began A.D. 1229.

A.D. 1300 John Wycliffe (1328-1415) wanted the Bible to be available for all to read and study, and as well as preaching the word of God, speaking out against the Catholic church, he translated the Bible into English and then printed some copies of Wycliffe's Bible. He had to fight hard for the truth to be allowed out, while the Catholics wanted him put to death for heresy, but failing health took him before that.

Between the 1360s and the 1390s, over a half-dozen men spoke out against the prevailing religious corruption in Bohemia. John A.D. 1400 Huss (rector of the university church and the Bethlehem chapel in 1402) began his denunciations of corruption in 1405, and Prague was placed under interdict in 1412. The Council of Constance (Nov. 1414-April 1418), was called at the request of the emperor Sigis- mund by Pope John XXIII, one of the three rival popes. The Council had Huss burned in 1415, and Jerome in 1416. The Hussite Wars lasted until 1434.

A.D. 1450 The Jewish people were expelled from England in A.D. 1290.

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain got Pope to allow persecution and Inquisition of Jews in Spain. They used the money obtained from stripping the Jews of all their wealth to send Christopher Columbus to explore America A.D. 1492.

May 23, 1498 Savonarola and two other friars martyred: hung and and burned to ashes.

A.D. 1500 A.D. 1517. Turks' invasion of Israel.

31 October 1517, Martin Luther posted his famous Ninety-Five Theses after studying Latin Bible (original unadulterated trans- lation), visited Rome and was horrified. Revelation of the truth of “The just shall live by faith”, preached this truth, was declared a heretic by Rome, and had to defend himself in various hearings. He “disappeared” during an escorted armed ride to another town, where he would probably be declared guilty and burned at the stake, so was hidden for his own good. Began to translate the New Testament into German, and wrote many tracts while confined. After some fanatics had tried to change the truth, Luther came out of hiding and preached the truth again. Later, the Christian Princes of Germany all signed a statement of their faith and the errors of the papal church (authored by Luther), pointed out before the Emperor Charles V at the Diet (Council) of Spires in 1529, the greatest day of the Reformation.

The papists continued persecuting the Protestants in Europe: By 1515, both Lefevre and Farel were active Protestants. The Bishop of Meaux (whose name was Briconnet) recanted in 1523. William Farel began evangelistic work in 1528, entered Geneva in 1532. Berquin was burned at the stake in 1529. In 1532 Zwingli died in the Battle of Cappel, and a few weeks later, Oecolampadius died. Calvin became a Protestant in 1534. Feret, an enthusiastic Protestant, instigated the posting of placards late in 1534, all over France. As a result, many Protestants were killed on January 21, 1535, and onwards for four months. Geneva was won to Protes- tantism in 1536, Calvin arrived there the same year. (On 21^st January 1793, 258 years later, the French king, Louis XVI was beheaded.)

William Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament began to be printed in 1526, and the complete Bible in about 1536, the year he was burned at the stake. The martyrdoms, in England, of faithful Protestants continued through the 1530s to 1560s and beyond – even though Henry VIII repudiated papal supremacy in January 1531. Persecution of Christians continued on through the 17^th century.

John Knox converted to Protestantism about 1542, and went to Geneva for several months in 1554. His powerful preaching in Scotland began in 1559, and led to civil war between the Pro- testants and Catholics, which the Protestants won. He spoke boldly to Queen Mary Stuart from 1551 onward for several years.

In Holland, Menno Simmons converted to Protestantism in 1531; and, by 1536, he had founded a number of Mennonite churches.

Dutch Protestants had been persecuted since the 12^th century. Under Charles V, the first martyrs died in 1523. William, Prince of Orange, led the Protestant forces for years, until his assassination in a Catholic plot in 1584.

Aided by the king's favour, Hans Tausen brought the gospel to Denmark. By 1530, Denmark was clearly Protestant.

Olaf and Laurentius Petri led in the Swedish Reformation. In 1527, A.D.1600 King Gustavus openly declared for the Reformation. A century later

the Thirty Years War, the most destructive war (prior to the 20^th century) in European history began. It was very nearly won by the Catholics, when King Gustavus II (Adolphus) marched southward with a Swedish army in victory after victory. The Peace of West- phalia (October 1648) brought religious liberty to millions of Protes- tants in northern Europe.

Elizabeth I was Protestant, but her successor, James I, was the son of a Catholic – and he heavily persecuted all Protestants not in the State (Anglican) Church. The Authorized (“King James”) Version was printed during his reign in 1611. Many Christians fled to the Netherlands. James' son, Charles I, also leaned toward Catholicism

(both his mother and wife were Catholic), and he continued the persecutions.

The Puritans tried to purify the nation, and the Separatists left it. In 1608, John Robinson went to Amsterdam. In 1618, part of his group decided to sail westward to “New England”. They became known as the “Pilgrim Fathers”. Returning to England in September 1620, they set sail in the Mayflower, and arrived at Plymouth on 21 November. Founding the Plymouth Colony, soon they were relig- iously intolerant themselves.

Educated at Cambridge, Roger Williams arrived in 1631 and pastor- ed a church at Salem, Mass. Because of his objections to govern- mental religious persecution, he fled in January 1636 to avoid arrest - and founded the Rhode Island Colony. Williams died in 1683.

Between 1660 and 1675 John Bunyan wrote his books in prison.

John and Charles Wesley and George Whitfield brought a major revival to England.

France was unique among the nations of Europe. After being initial- ly tolerated, Protestantism was later thoroughly crushed out. By 1559, there were 400,000 Huguenots (French Protestants) in France. In three savage “Huguenot Wars” (1562-1570), the Catholics tried unsuccessfully to exterminate the Protestants. From 1560 onward (as they were doing elsewhere in Europe), the Jesuits led out in this work.

Catherine de Medici of France was told by her Jesuit confesssor that her sins would be forgiven if she killed off all the Protestants. On St. Bartholomew's Day, August 24, 1572, the horrible work began, and continued for two months – resulting in the death of 70,000 Protestants. Pope Gregory XIII was utterly delighted. The killing of Protestants continued to 1580. Charles IX, only 23 years old in 1572, continually heard the cries of the dying in his ears, and he sickened and died 21 months later.

With the Protestants, the nation's best workers, gone – the nation A.D. 1700 became more and more corrupt. In 1789, Louis XVI called the Estates-General to keep the country from bankruptcy. The French Revolution resulted.

In July 1789, riots began throughout the nation. The Reign of Terror continued until 1794, as over 300,000 citizens were slain. War between France and other nations was almost continuous from 1793 to 1915.

The “Festival of Reason” occurred in November 1793. Voltaire said he had destroyed Christianity; but, decades later, his house was used to store French Bibles.

A.D. 1900 1914-18 First World War.

1917 Balfour Agreement to homeland for Jews in Israel.

1923 San Remo Convention ratified Balfour Agreement. (England responsible for dividing Israel – is no longer a world power.)

1924 Ottoman Califate abolished. Britain responsible for ruling Israel.

1929 Vatican's Concordat with Mussolini.

1933 Vatican's Concordat with Hitler.

1939 Second World War started.

End of June until August 1941 Vatican-backed Ustashi murder- squads massacre Protestant Bosnians and Serbians all over Bosnia. Even the Germans were sickened by their atrocities.

1942 Holocaust killed six million Jews, and gypsies, disabled, mentally handicapped, homosexuals and other 'undesirables'. The gas chambers of Treblinka began to operate in Poland, and elsewhere in Europe soon afterwards.

War in Europe ended 1945, and War with Japan ended 1946. Ustashi leaders mostly rewarded by Vatican, and smuggled to Argentina, and freedom, by the Vatican Ratlines.

1948 Israel became the nation of Israel. Arab countries invaded within days, but were beaten.

A.D. 1960 1967 Six Day War. The city of Jerusalem was reunited with the the Jewish people for the first time in nearly 1900 years.

Israel constantly on defence from Arab/Moslem nations.

A.D. 19901992 Holy Alliance? President Ronald Reagen and Pope John Paul II.

Constant wars, Middle East, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, plus the constant terrorism by various radical Islamic groups, to present-day

A.D. 2000 11^th September 2001. World Trade Centre Twin Towers and the Pentagon both attacked by Al Qaeda terrorists who crashed three commercial aeroplanes into them, killing all on board, and many other innocent people in the buildings.

2008 New York Stock crash.

As well as the persecution of Christians world-wide for centuries, Christians are verbally attacked for their faith, their stand against ungodly practices, their wearing of crosses, etc.

USA trying to divide Israel – has gone downhill fast and will fail too. God said “Whoever blesses Israel, I will bless. Whoever is against Israel, I will be against.”

A.D. 2010 The Arab Spring began with the deposing of despots in the Arab countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, opening up the way for radical Islamic parties to take over the vacuum by making wonderful promises to get them into power, but then insisting on Sharia Law again, mostly very unpopular, especially to the women, and civil war ensued.

A.D. 2014 Gaza/Israel War, latest of constant wars, plus terrorism.

Legal action against Christian businesses for discrimation when employing new staff; and Churches when they rent council buildings for services, etc.

Russia starts taking back territory it lost when the Cold War ended.

A.D.2015 UN trying to force Israel to give in to demands of illegitimate Pale- stinians. Palestine illegally declared a state.

September 2015 Syrian refugees flooded Europe – a peaceful takeover by unwanted Muslim refugees from Syria and Africa flooding in.

September 28th, Tabernacles, marked the last tetrad of the Blood Moons, and things certainly started heating up. More IS terrorist attacks in Europe with many victims.

The Israeli Arabs incited by Mahmoud Abbas, PLO leader, have attacked Israeli Jews almost daily, in every way, and killed many, and injured more. They have declared a Third Intifada.

Several large passenger planes have disappeared without a trace or been shot out of the sky, with hundreds of people. killed as a result.

Russians fighting in Ukraine shot a commercial plane down. Iran and Saudi Arabia are on the brink of war, Saudi Arabia fighting Yemen.

Spain and Greece default on Bank loans, huge unemployment and poverty.

2016 Gangs of Muslim refugees in various European cities groped hundreds of European women and stole their belongings during the New Year's Eve fireworks displays.

Russian planes bombing terrorists and Syrian rebels.

Many more terrorist attacks in Israel and all over the world. Nobody has any idea where they will attack next.

China causes world-wide stock market drops.

Brussels Airport and other crowded places attacked by terrorists.

Turkey plagued with terrorist activity.

Britain pulls out of the EU after a unanimous vote to do so.

Gotthard Base Tunnel opening ceremony was a dark, disturbing, weirdly satanic ritual, witnessed by Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, President Francois Hollande of France and Italian Prime Minister and many other European dignitaries. This tunnel allows fast road access between two countries.

July 23, Tomorrowland broadcast by satellite from Belgium to seven other countries, including Israel. Huge centre-stage replica of CERN hadron collider gate (hypnosis and mind control?), giant mirror on-stage in which digitally created face of goddess Kali speaks seductively to crowd, then deep powerful male voice said: People of Tomorrow, as a new chapter unfolds, you will learn about one man, who knew the mysteries of the uni- verse from within. Because of his vision, a great work was completed (CERN). With its sacred key, the machine can forge unique experiences continuously. Humanity can be reborn. ...

Simply put, Tomorrowland is an organized effort for the people of the earth to call forth the anti-Christ. The CERN project is designed to open the portal between the second heaven and earth, so that the demons can invade Earth.

The prayers of the saints and the worship and praying in tongues at the venue for several hours resulted in a breakdown of two hours to connect the satellite dish and the incoming live performance in Belgium, and still hadn't connected at 11pm Israel time. There was a very small crowd there. Praise the Lord.

4th-23^rd September. Multi-faith (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) prayer event in Jerusalem, called Mekudeshet (beloved), taking place in various locations. The Pope is rumoured to be participating. One of the events is entitled “Seven Ways to Devolve Boundaries”, (probably will be pushing for unBiblical “Two State Solution”.

5th-11^th September. “Peace and Safety” is Stage 2 of the attempt to pull all world religions into ONE. This is a first meeting in history of religious leaders from east Asia: China, South Korea, India, and Japan coming to be face to face with religious leaders of Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

23^rd Sept. Pope to proclaim Lucifer as the God of the One World Religion.

The Bible is not a book of myths, but of real world history, and how the world came into existence, and God's dealings with mankind. It is HIS Story of all that has happened since the beginning of the world to the first century after Christ, with prophecies, poems, wise sayings and actual historical events (since proven by archeological finds) written down for the benefit of all who read it. Written by 40 authors under the guidance and inspiration of God's Holy Spirit, they wrote down as God led them to write what God wanted them to write. Some of it may seem mystical, but there are clues to unravel these elsewhere in the Bible. It concludes with disclosures of these last times in which we live, and the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. It also prophesies the destruction of this world, and the creation of a new world.

CHAPTER 2

THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM

In A.D. 66, while Florus was the Roman procurator of Judea, the unrest started which led to the rebellion of the Jews, who slew the Roman garrison in the Fortress Antonia, next to the Temple Mount, August 66. The Romans retaliated, and slew 20,000 Jews in Caesarea. Jews attacked cities throughout Judea. The Legate of Syria headed south with 30,000 troops, burnt Joppa and then surrounded Jerusalem. He then unexpectedly withdrew. The Jews set off in pursuit, and the Romans lost equipment, all their siege engines, and nearly 6,000 soldiers. It was the end of October, A.D.67.

In February A.D. 68, Nero appointed his best general, Vespasian, to command the Roman armies. Heading south toward Jerusalem, he quickly took Jotapata, Joppa again, and all of the Galilee, and sold 30,000 Jews into slavery. At the Jordan, he slew 15,000 Jews – but then on June 9, Vespasian learned that Nero had committed suicide. Hurrying to Rome, he became enmeshed in battles for the emperorship, which he won in October, A.D. 69.

By that time, all Judea, except Jerusalem, was under the control of Titus, his thirty-year-old son, who was now general of the armies. On May 10, A.D. 70, with 65,000 men, Titus arrived at the gates of Jerusalem. Every type of horror was experienced within its walls before Titus gained control, 139 days later.

39 years before, Christ had foretold this suffering and destruction. He warned His followers to keep the Sabbath faithfully (Matthew 24:20), and flee when the Roman armies had arrived (verse 16). This they did, when Cestius withdrew from the city in October, A.D.67.

Not one Christian perished in the destruction of Jerusalem. Christ had given His disciples warning, and all who believed his words watched for the promised sign. At the time of the siege, the Jews were assembled at Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, and thus the Christians throughout the land were able to make their escape unmolested. Without delay they fled to a place of safety, the city of Pella, in the land of Perea, beyond Jordan.

Jerusalem itself had been divided into three sectors, each under its own rebel force, and each fighting the others. It was the time of the Passover, when millions of Jews were assembled within its walls. Their stores of provisions, which, if carefully preserved, would have supplied the inhabitants for years, had previously been destroyed through the jealousy and revenge of the contending factions of Jews, and now all the horrors of starvation were experienced. A measure of wheat was sold for a talent. So fierce were the pangs of hunger that men would gnaw the leather of their belts and sandals and the covering of their shields. Great numbers of the people would steal out at night to gather wild plants growing outside the city walls, though many of them were seized and put to death with cruel torture, and often those who returned in safety were robbed of what they had gleaned at such peril. The most inhuman tortures were inflicted by those in power, to force from the want-stricken people the last scanty supplies which they might have concealed. And these cruelties were not infrequently practised by men who were themselves well fed, and who were merely desirous of laying up a store of provision for the future.

Thousands perished from famine and pestilence. Natural affection seemed to have been destroyed. Husbands robbed their wives, and wives their husbands. Children would be seen snatching the food from the mouths of their aged parents. The warning prophecy given fourteen centuries before:

“Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother, or the wife he loves, or his surviving children, and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all he has left, because of the suffering that your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities. The most gentle and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot, will begrudge the husband she loves, and her own son or daughter, the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For she intends to eat them secretly during the siege and in the distress that your enemy will inflict on you in your cities.”

(Deuteronomy 28:56, 57.)

The Roman leaders endeavoured to strike terror to the Jews, and thus cause them to surrender. Those prisoners who resisted when taken, were scourged, tortured, and crucified before the wall of the city. Hundreds were daily put to death in this manner, and the dreadful work continued until, along the valley of Jehoshaphat and at Calvary, crosses were erected in so great numbers that there was scarcely room to move among them. So terribly was that awful imprecation uttered before the judgment-seat of Pilate: “His blood be on us, and on our children.” (Matthew 27:25.)

With the help of battering rams, banks, 75-foot towers, and hurling machines, the Romans took the Fortress Antonia by the end of July, and the Temple in August. In vain were the efforts of Titus to save the temple; One greater than he had declared that not one stone was to be left upon another. The blind obstinacy of the Jewish leaders, and the detestable crimes perpetrated within the besieged city, excited the horror and indignation of the Romans, and Titus at last decided to take the temple by storm. He determined, however, that if possible, it should be saved from destruction. But his commands were disregarded. After he had retired to his tent at night, the Jews, sallying from the temple, attacked the soldiers outside. In the struggle, a fire-brand was flung by a soldier through an opening in the porch, and immediately the cedar-lined chambers about the holy house were in a blaze. Titus rushed in, followed by his generals and legionnaires, and commanded the soldiers to quench the flames. His words were unheeded. In their fury the soldiers hurled blazing brands into the chambers adjoining the temple, and then with their swords they slaughtered in great numbers those who had found shelter there. Blood flowed down the temple steps like water. Thousands upon thousands of Jews perished. Above the sound of battle, voices were heard shouting, “Ichabod!” - the glory is departed.

Titus found it impossible to check the rage of the soldiers; he entered with his officers, and surveyed the interior of the sacred edifice. The splendour filled them with wonder; and as the flames had not yet penetrated to the holy place, he made a last effort to save it. He again exhorted the soldiers to stop the fire spreading. However, even respect for the emperor gave way to the furious animosity against the Jews, to the fierce excitement of battle, and to the insatiable hope of plunder. The soldiers saw everything around them radiant with gold, which shone dazzlingly in the wild light of the flames; they supposed that incalculable treasures were laid up in the sanctuary. A soldier, unperceived, thrust a lighted torch between the hinges of the door; the whole building was in flames in an instant, and the noble edifice was left to its fate.

The slaughter within was even more dreadful than the spectacle from outside. The soldiers had to clamber over heaps of dead to carry on the work of extermination.

After the destruction of the temple, the whole city soon fell into the hands of the Romans, and all Jerusalem was burned to the ground. Not knowing Christ's prediction, Titus ordered that the city be leveled flat. Not one stone was left upon another. Both city and the temple were razed to their foundations, and the ground upon which the holy house had stood was “plowed like a field.” (Jeremiah 26:18.) Over 1,100,000 Jews died during the siege. Most of those remaining were sold into slavery. The Temple treasures were taken to Rome.

CHAPTER 3

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH

The Persecuted Early Church

From the beginning of the Church, it was persecuted. Christians were killed by their peers, by the Jews, and by the Romans in whatever part of the Roman Empire they happened to be in. They were thrown to the lions, killed in gladiatorial combat, torn to shreds by wild animals in the arenas as entertain-ment for the masses, and used as torches by Nero and other anti-Christian emperors, by setting them on fire in the arenas.

Tertullian wrote that for more than two centuries the blood of the martyrs was the seed of a heavenly-minded church without earthly ambition, members of which numbered 10 percent of the Roman Empire. Christ's established church seemed to thrive under persecution, which kept her pure and clean, detached from worldly desires, and longing to be with Christ in heaven. Christians were misfits: despised and blamed for every disaster because their refusal to worship the idols had obviously brought down the wrath of the gods.

The persecutions of the third century increased in severity. In 203, there were roastings, impalings, and beheadings of Christians in Alexandria. Persecution of the real Christians came in waves, punctuated by periods of relative tolerance and tranquility.

Aroused by the fact that the heathen temples began to be forsaken and the Christian churches increased in number, the Emperor Decius, around A.D.250, martyred thousands of people, including the bishops of Rome, Antioch, and Jerusalem as well as a number of the emperor's own soldiers who refused to sacrifice to idols. Decius required that everyone should possess a certificate that he had sacrificed to the gods before special commissioners. The certificates were a deliberate attempt to catch people.

Following a brief respite, the persecution directed by Emperor Valerian (253-60) forbade all Christian worship, and specifically focused on the execution of church leaders. Among ordinary Christians as well, there were innumerable martyrs.

The Great Persecution began in 303 under the Emperor Diocletian and his co-emperor, Galerius. Bibles and churches were destroyed, all Christian worship was forbidden, and all clergy imprisoned. All citizens of the empire had to sacrifice to the pagan gods on pain of death. In many places it was a bloodbath. In Phrygia, for example, where the whole population was Christian, a whole town was wiped out.

The Paganization of Christianity

At the height of the most devastating persecution, deliverance came in the form of a new emperor, Constantine. He had taken control of the empire in the West, while his ally, Licinius, had conquered the East. Together they signed the Edict of Milan in 313, restoring to Christians full rights as citizens.

When Emperor Constantine supposedly became a Christian in A.D. 313, a clever political manœuvre, he gave freedom to Christians as well as official status alongside paganism to the Christian Church. As the penalty for not joining the State Church was death, all the pagans joined the Church in a hurry, to save their skins, bringing with them their idols and other pagan rituals, which were integrated into the Church. The Church was full of unbelieving pagans who did not believe the truth of the Christian faith, but only what was fed to them by Constantine and his “Church” hierarchy.

Constantine made himself head of the new church, and involved this new “church” in the politics of running his empire. He wore his emperor's robes to church, and made all the rules.

His robes and his titles were used by future popes, who were his successors (not the Apostle Peter's). Constantine treated his bishops as his political aides. He summoned them, and presided over their councils, and agreed to enforce whatever the majority should formulate. Doctrine meant nothing to Constantine, only that the bishops should agree for the sake of imperial unity. Constantine was the head of the “church” (not the pope), its source of unity, before whom the Bishop of Rome had to prostrate himself and pledge his loyalty.

Constantine never renounced his loyalty to the many pagan gods and used pagan rites and pagan magic formulas to protect crops and heal disease. He continued to head the pagan priesthood, to officiate at pagan celebrations, and to endow pagan temples even after he began to build Christian churches. As head of the pagan priesthood he was the Pontifex Maximus and needed a similar title as head of the Christian church. The Christians honoured him as “Bishop of Bishops”, while Constantine called himself Vicarius Christi, Vicar of Christ. He meant that he was “another Christ” acting in the place of Christ. When translated into Greek, however, Vicarius Christi literally means Antichrist. Constantine was the prototype of the Antichrist prophesied in Scripture and who is yet to come.

To blend pagan beliefs together into this new religion, they just changed the names of their deities. Zeus, the chief of the Roman gods (Jupiter in Greek mythology) became God the Father. One of the goddesses who had a baby by Zeus was given the new name of Mary and Baby Jesus took the name of her baby, fathered by God. It was probably the messenger, Mercury/ Hermes who became the Holy Spirit.

They also changed the days of the week to include the old gods' names, so they wouldn't be forgotten! Sunday, the first day of the week was named after the Sun, which was worshipped as a deity by Constantine, and Monday is named for the Moon god. However, when the English were invaded by the Norse, they changed some of the days of the week to the names of the Norse gods. Wednesday, for example, is named after Woden (Odin), Thursday after Thor (the Norse equivalent of Zeus), Friday after Freya or Frigga, the wife of Odin, the equivalent of Venus. Tuesday started as Mars but changed to Tiwes, the Norse version. The French is still Mercredi, which shows the connection with Mars. Saturday was named after Saturn.

Holy Festivals were also amalgamated with pagan revelries. Although up to this time no reference to or celebration was made in the church for the birth- day of Christ. The Romans celebrated the December festival of Saturn, Saturnalia, and observed a time of unrestrained merrymaking, drunkenness and wild revelry, extending even to slaves, and this became the official celebration of the birth of Christ, the predecessor of modern jolly, holly, Christmastide, the season of good cheer. However, in the fourth century, the two Mithraic sacred days: December 25, 'dies natalis solis' (birthday of the sun), was officially recognized as the birthday of Jesus - and Sunday, 'the venerable day of the Sun', as Constantine called it in his edict of 321, was confirmed to be the day the church worships.

“Is it not strange that Sunday is almost universally observed when the Sacred Writings do not endorse it? Satan, the great counterfeiter, worked through the 'mystery of iniquity' to introduce a counterfeit Sabbath to take the place of the true Sabbath. Sunday stands side by side with Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Holy (or Maundy) Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Whitsunday, Corpus Christi, Assumption Day, All Soul's Day, Christmas Day, and a host of other ecclesiastical feast days too numerous to mention. This array of Roman Catholic feasts and fast days are all man-made. None of them bears the divine credentials of the Author of the Inspired Word.” - M.E. Walsh.

Constantine hated the Jews, as they had revolted against the Romans so often, so he abolished all the Jewish feasts (the Feasts of the Lord), that the Early Church had celebrated up until then. Constantine banned the Jewish Passover, on pain of death, and replaced it by 'Easter', inherited from a Babylonian fertility cult to the goddess Ishtar (O.E. Eostre), celebrated by a festival in Spring to celebrate fertility, hence the egg, which proves fertility, and the rabbit, which is very very fertile. This was celebrated on a Sunday. He also hated the Saturday Jewish Sabbath, and insisted on making the first day of the week Sunday (the day he worshipped the Sun God), but, he said, was the day Christ rose, so Sunday became the new worship day.

Constantine was not baptised until just before his death by a heretical Arian priest, Eusebius. He murdered those who might have a claim to his throne (his son Crispius, a nephew and a brother-in-law). He remained a pagan, and his furious tempers and cruelty caused the deaths of his wife and son. His “Christian” sons, Constantine II, Constantius II and Constans, secured their separate regions of the empire by a merciless family massacre (after his death).

As time went on, the Popes took on the robes and rites introduced by the Emperor, and became the Roman Catholic Church. They would not tolerate any criticism or deviation from the way they were running the church, and killed any dissenters promptly, to discourage any other dissent. The true Christians, those who continued in the faith of the apostles, were killed after terrible torture to try to change their minds.

In the Middle Ages, the bishops of Rome began to claim that they were the sole representatives of Christ upon earth. Demanding that the entire Roman Catholic Church worldwide must be subject to their rule, they forbade any other bishops to be called “papa” or pope and took to themselves the three titles of Constantine – Pontifex Maximus, Vicar of Christ, and Bishop of Bishops – which they retain to this day.

As the popes' claims to absolute power over kingdoms, people, and property were realized, great corruption entered the Roman Catholic Church.

Such were forerunners of today's popes. Forgetting Christ's admonition to serve others, they emulated the pagan emperors from whom they inherited their position and power (Mt.23:6-9, 27-28). Constantine declared the bishops were gods, and no man could dare to judge them. Soon the popes were declaring openly that they had power over kings and kingdoms, and all persons, and power to behave like tyrants. The added pretense of infalliblity only made matters worse.

Celibacy of priests led to adultery, fornication, use of prostitutes and mistresses. Many popes were bastards fathered by other priests or popes. Pope Pius II (1458-64) said Rome was “the only city run by bastards.” He ad- mitted to fathering at least two illegitimate children, by different women (one of them married at the time), making Rome the “Mother of Harlots”, as the apostle John foresaw.

After Savonarola of Florence called Rome “a harlot ready to sell her favours for coin” and accused priests of bringing “spiritual death upon all”, Pope Alexander VI threatened to lay an interdict upon Florence if it did not silence Savonarola. Out of fear they would all be killed, the Florence rulers obeyed. After signing confessions that had been wrung out of them by torture, Savonarola and two comrade friars were hanged and burned to ashes. Yet this man, who preached against the church leaders' immorality, and was slain by Roman Catholics, is now celebrated by the Vatican as “a giant of our faith, martyred May 23, 1498.” What revision of history!

Pope John Paul II, in “Veritatus Splendor”, 1993, soundly condemns promiscuity. One might respect such a treatise if he would admit that his predecessors in the papacy have been some of the worst offenders! The clergy, because they can't marry, have been prone to more illicit relationships than the laity; and that promiscuity is still widespread among the Roman Catholic clergy.

Celibacy is not taught in the Bible, nor was it practised by the apostles. This teaching developed as an integral part of the evolving papal system and gradually became essential to it. The concern was not morality. It was not the prohibition of sex, but of marriage. The rule of celibacy has a very practical and lucrative result for the church. The clergy must have no heirs; the church became the heir of all their bequested estate.

Although married men in the early years were allowed to enter the priest- hood, they were required to live celibate lives and “treat their wives as sisters”, Leo I (440-61). Few if any Catholics realise that as late as the reign of Pope Gregory VII (1073-85) it was accepted for priests to be married, and supposedly live in celibacy with their wives. Such a requirement was both unnatural and unrealistic. All over Italy the clerics had large families, and no discipline was enacted against them. Many of the popes had large families as well, and sometimes made no secret of it.

Vicars of Christ?

John XII (955-64) became pope at age 16, ran a harem in the Lateran Palace, and lived a life of evil that passes imagination, even toasting the devil in front of St. Peter's altar.

The Enforcement of Celibacy

Unknown in England before it was informed by Innocent IV in about 1250, most priests there were married, a practice long accepted by the Church, but Rome determined that it had to end all familial devotion for priests and nuns. Their loyalty must now be given to Mother Church and the Pope.

Exposed at Last

Twentieth century misconduct by Roman Catholic clergy, covered up for decades, is now being exposed. Increasing numbers of victims are coming forward to sue the church.

Blasphemies

Catherine of Siena, who is recognized today as a Catholic saint, just before her death had lengthy trances in which she said she saw heaven, purgatory and hell, and received permission from God (so she said) to allow her “to bear the punishment for all the sins of the world”. But Christ's death had already paid the full penalty for sin. Was she excommunicated as a heretic for such blasphemy? No. She was so admired for her “sacrifice” that the Roman Catholic Church made her a saint!

Five hundred years later, the Church accepted the claim that the sufferings (evidenced by the stigmatic bleeding in hands, feet and side, where Christ was pierced) endured for fifty years by a monk named Padre Pio, were also in payment for the sins of the world. Pio claimed that more spirits of the dead than living persons visited him in his monastery cell. The spirits came to thank him for paying for their sins with his sufferings, so they could be released from purgatory and go to heaven. Other monks testified that they heard multitudes of voices talking with Padre Pio at night. The Bible repeatedly assures us that Christ suffered the full penalty for sin (Eph.1:7; cf. Col.1:14). The debt has been paid in full. To suggest otherwise is heresy.

Yet these two and other “suffering servants?” are revered and prayed to by millions of Catholics, including Pope John Paul II, for having suffered for the sins of others. They are greater than Christ in the sense that His suffering leaves good Catholics still in purgatory, whereas Padre Pio's suffering releases multitudes to heaven. Such blasphemy is only one of the abominations to which the Roman Catholic Church has given birth, and which she still nurtures today. Can there be any greater abomination than teaching that sinners for whom Christ paid the full penalty of sin need yet to “make expiation for their own sins, and the sins of others”?

Idols

In Lev.26:1; Deut.27:15, making images for religious purposes and bowing before them is soundly prohibited, as well as in the second of the Ten Commandments, and in numerous other passages of Scripture, yet Vatican II commands images in churches to be “venerated by the faithful.” In Catholic churches and cathedrals, the faithful are on their knees in front of this saint or that, most often “Mary”. The Catholic catechisms leave out the second commandment prohibiting images, and divide the last one into two. This is deliberate deception practised upon the members of the church, most of whom know nothing of the Bible except what the clergy tell them.

Christians had not used images until Constantine became the de facto head of the church. The door that was opened to paganism at that time has never been shut. The church attempted to accommodate the pagans joining it by retaining their idols under Christian names. That practice is still part of San- teria, voodoo, etc., today. Such idolatry the Bible repeatedly condemns as spiritual adultery or fornication! Rome, in this way as well, has led untold millions into idolatry.

Money-Raisers

The pallium, the two-inch wide woollen band with crosses embroidered on it...paid for by every bishop...brought in...hundreds of millions of gold florins to the papal coffers...The Council of Basle in 1432 was to call it 'the most usurious contrivance ever invented...'

Dispensations were another source of papal revenue. D. Antonio Gavin, author of A Master-Key to Popery, was born and educated in Spain at the end of the 1600s. He gives a clearer picture of Roman Catholicism in his day, incredible wealth, and the part it played in the practice of Rome's paganized Christianity. In Zaragoza, images of Mary were dressed daily in lavish costumes of gold, silver, diamonds and other precious stones worth a fortune. As well as huge wealth, they owned one-third to one half of all the land in Mexico, one- third of Rome's real estate, with stocks and bonds without parallel, plus ownership of industries from electronics and plastics to airlines and chemical and engineering firms. The pope is the supreme administrator and manager of all church properties and its own Vatican Bank. The Vatican has gathered its incalculable fortune through the most abominable means: selling bogus tickets to heaven.

Salvation for Sale

Christ has already offered salvation as a free gift, yet Rome has never repented of the abomination of selling salvation, and continues similar practices to this day. Under Leo X (1513-21), specific prices were published by the Roman Chancery to be paid to the Church for absolution from every imaginable crime. Once pardoned in this way by the Church, the criminals could not be prosecuted by civil authorities.

Two hundred years earlier, John XXII (1316-34) had done the same, setting a price for every crime from murder to incest to sodomy. The more the Catholics sinned, the richer the Church became.

Leo X tore down Constantine's basilica, and built St. Peter's, largely with monies paid by people who thought they were thereby gaining forgiveness of sins and entrance to heaven.

Pope Benedict IX ascended to Peter's throne at age 11. Imagine an 11-year-old solemnly pronouncing forgiveness of sins as Christ's one true representative on earth. It was Leo X who commissioned the Dominican Friar Tetzel to sell indulgences, which it was promised would free those in purgatory or release the purchaser, if bought in his own name, from having to spend any time in that intermediate place of torment. How could anyone be so naїve as to believe that the forgiveness of sins for which Christ had to endure the full wrath of God upon the cross could be purchased with money? This “God” of Catholicism who moves in response to whatever regulations a corrupt Church invents is clearly not the God of the Bible.

Well-meaning Protestants, wanting to believe the best, imagine that the Roman Catholic Church has rid itself of past abominations, including indulgences. Charles Colson's book “The Body” contains examples of such incorrect information. Though the book contains much truth, it erroneously presents Roman Catholicism as biblical Christianity, and calls for union therewith on the part of evangelicals. Colson writes, “The Reformers, for example, assailed the corrupt practices of indulgences; today they are gone (save for the modern day equivalent practices of some unscrupulous TV hucksters, ironically mostly Protestants, who promote healing and blessing (for contributions).” We endorse his condemnation of “unscrupulous TV hucksters”, but wonder at his incorrect interpretation of Rome. A major document of Vatican II devotes seventeen pages to explaining indulgences and how to obtain them, and excommunicates and damns any who deny that the Church has the right to grant indulgences today for salvation.

In A.D.593, Pope Gregory I had first proposed the unbiblical (but ultimately very profitable) idea that there was a place called 'purgatory' in which the spirits of the dead suffered in order to be purged of their sins and fully delivered from “the debt of eternal punishment”. This fabrication was declared to be a Church dogma by the Council of Florence in 1439, and remains an important part of Roman Catholicism today.

It was not such abominable heresies, however, that divided Roman Catholics. All seemed content with the promise that the Church would somehow get them to heaven, no matter how repugnant to commonsense and justice the methods were. It was the division caused by rival popes, each claiming to be in charge of the machinery of salvation, that stirred the Church into action. By deposing all three rivals who each claimed to be the Vicar of Christ, and then appointing a new Pope, Martin V, the Council of Constance (1414-18) reunited the church. To move the church towards Reformation, Constance decreed that there should be another ecumenical council each ten years. Pope Martin V dutifully summoned the council in 1423 to meet, first at Pavia, then at Siena, but the moment any signs of an attempt at reform mani- fested, he dissolved it “On account of the fewness of those present.” However, shortly before his death, he summoned the new Council to meet at Basle. Martin V's successor, Eugenius IV, could not avoid carrying out the duty he had inherited from his predecessor, to which he was already pledged in conclave.

Eugenius ordered the Council disbanded almost immediately upon a pre-text, but the assembly refused, and a contest with the pope began at first with the backing of the general populace of Europe, and King Sigismund. In vain, the pope excommunicated the prelates involved. Support for reforms poured in to the Council from kings, princes, bishops, prelates and universities. Under pressure, the pope was forced to give the Council his full sanction, an acknowledgement once again of the superiority of Council over pope (which Pius IX would manage to reverse at Vatican I).

The council deposed Eugenius, calling him “a notorious disturber of peace and unity of God's Church, a simoniac, a perjurer, an uncorrigible man, a schismatic, an apostate from the faith, an obstinate heretic, a squanderer of the Church's rights and property, incapable and harmful to the adminstration of the Roman Pontificate...” (Yet his name remains on today's official list of the Vicars of Christ.)

Rome's dominance of Church and world for more than a thousand years through excommunication, torture, and death had led to corruption of such proportions that even the secular world recoiled in shame and horror. The cry resounded throughout Christendom for a reformation of the Church.

Divorce by Another Name

The Roman Catholic Church is known for its adamant stand against divorce. Yet at the same time she is a veritable and unique divorce mill, hiding this fact by deceitfully calling it by another name. The Church grants in the United States alone “annulments” by the tens of thousands each year. Many annulments are granted for “psychological” reasons such as being raised in a “dysfunctional” family or being “psychologically unprepared” for a marriage that occurred decades before and produced numerous children. It is the ultimate in hypocrisy and cynicism, another of the abominations Rome has birthed.

The golden chalice held by the woman riding the beast in Revelation 17:4 was filled with “the abominations and filthiness of her fornication”. There is not and never has been a city on earth except “Christian” Rome which perfectly fits that description. She has been the seducer of souls, leading multitudes into the abominations of idolatry, sexual immorality, the denial of the sufficiency of Christ's redemptive work upon the cross, and the sale of counterfeit salvation in its place – and has done it while posing as the one true Church acting in the name of Christ.

Dominion over Kings

Some years after Constantine had moved the imperial headquarters to the east, the Roman Empire in the West broke up. The vacuum created by the absence of a central authority in Rome was filled by the Church, the only Roman institution capable of doing so. The Church played the major role in education and charity. Gradually, however, the popes took over the civil government of Rome and its surroundings; and then by fraud they added the large territories of the Papal States to their domain. As their ambitions grew, the new Roman pontiffs took upon themselves the titles and much of the flavour and function of emperor.

The popes, some of whom were exceptionally capable military leaders, had armies and navies at their command to extend and to hold their territories. They wielded, however, a greater power than the power of arms: “The keys of heaven” were theirs. Temporal rulers were compelled, no matter how unwillingly, to bow the knee to the popes. Only the “heretics” (true Christians) doubted that the Church determined who entered heaven and could bar its gate to any who opposed her. The most powerful civil rulers trembled when threatened with excommunication, for it was almost universally believed that outside the Church there was no salvation.

Papal Dominion over England and Ireland

During the Middle Ages the awesome power which the popes wielded over the kings of the earth continued to grow. Gregory VI (1045-6) had declared that the pope commanded blind obedience to his every word, even from sovereigns. Alexander II (1061-73), with the counsel of the great Hilde-brand (later Gregory VII), issued a decree declaring Harold, the lawful King of England, a usurper, and excommunicated his followers. The pope decreed that William, Duke of Normandy, was the lawful claimant to the English crown.

With the pope's blessing, William the Conqueror killed Harold in battle, took England, and was crowned in London on Christmas Day, 1066. William accepted the crown “in the name of the Holy See of Rome”. It was another triumph for the papacy and greatly increased Roman Catholic influence in Eng-land. William was authorized [by the pope] to go forth as an avenger of Heaven. He was required to teach the English people “due obedience to Christ's Vicar”, and, what the papacy never forgets, “to secure a more punctual payment of the temporal dues of his apostle.”

In 1155 Pope Adrian IV gave the crown of Ireland to the King of England. Thus, by his authority as “Christ's vicar”, he subjugated Ireland to English rule and consigned Ireland's “peaceful and Christian people to the merciless cruelties of Henry II, upon the ground that it was a portion of 'the patrimony of St. Peter and of the Holy Roman Church'. Subsequent popes affirmed this decree.

So long as England remained Catholic the arrangement was tolerable. But when England turned Protestant its continued control of Catholic Ireland and Protestant persecution of Catholics planted the seeds of a problem that continues to this day. While Catholic Ireland has many legitimate grievances too complex to relate here, she needs to remember that it was, after all, the Roman Catholic popes who gave Ireland to England in the first place.

In fact, the popes were to blame for many of England's trials and tribulations as well. The Roman pontiffs treated “its kings [as] their vassals, and its people as having no rights of any value whatsoever when they came in conflict with the demands of the papacy....The Catholic clergy, as the popes' emissaries, ran England, disregarding the laws of the land, as though the popes were the sovereigns of the country. Civil courts had no jurisdiction over priests.

Looking back from today's perspective, such overt papal dominion over sovereigns seems inconceivable, but it was in fact the norm for that day. The popes literally ruled the entire known world for centuries, exactly as John's vision foretold.

Blood of the Martyrs

This false Christianity has slaughtered millions who, although they were subject to her authority, could not accept her heresies. Roman Catholicism became the most persecuting faith the world has ever seen, commanding the throne to impose the Catholic religion on all its subjects. Innocent III murdered more Christians in one afternoon than any Roman emperor did in his entire reign. Compared with the persecution of heresy in Europe from 1227 to 1492, the persecution of Christians by Romans in the first three centuries after Christ was a mild and humane procedure. We must rank the Inquisition, along with the wars and persecutions of our time, as among the darkest blots on the record of mankind, revealing a ferocity unknown in any beast. Lord Acton, a Catholic, called the Inquisition “murderous”, “pitiless and ferocious institution the world has ever known,” and declared that the popes “were not only murderers in the great style, but they made murder a legal basis of the Christian Church and the condition of salvation.”

Pope Urban II (1088-99), inspirer of the first Crusade, decreed that all heretics were to be tortured and killed. Popes threatened excommunication against any who failed to carry out the Inquisitor's decrees.

It was the popes themselves who invented the Inquisition and saw that it was carried out. In 1233 the Office of the Inquisition was handed permanently to the Dominicans. From 1200 to 1500 each pope made the Inquisition increase in more severity and cruelty.

The Church used the state to actually carry out the penalties the Inquisition wrung out of its victims by torture devised by every pope that lived, each one devising more cruel and painful additions to the torture machines. It was the state that carried out the monstrous executions, by hanging/strangling, or some other gruesome treatment, but burning to death was always the final act, sometimes the only vehicle of a terrible death.

Millions of real Christians were slaughtered by Roman Catholics during the 1000 years before the Reformation. In 1209 Pope Innocent III sent a Crusade against the Albigenses in France and they were wiped out. In 1429 Pope Martin V (1417-31) commanded the King of Poland to exterminate the Hussites (sympathizers with the martyred Jan Hus), who had fought back and had routed the pope's army. In 1487 there was a Crusade against the French Vaudois, and all the Waldenses were wiped out. In 1531 Sicke Freerks Snijder was executed because he didn't believe in infant baptism, and had been baptised a second time. These heretics came to be known as Anabaptists, and were also persecuted by Protestants (Lutherans). In Holland, tens of thousands were burned at the stake for espousing baptism of adults who had come to a personal faith in Christ. The largest group of Anabaptists followed the teachings of Menno Simons and became known as Mennonites.

The Council of Trent

Such was the state of the Roman Catholic Church at the time of the Reformation. Luther and Calvin were devout Catholics. There were no Protestants. Multitudes had been crying out for reformation for at least 200 years. No one, however, Calvin and Luther included, wanted to leave the Church. They desired to see it reformed from within.

Furious at the challenge to their power, the popes would have consigned Luther and Calvin to the flames, but were unable to get their hands on them because of the protection of certain German princes, so threw them out of the Church. Multitudes, who were sick to death with the arrogant despotism of the papacy, with its oppression and slaughter of any who would not bow to its imperious demands, followed Luther and Calvin and the other Reformation leaders out of the Church, giddy with the first gasping breaths of spiritual freedom they had ever drawn.

CHAPTER 4

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE REFORMATION

History Forgotten, Truth Suppressed

The Reformation, and the millions of martyrs who suffered torture and death for their beliefs, is so far removed in time that its issues have been for-gotten. We need to be reminded of all of the facts, no matter how unpleasant, in order to dispel the misconceptions which the new ecumenism is based upon and promotes. Most Protestants have only the sketchiest idea of what was “protested” so long ago and even less understanding of its significance today. So many evangelicals seem to be so poorly informed about the official teaching of Rome.

So eager are many evangelicals to work with Catholics that they accept Rome's self-serving revision of history without checking the facts for themselves. Surely Rome's protestations of peace, love and brotherhood in Christ are sincere, so let us forgive and forget the past.

Even well-meaning evangelicals, organizations and leaders at times have suppressed the facts in order not to offend the Catholics whom they hope to evangelize. For example, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association acquired the printing rights [for a special edition] of … the classic Henry H. Halley Bible Commentary entitled, Pocket Bible Handbook … [It] described [Rome's] martyr-dom of millions... [In its 1962 Billy Graham Crusade Edition] the Graham Association … removed all these pages... The same deletions were made from the additional special Crusade editions in 1964 and 1969. As a result, readers were denied dozens of pages of vital historical fact. Those pages recited the evil of some of the popes as well as of Rome's persecution and slaughter of Christians for centuries even before the Reformation.

Why the Reformation?

We have already noted that for centuries before the Reformation, simple Christian fellowships existed outside the Catholic Church. These believers abhorred the heresies and hypocrisy of Rome and refused to honour the pope. For this they were hounded to terrible deaths by the hundreds of thousands. Crusades to exterminate these “heretics” were organized just as they were for driving Jews and Muslims from the Holy Land. Remember, in one day Innocent III massacred 60,000 people in the “crowning achievement of his papacy”.

Through the testimony of these persecuted Christians and from the Bibles they gave out, men like John Wyclif (1329-84), Jan Hus (1373-1415), and johannes Geiler von Keysersberg (1445-1510) believed the gospel and began preaching it to their fellow Catholics. Multitudes of them believed and remained true to their faith in the flames. These were the forerunners of the Reformation.

Though in the Western world today the death penalty cannot lawfully be exacted against heretics, it is still difficult to be an evangelical in parts of Latin America and in Catholic strongholds of Europe. There the truth is suppressed and the average Catholic will likely never be confronted with the biblical gospel in his or her entire lifetime. When visiting such areas, one sees firsthand the antagonism of Rome against the gospel and is able to appreciate better what it must have been like in Reformation times.

Talking with acquaintances in Spain recently, I asked them what life had been like as Roman Catholics, what they had believed, and how they had become Christians. The stories would make one weep! They went to confession and Mass, prayed to the images of Mary and the saints, lit candles, crossed themselves frequently and hoped the Church would somehow get them to heaven. They could only trust that after they died, friends and relatives would continue to have Masses said to get them out of purgatory.

One man heard the gospel in a cemetery, where Catholics went on holy days to pray to the saints and their ancestors. Knowing this pagan custom, a small group of despised evangelicals had come there to give out literature. Another young man learned the gospel from a tract which a friend had torn up in anger and thrown to the ground. So starved was this devout Catholic for truth that he laboriously pieced the tract back together, read it, and was saved.

Even long after the Reformation had gained a foothold, becoming a Chris-tian could cost one's life in a Catholic country such as Spain or Italy or in the large areas of Europe which remained fanatically Catholic. Now we turn our attention to England to see how the Reformation came to that land and how it is dishonoured today.

England was unique. The entire country eventually came under Pro-testant control. It therefore became a refuge for those who could reach it.

Henry VIII, England's New “Pope”

Even before Martin Luther's awakening, England had its own Reformers who called the consecrated host “merely bread”, denied that the priests had special power to absolve sin, that “the sacraments were necessary to salvation” or that “pilgrimages, holy shrines and prayers for the dead” had any value. They testified that “man can be saved by faith alone ...[and] the Bible, not the Church, should be the sole rule of faith ...” For their deviation from Catholicism, many of these “heretics” were consigned to the flames even before the Reformation began in Germany in 1517.

In contrast to the holy lives of these martyrs, the corruption of the Eng-lish clergy and their Church was all the more obvious to the common people. Even some Church leaders spoke out against the rampant immorality. In 1489 Archbishop Morton denounced abbots “living publicly and continuously with harlots and mistresses” in their abbeys and accused monks of “a life of lasciviousness … nay, of defiling the holy places, even the very churches of God, by infamous intercourse with nuns ...” The Church was hated for its taxes and great wealth that had impoverished the people. By 1500 the supposedly “heavenly-minded” Church, the largest landowner by far in Europe, owned about a fifth of all property in England.

Thus popular sentiment favoured Henry VIII when he confronted the pope over the matter of a divorce from his Spanish consort. A staunch Catholic, Henry had been honoured by the pope with the title “Defender of the Faith” (still retained, oddly, by England's Protestant monarchs) for his fervent polemic, Assertion of the Seven Sacraments Against Martin Luther. The King wanted an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon so he could marry the younger, more beautiful, and hopefully more fertile Anne Boleyn. Rome had recently granted Henry's sister, Margaret, Queen of Scotland, an annulment. But Pope Clement VII, held captive and pressured by Catherine's nephew, Emperor Charles V, refused to grant Henry's wish. So Henry VIII broke with Rome and declared himself head of England's Catholic Church.

Backing the King, the House of Commons pronounced numerous valid accusations against the Roman hierarchy. Parliament eventually voted the Statute of Supremacy (November 11, 1534) which effectively put Henry VIII, who was still every inch a Catholic, in the pope's place as head of the Church of England. Ironically, England's Protestant monarchs still retain that position.

Henry was now the sole judge of what, in religion and politics, the English people were to believe. Since his theology was still Catholic in every respect except the papal power, he made it a principle to persecute impartially Protes-tant critics of Catholic dogma, and Catholic critics of his ecclesiastical supremacy. Theological bonfires continued to the end of the reign.

For the burning of Protestant heretics the Bishop of Lincoln even offered “an indulgence of forty days to good Christians who would carry a faggot to feed the fire.” The reign of England's royal pope became one of terror. Henry's subjects never knew whose head would roll next, Catholic or Protestant. Catholics (such as Bishop John Fisher and Thomas More) were executed for opposing the King as head of England's Church. Protestants, too, would oppose later Protestant monarchs for holding such a position, but no Protestant monarch would execute any subject on those grounds.

Preparation for a Unique Role

Henry's tyrannical rule prepared England to play a unique role. Her religion thereafter would be that of her monarch. When the Protestant Refor-mation finally came to England, it became the religion of the entire country, thus making that island a refuge for those fleeing Catholic persecution else-where. The Huguenots, escaping from Catholic France, where they were being massacred, transformed English industry and brought great prosperity. Evangelical missionaries sent out from England's shores would take the gospel to every corner of the earth.

The major preparation for the Reformation in England, however, would be through the circulation of Scripture. Even during the reign of Henry VIII, copies of William Tyndale's English New Testament were smuggled in from Germany, where it was printed. The Bishop of London gathered all the copies he could find and publicly burned them at St. Paul's Cross. Nothing, however, not even a government ban on “importation or possession of heretical works”, could stop the influx of Scripture or the flame of redemption and freedom that its truth ig-nited in hungry hearts.

Tyndale was burned at the stake in 1536. Henry VIII was still on the throne.

England's Reformation Martyrs

Henry VIII's death in 1547 opened the door to a weak Protestantism. His son, Edward VI, was ten years old when he succeeded his father to the throne. He became the pawn of unscrupulous counselors in a struggle between selfish landlords and nobles still in power and tenants and peasants being ground into poverty. Real freedom in either politics or religion was still a dream.

Edward died at age 15, too young to be blamed for his unfortunate reign. Lady Jane Grey, a devout Protestant, was forced onto the throne against her will in 1553 and was removed five days later when popular opinion swept the rightful heir, Mary Tudor, into power. A fervent Catholic faith had sustained Mary during years of illness and exile. She soon earned the name by which history still remembers her – Bloody Mary.

By law, Catholic worship became the official religion again. “Protestan-tism and other 'heresies' were made illegal, and all Protestant preaching or publication was prohibited.” One of the first unfortunate victims was Jane Grey, who, before laying her head on the executioner's block, testified to the watching crowd:

“I do look to be saved by no other means, but only by the mercy of God in the blood of His only Son Jesus Christ; and I confess …. and yet I thank God, that of His goodness He hath given me respite to repent …

Lord, into thy hands I commit my spirit.”

At first much of England favoured the return to Catholicism (most of the people did not understand the issues). Ironically, the persecution of dissenters during Bloody Mary's five-year reign would make the truth known.

John Foxe was an eyewitness and earnest historian of this fierce persecu-tion. His Book of Martyrs gives detailed accounts of many public trials and exe-cutions. After Queen Mary's demise, a copy of that classic was chained to every pulpit in England to make it available to all. Foxe tells how imprisoned Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, out of fear, signed a submission to Rome and affirmed transubstantiation. On March 21, 1556, he was brought before an overflow crowd at St. Mary's Church in Oxford to publicly recant of his “heresies”. Gathering the courage he had previously lacked, Cranmer turned the tables on his oppressors by boldly declaring his faith and ending with:

….. And as for the pope, I refuse him as Christ's enemy, and Anti-Christ, with all his false doctrine.

The shocked papists shouted him down and led him off to his execution outside Oxford University's Balliol College, at the same spot where Bishops High Latimer and Nicholas Ridley had been burned six months before.

In the front of Balliol College, Oxford, there is a stone cross built into the cobblestone street and a small plaque on the wall of the building opposite. It marks the place where Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer were burned for rejecting transubstantiation. Around the corner on a larger avenue a weathered monu-ment has stood in silent witness for 153 years to the deaths of these martyrs.

As for “Bloody Mary”, she “showed to an England still Catholic the worst side of the Church she served. When she died, England was readier than before to accept the new faith that she had laboured to destroy.

Rewriting History

Mary was succeeded on the throne by her half-sister Elizabeth, who turn-ed England back to Protestantism, ending the pope's power on English soil. In February 1570, Pope Pius V pronounced Queen Elizabeth a heretic, deprived her of her kingdom, forbade her subjects to obey her, and excommunicated all who remained loyal to her. But Elizabeth and most of England simply ignored the pope's fulminations. Many of Rome's fanatical zealots, however, were inspired to attempt to overthrow the Queen.

The plot was uncovered, the conspirators were arrested, and about 120 priests and 60 laity were executed for treason. Ironically, these traitors are honoured each year as the “English Martyrs”, while the hundreds consumed in the flames for their faith in Christ under Catholic monarchs are forgotten.

To mention evangelicals martyred for their faith would offend Catholics and threaten the ecumenical dialogue with Rome. So history is being rewritten. In November 1987, the serious newspapers, TV and radio were giving prominent coverage to “the honouring of English martyrs”. These traitors were called “heroes of resistance to the Protestant Reformation”. These men were beatified by the Pope in Rome in the presence of Anglican Bishop of Bir-mingham, Mark Santer.

At the time of the extensive press coverage of the 1987 beatification of the 85 “English martyrs”, the London-based United Protestant Council sent an account of the historical facts of this case, plus the fact that Mary I had put 288 martyrs to death solely for their faith. They were condemned principally because they had refused the doctrine of transubstantiation. They never denied that Mary was the lawful Queen of England, nor did they sow sedition in secret places, nor procured any rebellion or civil war. The charges of treason were legitimately brought against those Roman Catholics who were put to death under the reign of Elizabeth and succeeding monarchs, and whose names are included in the recent list of those “beatified” by the Pope in Rome. None of this was printed in any of the newspapers.

CHAPTER 5

CLOSER TO HOME

The Inquisition Today

The Medieval Inquisition had flourished for centuries when Pope Paul III, in 1542, gave it permanent status as the first of Rome's Sacred Congregations, the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Inquisition. Known more recently as the Holy Office, its name was changed in 1967 to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – quite appropriate inasmuch as the public burnings were known as autos-da-fe or acts of faith. The persecution, torture and killing of heretics has never been repudiated by the Roman Catholic Church and has continued into modern times.

The Office of the Inquisition still occupies the Palace of the Inquisition adjacent to the Vatican, though under its new name, The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith. The Grand Inquisitor, in 1994, who reported directly to Pope John Paul II, was the former Archbishop of Munich, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, whom Time has called “the world's most powerful cardinal [and] the Catholic Church's chief enforcer of dogma...” That enforcement may be brutally direct or dealt with a gloved hand through another person. On 9^th June 1993 Ratzinger published “Instructions...in Promoting the Doctrine of Faith.” Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict after Pope John Paul II's death.

While it no longer immolates its victims, the Congregation still attempts to maintain the Vatican's cultlike control over the thinking of its clergy and Church members.

Comparison of Original and Paganized Churches

Before Pope Gregory's death in 604, there was no dogma that Peter was the first Pope, that he was infallible, or that he had passed on his authority to successors, the opposite of present-day Catholicism.

The Rock on which was built the true Church was the Lord Jesus Christ, not the Pope. Psalm 18:31, Deut. 32:3,4; Psalm 62:1,2; Matt. 7:24-29; 1 Peter 2:6-8, Eph. 2:20.

Peter was an apostle who came to Rome late in life, and was crucified.

The popes have relied on fraudulent documents (The Donation of Constantine and The False Decretals) to justify their pomp and power even after their exposure as deliberate counterfeits.

The keys of kingdom of heaven, Matt.16:19, 18:18, John 20:23, including loosing and binding, and forgiveness of sins, were given to all disciples.

None of the ancient confessions of faith, none of the doctrinal writings or catechisms contain any mention of pope, or that all certainty of faith and doctine depends on him – and no special power to Peter – all the true Christians had the same power.

Everything Christ had taught the 12 disciples is to be taught to new converts, and to all Christians.

There were no cathedrals, no hierarchy, no elite class. The local church met in houses. Leadership was by a group of godly elders, older and more mature in the faith, and who lived exemplary lives. Every believer encouraged to pray and prophesy in the church gatherings, 1 Cor. 14:26-40). Church promises were for all believers, not for Roman Catholic priests alone.

Scripture teaches submission to every ordinance of man (king or governor, etc.). Popes teach the opposite. They are supreme sovereigns, and only their laws are to be obeyed, even by kings.

1929 Concordat with Mussolini and 1933 Concordat with Hitler

In 1870 the independence of Italy was declared and what remained of the Papal States was absorbed by the new united nation. The Italian people over-whelmingly voted against the pope's rule and for the new independence. The temporal powers of the popes were ended, including their prestige and alliances with earthly regimes. The popes' civil authority was limited to the Vatican, where they remained in self-imposed exile for nearly 60 years until, in 1929, Mussolini and Pope Pius XI signed the Lateran Treaty. This Concordat made Roman Catholicism once again, by national law, “the sole religion” of Italy, and acknowledged again as a sovereign state able to send and receive political ambassadors, etc., etc.

The antipathy of Roman Catholicism to basic human freedom created unholy alliances with the totalitarian governments of Hitler and Mussolini, who were praised by the pope and other Church leaders as men chosen by God. Catholics were forbidden to oppose Mussolini and were urged to support him. The Church virtually put the Fascist dictator in office (as it would Hitler a few years later). In exchange, Mussolini (in the 1929 Concordat with the Vatican) made Roman Catholicism once again the official state religion, and any criticism of it was made a penal offense. The Church was granted other favours, including a vast sum in cash and bonds.

On June 3, 1985, the Vatican and Italy signed a new concordat that ended “a number of privileges the Catholic Church had in Italy, including its status as the state church... the new treaty guarantees freedom for non-Catholics and ends Rome's status as a 'sacred city' [but] still recognizes the 'particular signi-ficance' of Rome to Roman Catholicism.

1933 Concordat with Hitler

One of the benefits of the Concordat was the hundreds of millions of dollars that would flow to the Roman Catholic Church through the Kirchensteuer (church tax) throughout the entire war. In return, Pius XII would never excommunicate Hitler from the Catholic Church nor would he raise his voice to protest the slaughter of 6 million Jews.

Today's Catholics need to face the fact that the totalitarianism of their Church was a major factor in preparing German Catholics to embrace the Nazi regime. From the pope and bishops on down, Roman Catholics felt a kinship with Hitler and backed him even after his ruthless expansionist ambitions and crimes against humanity were well known. Unholy alliance? Spiritual fornica-tion? There can be no doubt.

Today's Continuing Alliances

The cover of Time magazine of February 24, 1992, carried the pictures of former President Ronald Reagen and Pope John Paul II together with this start-ling caption: “HOLY ALLIANCE: How Reagan and the Pope conspired to assist Poland's Solidarity movement and hasten the demise of Communism.” The lead story told how Reagan had “believed fervently in both the benefits and the practical applications of Washington's relationship with the Vatican. One of his earliest goals as President, Reagan says, was to recognize the Vatican as a state 'and make them an ally.'”

And allies they became in one of the most amazing exploits in history. It brought down the Berlin Wall, ended the Cold War, and completely unraveled Soviet Communism. It was a story of intrique and cooperation between the CIA and the apparently even more effective agents of the Vatican. Reagan and John Paul II, both survivors of assassination attempts, shared “a unity of spiritual view and a unity of vision on the Soviet empire: that right or correct-ness would ultimately prevail in the divine plan.”

A five-part strategy emerged during the first half of 1982 “that was aimed at bringing about the collapse of the Soviet economy, fraying the ties that bound the U.S.S.R. to its client states in the Warsaw Pact and forcing reform inside the Soviet empire.” In the outworking of the plan, former Secretary of State Alexander Haig acknowledged that “the Vatican's information was absolutely better and quicker than ours in every respect. [The] Vatican liaison to the White House, Archbishop Pio Laghi, kept reminding American officials, “Listen to the Holy Father. We have 2000 years' experience of this.”

Three weeks later, a major newspaper article reported: “'Pope John Paul II played a major political role in the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe,' said Mikhail Gorbachev, former leader of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev predict- ed that the pope will continue to play 'a great political role' in the current 'very delicate transition' taking place in Europe....the events in Eastern Europe 'might not have been possible without the presence of this pope, without the great role – including political – which he knew how to play on the world scene,' said Gorbachev.”

Such a role on the world scene, with its unholy alliances, political intrigues, and earthly goals, would be anathema to Christ's true bride. Rome has not changed. Her ambitions remain very much of this world. Of course, it is in Christ's name that she wants to reestablish her “reign over the kings of the earth”.

Persecution of Jews and Christians

The Roman Catholic Church has been the greatest persecutor of both Jews and Christians that the world has ever seen, and has martyred far more Christians than even pagan Rome or Islam. She has been exceeded only by Mao and Stalin, but they hardly claimed to be acting in Christ's name. Catholic Rome has no rival amongst religious institutions in qualifying as the woman who is “drunk with the blood of the saints and the martyrs of Jesus” of Revelation 17.

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