Continued from last...
A SAD SITUATION
How many Catholics are there world-wide? In 2003, Brazil was the country with the largest baptized Roman Catholic population in the world, totaling over 100 million. The United States of America, Mexico, Italy and the Philippines each had between 50 and 100 million Catholics. Canada, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, Spain, Poland, Dr Congo, Nigeria, India, China, and Uganda had between 10 and 50 million Catholics. These stats came from the Vatican, based on data from 2003.
Revelation 13:3-4 say that the “whole earth…followed after the beast; and they worshiped the dragon.” Revelation 13:12 and 14 say the second beast “makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast…and he deceives those who dwell on the earth.” The first beast and the dragon are being worshiped together. When the pope arrives in a specific country, look how the Catholics gather before him in form of worship and adoration. Watch how young adolescent boys and girls cry at just being in his presence. What is wrong with that picture, brothers and sisters? Jesus means nothing to them. He is just a by-word. Mary is their true god. Their prayers are directed toward her. They call her the Queen of Heaven and refer to her as a Co-Redemptrix and Co-Mediatrix, etc. Co-redeemer!? What did Mary ever do to redeem us from the penalty of sin and death? Co-mediator!? Where in Scripture does it teach such a thing? The Bible says “there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). Mary called Him her Saviour because she knew she was a sinner in need of salvation (Luke 1:46-47). She is no different than you or I, other than the fact she was chosen by God to carry His Son.
Directing your prayers to her or any of the other “saints” is like directing your prayers toward me. Catholics claim they pray to the “saints” for those things that are too small for God to worry about, such as lost keys. What you have here, brothers and sisters, is superstition. The Church of Rome has adopted the idolatrous practices and superstitions of so many cults, and engaged in grievous sins that Christians have been commanded to avoid and put to death, that she has indeed become the Mother of Harlots.
Everything the Catholic Church says in regard to Mary is a bold-faced lie not based on Holy Scripture. Mary was not a perpetual virgin. Jesus’ brothers are referred to in Matthew 12:46, Mark 3:31, Luke 8:19, and Acts 1:14; and His sisters are referred to in Matthew 13:56. Jesus has a conversation with his brothers in John 7:1-10. His brothers are specifically mentioned by name in Matthew 13:55. In Galatians 1:19, Paul refers to James, “the Lord’s brother.” The epistles of James and Jude were written by two of Jesus’ brothers. Likewise, everything the Catholic Church says about Peter is also a bold-faced lie not based on Holy Scripture. Peter was never a pope. Contradictory to the Catholic Church’s teachings, Peter was married. His mother-in-law is mentioned in all three of the synoptic gospels: Matthew 8:14, Mark 1:30, and Luke 4:38.
If the perversions we have just discussed in these past blog entries are not a literal fulfillment of Revelation 13:6, I do not know what is. Look through the history of the Roman Catholic Church, brothers and sisters, and you tell me if you do not see fulfillment line after line. The prophecies in Revelation span the entire length of our present evil age, which will culminate with the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Benjamin Franklin said, “When religion is good, it will take care of itself. When it is not able to take care of itself and God does not see fit to take care of it so that it has to appeal to the civil power for support, it is evident to my mind that the cause is a bad one.” In other words, if God will not support it, why should the secular governments? The moment that the religious entity has to appeal to the civil entity for support or money or finance or influence, it is in deep trouble. We see that all around us. The moment churches do this, the government tells them what they can and cannot preach.
CONCLUSION
As you can see, the evidence is overwhelmingly supportive of the Latin Empire and the Latin Church being that which Jesus prophesied of. The details surrounding the Roman Catholic Church and the pope are unmistakenly precise to those prophetic details provided by Daniel, Paul, and John. Paul said that the mystery of lawlessness was already at work in his day. How can we ignore church history, believing that something that was already at work then has not been able to break through into the open for 2000 years? We need to start in the first century and work forward. When we have found that which was working during Paul’s days, and it fits with all the details of the prophecy, then we have found the “man of sin.” It makes absolutely no sense to start in our day and work backward, and it makes even less sense to theorize that it is something yet in our future. According to Dispensationalism, the Jews have been without salvation of any sort for over 2000 years and there has been no fulfillment of any biblical prophecy for over 2000 years. To believe that as the case is simply incredulous.
For us to reject each pope of the Roman Catholic Church as being “the man of sin” is to ignore the blasphemy of the titles they assume (those that belong to Jesus Christ alone) and to forget all those godly saints who were burned at the stake or strangled because they dared to translate the Bible into any other language, or even possess a Bible in any other language, except for Latin! (Remember the calculation of the beast earlier?) For us to deny the pope of the Roman Catholic Church as being “the son of destruction” is to turn our backs on the hundreds of thousands of martyrs whose bodies were horrifically mutilated by the “Holy” Inquisition. For us to deny that the Roman Catholic Church is “the apostasy” (apostasia, αποστασια) spoken of in 2 Thessalonians 2 is to minimize the gross perversion of sound doctrine that still emanates forth from within the walls of the Vatican. “Those who think that a mere seven years of Tribulation in our future could possibly be worse than the realities of the Middle Ages need to brush the dust off their history books.”1
Are the individuals within the Roman Catholic Church to be blamed for the actions of the Roman Church State? No! They, and the rest of the world with them, have been deceived. Individual Catholics are not our enemy—the Roman Church State is. The individuals held captive by this system need the salvation of Jesus just like any other man or woman on this planet, but they have been deceived into believing the lie.
Several Dispensationalists are ditching the “revived Roman Empire” fable and starting to jump on the “Islamic Antichrist” bandwagon. While the acts of Islam are similar to those of the Church of Rome from history, the problem with this belief is that Islam is not an apostate from Christianity. Go back through the Identifying Characteristics section and ask yourself how many of them are true of Islam. You might come up with a few that are identical, but each and every single one does not fit Islam as they do the Roman Church State. Islam is only another news-headline interpretation in a long list of news-headline interpretations made by Dispensationalists. The perpetrator of this new twisting of Scripture began with Walid Shoebat, and while he makes a convincing argument through the random, isolated and disconnected passages he cites, nevertheless it is unconvincing for the student of the Bible who studies his Bible and church history very carefully.
Be aware that Catholics and Catholic-friendly advocates, who are ignorant* and ill-informed of the history of the Church of Rome, will attack informed individuals who expose the Roman Catholic Church for what it truly is by calling them “anti-Catholic know-nothing religious bigots.” They do this because they are delusionally deceived, and more than likely strongly committed to her erroneous ways.
1David Vaughn Elliott, Nobody Left Behind: Insight into "End Time" Prophecies, 189.
*Ignorance does not in any way, shape, or form denote or connote stupidity. The literalness of a word is its denotation; the broader associations we have with a word are its connotations. “A person can be ignorant (not knowing some fact or idea) without being stupid (incapable of learning because of a basic mental deficiency). And those who say, ‘That’s an ignorant idea’ when they mean ‘stupid idea’ are expressing their own ignorance.” (Paul Brians, Common Errors in English Usage, posted on <http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/ignorant.html>).
How many Catholics are there world-wide? In 2003, Brazil was the country with the largest baptized Roman Catholic population in the world, totaling over 100 million. The United States of America, Mexico, Italy and the Philippines each had between 50 and 100 million Catholics. Canada, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, Spain, Poland, Dr Congo, Nigeria, India, China, and Uganda had between 10 and 50 million Catholics. These stats came from the Vatican, based on data from 2003.
Revelation 13:3-4 say that the “whole earth…followed after the beast; and they worshiped the dragon.” Revelation 13:12 and 14 say the second beast “makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast…and he deceives those who dwell on the earth.” The first beast and the dragon are being worshiped together. When the pope arrives in a specific country, look how the Catholics gather before him in form of worship and adoration. Watch how young adolescent boys and girls cry at just being in his presence. What is wrong with that picture, brothers and sisters? Jesus means nothing to them. He is just a by-word. Mary is their true god. Their prayers are directed toward her. They call her the Queen of Heaven and refer to her as a Co-Redemptrix and Co-Mediatrix, etc. Co-redeemer!? What did Mary ever do to redeem us from the penalty of sin and death? Co-mediator!? Where in Scripture does it teach such a thing? The Bible says “there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). Mary called Him her Saviour because she knew she was a sinner in need of salvation (Luke 1:46-47). She is no different than you or I, other than the fact she was chosen by God to carry His Son.
Directing your prayers to her or any of the other “saints” is like directing your prayers toward me. Catholics claim they pray to the “saints” for those things that are too small for God to worry about, such as lost keys. What you have here, brothers and sisters, is superstition. The Church of Rome has adopted the idolatrous practices and superstitions of so many cults, and engaged in grievous sins that Christians have been commanded to avoid and put to death, that she has indeed become the Mother of Harlots.
Everything the Catholic Church says in regard to Mary is a bold-faced lie not based on Holy Scripture. Mary was not a perpetual virgin. Jesus’ brothers are referred to in Matthew 12:46, Mark 3:31, Luke 8:19, and Acts 1:14; and His sisters are referred to in Matthew 13:56. Jesus has a conversation with his brothers in John 7:1-10. His brothers are specifically mentioned by name in Matthew 13:55. In Galatians 1:19, Paul refers to James, “the Lord’s brother.” The epistles of James and Jude were written by two of Jesus’ brothers. Likewise, everything the Catholic Church says about Peter is also a bold-faced lie not based on Holy Scripture. Peter was never a pope. Contradictory to the Catholic Church’s teachings, Peter was married. His mother-in-law is mentioned in all three of the synoptic gospels: Matthew 8:14, Mark 1:30, and Luke 4:38.
If the perversions we have just discussed in these past blog entries are not a literal fulfillment of Revelation 13:6, I do not know what is. Look through the history of the Roman Catholic Church, brothers and sisters, and you tell me if you do not see fulfillment line after line. The prophecies in Revelation span the entire length of our present evil age, which will culminate with the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Benjamin Franklin said, “When religion is good, it will take care of itself. When it is not able to take care of itself and God does not see fit to take care of it so that it has to appeal to the civil power for support, it is evident to my mind that the cause is a bad one.” In other words, if God will not support it, why should the secular governments? The moment that the religious entity has to appeal to the civil entity for support or money or finance or influence, it is in deep trouble. We see that all around us. The moment churches do this, the government tells them what they can and cannot preach.
CONCLUSION
As you can see, the evidence is overwhelmingly supportive of the Latin Empire and the Latin Church being that which Jesus prophesied of. The details surrounding the Roman Catholic Church and the pope are unmistakenly precise to those prophetic details provided by Daniel, Paul, and John. Paul said that the mystery of lawlessness was already at work in his day. How can we ignore church history, believing that something that was already at work then has not been able to break through into the open for 2000 years? We need to start in the first century and work forward. When we have found that which was working during Paul’s days, and it fits with all the details of the prophecy, then we have found the “man of sin.” It makes absolutely no sense to start in our day and work backward, and it makes even less sense to theorize that it is something yet in our future. According to Dispensationalism, the Jews have been without salvation of any sort for over 2000 years and there has been no fulfillment of any biblical prophecy for over 2000 years. To believe that as the case is simply incredulous.
For us to reject each pope of the Roman Catholic Church as being “the man of sin” is to ignore the blasphemy of the titles they assume (those that belong to Jesus Christ alone) and to forget all those godly saints who were burned at the stake or strangled because they dared to translate the Bible into any other language, or even possess a Bible in any other language, except for Latin! (Remember the calculation of the beast earlier?) For us to deny the pope of the Roman Catholic Church as being “the son of destruction” is to turn our backs on the hundreds of thousands of martyrs whose bodies were horrifically mutilated by the “Holy” Inquisition. For us to deny that the Roman Catholic Church is “the apostasy” (apostasia, αποστασια) spoken of in 2 Thessalonians 2 is to minimize the gross perversion of sound doctrine that still emanates forth from within the walls of the Vatican. “Those who think that a mere seven years of Tribulation in our future could possibly be worse than the realities of the Middle Ages need to brush the dust off their history books.”1
Are the individuals within the Roman Catholic Church to be blamed for the actions of the Roman Church State? No! They, and the rest of the world with them, have been deceived. Individual Catholics are not our enemy—the Roman Church State is. The individuals held captive by this system need the salvation of Jesus just like any other man or woman on this planet, but they have been deceived into believing the lie.
Several Dispensationalists are ditching the “revived Roman Empire” fable and starting to jump on the “Islamic Antichrist” bandwagon. While the acts of Islam are similar to those of the Church of Rome from history, the problem with this belief is that Islam is not an apostate from Christianity. Go back through the Identifying Characteristics section and ask yourself how many of them are true of Islam. You might come up with a few that are identical, but each and every single one does not fit Islam as they do the Roman Church State. Islam is only another news-headline interpretation in a long list of news-headline interpretations made by Dispensationalists. The perpetrator of this new twisting of Scripture began with Walid Shoebat, and while he makes a convincing argument through the random, isolated and disconnected passages he cites, nevertheless it is unconvincing for the student of the Bible who studies his Bible and church history very carefully.
Be aware that Catholics and Catholic-friendly advocates, who are ignorant* and ill-informed of the history of the Church of Rome, will attack informed individuals who expose the Roman Catholic Church for what it truly is by calling them “anti-Catholic know-nothing religious bigots.” They do this because they are delusionally deceived, and more than likely strongly committed to her erroneous ways.
1David Vaughn Elliott, Nobody Left Behind: Insight into "End Time" Prophecies, 189.
*Ignorance does not in any way, shape, or form denote or connote stupidity. The literalness of a word is its denotation; the broader associations we have with a word are its connotations. “A person can be ignorant (not knowing some fact or idea) without being stupid (incapable of learning because of a basic mental deficiency). And those who say, ‘That’s an ignorant idea’ when they mean ‘stupid idea’ are expressing their own ignorance.” (Paul Brians, Common Errors in English Usage, posted on <http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/ignorant.html>).