THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON

What is the Battle of Armageddon?

This frightening apocalyptic word “Armageddon” refers to earth’s final battle which is generally referred to as the Battle of Armageddon. But who are the contestants of this great battle of Armageddon? A fairly common reply would be “Russia, Syria, or Iran against Israel.” As the Middle East simmers toward a boiling point, and as U.S., British, and Israeli intelligence monitor closely Iran’s quest for a nuclear bomb which might even be used against America. Millions of Christians, Jews, Muslims, and even secularists are pondering, “Is the Battle of Armageddon at hand?” I believe so. Yet I am also convinced that there are massive battle of Armageddon illusions rampant everywhere. Please allow me to explain.

The word “Armageddon” appears only once in the entire Bible and is found in Revelation 16:16. If you open God’s Word and read this passage yourself along with the verses immediately before and after it, you will be amazed at what you will find and not find in regards to the battle of Armageddon. Take a look for yourself:

Revelation 16:12-21 “And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. 13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. 15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. 16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. 17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. 18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. 19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. 20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. 21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.”

Interestingly, no place on earth actually bears the name Armageddon, and the above passage is the only mention of it in scripture. The Greek is most commonly thought to be a transliteration of the Hebrew har megiddo, literally, “mountain of Megiddo.” Here is what Strong’s has to say about the word:

G717 Armageddōn ar-mag-ed-dohn' Of Hebrew origin [H2022] and [H4023]; Armageddon (or Har-Megiddon), a symbolical name: - Armageddon.

Strong's proposes that the Greek word Armageddon originates from the two following Hebrew words:

H2022 har har A shortened form of H2042; a mountain or range of hills (sometimes used figuratively): - hill (country), mount (-ain), X promotion.

H4023 megiddôn megiddô meg-id-done',meg-id-do' From H1413; rendezvous; Megiddon or Megiddo, a place in Palestine: - Megiddo, Megiddon.

The Mount of Megiddo is located in the plain of Esdraelon or Jezreel, a valley fourteen by twenty miles in size located to the southwest of Nazareth. Here, it is thought by many, that the great final battle of Armageddon will be fought at the end of time. Is it possible this battle is symbolic? First let’s do the ground work.

UNDERSTANDING BIBLE PROPHECY

There are utterly hundreds of interpretations on Bible Prophecy and especially on the issue of antichrist and the battle of Armageddon, the key word being “interpretations.” This is the majority’s first error as we are not allowed and do not need private interpretations at all. God’s Word gives us all we need to know without any speculation whatsoever. Note the following scripture that we should impress deeply into our minds.

2 Peter 1:20 “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.”

Also, the book of Revelation ends with a severe warning telling us not to add or take away from the prophecies written in this book or there are very serious consequences.

Revelation 22:18-19 “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: 19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”

If we adhere to the warning of these two scriptures then we should not go too far wrong. These verses inform us that everything we need to know about end time events will be stated in the Bible and we will not have to add extra doctrine or our own interpretations or fill in the gaps, for we are told not to add to it.

The moment you hear statements like, “this must be that country because or…”, then stop reading. If we have to add or take from what the Bible tells us, then we already have it wrong. In fact, once you understand the principles for understanding Bible prophecy, it is a lot simpler than you could imagine.

The key to understanding Bible prophecy is laid out in the principle of the following verse:

Isaiah 28:10 “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:”

For example, in Revelation 13 we find a bizarre beast coming out of the sea with ten horns. Do we start making wild guesses as to what a beast is or what the meaning of the sea or water is? It is beyond the scope of this document to go into large detail here, but it is necessary to some extent, so you will know what I am going to share with you on the Battle of Armageddon will be Bible truth and not private interpretation.

A large amount of what we need to know can be found by referencing the book of Daniel. In fact two thirds of the book of Revelation can be found in the Old Testament and that is a very large key to finding our answers, “precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.” Note the following two verses, which are significant to understanding many key Bible Prophecies, for instance the word “Beast” occurs more than 55 times in Revelation. This verse tells us the meaning of the waters or sea in this case.

Revelation 17:15 “And he saith unto me, The waters which you sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.”

Daniel 7:23 “Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.”

The previous verse which was divinely given to Daniel, informs us unmistakably what a beast is in Bible Prophecy. There is no need to guess, just let the Bible explain itself.

There is always so much speculation as to what the Mark of the Beast is or more to the point who this antichrist beast power is. Many believe it to be one individual at the end of time. Is this true? No! For those who want to research and study history a little will be shell shocked to find out what the real truth is here. You will ask yourself why more people don’t know this if this true. This is how Satan works. He starts with a small lie and perpetuates it until it gets so big that nobody will entertain the idea of it ever being wrong. Even some theologians who first hear Satan’s perpetuated lie in a traditionally accepted teaching without questioning it, tend to end up establishing their theology around that lie that becomes a mind set.

Because of the importance of the identity of the antichrist beast power and to see how the following truth could not be established without using the book of Daniel we are going to cover this topic. Understanding how Daniel and Revelation work together is a crucial part of understanding the great Battle of Armageddon found in Revelation. So let’s identify from the Bible and history who this antichrist power is.

For a very comprehensive study on who is the Antichrist use this link and on completion return to this web site and then proceed straight to the second page of this document on the Battle of Armageddon. If you have already read the web site who is the Antichrist, you can also go direct to the second page.

What does the Bible have to say about “Antichrist”?

Some are surprised to know that the word antichrist appears nowhere in the book of Revelation. The word antichrist occurs only five times and only in the Books of 1st and 2nd John.

1 John 2:18-22 – He is antichrist that denies Jesus is Christ. In John’s time there were many antichrists.
1 John 4:1-3 – Test the Spirits. Every spirit that denies Jesus came in the flesh is the spirit of antichrist.
2 John 1-11 – Those that deny Jesus came in the flesh are a deceiver and antichrist.
Antichrist = “against Christ” or “in place of Christ”, attacking Christ’s character (Gnosticism), specifically with regard to love expressed in obedience to God’s Ten Commandments.

What is one method Satan uses to “deny” Christ?

2 Corinthians 11:3-4, 13-15 – Appear as “apostles of Christ” but preach a “different Jesus”

Does the Bible give us a way to identify the Antichrist power?

Review Daniel 2 to get a prophetic blueprint of history: Babylon --> Medo-Persia --> Greece --> Rome --> 10 Divisions of Rome -->> Kingdom of the Stone.

Now apply the principle of repetition and enlargement to Daniel’s next vision.

Prophecy Symbols:

Beasts – Kings/kingdoms (political powers). Daniel 7:17, 23
Horns/heads – Subdivisions of political powers. Daniel 7:24, 8:21-22
Wings – Speed or swiftness.
Winds – War/Strife. Jeremiah 49:35-37
Sea – Multitudes of people. Revelation 17:1, 15

Daniel 7:1-8 – Daniel’s vision of four beasts

The Lion - Babylon. Wings represent conquering speed. King Nebuchadnezzar.
The Bear - Medo-Persia. One shoulder raised above the other represents the dominance of the Medes over the Persians. The three ribs represent the three kingdoms overthrown by this kingdom - Egypt, Lydia, and Babylon. (Daniel 8:20)
The Leopard - Greece. Four wings representing great conquering speed. The four heads represent Alexander the Great’s four generals who ruled Greece after his death – Seleucus, Ptolemy, Lysimachus and Cassander. (Daniel 8:21-22)
The different beast - Rome. The ten horns - the divisions of Rome (Same as the toes of Chapter 2) The ten horns are the 10 divisions of the Roman Empire as it fell apart. These were the Anglo Saxons (England), Alemanni (Germany), Heruli (x493AD), Vandals (x534AD), Ostrogoths (x538AD), Visigoths (Spain), Suevi (Portugal), Lombard’s (Italy), Burgundians (Swiss) and the Franks (France).

What nine characteristics help us to identify the little horn power?

Location: out of the 4th beast and among the ten horns (v.8) - The Papacy arose out of Rome among the ten tribal divisions of Rome
Timing: after the ten were established (v.8) - the Papacy became a political power by decree of the Roman emperor Justinian in AD 538 which was after the emergence of the ten tribal divisions that emerged as the Roman Empire fell apart in AD 476.
Uprooted three of the ten horns (v.8) - As the Papacy came to prominence, it influenced Pagan Roman armies to destroy three of the tribes which opposed its Christian doctrines. These three were the Vandals, Ostrogoths, and Heruli. The last of these was destroyed in AD 538 when Justinian’s decree went into effect.
Eyes and mouth of a man (v.8) - the Papacy has a man as its visible head.
Persecutes the saints (v.21, 25) - Ever hear of the Papal persecution during the dark ages - Inquisition, etc. More than 50 million Protestant Christians tortured and killed by the Catholic Church.
Different than the other ten horns (v.24) - the Papacy was a religio-political entity different from the kingdoms before it.
Speak out against God (v.8, 11, 20, 25) - Verse 8 says it will utter boastful or blasphemous things. One quote of many like it from Prompta Bibliothea Canonica Juridicia Moralis Theologica appearing in the Catholic Encyclopedia Volume VI, pp. 25-29, “The Pope is of so great dignity, and so exalted, that he is not a mere man, but as it were, God and the Vicar of God. The Pope is, as it were, God on earth, chief king of kings, having plentitude of power.”
Little Horn attempts to change God’s times and laws (v.25) - The Papacy deleted the second commandment of the Decalogue on idolatry, changed the Sabbath to Sunday in favour of sun worship and divided the tenth commandment on coveting into two parts to get back to Ten Commandments.
Have power for a time, times, and half a time (or three and a half years, forty two months, or 1260 days - see Revelation 12:6, 14) (v.25) - Applying the prophetic day for a year principle established in Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6 that equals 1260 years. The Papacy lasted in primary power from AD 538 to 1798 in which year Napoleon’s general Berthier marched into Rome, deposed the Pope, and carried him into exile where he died.

How does Daniel’s vision compare with John’s vision in Revelation 13?

The table below also demonstrates how a lot of Bible prophecy can be understood by comparing Revelation with the Old Testament and the book of Daniel in particular. Again this is very important to understanding the Battle of Armageddon as the beast is Mystery Babylon who is the major player in this prophecy.

Antichrist Power - Daniel 7	Antichrist Power - Revelation 13
Four beasts from the Sea. vs.3	Four Beasts in one from sea. vs.1, 2
Lion. vs.4	Lion vs.2
Bear. vs.5	Bear. vs.2
Leopard. vs.6	Leopard. vs.2
Ten horned beast vs.7	Ten horned beast. vs.1
Mouth Speaking great things. vs.8	Mouth Speaking great things. vs.5
Makes war with the Saints. vs.21	Makes war with the Saints. vs.7
Power for 3.5 years = 42 Months. vs.25	Power for 42 Months. vs.5

The above similarities are not a coincidence. God deliberately concealed many things like this so that they would not be seen until the time of the end. This applies to most prophecies involving the book of Daniel.

Daniel 12:4 “But you, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.”

There has only been one power that has persecuted Christians for 1260 years and only one power had the privilege of taking out three of the ten kingdoms from the collapse of the Roman Empire. It can be no other than the Papacy on these two points alone, and as we have seen there are far more identifying points.

What was Satan’s original purpose?

Isaiah 14:12-14 “How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how are you cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations! 13 For you have said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”

Satan wanted to be worshipped as God but how could he achieve that goal when no Christian in their right mind would do this. When Satan (the Dragon) gave him (the Pope) his power, and his seat, and great authority, Satan achieved his goal and got the worship he wanted and on his day in favour of sun worship as this is what God hates and Satan knew it. The big issue is who we worship and what day we worship on. Do we give Satan our allegiance and worship on his day implemented by the Papacy, or do we place our allegiance where it should belong and worship on the day that God blessed and sanctified?

Revelation 13:2 “And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.”

What is Satan’s purpose now?

Revelation 12:12 “Therefore rejoice, you heavens, and you that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time.”

1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”

THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION

Towards the time of the end when the Bible hit the printing press, almost all the early Church fathers began to understand these prophecie s and in particular the one involving the antichrist beast power. Satan obviously does not want anyone understanding Bible Prophecy and especially who the beast power is as this would give Christians the upper hand in understanding 666 and the Mark of the Beast, the battle of Armageddon and other important issues. So naturally, Satan always has many counter lies coming against this truth.

The Protestant Reformation in the 1500’s literally changed the course of history. It helped move Europe out of the Dark Ages and led to the rise of true religious freedom. Its original principles eventually found expression in the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America which teaches that when it comes to religion, the governments of earth have no right to control the conscience.

True Protestantism teaches salvation by grace through faith in Jesus (Ephesians 2:8) and the supremacy of the Bible above the visible church, (2 Timothy 3:16) above traditions, pastors, priests, popes and kings. It also teaches the priesthood of all believers (2 Peter 2:9-10) and that all people everywhere can be saved by coming directly to our loving heavenly Father through His only Son, Jesus Christ (John 14:6). “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” 1 Timothy 2:5

What did the major Protestant Reformers teach about the Antichrist? The following quotations are not indented to foster ill will toward any human being, for this would be contrary to the teaching of Jesus Christ but truth is truth and that is all we can present here. Here are many comments presented by some of the most influential Christian leaders who have ever lived and what they believed about “the little horn” (Daniel 7:8), “the beast” (Revelation 13:1), and “the man of sin” (2 Thessalonians 2:3) and about Antichrist.

John Wesley (1703-1791) (Methodist): Speaking of the Papacy, John Wesley wrote, “He is in an emphatical sense, the Man of Sin, as he increases all manner of sin above measure. And he is, too, properly styled the Son of Perdition, as he has caused the death of numberless multitudes, both of his opposers and followers... He it is...that exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped...claiming the highest power, and highest honour...claiming the prerogatives which belong to God alone.” Antichrist and His Ten Kingdoms, by John Wesley, pg. 110.

Martin Luther (1483-1546) (Lutheran): “Luther ... proved, by the revelations of Daniel and St. John, by the epistles of St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. Jude, that the reign of Antichrist, predicted and described in the Bible, was the Papacy ... And all the people did say, Amen! A holy terror seized their souls. It was Antichrist whom they beheld seated on the pontifical throne. This new idea, which derived greater strength from the prophetic descriptions launched forth by Luther into the midst of his contemporaries, inflicted the most terrible blow on Rome.” Taken from J. H. Merle D'aubigne’s History of the Reformation of the Sixteen Century, book vi, chapter xii, p. 215. Based on prophetic studies, Martin Luther finally declared, “We here are of the conviction that the papacy is the seat of the true and real Antichrist.” (Aug. 18, 1520). Taken from The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, by LeRoy Froom. Vol. 2., pg. 121.

John Wycliffe: “When the western church was divided for about 40 years between two rival popes, one in Rome and the other in Avigon, France, each pope called the other pope antichrist - and John Wycliffe is reputed to have regarded them as both being right: “two halves of Antichrist, making up the perfect Man of Sin between them.” –Ibid

Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556) (Anglican): “Whereof it followeth Rome to be the seat of antichrist, and the pope to be very antichrist himself. I could prove the same by many other scriptures, old writers, and strong reasons.” (Referring to prophecies in Revelation and Daniel.) Works by Cranmer, Vol. 1, pp. 6-7.

John Calvin (1509-1564) (Presbyterian): “Some persons think us too severe and censorious when we call the Roman pontiff Antichrist. But those who are of this opinion do not consider that they bring the same charge of presumption against Paul himself, after whom we speak and whose language we adopt... I shall briefly show that (Paul’s words in II Thess. 2) are not capable of any other interpretation than that which applies them to the Papacy.” Taken from Institutes of the Christian Religion, by John Calvin.

John Knox (1505-1572) (Scotch Presbyterian): John Knox sought to counteract “that tyranny which the pope himself has for so many ages exercised over the church.” As with Luther, he finally concluded that the Papacy was “the very antichrist, and son of perdition, of whom Paul speaks.” The Zurich Letters, by John Knox, pg. 199.

Roger Williams (1603-1683) (First Baptist Pastor in America): Pastor Williams spoke of the Pope as “the pretended Vicar of Christ on earth, who sits as God over the Temple of God, exalting himself not only above all that is called God, but over the souls and consciences of all his vassals, yea over the Spirit of Christ, over the Holy Spirit, yea, and God himself...speaking against the God of heaven, thinking to change times and laws; but he is the son of perdition (II Thess. 2).” The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, by Froom, Vol. 3, pg. 52.

The Westminster Confession of Faith (1647): “There is no other head of the church but the Lord Jesus Christ. Nor can the pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof; but is that Antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition that exalteth himself in the church against Christ and all that is called God.” Taken from Philip Schaff’s, The Creeds of Christendom,With a History and Critical Notes, III, p. 658, 659, ch. 25, sec. 6.

Cotton Mather (1663-1728) (Congregational Theologian): “The oracles of God foretold the rising of an Antichrist in the Christian Church: and in the Pope of Rome, all the characteristics of that Antichrist are so marvelously answered that if any who read the Scriptures do not see it, there is a marvelous blindness upon them.” Taken from The Fall of Babylon by Cotton Mather in Froom’s book, The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, Vol. 3, pg. 113.

A Great Cloud of Witnesses: “Wycliffe, Tyndale, Luther, Calvin, Cranmer; in the seventeenth century, Bunyan, the translators of the King James Bible and the men who published the Westminster and Baptist confessions of Faith; Sir Isaac Newton, Wesley, Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards; and more recently Spurgeon, Bishop J.C. Ryle and Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones; these men among countless others, all saw the office of the Papacy as the antichrist.” Taken from All Roads Lead to Rome, by Michael de Semlyen. Dorchestor House Publications, p. 205. 1991.

Please consider the following question very carefully. Why have almost all these Churches forgotten what was known by their early Church fathers and all these other people who had no trouble in understanding what the Bible taught here? Have you given this some serious thought? There is only one answer.

Never underestimate the enemy!! He has sown more lies and deceptions into the Church today than one can imagine or what space we have to go into here. Don’t just assume because your Pastor does not teach it that it is not truth. It is this mentality that helps Satan keep his lies going. Pastors are still just people and suffer many of the same vulnerabilities as we do. Most Christians have not read their Bible from cover to cover and yet the best example we get is from the Borean Christians in the early Church. We should follow their lead so we can personally understand what the battle of Armageddon and the mark of the beast are truly about.

Acts 17:11 “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”

As you have just read, all those great people understood the antichrist power to be none other than the Papacy. This following comment is no reflection on all the wonderful people in the Catholic Church but truth is truth and the truth is the Papacy persecuted and murdered an estimated 70-100 million Christians they called heretics through the dark ages for reading the Bible and keeping God’s true day of worship etc, which is why the Protestant reformation began. As part of a counter reformation from the Papacy in what was called the Council of Trent, the Papacy commissioned some Jesuit Priests to manufacture false prophecy that would take the attention off them being the antichrist beast power. The purpose of this Counter Reformation was to point the attention to someone before their time or in the distant future. Some call this the great Catholic diversion but is more commonly known just as the Counter Reformation.

THE COUNTER REFORMATION

With the arrival of the printing press in the 15th century and the resulting explosion of Bibles accessible in the common language from Protestant sources, it became readily apparent to those who could now study the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation in particular, that Bible prophecy identified by symbols a persecuting apostate entity generally known as antichrist.

In this the “Historical” interpretation, the antichrist was clearly not merely a single individual, it was a system of apostasy and persecution that would hold control for over twelve centuries. The inevitable conclusion of those who studied these prophecies in scripture, before and during the Protestant Reformation, was that there was only one entity that fit all the above characteristics: the papal dynasty of the Roman Catholic Church. Is it any wonder that the Catholic Church was so violently opposed to the scriptures being available for everyone to read for themselves? There was such a stir created during the reformation that the Fifth Lateran Council (1512-17 A.D.) resorted to strictly forbidding anyone to publish a book without prior censorship, and also prohibited anyone from preaching on the subject of antichrist. The intent of both Futurism and Preterism was to be diversionary, to counter or offset the Protestant Historical interpretation, and present alternatives, no matter how implausible they might be.

The result is evident from the following chart, which illustrates the three schools of interpretation regarding antichrist. Ribera’s futurism puts the antichrist into a future three and one-half literal years. Alcazar’s preterism identifies the antichrist as Nero. Both of them put antichrist outside the middle Ages and the reformation period, identified by Protestant Historicists as antichrist’s reign of 1260 prophetic years.

Now the truly amazing part of all this is that the Futurist theory dominates Protestant teaching today. About all you hear or read about today is the yet to appear antichrist, who will be unveiled in the last 3 1/2 years of Daniel’s 70th week, when he declares himself to be God in a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem. That scenario, as you can now see, is directly traceable back to the pen of the Jesuit Francisco Ribera who manufactured this theory for the sole purpose of diverting attention from the papacy. Note what one Protestant writer had to say over one hundred years ago:

“Accordingly, towards the close of the century of the Reformation, two of her most learned doctors set themselves to the task, each endeavouring by different means to accomplish the same end, namely, that of diverting men’s minds from perceiving the fulfilment of the prophecies of the Antichrist in the Papal system. The Jesuit Alcasar devoted himself to bring into prominence the Preterist method of interpretation, which we have already briefly noticed, and thus endeavouring to show that the prophecies of Antichrist were fulfilled before the Popes ever ruled in Rome, and therefore could not apply to the Papacy. On the other hand the Jesuit Ribera tried to set aside the application of these prophecies to the Papal Power by bringing out the Futurist system, which asserts that these prophecies refer properly not to the career of the Papacy, but to that of some future supernatural individual, who is yet to appear, and to continue in power for three and a half years. Thus, as Alford says, the Jesuit Ribera, about A.D. 1580, may be regarded as the Founder of the Futurist system in modern times.”

“It is a matter for deep regret that those who hold and advocate the Futurist system at the present day, Protestants as they are for the most part, are thus really playing into the hands of Rome, and helping to screen the Papacy from detection as the Antichrist. It has been well said that ‘Futurism tends to obliterate the brand put by the Holy Spirit upon Popery.’ More especially is this to be deplored at a time when the Papal Antichrist seems to be making an expiring effort to regain his former hold on men’s minds.”

From Daniel and the Revelation: The Chart of Prophecy and Our Place In It, A Study of the Historical and Futurist Interpretation, by Joseph Tanner, published in London by Hodder and Stoughton, 1898, pages 16,17.

In what could only be described as a stunning reversal, Protestants have over time actually become the papacy’s greatest ally by spreading its Jesuit spawned propaganda. What irony that Protestants, who originally broke away from what they clearly recognized to be the harlot antichrist led church of prophecy, now champion the Futurist interpretation from high profile ministries. Futurism has without doubt, been successful beyond the wildest dreams of its Jesuit authors. The same applies to the Preterist interpretation of Luis De Alcazar, although to a lesser degree.

Most of you have probably heard of a supposed seven year tribulation period and a secret rapture. It should totally shock you to know that there is no scripture that specifically mentions seven years of tribulation! It simply does not exist. Previously I told you that some of the things I would share with you would shell shock you and this is one of them. This was part of the Counter Reformation from the Papacy and was manufactured by the Jesuit Francisco Ribera who was responsible for the futurist view just explained above. For more information, read “Secret Rapture”

Check everything you are told with the Bible and where relevant with history. Do not use biased Christian sources. They must be unprejudiced, unbiased historical sources or Satan will still succeed in leading you from truth. For example, Satan has many counter deceptions out there to come against truth including the lie that the Ten Horns of the beast of Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 are ten consecutive kings. This is all it would take to throw you from the real truth of these Bible passages. The Ten horns are ten kings and this is Bible truth as we have already seen and is unmistakably clear from the scripture below.

Daniel 7:24 “The ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another king will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three kings.”

But as for them being ten consecutive kings, this is just not possible.

Daniel 7:8 “While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them; and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth that spoke boastfully.”

You will note that the verse says, “a little one, which came up among them”. In order for another kingdom to come up AMONG them, they all have to exist at the same time. This matches history perfectly. Again as we have already seen, the Papacy uprooted the Vandals, Heruli and the Ostrogoths as they opposed them from coming into full power. None of these kingdoms or equivalents exists now today as a result.

For more detailed information you can read “666 and the Mark of the beast” or the “mark of the beast” for the origins of 666. Do not read these sites unless you are a Christian that wants to know truth at any cost. Daniel 7:25 also tells us that the Papacy would think to change God’s times and laws which as we have seen they did and freely admit and history proves this also. They have their own version of the Ten Commandments where the 2nd Commandment has been deleted and they changed God’s Sabbath to Sunday in honour of sun worship unknown to so many Christians today. You find the evidence of sun worship all over the place in the Papacy like the picture shown here. Why is this unknown to so many Christians? Again, Satan was created a very wise and powerful angel and he has been around for thousands of years. Does anyone think that he just might be capable of doing a good job at deceiving? The truth is never, ever easy to see. Some say that, “the truth is not always popular and what is popular is not always truth.”

“A lie can travel halfway around the world, while truth puts on its shoes.” -- Mark Twain (1835-1910)

A lot of Bible Prophecy revolves around God’s Commandments as breaking them is sin and this sin is what God hates and is detestable to Him. 1 John 5:3 “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.” God loves the sinner but He hates the sin. It is the battle between what is from God which is good and love and obedience versus what is from Satan which is evil and sin and disobedience. When you mention the Sabbath to many Christians you receive a multitude of different reasons as to why God made nine Commandments that are obviously eternal but apparently made a huge mistake as He added one that was apparently not a Commandment of love or eternal. Did God really foul up here? If you really love God with all your heart and want the answer to the real truth, on careful study of history and the Bible, you will find the answer to this question is No. God has more wisdom than everyone on Earth put together and did not make nine eternal love Commandments and one that was not. Would you do that? I certainly wouldn’t and I am no match for God’s wisdom. If you can accept this fact then you will understand a lot more on what so much Bible Prophecy is all about. If you are a Christian that says, “If this is so, then I want to know”, you can find the Sabbath truth on “Sabbath and Antichrist truth Revealed”

If you are a Christian that says, “it was done away with or the day was changed”, you will miss out on many of God’s blessings and knowledge of Bible Prophecy truth and so don’t bother reading the above web site. I pray that through the history and Bible facts presented here that the victory Satan has achieved through the Papacy can be seen and you will reconsider what it is you are rejecting and who is getting the glory.

We will eventually make the connection with the Battle of Armageddon and what the Bible calls “Mystery Babylon” or spiritual Babylon which is the Papacy and all the false religions that have come from her.

The rebuilt Jewish Temple - Fact or Fiction

Many of you will have noted in the comments made by our early Church fathers and the translators of the KJV Bible that the man of sin referred to in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 is none other than the Pope.

2 Thessalonians 2:4 “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.”

It is from this verse that the conclusion comes that the Jewish temple must be rebuilt so that the antichrist can sit in the temple of God. Well here comes some more of that shell shocking truth I spoke of. This was more of Jesuit Francisco Ribera’s false manufactured prophecy to make us think that the antichrist power was some individual at the end of time. The fact that this was manufactured as part of the Papacy’s Counter Reformation and that all the early Church fathers knew this was referring to the Pope should be enough, but I will touch on it lightly. Again, large percentages of the Christian populous believe this perpetuated lie.

The Pope claims to be God on Earth and puts himself in place of Christ which matches the definition of antichrist; against or in place of. Here are some quotes from the Roman Catholic Church.

“The Pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, but he is Jesus Christ, Himself, hidden under the veil of human flesh.” – Catholic National, July 1895

“We hold upon this earth the place of God almighty.” – Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter, June 20, 1894.

“The pope has power to change times, abrogate laws, and dispense with all things, even the precepts of Christ.” – Decretal De Translat. Espiscop. Cap.

“The authority of the Church could therefore not be bound to the authority of the Scriptures, because the Church had changed…the Sabbath to Sunday, not by command of Christ, but by its own authority.” – Cannon and Tradition, p.263

“The church may by divine right confiscate the property of heretics, imprison their person, and condemn them to flames. In our age, the right to inflict the severest penalties, even death, belongs to the church. There is no graver offense than heresy, therefore it must be rooted out.” – Public Eccliastical, Vol. 2, p.142.

The Greek word Paul used for temple in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 is “nah-os”. Here are some other scriptures that use this same Greek word.

1 Corinthians 3:16 “Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”

We are the temple of God now. That is the Church. Here is another couple using the same Greek word;

1 Corinthians 6:19 “What? know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own?”

Matthew 26:61 “And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.”

Jesus is obviously not talking about an earthly temple in the above verse. There are many others but this should be enough to see what Paul was talking about here. Paul is a Christian Jew and knows that the temple is now the Church and if Paul were to call a rebuilt temple “the temple of God” then he would be denying what Jesus did on the cross. Paul would never call a rebuilt temple the “temple of God” because it would not be God's temple! In the next verse you will see that Jesus calls the temple of God His house or His temple.

Matthew 21:13 “And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves.”

But note now in the following verse Jesus said, Matthew 23:38 “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.”

But soon it will be their house, i.e. no longer God's temple. Why?

Matthew 27:51 “And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;”

Jesus ended the temple sacrifices when he became the one and final perfect sacrifice. It is no longer God's temple as Jesus said in the verse above and Paul would never ever call it that either because he obviously knows it is no longer God's temple. We are the temple of God now! If Paul called it God's temple he would be saying to God that Jesus never did the job on the cross and that further sacrifices are needed.

The Pope will be seated [sitteth] in a position of power in the Church “showing himself that he is God.” Remember the Pope claims to be God on earth now. All the early Church fathers and Protestants knew this and were not deceived by Ribera’s manufactured writings because they knew who he was. Yet another truth that Satan has slowly drawn from the Church over the centuries. That is how he does it, slowly and subtly.

Now moving closer to the issue of the Battle of Armageddon. First a few more points and symbols. A woman in Bible Prophecy represents a Church and the colour blue represents God’s Ten Commandment law.

Numbers 15:38-39 “Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: 39 And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that you may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that you seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you use to go a whoring:”

The colours of the garments that the priests were to wear had the colours gold, blue, purple and scarlet. It is important to make note that the colour blue represents God’s law and that the Papacy thought to change God’s law. Note in the picture here that the robes of the Catholic Priests are missing the colour blue.

Exodus 28:3-6 “And you shall speak unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron's garments to consecrate him, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office. 4 And these are the garments which they shall make; a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a broidered coat, a mitre, and a girdle: and they shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, and his sons, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office. 5 And they shall take gold, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen. 6 And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and of purple, of scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cunning work.”

In the following vision of John’s we are shown the judgment that must come upon the mother of all Churches, Mystery Babylon or spiritual Babylon. The judgement is because she thought to change God’s law and has the blood of millions of Christians the Papacy called heretics on her hands. You will note many of the same identifying marks as the beast described in Revelation 13:1 being Papal Rome. Having seen the criteria now for the antichrist power, the passage below should make perfect sense. Since a woman in Bible Prophecy represents a Church and a beast a kingdom, what we symbolically have below is a woman riding and in control of a beast. This literally would be a Church in control of a kingdom or more specifically, a Church in control of state as was the Roman Catholic Church for 1260 dark years. This is why America had in their constitution that Church should remain separate from state so that such a dreadful thing as those 1260 years of Papal persecution could not happen again, but unfortunately the Bible tells us it will happen again with the Mark of the Beast issue. Note that the woman riding the beast, like the Catholic Priest robes, is missing the colour blue. Here is a Church in control of state that has forgotten the Commandments of God and any wonder when the dragon (Satan) gave her the power and great authority. You don’t think Satan wants us obeying God’s Commandments do you? This all revolves around who we worship and more specifically God’s law which defines what sin is. The Papacy is especially famous for changing God’s Sabbath and they say that it is a MARK of their authority that they could do this and have the whole protestant world follow her.

Revelation 17:1-6 “And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto you the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: 2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. 3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: 5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. 6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.”

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible Albert Barnes (1798-1870) quotes the following:
“Rev 17:2 - With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication - Spiritual adultery. The meaning is, that papal Rome, unfaithful to God, and idolatrous and corrupt, had seduced the rulers of the earth, and led them into the same kind of unfaithfulness, idolatry, and corruption. … How true this is in history need not be stated. All the princes and kings of Europe in the dark ages, and for many centuries were, and not a few of them are now, entirely under the influence of papal Rome.

And the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication - The alluring cup which, as an harlot, she had extended to them. See this image explained in the notes on Rev 14:8. There it is said that Babylon - referring to the same thing - had “made them drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication”; that is, of the cup that led to wrath or punishment. Here it is said that the harlot had made them “drunk with the wine of her fornication”; that is, they had been, as it were, intoxicated by the alluring cup held out to them. What could better describe the influence of Rome on the people of the world, in making them, under these delusions, incapable of sober judgment, and in completely fascinating and controlling all their powers?”

- The Battle Of Armageddon conclusion.

THE REMNANT CHURCH

Is it one Church or many groups?

Who is the Remnant Church?

Which Christian Church is the right one?

The book of Revelation speaks of the end times and the true people of God, a Remnant Church which Satan will make war against. Satan will come against the remnant Church with everything and anyone he can use. Revelation 12:17 “And the dragon [Satan] was wroth with the woman [Church], and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the Commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” It grieves me to say that Satan has used even Christians to do this and has been so successful over the centuries that we find that what is popular is not always truth and what is truth is not always popular.

Revelation also speaks of the reward awaiting the remnant Church. Revelation 2:7 “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” This verse tells us clearly that if we are around at the end of time, then if we want to be saved, we must be part of this remnant Church. The questions then are, what is a remnant, how do you become part of it, how do we identify who is the remnant Church or which Churches are part of the remnant Church if it is not just one particular denomination?

What is a remnant?

A remnant is a small piece of something left over from the original. It is identical to the original, but in a smaller proportion. When someone is sewing and makes clothes out of a large piece of cloth, the small left over material is called the remnant.

When the Bible speaks of the remnant Church, it likewise is referring to a small proportion of God’s people at the end of time who have clung to the unadulterated belief system, faith and doctrines of the early Christian Church. This Church will be comprised of people who have not have allowed pagan ideas, days or idols to have been introduced into their belief system as it has unbeknown to many Churches.

Is this remnant Church many groups?

Perhaps the best place to start to define what the remnant is, would be to look at the original Church of Acts while the faith was still pure and untainted, then compare it with the Churches and doctrines that we see today, and then find a contemporary Church or group of believers who most closely resemble the early believers of the original Church in their actions, beliefs and lifestyles.

The birth of the Christian Church.

During His lifetime Jesus had many faithful followers. After His resurrection we read of the account where 120 of His followers were meeting together in the upper room, joined in one accord in prayer.

Acts 2:1-6

“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. 5 And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. 6 Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.”

That day over 3000 Jews believed in Jesus as the Messiah, and were added to the faith, and thus began the Christian Church. Peter spoke to the crowd present there that day and what he said related to not only the very beginning of the Church, but also described the remnant Church that would be there at the very end of time, just before Jesus returned. He said,

Acts 2:16-21

“But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; 17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: 18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: 19 And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: 20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: 21 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

We are then told about some of the attributes and actions of the early Church. Acts 2:42-47 “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43 And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. 44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common; 45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. 46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, 47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved.”

The Bible also describes the outward changes that had occurred to the apostles. Once they were baptized with the Holy Spirit they were given boldness to proclaim that Jesus was the Christ. Acts 4:13 “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.”

Acts 4:24-35

“And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: 25 Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? 26 The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. 27 For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, 28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. 29 And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, 30 By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus. 31 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. 32 And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. 33 And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. 34 Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, 35 And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.”

What do these verses tell us about the early Church? It shows that they were a Holy Spirit driven people. They were on fire for God. Many miraculous healings were done as a sign to the people that these men were empowered by the true God, the creator of Heaven and Earth, but the most important attribute they had, was that they were following the great commission that Jesus gave them, to go into all the world and preach the gospel of Christ. They were a mission driven Church, whose priority was to reach as many people as possible with the saving message of Jesus. They were also generous stewards, making sure that no one in their midst was left in need. They worked as a team, caring and nurturing each other as they all went forward with one accord. This early Church believed in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit which the Bible calls the Godhead but is called the trinity by many. The word trinity is not found in the Bible but is still technically correct. They fellowshipped with each other, breaking bread daily and worshipped in the synagogues each seventh day Sabbath staying faithful to the fourth Commandment of God to ‘Remember the Sabbath.’

In the early Church we saw the transition spoken of by Jesus, of those ordained to be called God’s chosen people. Whereas the Jews had previously been given the privilege of being God’s representative nation on earth, many of them failed in their duty of recognizing the Messiah whom God sent to them. Even though the coming of Jesus was spelt out in so many Old Testament scriptures and prophecies, the majority of the Jewish nation, and specifically the Jewish leaders, rejected Jesus as their Lord and Saviour and hence lost the right to be called God’s chosen people. Instead this privilege was given to anyone who chose to follow Jesus.

This next scripture shows clearly that of all the children of Israel only a remnant would be true to God and be saved. Only those who chose to follow God and His son, when Israel as a nation officially rejected Him, just before the stoning of Stephan, retained the right to be called God’s people.

Romans 9:26-27 “And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, You are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God. 27 Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:”

Jesus had prophesied about this transition. At the beginning of His ministry Jesus had referred to the temple as ‘My fathers house’, but just before His death He spoke of it as their (the Jews) house, which would be left desolate. Mathew 23:37-39 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! 38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. 39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

Jesus also made it clear that the kingdom would be given to those who demonstrated the true fruits of the Spirit and believed in Him. Matthew 21:42-46 “Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? 43 Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. 44 And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. 45 And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them. 46 But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet.” Daniel’s Prophecy of weeks explains how and when this occurred.

In his letter to the Roman Church Paul further clarified this transition. Romans 9:6-9 “Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: 7 Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. 8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. 9 For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son.” The children of the promise were now those who believed in, and relied upon Jesus as their Saviour and redeemer.

This was made even clearer again in his letter to the Galatian Church. Galatians 3:26-29 “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

Paul sheds more light with this verse also. Romans 2:28-29 “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.”

Acts 28:28 “Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.”

Just as only a remnant of the Jewish nation accepted Christ and became part of the true early Church, this same theme is prophesied to occur at the end of time. Even though there will be a vast number of people who profess to be God’s people (Christians), only a remnant – the ones who truly love God and obey His Commandments in the way He ordained, will be saved. Only those who have not let their belief system be influenced and adulterated by the pollution of pagan beliefs will find their place to eat from the tree of life.

God will call His people out of Babylon

At the end of time God will call His faithful people out of Babylon (the apostate Christian Churches) and into His remnant Church. Revelation 18:4 “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” This shows us clearly that at the present time there are many of God’s true people in the wrong Churches, due to ignorance, which God will illuminate with the truth and draw out in the last days. Specifically Babylon refers to an apostate (non-Biblically based) system, which does not follow all the Commandments of God. Sin is the transgression of the law, and Churches who teach that only eight or nine of the Commandments are relevant are teaching their children to sin. One Christian denomination removed the second Commandment relating to idol worship from their official list of the Commandments, and changed the fourth Commandment to Sunday in favour of the pagan Sun worship day. God commanded that His special Holy day of worship should be the seventh day, which is a SIGN that it is God we worship and in honour of His wondrous works of creating the world in six days. This Christian denomination claims that their authority overrides that of the scriptures and promotes the fact that they changed the Sabbath to Sunday and all the other Churches followed their decree as proof of their power. Many other denominations, which stemmed from protestant revolt against this apostate Church in the dark ages, claim to use the scriptures as their only source of doctrine but still omit to fulfil this belief, as they do not uphold God’s original Holy day of worship, but continue on keeping only nine of the Commandments. Sunday keeping has become such a tradition, that the people in many Churches have blinkers on and are ignorant of the fact that they are breaking one of God’s Holy laws. Bible prophecy tells us that at the end of time, God will shine forth the truth of His word and His Commandments to these Churches and those who love Him enough to keep His Commandments in the way He ordained, will be drawn out of these apostate systems and become part of the remnant Church, the true chosen people of God. Revelation describes the two opposing sides at the end, Babylon (the apostate Church) or in other passages referred to as a harlot woman riding a beast, and the true or remnant Church which is depicted as a woman in white. Those in Babylon get the mark of the beast and those in the remnant get the seal of God. There are no other categories, at the end of time everyone on the whole earth will be in one group or the other, which is why it is so important to find out how to become part of the remnant Church and avoid the wrath of God.

Will the remnant Church be persecuted?

The early Church faced much opposition and persecution. 1 Thessalonians 2:13-16 “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. 14 For ye, brethren, became followers of the Churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: 15 Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: 16 Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.”

Revelation shows that the remnant Church will also be persecuted, ostracized and killed for holding firm to their belief in their heavenly father as being the creator of heaven and earth and for obeying His Commandments. Revelation 12:17 “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the Commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Revelation 14:12 “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the Commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Revelation 20:14 “Blessed are they that do his Commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”

Revelation also speaks of those who will endure through the persecutions, standing steadfast in their faith and not bowing down to the pressures, torture and some even unto death. Revelation 20:4 “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” Revelation 2:7 “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”

John had previously written advice on how to overcome the world, and it ties in neatly with Revelation. 1 John 5:3-9 “For this is the love of God, that we keep his Commandments: and his Commandments are not grievous. 4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? 6 This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. 7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. 8 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. 9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.” This plainly demonstrates that obeying God’s Commandments and having faith in Jesus as our redeemer, with the knowledge and assurance that He has given us eternal life through His great sacrifice is what will give us the strength to endure through the terrible time of persecution.

What are the characteristics of God’s remnant people?

It is clear from the verses in 1 John and Revelation that the remnant people will be obeying all of the Ten Commandments, just as the early Church did. This includes keeping the seventh day Holy as God ordained, and not the first day which is a man-made tradition. No man or Church has the authority to tamper with and change God’s law, and Jesus made it abundantly clear that not ‘one jot or tittle’ (equivalent to the dotting of an “i” or the crossing of a “t”) would in any way pass from the law. Matthew 5:18 “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”

Paul spoke clearly about the type of lifestyle that Christians should be living, fleeing unrighteousness, or in other words obeying the Ten Commandments. He also spoke of how we should look after our earthly bodies, because they are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Paul himself would have followed all of the health laws in relation to clean and unclean (healthy and unhealthy) foods which God had given to Moses for the benefit of mankind.

1 Corinthians 6:9-20

“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. 12 All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. 13 Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. 14 And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power. 15 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. 16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. 17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. 18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”

Revelation tells us that in the end times there will be again a huge outpouring of the Holy Spirit and our ‘sons and daughters’ will prophecy. The message of the gospel will be taken to all the world. Revelation specifically speaks of three Angel’s messages that will be announced to the entire planet. Angels symbolise messengers and in fact the Greek word αγγελος (angelos) translates to both angel and messenger. These messages read as follows:

Revelation 14:6-12

“And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, 7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

8 And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, 10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: 11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. 12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the Commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”

There is obviously not going to be three literal angels flying around the skies proclaiming these messages in the end time so it must be surmised that this is going to be done by God’s end time remnant Church. This might or might not be so, but in either case this could be one distinguishing factor in identifying the remnant Church. It has been found that there is one denomination who is active in proclaiming and teaching these messages and has a Satellite TV channel called 3 Angels Broadcasting Network and seems to be teaching solid Biblical doctrine with no pagan influence. This may be part of a fulfilment of prophecy.

If these messages are to be given by God’s remnant Church, then they would also need to have a complete understanding of what the prophetic meaning of Babylon, beasts, the mark of the beast and the other prophetic symbols used in Revelation and Daniel mean. It would have to also interpret Bible prophecy according to the scriptures method of interpretation Isaiah 28:10 “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:” which is to use the Bible to interpret itself by lining up all of the prophecies which speak of the same things and putting all the jigsaw pieces together to get the complete interpretation, and not by giving private interpretations. 2 Peter 1:20 “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.” Many Churches have private interpretations of prophecy but this is not needed or allowed. Where does it say that the Mark of the Beast will be a computer chip? It doesn’t. This is a private interpretation. The Church who actively preaches the three angels messages must understand and preach who the beast is, and what their mark is. Select for more information on 666 and the mark of the beast or mark of the beast for the origin of 666 also.

The prophecies of Daniel foretell that at the end of time extra light (understanding of prophecies) will be given. Daniel 12:4 “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” This clearly shows that another characteristic of the remnant is that they have a good understanding of Bible prophecy.

What is the Testimony of Jesus?

Revelation shows us that the remnant Church will follow the Ten Commandments and have the testimony of Jesus. What does this mean?

It needs to be noted that this says the testimony of Jesus and not the testimony about Jesus. Therefore it is speaking of the words of Jesus and not what people have spoken about Him.

Jesus tells us clearly that He was sent to earth by God. John 8:42 “Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.” He also made it apparent that He was obeying God’s will John 6:38 “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” and that in the hierarchy of the Trinity He was beneath and subordinate to God the Father. John 13:16 “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.” He reiterated again that God the Father was greater than Jesus the son. John 14:28 “Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.”

Also the Bible shows us that the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy, which fits perfectly because a prophet is one who speaks on behalf of God, and everything that Jesus spoke revealed His Father to us. Revelation 19:10 “And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Jesus told us that He was speaking the words that the Father gave Him to speak. John 12:50 “And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.”

What did Jesus come to tell us?

Jesus came to tell us about the road to salvation. John 3:5-7 “Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”

He came to show us that He was the only way (gate) to the Father. John 3:14-17 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

Jesus also told us that He had not come to destroy the law of God, but rather to show us the perfect example of how to keep it, and not only that, but to also magnify it. Matthew 5:17-19 “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. 19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least Commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

The Old Testament always informs us through the prophets what changes are coming in the future and the following scripture gives us confirmation of this. Amos 3:7 “Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” So what did the prophets say would be done in regards to the Ten Commandments? It was prophesied that Jesus would Magnify the law and make it Honourable. This is certainly quite to the contrary that some are teaching today in that the law has ended. Isaiah 42:21 “The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable.”

He then went on to give examples of how the law would be magnified according to Isaiah 42:21. Matthew 5:21-22 “You have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: 22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.”

This shows plainly that Jesus intended that all who followed Him would keep all of the Ten Commandments of God, which again fits perfectly with the verses in Revelation that show that the remnant Church will follow the Commandments and have the testimony of Jesus.

Jesus also showed us that it is not what we say, but rather what we do, our fruits, that matter, because if we really love and honour Him we will be obedient to Him. Matthew 7:21-23 “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” These are sobering verses, because Jesus is talking about Christians. Some will proclaim Him as their Lord, and even claim to do miracles in His name, but because they don’t love Him enough to obey Him and follow His Commandments, they will not be saved.

The remnant Church will not only believe wholeheartedly in the truths of the words that Jesus spoke, but will also be endowed with members who will also prophesy and speak for God. Acts 2:17 “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:”

In Old Testament times we see many examples of where God sent a prophet to His people to try to get them back on track just before a major event. Noah prophesied for 120 years before God sent the flood. Jonah prophesied to Nineveh, which successfully turned their hearts back to God and prevented their eminent destruction. John the Baptist prophesied in the wilderness about the coming Messiah and at the end of time the remnant Church will prophesy to all the world in an effort to get people back on track in preparation for the second coming of Jesus.

Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away.” The testimony of Jesus Christ is the words that he spoke and the message He gave us from the Father that will always exist to guide His people to eternal life.

What other doctrines will the remnant follow?

Just as the early Church based their doctrines solely on the Word of God and the teachings of Jesus, so too will the remnant Church rely upon these sources to test all doctrine against, to make sure it is correct.

Many Christians are oblivious to the fact that some of the belief system in modern Christian Churches actually stems from pagan traditions and beliefs rather than from the Word of God. Following are some examples of what the original Christian Church knew to be correct from their understanding of the Old Testament and from the teachings of Jesus. Many of these truths have been lost in modern Churches, but when God calls His people out of Babylon (apostasy) they will again grasp hold of these lost truths and follow God’s Word earnestly.

1. The early believers knew that when they died, they would sleep until the resurrection to life at the second coming of Jesus.

The idea that when we die people go either straight to heaven or straight to Hell is not biblically founded. Take note of what Jesus said about his friend Lazarus who had died? John 11:11-14 “These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.”

Jesus clearly demonstrated that the dead sleep. If Lazarus had gone straight to heaven Jesus would have told the disciples that he was in heaven with the Father. After Jesus raised Lazarus, nobody asked Lazarus “What was it like in heaven? Tell us about it.” No one needed to, because it was the common belief of the day that when someone died they slept until the resurrection at the last day.

This is illustrated in the Old Testament in Psalms where we are told that when we die our thoughts perish Psalms 146:4 “His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.”

Job also made it clear that we return to dust and are no more until the resurrection Job 7:21 “And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity? for now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be.”

The scriptures also show that we will not rise again until Jesus returns when (the heavens are no more) Job 14:12 “So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.”

Paul reinforced and clarified that this was his understanding 1 Thessalonians 4:16 “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.”

The common misconception of many Christians today is that when they die they go directly to heaven, even though the Day of Judgment has not even occurred yet. They visualize the dead Christians in heaven with the angels praising God, but the Bible makes it clear that the dead cannot praise God, their thoughts have perished and they are asleep. Psalms 115:17 “The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence.”

It is clear that the Bible writers all understood that the state of the dead is like being asleep only to be awakened seemingly the moment after they closed their eyes at the final trumpet when Jesus returns on the day of redemption. 1 Corinthians 15:52 “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”

Job made it clear that we return to dust and are no more until the resurrection Job 7:21 “And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity? for now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be.”

Some disregard all the other scriptures showing the state of the dead in favour of a mispunctuated verse. When Jesus was dying on the cross the crucified thief right next to Him said, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” The interpretation of Jesus’ response depends upon where you place a tiny particle called a comma. The fact is, commas are not inspired, but were added over a thousand years later, along with chapters and verses. Did Jesus Christ say, “I say to you, to day you will be with Me in paradise” or, “I say to you today, you will be with Me in paradise” Firstly, Jesus didn’t go to Paradise that day. He went to the tomb. Also, crucifixion is very cruel and it normally takes several days to die and so the thief did not die that day which is why they broke his legs. When they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Right after His resurrection on Sunday morning, Jesus said to Mary, “I have not yet ascended to My Father.” John 20:17. Thus on Sunday, Jesus had not yet ascended to Paradise. Paradise is in heaven where God and the tree of life are. Jesus would not contradict Himself or the rest of the Bible. He said previously that believers go to Heaven “on the last day” when He “comes again.”

The remnant Church will have this Bible truth revealed to them, and will choose to believe the Word of God, over the ‘traditional teachings’ of modern Churches. Select for more detailed information on what happens when we die.

2. Hell-fire is an event and not a place. The Bible writers believed that the wicked would be raised at the second resurrection, also known as the resurrection to damnation, which occurs 1000 years after the resurrection to life (at the second coming). They believed that the wicked would receive their judgment and then be destroyed by hellfire.

Many Christians today believe that this Hell Fire will last forever and that the wicked will be eternally tormented in pain and anguish, but this is not what the early believers knew to be the case.

There have been some misunderstood verses which have led people to this conclusion, so the only way to determine the correct meaning is to check all the relevant verses and line up the fence posts. The Bible does not contradict itself, so if the verses don’t all seem to be in agreement, then we must look to see what the majority say clearly, to check which ones we have misunderstood.

Jesus said Matthew 25:41 “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:” He also said John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” One verse seems to be saying that the wicked will live forever in everlasting fire and yet the other verse tells us that only those who belong to Jesus will get everlasting life. If only the true followers live forever then this means that wicked will perish.

The logical conclusion then is that the everlasting fire is not actually fire that is burning forever, but rather fire which consumes with everlasting consequences. It can also be called unquenched fire, which means it will be allowed to burn until it is all burnt out.

There are over 50 other places in the Bible where it uses the word forever, but the event mentioned has finished. Just as today we often loosely use the word forever, such as “It took forever to get out of the shop” or “that lecture went on forever”, these similar types of expressions were also used in the Bible for events that lasted a long time, but not actually eternally and also for events that had everlasting consequences. For example the Bible describes the fire that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah as eternal fire. Jude 1:7 “Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” This fire is not still burning today. It had eternal consequences as the cities were forever destroyed and the fire was not extinguished or quenched by anyone. This fire was allowed to burn until it had consumed everything away and then it went out.

This is the same type of fire that “death and hell” (the Greek word used here for hell translates literally into ‘grave’) will be thrown into and the same type of Fire from Heaven that will consume the wicked after the judgment. The duration of their suffering will depend on their sentence. They will be either consumed quickly with little pain, or else have to suffer longer for more severe sins. The Bible clearly shows that they will not live forever burning in Hell, because we are told that they will be as ashes under our feet. Malachi 4:3 “And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.”

Many Christians think that Satan will be thrown into eternally burning hell fire and life forever and ever, but the Bible shows that he too will be consumed and will be no more. Ezekiel 28:18-19 “Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.”

Yet another fence post to line up is this. Malachi 4:1 “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.”

Our awesome and loving God who abounds in mercy is not going to torture and torment the wicked forever and ever in the agony of an eternally burning Hell. He will deal justly with them and they will perish for their sins. For the Wages of Sin is death (not eternal life in torment).

The ideas of a devil in a red suit with a pitchfork in the fiery bowels of the earth who will torment people for all time, again stemmed out of some ancient pagan myths, and not from the Holy Word of God. Also logically, if the devil where to live forever tormenting the wicked in hell, what sort of punishment would that be for him? He would enjoy seeing the wicked suffer.

The early Church understood that the wicked would perish, and so shall the remnant Church also be given this understanding. This is a very difficult subject so for more detailed information on this very hot topic, select the truth about hell fire.

3. As already discussed the Bible makes it crystal clear that the remnant people will be following all of the Ten Commandments, which includes keeping the Biblical seventh day Sabbath Holy as all of God’s people in the Old Testament, and Jesus and all of His disciples did. See the Sabbath day or God’s Sabbath Truth for detailed information. See also how the Sabbath was changed to Sunday through paganism and the Papal Church.

4. The Bible writer Luke makes it clear to us that He knew the Biblical timeline which went back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. When quoting the genealogy of Jesus, Luke cited the names of all of the forefathers of Jesus, going all the way back to Adam. Luke 3:23-38

This uninterrupted genealogy represents approximately 4000 years, allowing for the average age of each generation. We also know that Jesus and the early Church believed in the six day creation of the world, and God put in place the seventh day Sabbath as an eternal reminder of this. It is safe to say then that no one in the early Church had any trouble in believing that their world was about 4000 years old. No one doubted the ability of our awesome creator God to create our world in six days.

It is a sad fact today that many Christians prefer to believe the doctored claims of scientists, who use fallible scientific formulas, relying on factors being constants, which other scientists have proved are variables to carbon date objects to millions of years, rather than believing in God’s Word as being true and accurate. The theory of evolution is just a ‘theory’ and yet even many Christians give more credence to it than they do to the Bible account of creation. Scientists are at a loss to explain away the many co-dependent relationships in nature, such as the Vanilla orchid, which is germinated by a specific bee that instinctively removes a little cap from within the inside of the flower to allow germination. When explorers took the plant overseas, it always died off, as no other insect knew how to germinate it. Evolutionists cannot explain away how this flower could have existed for hundreds or thousands of years, until this particular bee worked out what it must do. It would have died off in one generation. God in His wisdom created this flower and this bee to coexist.

The Bible writers and the early Church believed in the seven day literal creation and the young age of the earth, and so too will the remnant Church believe in the infallibility of the Word of God.

5. The early Church believed that Jesus was our only mediator and our High Priest who intercedes for us in the heavenly temple. 1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;” Unfortunately some in the Christian faith have sought to exalt Mary to the position of co-mediator, which is totally contrary to what the scriptures teach us. The remnant people will accept that Jesus is the only one who can mediate for them.

6. The early Church understood that only Jesus could forgive our sins, as He is the son of God. Today some portions of the Christian Church have appointed earthly men as priests and teach that they have the power to forgive sins, and that God will go along with them, whether they choose to forgive or not to forgive. This is a totally unbiblical doctrine, and in fact matches the Bible’s definition of blasphemy. When Jesus purported that He could forgive sins, the Jewish leaders (not knowing that He really was the son of God, and therefore did have the authority to do so) said that Jesus was committing blasphemy. Mark 2:7 “Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?”

7. Idols. The early Church held strictly to the Ten Commandments and had nothing whatsoever to do with idols or idol worship. Unfortunately there are certain areas within the Christian Church today who teach that it is okay to bow before and pray to statues (calling them the representations of saints). The foot of the statue of St Peter been kissed off and replaced six times. What many people do not know is that the statue of Peter in Rome is older that Peter himself. It was formerly the statue of the pagan god Jupiter from an old pagan temple, which was renamed to St. Peter and moved to Rome. The remnant Church will abhor idol worship and have nothing at all to do with it.

8. Baptism by immersion. The early Church followed the example of Jesus by getting baptised by full immersion in water. They understood that this act was their public display to show that they had repented of their sins and accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. It was only undertaken by people who had made a personal choice. There were never any instances of infant baptism or sprinkling in the Bible. The remnant Church will base their understanding of the act of baptism on the scriptures, and will personally choose to go through the waters of baptism by immersion to symbolise their death to the old life, having their sins washed away and the rebirth into the new life with Christ and His Holy Spirit as their guide. The Greek word “baptizo” for baptize actually means to “to immerse, to submerge” that is to be fully placed under the water.

9. Stewardship. The early Church acknowledged God's ownership of this world and everything in it by faithfully returning tithes and giving offerings for the proclamation of His gospel and the support and growth of His Church. At the very birth of the Church many members actually sold everything they had and pooled their money to fund the spreading of the gospel. The remnant Church will likewise be faithful in returning 1/10 of their earnings plus offerings as the Lord leads them, to God for the advancement of His kingdom.

10. Marriage. Marriage was divinely established by God in Eden and affirmed by Jesus to be a lifelong union between a man and a woman in a loving relationship. The early Church held fast to the belief that a marriage commitment was to God as well as their spouse, and was to be between two people with the common faith. Jesus taught that the person who divorces a spouse, except for fornication, and marries another, commits adultery. We can expect the remnant Church therefore to be comprised of people who have not remarried for unjust causes, as well as those who are single and have remained celibate, and those who have just married once and been faithful to their marriage vows. It is unfortunate that the institution of marriage among many Christians has failed to be viewed with the same significance that God gave it when He instituted it. Many have been swayed by the views of the world, where swapping partners is common practice, and the question of adultery is considered insignificant. But committing adultery, even with a new husband or wife, still constitutes the breaking of one of God’s Commandments, and we have previously seen that the remnant Church will KEEP the Commandments of God.

The Remnant in Prophecy

The book of Revelation which speaks of the Remnant Church begins by saying Revelation 1:1-3 “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: 2 ho bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. 3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.” This book holds the words of Jesus, speaking to His people and telling them what to expect and what to look out for in the end times. The remnant Church will diligently study this book, and the other prophetic books of the Bible, and will seek to share their understanding of these prophecies with the world, to encourage them to return to the pure faith of our early forefathers.

When will the remnant Church arise?

The prophet Daniel gave us a 2300-year prophecy that spanned up to the year 1844, depicting start of the end times. Daniel 12:9-10 “And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.”

This prophecy was in two parts. The first was seventy weeks (prophetically 490 years) and then the remaining 1810 years.

Daniel 9:24-27

“Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. 25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. 26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. 27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”

The seventy week prophecy is a Messianic prophecy pointing to the coming of Jesus Christ. The timeline begins in 457 BC with the decree of Artaxerxes to rebuild the temple. Ezra 7:8-17 informs us that the decree went out in the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes, so history can also confirm the accuracy of the year where this prophecy begins. Symbolic prophecy uses the following rule. Ezekiel 4:6 “...I have appointed thee each day for a year” so therefore 70 weeks = 490 days = 490 years. We know the day for a year rule is valid or the temple would have to be rebuilt in 49 days and Jesus’ ministry would have been only 3.5 days.

The seventy week prophecy is split into three sections, Seven weeks (49 years, which is the time taken to rebuild the temple), 62 weeks (434 years) till the Messiah would come. This takes us to the year the year A.D. 27, which is the year that Jesus was "anointed" with the Holy Spirit after His baptism and began His ministry, and finally there is another week, 7 years.

It says that in the midst of the final seven years the Messiah will be “cut off, but not for himself” (depicting how Jesus would die 3 1/2 years into His ministry) and would cause the “sacrifice and oblation to cease.” Jesus' one time perfect sacrifice on Calvary forever nullified the need for animal sacrificial system of the Jewish temple and the whole ceremonial law that included several ceremonial sabbaths such as Passover.

What happened in the final 3 1/2 years of this prophecy? The gospel message was still preached exclusively to only the Jews, but at the end of this period, Stephen gave his final speech to the Jewish leaders telling them that Jesus was the Messiah predicted by the scriptures, but they stopped their ears, and officially rejected Jesus Christ, then they stoned Stephen. From this time on the gospel was taken to the Gentiles.

This prophecy also predicted the destruction of the temple “the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary” which occurred in A.D. 70, and marked the final “desolation” that Jesus Himself had predicted. The destruction of both the first and the second temple were as a direct result of the people’s rejection of and disobedience to God.

Daniel’s 2300 year Prophecy

The seventy week prophecy was cut out of the 2300 day prophecy, so the 2300 day prophecy has the same starting date of 457 B.C.

Daniel 8:14-27

“And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. 15 And it came to pass, when I, even I Daniel, had seen the vision, and sought for the meaning, then, behold, there stood before me as the appearance of a man. 16 And I heard a man's voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision. 17 So he came near where I stood: and when he came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face: but he said unto me, Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision. 18 Now as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep on my face toward the ground: but he touched me, and set me upright. 19 And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be. 20 The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. (speaking of the Medo-Persian power that would rule after Babylon) 21 And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king. (speaking of Alexander the Great who would defeat Medo-Persia) 22 Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power. (speaking of the four generals of Alexander who took over power after he died) 23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. (speaking of the Roman empire and the Caesars) 24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. 25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand. (speaking of the antichrist power who arises after pagan Rome and who would seek to take the place on Earth of Christ, would persecute God’s people) 26 And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true: wherefore shut thou up the vision; for it shall be for many days. 27 And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king's business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.”

This prophecy began in 457 B.C. and spanned all the way down to 1844, which is depicted as the beginning of the end times. (Daniel 12:4, 9) This is also when we would expect to see the birth of the remnant Church.

What happened in 1844?

Many amazing things happened around the year 1844. This was when Christians all over the world began to take notice of the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation. These prophecies began to be opened up to their understanding, but not fully. There was a world wide movement involving Christians from all denominations, who misinterpreted the “cleansing of the Sanctuary” to mean the return or “Advent” of Christ. Thousands of people from all denominations all over the world turned their eyes and hearts to God and prepared themselves for the imminent return of Christ. History called this message “SWEET” as one would call the expected return of Christ an exceptionally “sweet” message. However, Christ did not return and they soon realized that the prophecy spoke of the cleansing of the Heavenly Sanctuary and not the Earthly Sanctuary. This very “SWEET” message soon turned into what history called the “BITTER” disappointment.

This was a terrible bitter disappointment as they realized that they had misunderstood one small but crucial part of the prophecy. Some were so disillusioned that they left their Churches. Others though went back to diligently searching the scriptures and the prophecies, and gradually more light was given to them. The man initially responsible for understanding this 2300 day Prophecy was William Miller who was an Adventist which is a term that applies to anyone who believes in the Second Advent of Christ. Many people today wrongly call him a “Seventh-day Adventist,” but this is incorrect as he was in fact a Baptist Pastor. He was an Adventist like all the others, but was not a Seventh-day Adventist. A Seventh-day Adventist is part of a denomination that believes in the Second Advent of Christ but also keeps the Seventh Day Sabbath, hence the name.

This historical event that involved Christians from all denominations was on such a grand World Wide scale, and was so significant, that we find Jesus describes this event in Bible Prophecy in Revelation chapter 10.

Revelation 10:1-11

“And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: 2 And he had in his hand a little book open: [Book of Daniel] … 8 And the voice which I heard from heaven spoke unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. 9 And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make your belly bitter, but it shall be in your mouth sweet as honey. 10 And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. 11 And he said unto me, You must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.” Parenthesis are added.

What is this little book described in Revelation chapter 10? To make special mention that the book is open implies that at some stage the book was closed or sealed. Where do we find a book like this? There are at least ten reasons we can give that prove this book is none other than the book of Daniel. They are as follows;

1. The book is mentioned as being little. Daniel is only comprised of 12 chapters.

2. Each time the book is mentioned it is said that it is “open.” This indicates that it was closed or sealed at some prior stage. The book of Daniel was to be sealed until the time of the end, Daniel 12:4, 9.

3. This is the only book spoken of as being sealed in the Bible.

4. Since the book of Daniel is sealed until the time of the end, it would be reasonable to expect that at the time of the events surrounding the time of the end, the opening of this book would be mentioned.

5. There is no account of the book of Daniel being opened unless this verse in Revelation is accepted. Hence the book of Daniel would be a closed book forever.

6. The little book in Revelation 10 is concerned with time, “time no longer.” The only other book of the Bible that specializes in time is the book of Daniel.

7. Daniel did not understand the oath in Daniel 12:8 but was reassured in verse 9 that the understanding would be given after the time of the end. Revelation 10 is a fulfilment of this promise.

8. The person that made the oath in Daniel 12:7 is described in Daniel 10:5-6 but is also the same person that makes the oath in Revelation 10. This person is Jesus Christ according to the description given in Revelation 1:13-17. This shows the closeness of Daniel 12 and Revelation 10.

9. With the book being open and the message being proclaimed from it shows that the message is proclaimed this side of the time of the end in 1798.

10. Daniel 11:35 gives a brief explanation of the papal persecution during its reign in the dark ages. According to this verse the persecution was to cease at the time of the end, which was the end of the 1260 years of papal supremacy. This ended in 1798 and thus we see that the time of the end began 1798. So from 1798 onwards the book of Daniel has been open.

The little book was initially sweet as we are told “it shall be in your mouth sweet as honey” as they believed that the Second Advent of Christ was imminent, but when they realized they had made a small error in the understanding of this prophecy in Daniel 8, it became a bitter disappointment and so “as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.” This sheds more light on who is the remnant Church as Revelation 10:11 says, “And he said unto me, You must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.” This same time period after 1798 is also described in the final verses of Revelation 12. Revelation 12:17 is the last verse and says, “And the dragon [Satan] was wroth with the woman [Church], and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the Commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” This verse refers to the same faithful group that continues preaching the prophecies of Daniel that God would raise up as His remnant Church, and would have the testimony of Jesus through which God would reveal to them that they should be keeping ALL Ten of His Commandments. Through much research, we found that as a result of this World wide event, a Church did emerge that does meet this criterion.

Several years later as a result of their continued careful search, God revealed the importance of returning to the faith of the early Church. He revealed to them through the testimony of Jesus (Spirit of Prophecy) the significance of keeping all of His Commandments and basing their whole doctrine on the Word alone. It was discovered by many of them that an apostate Church had changed one of the Ten Commandments of God and that this Commandment was kept by the early Church and so they as the true remnant should be also.

It was noted that Paul and the early Church kept the Commandment from the following scriptures. Acts 17:1-2 “When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2 As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,” The Jews and Pharisees which Paul was, have always kept Saturday as the Sabbath. And this was Paul’s custom since childhood. Acts 26:4-5 “The Jews all know the way I have lived ever since I was a child, from the beginning of my life in my own country, and also in Jerusalem. 5 They have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that according to the strictest sect of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee.” In reference to the future destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, Christ states in Matthew 24:20, “And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.” Why would Jesus say pray that you don’t have to flee on the Sabbath if we are not keeping it anymore? He wouldn’t! The gospel of Luke states in Luke 23:56 that when the body of Christ was being prepared by His followers, “they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the Commandment.” Luke’s gospel was written 30-50 years after the cross and there is no way he would make a statement like this without telling us of a change. There was no scripture found that spoke of a change to this Commandment and Jesus said that not even a stroke of the pen will pass from the law till heaven and earth pass. The Bible makes it clear that the true Church will hold fast to the scriptures and the law of God, and that Churches who do not do this are deceived. Isaiah 8:20 “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” See also New Testament Sabbath.

There were also many false religions which developed around this time, which promoted extra-biblical and non-biblical teachings. So as God was giving light to some of His people and birthing a remnant Church, Satan was hard at work deceiving as many as he could to lead them away from the truth of the Word of God.

Jesus reinforced this. Matthew 5:17-19 NIRV “Do not think I have come to get rid of what is written in the Law or in the Prophets. I have not come to do that. Instead, I have come to give full meaning to what is written. 18 What I'm about to tell you is true. Heaven and earth will disappear before the smallest letter disappears from the Law. Not even the smallest stroke of a pen will disappear from the Law until everything is completed. 19 "Do not break even one of the least important Commandments. And do not teach others to break them. If you do, you will be called the least important person in the kingdom of heaven. Instead, practice and teach these commands. Then you will be called important in the kingdom of heaven.” So we can determine which are true and false Churches by checking which ones follow and teach obedience to all of the Ten Commandments of God, including keeping His Seventh day Sabbath Holy.

Who is the Remnant Church Summary

To determine who is the remnant Church whether it be one or more denominations, you will need to find a Church who have people displaying the following attributes. They must:

1. Be a minority, that is, a remnant.

2. Keep all the Ten Commandments of God including the fourth.

3. Be Apostolic in nature, similar teaching and belief of the apostles.

4. Arise after the 1260 years of Papal supremacy which is after 1798.

5. Arise in America, the earth that helped the woman. See verse by verse study on Revelation 12.

6. Have the testimony of Jesus Christ which is the Spirit of Prophecy or the Gift of Prophecy manifest through a prophet or prophets, Revelation 19:10; 22:9.

7. Be expecting the Second coming of Christ being the last.

8. Understand Bible prophecy and 666 and the Mark of the Beast issue.

9. Be filled with the Holy Spirit to boldly proclaim the gospel message.

10. Believe in the Bible as the only source of doctrine.

11. Believe in the once only atoning sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.

12. Abstain from cigarettes, drugs or unhealthy eating that damages their bodies, which are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

13. Understand that the dead sleep until the resurrection to life or resurrection to damnation.

14. Know that hell-fire is an event and that the wicked do not get eternal life and do perish.

15. Believe in the young age of the earth, and that God created the world in six days.

16. Believe in Baptism by full immersion of people who have repented and made their own decision to follow Jesus and partake in it.

17. Believe in the sanctity of marriage.

18. Believe that Jesus is our only mediator and that only He can forgive sins.

19. Believe in the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (Note: The word Trinity is not found in the Bible and is a contraction of the words “tri” which means three and divinity which means God. The Bible actually uses the word Godhead, so if you don’t like the word trinity, use the word Godhead which still says that God is three in one, i.e. Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.)

20. Believe in being faithful stewards through tithing and offerings.

21. Be prepared to endure persecution for their faith.

22. Be a Church that Satan is making war with, that is, incur the wroth of the dragon, eg: Many websites & people attacking it with false rumours.

23. Be a world wide movement. The Gospel is to be preached in all the world, Matthew 24:14; Revelation 14:6-12, so it must be a world wide movement.

God’s true remnant Church has the following to look forward to when the New Jerusalem, with the mansions that Jesus Himself has prepared for us eventually comes to rest on the New Earth.

Revelation 21:10-24

“And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 11 Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; … 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. … 18 And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. 19 And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; 20 The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.”

Please Note: What could only be Holy Spirit guidance has most major phrases first in Google but because of the massive impact this is having, the Satanic attacks have this family struggling without a wife and mother that we love and miss so dearly and insufficient income. This is also due to an undiagnosed illness that had me bed ridden for months with a 26KG weight loss and has currently lasted 48 months. This ministry has over 125 domains with a total yearly count of over 3,350,000 visits and costs of thousands of dollars per annum. We desperately require prayer and funds to survive to keep this family together and ministry afloat. Any assistance is greatly appreciated to keep this ministry spreading truth to the world. Thank you for your prayers and support. Total donated this week: $130.00.

This concludes the document “who is the Remnant Church?”

Scripture

Revelation 12:17 “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the Commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

Last Modified: 03/22/2012 01:35:40 © Copyright 2007
http://www.Remnant-Church.net

THE IDENTITY OF MYSTERY BABYLON

Scripture verse

Revelation 17:5 “And upon her forehead was a name written, mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.”

Who is mystery Babylon?

Revelation 17:5 reads, “And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” Just from analysing scriptures alone from the Book of Revelation a consistent theme can be seen of an Apostate Church that persecuted the Christian Saints through the dark ages for 1260 years. Further analysis reveals that this Apostate Church is the key component of mystery Babylon and changed God’s law in favour of pagan traditions. The ultimate climax seen is God taking justice on this Apostate Church and those that supported her, for her crimes and fornication just before the second coming of Christ, which is also part of what is known as the Battle of Armageddon. Just before this happens the issue of 666 and the Mark of the Beast will be enforced and all will have the choice to bow down to the image made to this Apostate Church or to Worship God only and keep His Commandments. Those who willingly disobey God in favour of bowing down to the commandments of this Church and mystery Babylon, the mother of Harlots, will ultimately receive her Mark and “shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God.”

Before continuing please allow me to emphasize that this document is not intended to offend any person or their Church. Some of the best missionaries and humanitarians have been part of this Apostate Church and have taken no part in her crimes. What the scripture refers to in these chapters of Revelation are not all the wonderful Christians that have been in this Church, but the system itself, so no offence is intended in any way towards people that belong to this Church or have ever been part of this Apostate Church. Much of this is very distressing and as much as it may hurt to hear these truths, we must teach what the Bible says as God’s true Church is called to do. God does not want mystery Babylon to remain a mystery.

Clues to the identity of Mystery Babylon

In Revelation, the Apostle John tells the tale of TWO WOMEN. One is dressed in pure white, revealing the purity of true faith and doctrine. This pure woman of Revelation 12 is committed to Christ. She’s absolutely loyal to Him and her heart burns with a love for Jesus. Nothing can break her loyalty to the One she loves so much. This woman represents all the faithful believers who have loved Jesus Christ, kept His commandments and been obedient to Him down through the ages. Revelation 17 pictures another woman. Now we have the opposite picture. Who is this woman in scarlet riding on a Beast?

v Mystery Babylon is a CHURCH:

In the Bible a WOMAN symbolizes a CHURCH. This is an extremely important point that must absolutely not be overlooked as it proves beyond all shadow of a doubt that this “WOMAN” with mystery Babylon written upon HER head and riding a Beast (Kingdom) has to be a “Church.” Below are several scriptures that prove this is undeniable fact. The only question that then remains is which Church? Note that an unfaithful Church commits spiritual adultery.

NOTE: God also refers to Israel as a “Woman” (HER) as it represents the Old Testament Church that brought forth the Man child (Jesus Christ) in Revelation 12. Do not miss this really important point which is that God called Israel a “Harlot” and a “Whore” when she worshipped other gods and committed spiritual adultery. Which Church deleted the Commandment on idolatry and worshipped the SUN and has many pagan traditions? Which Church changed the Sabbath to SUNday in favour of SUN worship? Which Church has the statue of St Peter in St Peters Cathedral which was originally the statue of the pagan god Jupiter? This statue has had its foot kissed away and replaced several times because of the multitude that have bowed down to this statue and kissed its foot. This is unmistakable idolatry and especially when this was originally a pagan god.

In the following verse you will note that God calls the fourth Commandment “MY” Sabbath.

Exodus 31:13 “Speak you also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily MY Sabbaths you shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that you may know that I am the LORD that does sanctify you.”

Now note the following verse refers to the ceremonial sabbaths and the various feasts days and new moons which were associated with a temporary law that was for Israel only. It is called the Book of the law, Mosaic Law and the ordinances. The term Ceremonial law is also used. Speaking of Israel, note that God calls them HER Sabbaths and HER feast days etc. Israel is all through the Old Testament referred to as a “Woman” (HER) and when she worshipped other gods was called a “Harlot.”

Hosea 2:11 “I will also cause all HER mirth to cease, HER feast days, HER new moons, and HER sabbaths, and all HER solemn feasts.

When the Church apostatized it was compared with a corrupt Woman

Jeremiah 3:1-25 “…If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? ...but you have played the HARLOT with many lovers; yet return again to me, says the LORD. 2 …you have polluted the land with your WHOREDOMS and with your wickedness. 3 …you have a WHORE'S FOREHEAD, you refuse to be ashamed… 6 The LORD said also unto me… Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the HARLOT… 8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed ADULTERY I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the HARLOT also… 20 Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, says the LORD.”
Ezekiel 16:26-32 “You have also committed FORNICATION with the Egyptians your neighbours, great of flesh; and have increased your WHOREDOMS, to provoke me to anger… 28 You have played the WHORE also with the Assyrians, because you were not satisfied; yes, you have played the HARLOT with them, and yet could not be satisfied. 30 How weak is your heart, says the Lord God, seeing you doest all these things, the work of an imperious WHORISH WOMAN; 31 In that you build your eminent place in the head of every way, and makes your high place in every street; and have not been as an HARLOT, in that you scorns hire; 32 But as a wife that commits ADULTERY, which takes strangers instead of her husband!”
Revelation 17:1-3 “…Come hither; I will show unto you the judgment of the great WHORE that sits upon many waters: 2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed FORNICATION, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her FORNICATION. 3 …I saw a WOMAN sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy… 5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON the great, the MOTHER OF HARLOTS and abominations of the earth.”

God’s true Church is frequently represented as a Woman

Isaiah 54:5-6 “For your Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and your Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called. 6 For the LORD has called you as a WOMAN forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when you were refused, saith your God.”
2 Corinthians 11:2 “For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”
Ephesians 5:31-32 “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. 32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning CHRIST AND THE CHURCH.”

Christ is represented as the Bridegroom and the Church is the bride which of course is a “Woman.”

Matthew 9:14-15 “Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but your disciples fast not? 15 And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.”
Revelation 19:7-8 “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his WIFE has made HERSELF ready. 8 And to HER was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.”
Revelation 12:1 “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a WOMAN clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:”

Some have wrongly concluded that this woman is Mary but the following verse demonstrates that this woman represents God’s true Church by the symbolism used. The time period here represents the 1260 years called the dark ages where the Church had to flee into the wilderness to survive the persecution. Mary did not live for 1260 years or have eagles wings!

Revelation 12:14 “And to the WOMAN were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.”

v Mystery Babylon is a CORRUPT Church:

Just as a pure woman represents a pure Church, a corrupt woman represents a corrupt Church. The woman in white is Christ’s bride, the true Church. But Revelation 17:1, 15-16 and 19:2 call this second woman a “WHORE” or “HARLOT”, a fallen Church teaching false doctrines.

v Mystery Babylon is a RICH Church:

This symbolic wicked woman, this corrupt Church is a rich one with gorgeous display. Revelation 17:4 says she’s “decked with GOLD and PRECIOUS STONES and PEARLS, having a GOLDEN cup in her hand.” Which Church would you say is the richest in the world?

v Mystery Babylon is a Church built on SEVEN HILLS or MOUNTAINS:

This identification given in Revelation 17:9, is impressive and clear, for ROME is proverbial as “the city built on seven hills.” Webster’s large unabridged dictionary says this under the entry “seven-hilled”: “as, the SEVEN-HILLED CITY, that is, ROME, Italy.” Furthermore, Revelation 17:18 tells John, “The woman whom you saw is that GREAT CITY which reigns over the kings of the earth.” John wrote this using the present tense for the word “reigns” and he knew as well as anyone else that “that great city” was ROME.

v Mystery Babylon is a LARGE, WORLDWIDE Church:

She sits on “many WATERS,” explained as being many “peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” Revelation 17:1 and 15. The very word catholic means “universal,” and the Papal Church has the largest, most widespread membership in Christendom.

v Mystery Babylon is a Church that revives BABYLON’S pagan teachings:

“On her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT...” Revelation 17:5. Long before John wrote the Book of Revelation, the ancient city of Babylon had been completely destroyed and never rebuilt. For centuries it lay in ruins and had faded into insignificance. The apostle Peter could not have been referring to literal Babylon when he wrote in 1 Peter 5:13 that: “She who is in Babylon ... greets you.” For there was no Church or any other human institution in the desolate ruins of ancient Babylon. He was referring to ROME as all authorities agree. It is easy to see why early Christians used “Babylon” as a code word or nickname for Rome, for there are many striking parallels between the twin cities of literal Babylon of ancient times and figurative “Babylon” or Rome. Consider just a few: Babylon was the dominant warring power of its day and Rome was the dominant warring power of its own era. Babylon conquered Israel and centuries later, Rome also conquered Israel. Babylon destroyed the first Jerusalem Temple and Rome destroyed the second. Each carried sacred vessels from the Jewish Temple back to Babylon in the east and Rome in the west; each completely destroyed and devastated the city of Jerusalem; each carried away surviving Jews into captivity. Rome was Babylon all over again. As Babylon’s “carbon copy,” Rome provides a perfect example of history repeating itself! But more to the point, this woman who sits on seven hills which is this Church located in Rome, has revived the same pagan teachings that ancient Babylon taught ages ago. She baptizes them, sanctifies them, and brings them into the Christian Church. Ages ago, when presumptuous men tried to build the Tower of Babel at Babylon, God confused their language. Genesis 11:1-9. So here in the last book of the Bible, “Babylon” is a spiritual term referring to confusion, not the confusion of languages in the Old Testament but religious confusion as the Church drifted away from God’s Word.

v Mystery Babylon is a RELIGIOUS power dominating the CIVIL powers:

Revelation 17:3 and 7 tell us the harlot, or fallen Church, is RIDING the beast. Daniel 7:17 and 23 tell us a beast represent a king or kingdom. When we ride a horse, we direct it and control it, so the picture God gives here is of a Church dominating the civil power. For centuries, the Papacy dictated to kings. When she wanted to punish or execute any who dared to question her teaching, she would often call on the police power of the state. Revelation 17:2 describes this harlot: “with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication.” She has influence over the kings of the earth, great influence over heads of state. Today, unlike other Churches, the Vatican exchanges ambassadors with every major nation on earth. They come to her city on seven mountains, and they bow before her, having “lived luxuriously with her.” Revelation 18:9

v The Harlot and NATURAL Immortality:

Sincere Catholics often bow down before a statue of a SAINT and devoutly pray, even though the saint is DEAD. But the Roman Church doesn’t teach that they’re dead. Even though the idea that man’s soul is naturally immortal is a PAGAN one. All the ancient pagan religions, without exception had the idea that the soul, or man’s essential being, was immortal. That non-biblical concept, inherited from Babylon was a common thread running through them all. In Egypt for instance, the pyramids were great monuments, great houses for the dead to hold their immortal spirits. But the heathen idea of man’s soul being naturally immortal comes from Egypt and Babylon and Greece, not the Bible whose teaching directly contradicts it. See such verses as 1 Timothy 6:15-16, Ezekiel 18:4, 20, Ecclesiastes 9:5, Psalm 6:5; 13:3; 115:17, John 11:11-14, Ephesians 5:14 etc.

v The Harlot and IMAGE Worship:

Many false doctrines entered the Church, but let’s focus on just three: IMAGE worship, IMMORTALITY of the soul, and SUN worship. First of all, Babylon was the center of idol worship. Everywhere you turned there were images, idols representing the pagan gods, not just statues of Bel-Marduk, their chief god. King Nebuchadnezzar set up a huge golden idol and commanded all to bow down before it. But God’s Second Commandment in Exodus 20:4-5 FORBIDS using images in religious worship, FORBIDS bowing down before them. Today the Papal Church not only fosters those very things but also has DELETED the Second Commandment from its catechisms (official training manuals).

v The Harlot and SUN Worship:

The main deity of Babylon and Egypt was the Sun god. Astrology and worship of the heavens originated in Babylon. But God calls it one of the greatest of “abominations” in Ezekiel 8:15-16. Roman Emperor Constantine was a sun worshiper who never gave it up. The Roman Church disregards not only the Second Commandment about image worship but also the Fourth Commandment about the Creator’s Seventh-day Sabbath, substituting the unscriptural SUNDAY.

v Mystery Babylon is the Mother of Harlots:

This is because SHE has continued to have a massive impact on what truly does matter to God, i.e., His Church. She is the root of many false doctrines, has changed God’s law and shed the blood of millions of Christians etc. When Israel committed spiritual adultery, God called His Old Testament Church a “WHORE”, a “HARLOT” and a “WHORISH WOMAN” and accused her of “FORNICATION” and “ADULTERY.” The Catholic Church is guilty of much worse than Israel. In a recent address to the nations, Pope Benedict caused a major uproar among many Churches as he referred to the Catholic Church as being the “MOTHER” Church and called for all the daughter Churches to come back to HER. They are referred to as daughter Churches because they originally came from the Catholic Church, eg: Martin Luther, who had been a Catholic priest established the Lutheran Church. Some say mystery Babylon represents all false religion but not so as SHE is the Mother of Harlots as in SHE has many daughters that came from her so SHE is one Church. It is very sad that so many of the daughter Churches have ignorantly inherited her various false doctrines and again, this is why SHE is called the “Mother Of Harlots.” See mark of the beast and paganism for many images that reveal more on why God also calls her Babylon..

The Testimony of History:

· “It has often been charged… that Catholicism is overlaid with many pagan incrustations. Catholicism is ready to accept that accusation and even to make it her boast… the great god Pan is not really dead, he is baptized” — The Story of Catholicism p 37.

· “The use of temples, and these dedicated to particular saints, and ornamented on occasions with branches of trees; incense, lamps, and candles; votive offerings on recovery from illness; holy water; asylums; holydays and seasons, use of calendars, processions, blessings on the fields; sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure, the ring in marriage, turning to the East, images at a later date, perhaps the ecclesiastical chant, and the Kyrie Eleison are all of pagan origin, and sanctified by their adoption into the Church.” — An Essay on The Development of the Christian Doctrine John Henry “Cardinal Newman” p.373.

· “It is interesting to note how often our Church has availed herself of practices which were in common use among pagans … Thus it is true, in a certain sense, that some Catholic rites and ceremonies are a reproduction of those of pagan creeds…” — (The Externals of the Catholic Church, Her Government, Ceremonies, Festivals, Sacramentals and Devotions, by John F. Sullivan, p 156, published by P.J. Kennedy, NY, 1942).

· “The Sun was a foremost god with heathendom. ... The sun has worshippers at this hour in Persia and other lands. ... The PAGAN Sunday dedicated to Balder, became the Christian Sunday, sacred to Jesus.” — Catholic William Gildea, Doctor of Divinity, wrote in The Catholic World, March, 1894, page 809.

· Doctor Alexander Hislop, in his classic work, The Two Babylon’s, page 105, says this: “To conciliate the Pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome, pursuing its usual policy, took measures to get the Christian and Pagan festivals [that’s the Sabbath and Sunday] amalgamated, and ... to get Paganism and Christianity now far sunk in idolatry in this as in so many other things, to shake hands.” He says further: “A glance at the main pillars of the Papal system will sufficiently prove that its doctrine and discipline in all essential respects have been derived from BABYLON.”

· “In ancient Babylonia the SUN was WORSHIPPED from immemorial antiquity.” — Sir James G. Frazer, an authoritative scholar, makes this statement in his book The Worship of Nature, Volume 1, page 529.

· “The doctrine of natural, as distinguished from Christian, immortality ... crept into the Church, by a BACK DOOR. ... When arguments are offered for the purely natural immortality of the soul, they are rarely, if ever, derived from Scripture. ... The natural immortality of the soul is a doctrine wholly unknown to the Holy Scriptures, and standing on no higher plane than that of ... PHILOSOPHICAL OPINION ... of philosophical speculations DISGUISED as truths of Divine Revelation.” — William E. Gladstone, four-time Prime Minister of Great Britain and a theologian in his own right, wrote in Studies Subsidiary to the Works of Bishop Butler, pp. 195-198.

· “The adoration of idols that is in Babylon was succeeded by the adoration of saints.” — Henry Thomas Buckle, a world-famous historian, says in his book The History of Civilization, Volume 1, page 188.

· The book Catholic Belief, by Roman Catholic scholar Father Joseph Faà di Bruno, page 45, states this: “Like two sacred rivers flowing from Paradise, the Bible AND divine Tradition contain the Word of God, the precious gems of revealed truths. Though these two divine streams are in themselves, on account of their divine origin, of EQUAL sacredness, and are both full of revealed truths, still, of the two, Tradition is to us MORE clear and safe.” Are the traditions, customs and practices of man safer than the Bible? Rome baptizes tradition with the word “divine” and dares to hold it above the Bible.

· “Reason and sense demand the acceptance of one or the other of these alternatives: either Protestantism and the keeping holy of Saturday, or Catholicity and the keeping holy of Sunday. Compromise is IMPOSSIBLE.” — Cardinal James Gibbons, archbishop of Baltimore and noted writer, said in The Catholic Mirror, December 23, 1893.

· “One cannot well refer to those cults of Babylon and Egypt and the rest as DEAD religions. For the echo of their ancient thunder is still to be heard reverberating in almost every form of faith existing today. Ancient Babylonian image worship is in the church today. Ancient Babylonian sun worship is there. Ancient Babylonian belief in the immortality of the soul is there. Yes, the echo of that thunder is still heard in the church today!” — Lewis Brown says this in The Believing World, page 112.

· “His coins bore on the one side the letters of the name of Christ; on the other, the figure of the SUN GOD, as if he could not bear to relinquish the patronage of the bright luminary.” — Historian Arthur P. Stanley in his book, The History of the Eastern Church, page 184, says this about the Roman Emperor Constantine.

Is Mystery Babylon America? -

THE MARK OF THE BEAST

Who is the Beast and what is their MARK?

The Number of the Beast 666 and its Origin

The extraordinary truth about this mysterious number 666 and its origin is about to reveal just how wrong and ignorant the majority can be on Biblical topics and how Satan can and does keep many in the dark on extremely important issues. Remember this when you discover what the mark of the beast is. As we saw previously it is not 666 and is separate to the mark.

Revelation 13:17 “And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the Mark, OR the Name of the beast, OR the Number of his name.”

Just for clarity, note that the phrase the “Number of his name” above refers to that mysterious number 666 as it says the “number of HIS name.” In other words “the number of a MAN.” The very next verse shown below says that the “number of the beast” is “the number of a man” and that this number is 666. So the “number of his name” is in fact the number 666.

So is 666 the devil’s number? Not even close! We also previously saw that the beast is not Satan and this number belongs to the beast power, which is the Papal Catholic Church. Thousands have speculated about this number but the Bible is clear. The Bible says it is the number of a man and this man is from the beast power, or in other words, from the Roman Catholic Church. Does the Catholic Church have a man at its head?

Revelation 13:18 “Here is wisdom. Let him that has understanding COUNT the number of the beast: for it is the number of a MAN; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.”

Origins of 666 and why God calls the Catholic Church Babylon

Before looking further at 666 being the number of a man, let’s find out what the significance and origin of 666 is. We know the mark of the beast is about worship and that we are told not to worship the beast. We have also just seen that 666 is the number of a man heading this power, but why does God call the Catholic Church Babylon in the book of Revelation, and what is the origin of this mysterious number 666?.

Very few people know the answer to these questions or why Revelation speaks about this number with such negative connotations. So here is an EXTREMELY BRIEF overview of the history and origin of the number 666, and why this number is now associated with the Roman Catholic Church and its leader. You are about to find out why worship is such a significant issue in regards to this number 666 and the mark of the beast.

Note first the significance of the Babylonians using the sexagesimal (base-60) number system from which comes 60 minutes in an hour, 60 seconds in a minute, 360 (60×6) degrees in a circle and 60 degrees in each angle of an equilateral triangle etc. 360 divided by 10 = 36 (more on this number in a moment) and 6 * 6 = 36. From this came that mysterious number 666, which is directly linked with the worship practices of ancient Babylon from around the time of Daniel. See also Daniel 3:1. Babylon worshiped gods that were associated with the sun, moon, planets and stars involved with astrology. Babylonians were the principle developers of astrology as we know it today and the pagan priests wore amulets called “Sigilla Solis” or “Sun Seal” which symbolized 36 constellations. In this system of worship, they had 36 supreme gods plus the god associated with the sun, which they believed to be the father of all the other gods and so was supreme over all. They believed that numbers had power over the gods they worshiped so they assigned numbers to their gods so that they could have power over them. They did this by counting their gods and assigning a consecutive number to each of the 36 lesser supreme gods, and then added up these numbers (from 1 to 36) and assigned the sum to the sun god. If you have not guessed by now, the sum of the numbers from 1 to 36 totals 666, which they assigned to the god associated with the sun. The calculation is below..

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14 + 15 + 16 + 17 + 18 + 19 + 20 + 21 + 22 + 23 + 24 + 25 + 26 + 27 + 28 + 29 + 30 + 31 + 32 + 33 + 34 + 35 + 36 = 666

However, they feared their gods as they believed they were primarily evil and thought that one of them might strike them down sometime, so they made amulets with a 6 x 6 matrix with 1 through 36 on them which are called numeric matrixes magic squares today. The design of the amulets was to protect them from a god striking them down using his magic power so the amulets had to be as powerful as possible. In order to increase its power, they arranged these numbers in such a way that the sum of any given row, column or diagonal was 111, and therefore the sum of all six rows or all six columns was 666. This was supposed to provide extra protection including from the sun god since this god's sum was present on the amulet. The one above has the god of the sun standing on the lion. This indicated the sun's position in the constellation of Leo during the hot days of August. The back is inscribed “Nachyel,” meaning “intelligence of the sun” and the numbers 1 to 36.

The second illustration is also a solar seal, but it honours the star Basilisco, which was the diminutive form of the Greek basileus (king), thus meaning the same as the Latin regulus. Regulus is the only first magnitude star in the constellation of Leo. The sun and the moon are again clearly seen on this amulet and on the reverse side is the same arrangement of numerals with the actual figure 666 given as the total..

These amulets were usually made of gold being like the colour of the sun or baked clay tablets and were carried in yellow silk or hung around their neck, which they believed provided protection as long as they carried it with them.

6	32	3	34	35	1
7	11	27	28	8	30
19	14	16	15	23	24
18	20	22	21	17	13
25	29	10	9	26	12
36	5	33	4	2	31

This table as illustrated has the same arrangement of numbers as the above images in a 6 x 6 matrix and is also referred to in numerology as the magic square of the Sun. There are similar magic squares for Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury and the Moon, all of which have been known for centuries.

The creating of amulets with this number arrangement that belongs to astrology appears to have continued well past the time of Christ. Archaeologists have found amulets with Latin inscriptions, so we know that the Romans were indulging in this practice. Therefore, the number 666 came about from pagan worship practices of the Babylonians and their practice of astrology. The symbolism of sun worship is still used in many areas of the Catholic Church today, not always obvious but often packaged discreetly as to not be noticed by the untrained eye.

When the Medes and Persians conquered Babylon in 539 B.C, they came with their own religious practices and gods, so had no need of the priests of the Babylonian religious system. Although the Persians were sympathetic towards the Babylonian god Marduk and did accommodate the priests of this god for a while, it appears from history that they eventually fired the priests and used their own. The Babylonian priests left Babylon (probably because they were out of work) and most of them went to Pergamum and some to Egypt where they taught their religious practices to the Egyptians. The Egyptians readily picked up these Babylonian religious concepts and further extended and developed some of the ideas we find in astrology.

The teaching of the Babylonian religious practices by the Babylonian priests and their direct descendants went on in the city of Pergamum for centuries afterwards. They taught astrology and the making of amulets with the numbers 1 to 36 on them in the special arrangements they commonly used. This continued until about the year 133 B.C. when the last king of the Attalid Empire, (Eumenes’ son, Attalus III) who had his capital at Pergamum, died without an heir and bequeathed his kingdom to Rome. Rome accepted the kingdom and set up the province of Asia, which included Ionia and the territory of Pergamum by 129 B.C. Sometime soon after this, the priests who were still teaching the Babylonian religious practices saw their opportunity and went to Rome. The Romans often adopted the religious practices of other cultures, which also helped the empire survive as long as it did. The Babylonian priests rightly calculated that the Romans would be very willing to learn and follow their teachings. Soon all of Rome filled with their religious teachings and practices. It eventually became so pervasive that people called Rome the “New Babylon.” Early Christians also used the term Babylon as a veiled code word for a particular city, so as to avoid persecution from that pagan power. That city was also Rome. See also 1 Peter 5:13.

When the Christian Church came along, the practices and beliefs of the Babylonian religion followed right into the Church. Historians have said that it seemed almost the entire city of Rome converted virtually overnight to Christianity, but what actually happened is that the Babylonian religion was simply brought into the Church and the three supreme gods of the Babylonian religion were simply renamed as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Lesser gods became saints of the Church. The pagan Babylonian religious practices came into the Church right along with it. This made it easy for the followers of the Babylonian religion to convert to Christianity, but it certainly was not a genuine conversion. God condemns pagan religious practices, but they brought these practices into the Church anyway.

History fully supports this. The pagan Babylonian priests had a chief priest who held the title Pontifex Maximus (translated to Latin meant that he was head pagan priest or literally the Greatest Pontiff). Most have heard the word “Pontiff” applied to the Pope and history explains where that term comes from. Originally, the king of the Attalid Empire held the title of Pontiff, and he passed it on to the Babylonian Priests before he died and they went to Rome. This title was given to Julius Caesar in 63 B.C. thereby making him the supreme priest of the Babylonian Religion and its gods. (This shows that the Babylonian priests arrived in Rome before the time of Julius Caesar or this event could not have happened.)

This meant that the Babylonian religion literally moved into Rome and took it over, becoming head of the Roman government. This title passed from emperor to emperor, all of whom served as chief priest of the Babylonian Religion from then on until 367 A.D, where the Roman Emperor Gratian became the first since Julius Caesar to refuse the title Pontifex Maximus. Before Gratian refused the title Pontifex Maximus, the young Emperor bestowed it upon Pope Damasus I, who became the first Pope in history to hold the title. This made him head of the Babylonian religion when he took the title of Pontifex Maximus. Damasus I was the head of the Christian Church in Rome, and took the title as head of the pagan Babylonian Religion and its collection of pagan gods. Did the Babylonian Religion move into the Christian Church? History says most definitely YES. So why does God call the Papal Church Babylon? The answer should now be clear.

Some dispute that Church leaders incorporated pagan Babylonian religious practices into the Catholic Church but even Catholic historians admit it. Cardinal Newman in his Development of Christian Doctrine, pages 372, 373 says that the Church incorporated many pagan religious practices into the Church. He claims that the Church sanctified them and that made it safe to bring these practices into the Church. Every year Catholic Pilgrims kiss the feet of the Roman god Jupiter thinking they are kissing the image of Peter. God condemns idolatry, the making of images for worship, and even bowing down before images as part of an act of worship. Yet many images are in Catholic Churches and the Church teaches people to bow down before them. They may be praying to someone else but the act of bowing down before the image, regardless of what or who one is actually worshipping at the time is plainly what God condemns in Exodus 20:4-6.

The reason the Bible speaks so negatively about 666 is that it symbolizes the power of the person who has this number to have power over all the other gods, which in the case of the Papacy is their claim to be God and to have authority over God and his law, which are false claims. Because the Popes claim both to be God and to have authority over God, they believe that they can change the law of God to suit their own purposes. This is extremely serious to God and He knows it will also lead many to be lost for all eternity.

So the evidence presented here links 666 with ancient sun worshipping pagan Babylon and the Papacy of the Catholic Church, which is dominated by pagan practices and solar images and is referred to as Babylon in the book of Revelation. This is just a small part of the evidence that makes this relationship apparent.

THE ORIGIN OF BABYLON, SUN WORSHIP AND THE SUNDAY SABBATH – THE CHURCH OF SATAN

Satan's church had its beginning at Babylon with the construction of the Tower of Babel on the plain of Shinar by the River Euphrates many generations after the deluge. At the time of the construction of Babylon at the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-4), mankind had multiplied and spoken one language. Cush who was the son of Ham and grandson of Noah (Genesis 10:1, 6), helped to plan with his son Nimrod, a blueprint by which to rule the world of humanity through a wicked counterfeit religion. Nimrod was the originator of sun worship and founder of Babylon. A Bible translation called the Targum says, “Nimrod became a mighty man of sin, a murderer of innocent men, and a rebel before the Lord.”

The beginning of Nimrod's evil plan had its origin at Babel which was later known as Babylon. This city of Babylon with a tower “whose top may reach unto heaven” was built by Nimrod (Genesis 10:8-10; 11:4). They called the tower “Babel, the gate to heaven,” but God called it what it was which was, “Babel, confusion,” for there God confused the language of the people which forced them to scatter. This heaven defying group of people wanted one government to rule the world and one religion to sway the hearts of mankind. This was Satan's attempt to defy God and His authority and the ring leader of his scheme was Nimrod. But God came down and stopped this world wide rebellion at Babel, in defiance of His command for mankind to replenish the earth (Genesis 9:1) by confusing their language into many languages so they could not understand one another's speech. Mankind discontinued the building of Babel and were scattered to different parts of the world (Genesis 11:8-9).

Nimrod had a plan to weld together and strengthen this evil religious system and so he married his own mother who was Semiramis. She was the first deified queen of Babylon and Nimrod was the first deified king. Semiramis was as wicked as her son Nimrod, and as much sold out to Satan and devil worship as did he. Incest was used here as a basis to unite this newly false religious system. Nimrod and his mother/wife would be greatly used by Satan in the following centuries to send countless millions and even billions of souls to hell.

Satan's plan was to develop a counterfeit, opposition system of religion to attract worship away from the true God of Heaven. This false system had its sacrificial plan just as God had a plan of sacrifice. But Satan's pagan worship required the offering up of human beings, which was often the sons and daughters of the worshipers. A counterfeit holy day was instituted in honor of the sun god, (Sun-day) and this was designed by Satan to rob God of his peculiar authority as the Creator of the universe as designated by His Holy day the Sabbath.

Have you noticed how occult symbols are typically reversed? Example: The occult symbol for a cross is an inverted cross. Most have never noticed that God uses the 6:1 principle. That is, you have 6 of something normal and then on the 7th something special happens. Example: God created the world in 6 days and the 7th is a special day of rest and worship. Crops were grown for 6 years and the 7th year the land was rested. Slaves were kept for 6 years and were to be set free on the 7th year. There are 6 weeks from Passover to the 7th week being Pentecost. There are 6 months from Passover to the 7th month being the Day of Atonement. Bible chronologists say we are currently approaching the end of 6000 years since creation and if Christ returns at the end of 6000 years, we will then have the 7000th year being the 1000 year millennium. (See Revelation 20:1-15) So 6000 years + 1000 years (millennium) = 7000 years. None of this is by chance and is God's plan. Observe the days of the week below.

Sunday
Day 1

Monday
Day 2

Tuesday
Day 3

Wednesday
Day 4

Thursday
Day 5

Friday
Day 6

Saturday
7th Day Sabbath

The first six days are normal but the 7th day is the “Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Remember that the occult uses the reverse symbol or is the opposite (in opposition) to God. So if Sunday was Satan's plan for a day of worship, and we have seen historically that it is, then his week would be the reverse of God's week. Instead of being the 6:1 principle it would be 1:6. As seen from the table below, this is the case and so it is not just two days side by side. It is the occult equivalent and this is not by chance but Satan's choice.

Sunday
Counterfeit Sabbath

Monday
Day 2

Tuesday
Day 3

Wednesday
Day 4

Thursday
Day 5

Friday
Day 6

Saturday
Day 7

We are fast approaching 6000 years (last generation now) and if Jesus comes at the end of 6000 years we would then have a 1000 year Sabbath. A thousands years a day just as God said. 2 Peter 3:8 “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” Six days work and the Seventh day rest. This Earth's history may end up being a mirror image of the creation week but with a thousand years to a day. That would put a whole new perspective on the meaning of the Sabbath now that is for sure. 6000 years of working and a 1000 years of rest. God does love doing things in numbers!

Nimrod's and Semiramis' followers plunged so deeply into sin and the occult that they even sacrificed babies to Satan in their worship of him. This became a common practice until Shem who was one of Noah's three sons and the great uncle of Nimrod, in his anger and wrath killed Nimrod and cut him up into small pieces as an example to others not to commit such abominable sins and not to follow such evil religious practices. (Shem was a godly man and it was through his seed the Messiah would come.)

Because of Nimrod's death, the followers of Nimrod and Semiramis were stunned and experienced much grief. Their religious hero was dead. They were afraid to continue in their worship of Satan for fear that what happened to Nimrod would also happen to them. For a short time the practices of this counterfeit religion ceased but Semiramis, the mother/wife of Nimrod, had a brilliant idea of how she could successfully revive her and Nimrod's pagan religion and give it a new form. Semiramis proclaimed that her son/husband Nimrod was then officially a god, and she as the mother/wife of Nimrod was a goddess. She then announced herself to be “The Queen of Heaven” and that she should be worshiped as such. She claimed that her spirit was the moon and when she died she would dwell in the moon, even as Nimrod was already in the sun. What a devilish brainstorm inspired by Satan!

Satan was laying the foundation for every system of falsehood and error the world has ever known. They took the truth of God and turned it into a lie and “worshipped and served the creature (on a wider application also includes Satan) more than the Creator.” Romans 1:25. This system of paganism, while professing to be the true religion, is actually devil worship. It professes and claims to be the truth of God but in reality it is Satan's masterpiece, the “mystery of iniquity.”

As Satan's church gained momentum, Semiramis pushed this satanic religious order underground. The followers of this counterfeit religion had to take secret oaths. The secret societies (some unscriptural lodges of today) thus had their beginning. The confessionals and priesthood were set up. The followers of this pagan religion confessed their sins to their priests. (what church continued this unbiblical pagan tradition?) See also 1 Timothy 2:5, Luke 5:20-21. By so doing, Semiramis could control her followers and exercise lordship over them. She boldly and brazenly proclaimed that she and her priests were the only ones who understood the mysteries of God and that they were the only possible way to God. Because of dedication to and fear of this false religious system, the followers of this religion fearfully complied.

Semiramis and her priests of Satan were deep into the occult, magic and illusion. They were masters of lies and deception. Everywhere there were statues or idols of this mother/child cult. Semiramis was soon hailed as “The Queen of Heaven” (Ashtarte). Her symbol became the moon and her husband/son Nimrod, was then called “Baal” (the “sun god”) Nimrod's symbol became the sun. The city of Babylon was the seat of Satan worship until its fall to the Medes and the Persians in 539 BC. At this time the Babylonian pagan priests left Babylon and went to Alexandria and Pergamos. See 666 number of the beast or the origin of 666 for more.

It should be noted that the majority of the Babylonian pagan priests went to Pergamos more so than Alexandria, so for many centuries after the fall of Babylon, Pergamos became the new seat of Satan (Revelation 2:12-13), but around 129 BC, opportunity arose for them to leave Pergamos and go to Rome and thus Rome became the final seat of Satan where he set up his church, and hence sun worship, which was practised on Sunday, was most prevalent in Alexandria and Rome by the time of Christ.

Church historian Socrates Scholasticus (5th century) wrote: “For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries [of the Lord's Supper] on the Sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this.” – Socrates Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History, Book 5, ch. 22.

So Baal worship was in full swing. It caught on fast and spread to many parts of the world. In Egypt, Semiramis became known as “Isis”, “The Queen of Heaven.” Nimrod became known as “Osiris”, the husband/son, and frequently called “Horus” (the sun god). In Phoenicia, Semiramis and Nimrod were worshipped as or known as Ashterath and Tammuz; in Greece, Aphrodite and Eros; in Rome, Venus and Cupid, and in China, Mother Shing Moo and her child.

When the cold season began every year, they believed their sun god was leaving them. It was on December 25th that they noticed the gradual return of the sun god. So they called this day the birth of the sun. Tammuz was hailed as the son of the sun. He was idolized and even worshipped and the first letter of his name became the symbol of sun worship. Human sacrifices to the sun god were offered on this initial letter made of wood, known as the cross “T” and this “T” for Tammuz is also the true origin of Catholics crossing themselves. His birthday of December 25 was honored more and more. Satan worked many years before the conception and birth of the true Messiah to counterfeit through sun worship His miraculous conception and birth. Satan succeeded many times in leading God's people into sin and pagan sun worship.

The true date of the birth of Christ is most likely between July and September but since the exact date of Christ's birthday was unknown, it was suggested, “Why not call it the same date as the birth of Tammuz, which was December 25?” This was the time when the sun had reached its lowest point on the horizon and started back up into the heavens and so the sun god had come to life, so to speak. So gradually December 25 came to be known as the birthday of Christ. The Papal Church finally instituted a special mass on that day, “Christ's Mass,” and so December 25 became “Christmas.” The yule log burning in the fire followed by the green tree lit with candles all came from the pagan worship representing Nimrod being dead, while his spirit still lived on in the sun and was alive again in Tammuz his son.

Jesus was crucified and resurrected in the spring of the year near the time of the moon festival. The devil was at work once again to bring the idea of having a celebration at the same time as the heathen but calling it “in honor of the resurrection.” And in regards to the worship of the moon goddess Semiramis, the so called queen of heaven. The cakes to the QUEEN OF HEAVEN were round and on them was cut a cross in honor of the sun god, and they were offered to the queen of heaven and today we call them “hot cross buns.” (Read Jeremiah 7:16-18). The forty days of “weeping for Tammuz” became Lent and at the close of Lent came Easter Sunday. The prophet Ezekiel was shown even greater abominations. (Read Ezekiel 8:12-18). This goddess Ishtar (Easter) came to be known as the goddess of springtime as in “new life,” or as history records it, the “goddess of reproduction.” The pagans would go to some mountain side early Sunday morning and worship this goddess as the sun was rising in the east. They gave themselves to immorality and indecency of every description. The eggs and rabbits were used as symbols of fertility and germination and hence “new life.” It all came into the Church gradually and was all blessed by the Catholic Church and given to the world. And some people wonder why God calls the Catholic Church Babylon!

“The use of temples, and these dedicated to particular saints, and ornamented on occasions with branches of trees; incense, lamps, and candles; votive offerings on recovery from illness; holy water; asylums; holydays and seasons, use of calendars, processions, blessings on the fields; sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure, the ring in marriage, turning to the East, images at a later date, perhaps the ecclesiastical chant, and the Kyrie Eleison are all of pagan origin, and sanctified by their adoption into the Church.” — An Essay on The Development of the Christian Doctrine John Henry “Cardinal Newman” p.373.

“It has often been charged… that Catholicism is overlaid with many pagan incrustations. Catholicism is ready to accept that accusation and even to make it her boast… the great god Pan is not really dead, he is baptized” — The Story of Catholicism p 37.

As time elapsed, stories spread worldwide about Semiramis and Nimrod as Baal worship was everywhere. (The above information on the beginning of Satan's church and its unscriptural practices is found in The Two Babylons, by Rev. Alexander Hislop) In his book he has composed a list of names adopted in other parts of the world that can be traced back to Semiramis and Nimrod in one way or another. The list of names are as follows:

SEMIRAMIS or Ashtarte	NIMROD or Baal the sun god
Cybele (Goddess Mother) Asia	Deoius (Asia)
Fortuna (Pagan Rome)	The Boy Jupiter (Pagan Rome)
Isis (The Queen of Heaven) Egypt	Osiris or Horus (Egypt)
Isi (Goddess Mother) India	Iswara (India)
Venus (Rome)	Cupid (Rome)
Ashterath (Phoenicia)	Tammuz (Phoenicia)
Aphrodite (Greece)	Eros (Greece)
Irene (Goddess of Peace) Greece	The Boy Plutus (Greece)
Ishtar (Babylon)	The Winged One (Babylon)
Rhea (Mother of Gods)	Orion (Constellation)
Diana (Ephesian)	Bacchus (God of Party going) of Ancient Greece
Shing Moo (Holy Mother of China)	The Centaur (Greece)

Satan pulled it off well as he had the whole world trapped into some form of Baal worship. The entire world had lapsed into polytheism (worship of many gods or idols). Mankind no longer desired to serve the true and living God and to accept His scriptural plan of salvation. (Romans 1:18-32).

Around 2000 BC in Abraham's day, Baal worship and its pagan rites had so permeated the human race that God called Abraham out from it to be the progenitor of a nation of people (the Israelites or Jews) who would be instructed by God through Moses and the prophets to be a shining light and an example of godliness to the heathen nations and reveal to them God's scriptural plan of salvation (Genesis 11:26-12: 1-5; Exodus 19:5-6; Hebrews 11:8).

The Jews were greatly blessed by God as His chosen people, who were to serve as His representatives of godliness to those heathen nations who had become entrapped by paganism, to evangelize those godless nations and to show them God's love. The Jews were repeatedly told that if they were to sin by serving other gods, to depart from the Lord and fail God in their mission as His representatives to those nations trapped in Baal worship, the Jews would suffer terribly at the hand of God and be dispersed into all the nations of the earth. (See Deuteronomy 4:1-40; 6:14-18; 7:6-26; 8:6-20; 10:12-20; 11:1-28; 12:28-32; 29:16-29; 30:11-20).

Before his death, Moses foretold that after his death the Jews would disobey and turn to other “gods” to worship and serve them (Deuteronomy 31:27, 29; 32:16-29). After Moses' death, Joshua took command and led the children of Israel across the River Jordan into Palestine. The Jews were ordered to exterminate the Canaanites of the land because they were so wicked and so deeply involved in the evil practices of Baal worship, and to take the land as their dwelling to be used for the glory of God in leading the ungodly nations to God and His plan of redemption. The Jews took the land and exterminated some of the inhabitants of the land but not all. The Jews here had already begun to disobey God. They soon became weary in their conquests of Palestine and stopped fighting. Soon afterwards the Israelites departed from their worship of the Lord and started to worship and serve other gods as Moses had predicted. The Jews soon became so involved in Baal worship and its pagan practices that some of them even sacrificed their children to Satan.

Because of their disobedience to God's command to be faithful in their worship of and service to the true and living God, the Jews would have to suffer. On many occasions God allowed the children of Israel to be captured by their enemies and to be persecuted. When the Jews cried out to God in sorrow for their sins, the Lord delivered them. The Lord raised up Judges to secure their deliverances. After each time the Lord brought about the deliverance of the captured, suffering children of Israel, the Jews would plunge back into sin and Baal worship. As time passed the Jews became even more involved in pagan worship in spite of God's warnings and chastisements. God raised up prophets to warn the Israelites to repent or suffer more. Prophet after prophet was raised up for that purpose and many of them were executed by the Jews. In 722 BC the ten Northern tribes were captured by the Assyrians and scattered never to return, and in 586 BC the Babylonians captured Judah and Jerusalem. This was the third time Babylon came up against them but this time brought about their total destruction as everything was torn down. After the Babylonian captivity in 539 BC at which time Babylon had fallen to the Persians, the Persians granted the Jews in Babylon permission to return to Jerusalem.

Many Jews did return to Palestine during the years 539 BC, 457 BC and 445 BC. Others doubtless returned between those years and after 445 BC. See also Daniels 70 weeks and prophecy of weeks. In 70 AD the Romans under General Titus captured Jerusalem and persecuted the Jews. The Jews final dispersion took place at this time. After 70 AD, the Jews had been dispersed into all the nations of the world to suffer. Nearly all nations who had received Jews eventually turned on them and persecuted them. The Jews have been the most hated and persecuted people in history and have suffered more than any other people. They disobeyed God and they had to suffer as God said they would.

When the Roman Empire was in power during the earthly life of Jesus and during the early Church period, the Roman Caesars were to be worshipped as gods. The early Christians were persecuted by the Romans because they would not bow down to the pagan Caesars. Satan directed this persecution of the early believers in an effort to stamp out Christianity. But instead of wiping out Christianity, persecution resulted in its growth! As more Christians were put to death, more and more Christians rose up to replace them. Satan saw that his directed persecution of the early believers would not obliterate Christianity so he moved to attack the Church from within instead of from without.

Satan devised a plan by which he would lay the foundation for and establish his own counterfeit church. Under Satan's direction paganism would get a new face. Satan would introduce to the world his own version of a “Christian Church.” As was indicated earlier, the Caesars were worshipped as gods. As the Roman Empire was near disintegration, the pagan Caesars did not want to lose their power in controlling the world, so they decided on a plan by which to keep their power and influence in the world. The Roman Caesars simply exchanged their Roman togas for religious costumes. Thus they could control the world's governments and their economies through religion.

After Constantine defeated Maxentius in 312 AD in a battle for the throne of Rome, Satan continued in his clever plan to build his own version of a “Christian Church.” After his ascension to the Roman Throne, Constantine issued his Edict of Toleration in 313 AD to stop the persecution of the true believers in Christ. Under Constantine the Christian Church for a time found relief from persecution. Satan had now temporarily stopped his persecution of the Christian Church from without, but he would now proceed to attack the Church from within. Since John said that antichrist came from the Church, one might ask who is the antichrist today?

Under Satan's direction, Constantine set up the “Council of Nicaea” and presided as “Summus Pontifex”, the official title of a Pope. Constantine's job was to mix paganism with a perverted form of Christianity to make his new religious organization look respectable. This mixture of paganism with some of the teaching of Christ was Satan's version of a “Christian Church.” This powerful religious institution would be later used by Satan to send millions of souls to hell and to cause the deaths of many Bible believing Christians.

Many changes took place in this Babylonian pagan church. Under Constantine, the pagans were permitted to bring their statues and idols of Semiramis, “The Queen of Heaven”, and Nimrod, “Baal”, “The Sun God', into the Church. The names were changed to the Virgin Mary, “Queen of Heaven” and little Jesus, “The Sun God.” For example: Is this Catholic image Mary and baby Jesus or is it Semiramis, “The Queen of Heaven” and son Nimrod? Note the pagan trident symbol from the head of what is supposedly baby Jesus and that the hand is displayed with two fingers and a thumb prominent, being another way of symbolizing the trident and is a Satanic hand sign symbolic of occult powers. This is also used by high Church officials and priests in blessings invoking the sign of the cross by motioning their right hand with two fingers and thumb casually extended. It is also found in freemasonry of which origins can be found in the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church erroneously say that Peter was the first so called Pope of this Papal system but in fact it was really Constantine. So under Constantine as its first Pope, the Roman Catholic Institution as we know it today had its beginning..

The Roman Catholic Church grew in power as the people in Rome were again under the priests and each succeeding Pope. Constantine had fifty Bibles made of perverted manuscripts composed by pagan worshippers of Baal from Alexandria. Alexandria was not only the seat of Baal worship but was also the headquarters of the most liberal philosophers. Those wicked philosophers produced their own perverted version of a Bible, and fifty such copies were made for Constantine to be given to the new “Church” over which he presided. The Latin Vulgate, authored by Jerome and based on the above fifty Bibles, later became the Roman Catholic Bible, which was kept from the people so that unscriptural traditions would have greater emphasis in the minds of the followers of the Pope.

The above information can be found in the books, The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop and the Angel of Light by Jack Chick. Alexander Hislop in his book also traces Roman Catholic sacraments, ceremonies, doctrines, confessionals, priesthood, etc. back to ancient Babylonian Baal worship. Roman Catholicism is based on ancient Babylonian Baal worship and on the man made traditions of the Church fathers. Catholicism is not based on the teachings of God's Word or on the Scriptural plan of salvation. So we find that Satan has had a long term plan for his church and sun worship. But what was his final plan, as in what became of this sun worship, which was practiced on Sunday, and was initially most prevalent in Alexandria and Rome? Too many people are too quick to write off the fourth Commandment as unimportant when clearly it is.

Roman Catholic Ten Commandments

APOLOGY: Please note that the following information is not intended to offend another and this would also be contrary to Christian teaching. It should also be noted that over the centuries many wonderful Christians from the Catholic Church have done outstanding missionary and other excellent Christian work. There are no doubt millions of people in the Catholic Church that are not aware of the things below and that is no reflection on their faith or love for Christ. This site is NOT anti-catholic and we love ALL people from all denominations. It is a simple case of the truth must always be preached as this is God's will. Please also read the note to Catholics about half way down

The table below shows the Ten Commandments as personally spoken and written by God using the King James translation and the Ten Commandments as changed by the Roman Catholic Church. They believe that their authority stands above the Word of God and that they can change God's times and laws and God will prescribe to their changes. You will note that they deleted the second Commandment and changed God's Sabbath to Sunday and split the tenth Commandment into two to get back to Ten Commandments. As a result the Roman Catholic version of the Ten Commandments is always one ahead of the King James in the Decalogue until the tenth Commandment when they break it into two and make it the ninth and tenth Commandments.

The following from the Catholic Encyclopaedia Vol. 4, p. 153 also confirms the deletion of the second Commandment and the change of the fourth. “The church, after changing the day of rest from the Jewish Sabbath of the seventh day of the week to the first made the third commandment refer to Sunday as the day to be kept holy as the Lord's Day.”

This truth can also be found from the following URL which you will need to copy and paste into the address bar as links promote search engine ranking and I cannot promote what is not Biblical truth. The Catholic version is the column on the right hand side titled “A Traditional Catechetical Formula.” The URL is http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/command.htm

In 1562 the Archbishop declared that tradition now stood above scripture. “The authority of the Church is illustrated most clearly by the scriptures, for on one hand she recommends them, declares them to be divine, and offers them to us to be read, and on the other hand, the legal precepts in the scriptures taught by the Lord have ceased by virtue of the same authority. The Sabbath, the most glorious day in the law, has been changed into the Lord's day. These and other similar matters have not ceased by virtue of Christ's teaching (for He says that He has come to fulfill the law, not to destroy it), but they have been changed by the authority of the Church.” — Gaspare de Posso Archbishop of Reggio, Council of Trent.

Most denominations you ask about the fourth Commandment will say the day is Sunday, otherwise you will receive as many as 1001 different excuses in avoidance of this one Commandment. Besides the five hundred plus denominations that have already rediscovered the truth about this Commandment, it seems the only other Church that acknowledges the truth is the one who changed the day without God's approval. Since they believe their authority stands above God's, they observe the wrong day also. If you ask the Catholic Church you will get a statement like the following, “Most Christians assume that Sunday is the biblically approved day of worship. The Catholic Church protests that it transferred Christian worship from the biblical Sabbath (Saturday) to Sunday, and that to try to argue that the change was made in the Bible is both dishonest and a denial of Catholic authority. If Protestantism wants to base its teachings only on the Bible, it should worship on Saturday.” — Rome's Challenge www.immaculateheart.com/maryonline Dec 2003. Watch this short video to find out what happened to those who did not obey the commandment of the Catholic Church in the dark ages. You can also read more Sabbath Statements from the Roman Catholic Church from this web site.

God gave a specific warning in His Word that the Catholic Church would change His laws as well as prophetic and other times. Through Jesuit priests commissioned by the Catholic Church, they are responsible for the manufactured prophecy in regards to a seven-year tribulation period that in the last few decades has spread like a plague throughout the world with the help of Satan and other fallen angels. This has successfully been achieved by the enemy by perpetuating a lie over the centuries that has been spread by top selling books and even fictional movies that people take as Gospel truth. The “left behind” series is one classic example of this. Incredibly, a large and growing number of people continue to believe this lie as a result. To find out more, you can read one of the web sites on the truth of the so called Secret Rapture or Rapture Truth.

The following verse is God's warning from the Bible that the Roman Catholic Church would in fact actually think to change His laws. As for the persecution of the saints, this was the torture and death of between 50 and 150 million Christians accused of being heretics for 1260 years called the dark ages. See Adam Clarke's Commentary on Daniel 7:25 and for very detailed information see who is the antichrist or antichrist truth for a brief version.

Daniel 7:25 “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change TIMES and LAWS: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.”

Note it says they would THINK to change laws. This is because in reality man cannot change God's law. They think they have changed it and boast they have changed it however, even though most Churches have come out of her and hence unknowingly followed her tradition, as far as God is concerned, His Commandments remain unchanged. God's law is eternal and unchanging as He is. Jesus commented the following in regards to putting human traditions in place of His law.

Mark 7:6-9 GNB says, “Jesus answered them, “How right Isaiah was when he prophesied about you! You are hypocrites, just as he wrote: 'These people, says God, honor me with their words, but their heart is really far away from me. It is no use for them to worship me, because they teach human rules as though they were my laws!' “You put aside God's command and obey human teachings.” And Jesus continued, “You have a clever way of rejecting God's law in order to uphold your own teaching.”

Bible Ten Commandments		Catholic Ten Commandments
1st	I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.	1st	I am the LORD thy God. Thou shalt have no strange gods before Me.
2nd	Exodus 20:4-6 You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my Commandments.		Deleted. See also idolatry in the Catholic Church (There is idolatry in the Papal system so the second Commandment has been deleted or sometimes it has been absorbed into the first. All remaining Commandments are therefore shifted along one count.)
3rd	Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God In vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.	2nd	Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain.
4th	Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD your God: in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.	3rd	Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day. (The Sabbath is the fourth Commandment by normal count. The day to be kept is no longer mentioned since they changed the Sabbath to Sunday.) (Note that God had more to say about the fourth Commandment than all others and with good reason. It is very important.)
5th	Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.	4th	Honour thy father and thy mother.
6th	Thou shalt not kill.	5th	Thou shalt not kill.
7th	Thou shalt not commit adultery.	6th	Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8th	Thou shalt not steal.	7th	Thou shalt not steal.
9th	Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.	8th	Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
10th	Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.	9th	Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife. (The Tenth Commandment is split into two to get back to Ten Commandments.)
		10th	Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods.

More quotes from the Roman Catholic Church about the Sabbath

We sincerely apologize to all Catholics reading these paragraphs but those who understand Bible prophecy also know the following is unmistakable truth that has to be taught to get as many people as possible into the kingdom. As shown above, the Catholic Church believe they have the right to change God's law, but it is ludicrous to think that mortal man can change the laws of the Creator of this universe. These are laws which God personally wrote in stone—a copy of His original set of the Ten Commandments that remain unchanged in the heavenly sanctuary which John saw in Revelation.

Below are a few more statements from the Roman Catholic Church which give the simple answer as to why most Churches now keep Sunday as the Sabbath. Revelation 13 tells us that Satan gave his power and authority to the Roman Catholic Church. Why? It was Satan's plan to have this Church change the Sabbath to Sunday. Why did Satan do this? The fourth Commandment is a SIGN as to who we worship and give our allegiance to. If we obey God and keep His Sabbath day Holy, we give our allegiance to God. If we obey the Commandment of the Catholic Church and keep their day Holy, who do we give our allegiance to then? The Catholic Church answers this question below with two of their quotes. But looking deeper, who gave this Church power so God's true day of worship could be changed? See the Sabbath in Bible Prophecy for 50 questions that expose the truth.

Does the Bible support the change to Sunday?

“Is not every Christian obliged to sanctify Sunday and to abstain on that day from unnecessary servile work? Is not the observance of this law among the most prominent of our sacred duties? But you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify.” — James Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of Our Fathers (1917 edition), p. 72-73 (16th Edition, p 111; 88th Edition, p. 89).

“For example, nowhere in the Bible do we find that Christ or the Apostles ordered that the Sabbath be changed from Saturday to Sunday. We have the commandment of God given to Moses to keep holy the Sabbath day, that is the 7th day of the week, Saturday. Today most Christians keep Sunday because it has been revealed to us by the [Roman Catholic] church outside the Bible.” — Catholic Virginian, October 3, 1947, p. 9, article “To Tell You the Truth.”

Who Made Sunday Holy?

“Perhaps the boldest thing, the most revolutionary change the Church ever did, happened in the first century. The holy day, the Sabbath, was changed from Saturday to Sunday. ‘The day of the Lord' was chosen, not from any direction noted in the Scriptures, but from the (Catholic) Church's sense of its own power…People who think that the Scriptures should be the sole authority, should logically become 7th Day Adventists, and keep Saturday holy.” — St. Catherine Church Sentinel, Algonac, Michigan, May 21, 1995.
“Question - Which is the Sabbath day?
“Answer - Saturday is the Sabbath day.
“Question - Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
“Answer - We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church, in the Council of Laodicea (A.D. 364), transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.” — Peter Geiermann, C.S.S.R., The Convert's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, p. 50, 3rd edition, 1957.
Whose Day of Worship is Sunday?
“It is well to remind the Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and all other Christians, that the Bible does not support them anywhere in their observance of Sunday. Sunday is an institution of the Roman Catholic Church, and those who observe the day observe a commandment of the Catholic Church.” — Priest Brady, in an address reported in The News, Elizabeth, New Jersey, March 18, 1903.

“They [the Protestants] deem it their duty to keep the Sunday holy. Why? Because the Catholic Church tells them to do so. They have no other reason…The observance of Sunday thus comes to be an ecclesiastical law entirely distinct from the divine law of Sabbath observance…The author of the Sunday law…is the Catholic Church.” — Ecclesiastical Review, February 1914.

Who Do We Reverence by Keeping Sunday Holy?

“It was the Catholic church which…has transferred this rest to Sunday in remembrance of the resurrection of our Lord. Therefore the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the (Catholic) church.” — Monsignor Louis Segur, Plain Talk About the Protestantism of Today, p. 213.

A note to Catholic Church members

There have been many genuine, well meaning Catholic Christians who have read this page and have either disagreed and or been offended with the truths presented here. Again we apologise for those who have been offended as no offence was ever intended in any way. These truths were as big a shock to us when we first discovered these things also and they deeply grieved us. It is only our desire to share Biblical truth and get as many people into the kingdom as possible. As would Christ, we desire that not one should perish as we also love all people from all denominations and walks of life.

Those that have been offended by the truths here have often sent emails accusing us of many things like being evil and in need of God's forgiveness. Those believing these things could not be further from the truth. Before sending an email to criticize us for what is written here, we pray that you will read the quotes below that were written personally by the Catholic Church, and then prayerfully consider if you believe these things are acceptable, loving and Christ like, or if teachings such as these is where the evil is found. If you do not agree with these quotes, then we humbly ask if you will please consider reading one of the web sites below which contain many more quotes and reveal what Bible prophecy and history show as being the real truth and how God really feels about the things this Church has done. We understand how extremely difficult these things must be to accept, but sadly they are true and there is so much more than what can be provided here. Rather than just taking offence, we pray that you will investigate to find if these things are truth as difficult as this may be..

If you agree that the Catholic Church has the right to murder and torture and burn those who do not believe what she teaches, then please do not send us an email as we cannot condone or agree with such things as torturing and murdering other Christians for any reason.

All the history books estimate the Catholic Church tortured and murdered between 50,000,000 to 150,000,000 people that they claimed were heretics. The following two quotes reveal who the Catholic Church refers to as heretics and the quotes that follow these explain and prove why they tortured and murdered these good Christians. It is also worth noting that most of these Christians they killed were actually Catholics themselves who disagreed with what the Church was doing. Select the following to watch a short video of a typical true story of the death of a Sabbath keeper by burning. This and much worse was very common in the Dark Ages by the Catholic Church.

“He is a heretic who does not believe what the Roman Hierarchy teaches.” — The American Textbook of Popery, p 164 (quoting from the “Directory for the Inquisitors”).

“Heretics (those who are not members of the Catholic Church or who do not hold to Catholic doctrine) worship a God who is a liar, and a Christ who is a liar.” — St. Augustine, (quoted in “Patrologiae Cursus Completus: Series Graca”, by Fr. J. P. Migne, Paris: 1866, 42:207).

We also respectfully disagree with this previous quote as God and our Saviour are not liars. The following three quotes state what the Catholic Church says should be done to heretics. Again, if you feel this is acceptable, please do not contact us, as this can only be described as totally unbiblical, evil and from the devil himself and there is nothing further we can do other than pray for those who believe this is or was acceptable.

“A heretic merits the pains of fire…By the Gospel, the canons, civil law, and custom, heretics must be burned.” — The American Textbook of Popery, p 164 (quoting from the “Directory for the Inquisitors”).

“When confronted with heresy, she (Catholic Church) does not content herself with persuasion, arguments of an intellectual and moral order appear to her insufficient, and she has recourse to force, to corporal punishment, to torture.” — The Rector of the Catholic Institute of Paris, H.M.A. Baudrillart, quoted in The Catholic Church, The Renassance, and Protestantism, p 182-183.

This final quote says Catholics should follow the Pope even if he were Satan himself. Again, I just simply cannot agree with this. Evil should never be worshipped and nor should any man on earth be worshipped as this is a form of idolatry in itself. Only the God head is worthy of worship according to the Bible.

“Even if the Pope were Satan incarnate, we ought not to raise up our heads against him, but calmly lie down to rest on his bosom. He who rebels against our Father is condemned to death, for that which we do to him we do to Christ: we honor Christ if we honor the Pope; we dishonor Christ if we dishonor the Pope. I know very well that many defend themselves by boasting: “They are so corrupt, and work all manner of evil!” But God has commanded that, even if the priests, the pastors, and Christ-on-earth were incarnate devils, we be obedient and subject to them, not for their sakes, but for the sake of God, and out of obedience to Him.” — St. Catherine of Siena, SCS, p. 201-202, p. 222, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 5: “The Book of Obedience”, Chapter 1: “There is No Salvation Without Personal Submission to the Pope”).

Please don't be angry or condemn us for these unbiblical quotes above, as they were NOT written by us but by the Catholic Church.

Most Catholics are unaware of these things because they are not spoken of or taught. The facts about the millions that the Church tortured and murdered are also not our thoughts or opinion, they are a matter of historical record which can be found in thousands of history books. Eg: Look up the ‘Spanish Inquisition’ or read “Fox's Book of Martyrs.” It is recommended you read it on an empty stomach as the things the Church did could make one feel quite unwell.

Please don't send condemning emails to us because the Bible, the history books and all the early Protestants recognised and acknowledged that the Catholic Church was the antichrist beast power described in Daniel 7 and Revelation 13. Again these are not our thoughts. Please note that the term beast in the Bible does not mean beast as in beastly. In prophecy animals are used to depict various kings or kingdoms eg: Daniel 7:23 “Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.” For those wondering, this verse is referring to the Iron monarchy of Rome.

You may be surprised to know that these early Protestant reformers that first identified the Catholic Church as the antichrist power were actually people who had belonged to the Catholic Church. For those who do not know what the Protestant reformation was, this occurred around the 1500's when many good Catholic people started protesting against the fact that the Catholic Church felt that they had the right to imprison, murder, torture and burn at the stake anyone who was not following their doctrines of which many originated from paganism.

During the Dark Ages, the Catholic Church forced everyone to follow their rules and manmade traditions and hence it was also forbidden to read or own your own Bible. But as copies of the Bible began to circulate, it eventually resulted in around 50% of the many sincere Catholic Christians realizing that they should be following the Bible and the Bible alone and that it was wrong for the Church to enforce their rules upon people for any reason let alone by the threat of torture and death. It was at least half of the Catholic Christians who left in protest under threat of martyrdom. Most of these now ex-Catholics died by the hand of the very Church that they had once believed in and belonged to.

Below are quotes that were written by these many famous early reformers who as previously stated were originally Roman Catholics themselves and protested against what the Catholic Church was doing and realised that they should be following the Bible and not pagan traditions. Martin Luther for example was a Roman Catholic priest. So what did the major Protestant Reformers teach about the Antichrist? Again, the following quotations are not indented to foster ill will toward any human being, for this would be contrary to teaching of Jesus Christ (John 13:34-35), but rather to simply present what some of the most influential Christian leaders who have ever lived believed about “the little horn” (Daniel 7:8), “the beast” (Revelation 13:1), and “the man of sin” (2 Thessalonians 2:3) and about Antichrist.

Martin Luther (1483-1546) (Lutheran): “Luther … proved, by the revelations of Daniel and St. John, by the epistles of St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. Jude, that the reign of Antichrist, predicted and described in the Bible, was the Papacy … And all the people did say, Amen! A holy terror seized their souls. It was Antichrist whom they beheld seated on the pontifical throne. This new idea, which derived greater strength from the prophetic descriptions launched forth by Luther into the midst of his contemporaries, inflicted the most terrible blow on Rome.” Taken from J. H. Merle D'aubigne's History of the Reformation of the Sixteen Century, book vi, chapter xii, p. 215. Based on prophetic studies, Martin Luther finally declared, “We here are of the conviction that the papacy is the seat of the true and real Antichrist.” (Aug. 18, 1520). — The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, by LeRoy Froom. Vol. 2., pg. 121.

John Wesley (1703-1791) (Methodist): Speaking of the Papacy, John Wesley wrote, “He is in an emphatical sense, the Man of Sin, as he increases all manner of sin above measure. And he is, too, properly styled the Son of Perdition, as he has caused the death of numberless multitudes, both of his opposers and followers… He it is…that exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped…claiming the highest power, and highest honour…claiming the prerogatives which belong to God alone.” — Antichrist and His Ten Kingdoms, by John Wesley, pg. 110.

John Calvin (1509-1564) (Presbyterian): “Some persons think us too severe and censorious when we call the Roman pontiff Antichrist. But those who are of this opinion do not consider that they bring the same charge of presumption against Paul himself, after whom we speak and whose language we adopt… I shall briefly show that (Paul's words in II Thess. 2) are not capable of any other interpretation than that which applies them to the Papacy.” — Institutes of the Christian Religion, by John Calvin.

Roger Williams (1603-1683) (First Baptist Pastor in America): Pastor Williams spoke of the Pope as “the pretended Vicar of Christ on earth, who sits as God over the Temple of God, exalting himself not only above all that is called God, but over the souls and consciences of all his vassals, yea over the Spirit of Christ, over the Holy Spirit, yea, and God himself…speaking against the God of heaven, thinking to change times and laws; but he is the son of perdition (II Thess. 2).” — The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, by Froom, Vol. 3, pg. 52.

Cotton Mather (1663-1728) (Congregational Theologian): “The oracles of God foretold the rising of an Antichrist in the Christian Church: and in the Pope of Rome, all the characteristics of that Antichrist are so marvelously answered that if any who read the Scriptures do not see it, there is a marvelous blindness upon them.” — The Fall of Babylon by Cotton Mather in Froom's book, The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, Vol. 3, pg. 113.

The Westminster Confession of Faith (1647): “There is no other head of the church but the Lord Jesus Christ. Nor can the pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof; but is that Antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition that exalteth himself in the church against Christ and all that is called God.” — Philip Schaff's, The Creeds of Christendom, With a History and Critical Notes, III, p. 658, 659, ch. 25, sec. 6.

A Great Cloud of Witnesses: “Wycliffe, Tyndale, Luther, Calvin, Cranmer; in the seventeenth century, Bunyan, the translators of the King James Bible and the men who published the Westminster and Baptist confessions of Faith; Sir Isaac Newton, Wesley, Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards; and more recently Spurgeon, Bishop J.C. Ryle and Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones; these men among countless others, all saw the office of the Papacy as the antichrist.” — All Roads Lead to Rome, by Michael de Semlyen. Dorchestor House Publications, p. 205. 1991.

When you ask who is the antichrist today, people instantly start thinking of someone who is sinister and against Christ, but the word antichrist also means in place of Christ as is the case in the Bible. When John spoke of antichrists, he was NOT referring to people who were against Christ and illustrates this well by pointing out that they were originally part of the early Church but went out on their own as did the Church of Rome. See 1 John 2:18-19. The following is just one of the many quotes from the Catholic Church that could be given that show they meet this criterion perfectly. “The Pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, but he is Jesus Christ, Himself, hidden under the veil of human flesh.” — Catholic National, July 1895.

God is also very displeased with the changes she (the Catholic Church) has made to His law and doctrinal truths and also the many excellent Catholic Christians and others she has murdered over the centuries. Note that in Bible prophecy a woman represents a Church as Christ is the bridegroom and the Church is His bride. Totally inaccurate Catholic Quote. The Catholic Church frequently calls herself the Mother Church and refers to herself as she or her in her writings, speeches and quotes. The following verse speaks of the blood of the millions she has shed. Revelation 17:6 “And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus:…” Many of these Martyrs just spoken of were wonderful Catholic Christians killed during the Dark Ages that chose to follow God and the Bible faithfully. God knows that there are still millions of wonderful Catholics ignorantly caught up in this system and in Revelation 18:4, God makes a call for his true children to come out of her. It reads, “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, COME OUT OF HER, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues.”

As you have now seen many times, the contents of this page are not our own thoughts or ideas. Almost all of what is presented here is from Catholic Church resources or has been originally written by people from the Catholic Church and is supported by thousands of history books. But most importantly of all, it is substantiated by the Word of God, and the book of Revelation also instructs us to preach these truths to the world. So what choice do we have? Do we remain silent and be reprimanded by God one day for failing to share these truths he has revealed to us and instructed us to teach? Or do we do the best we can to share these truths as gently, humbly and as lovingly as possible to the millions of wonderful Catholic Christians that are in the world and unaware of these things? This then gives those that are God's true children the choice to acknowledge or ignore God's call to come out of her and find a Church that is as close as possible to God's original Church.

In a recent address to the nations that Pope Benedict made, he caused a major uproar among many Churches as he referred to the Catholic Church as being the Mother Church and called for all the daughter Churches to come back to her. They are called the daughter Churches because they originally came from the Catholic Church, eg: Martin Luther, who had been a Catholic priest established the Lutheran Church. Unfortunately, many of these daughter Churches have ignorantly inherited various false doctrines and pagan beliefs from the Mother Church. The terms Mother Church and Daughter Church are used, because as previously stated, in Bible prophecy a Woman represents a Church, eg: The Church is the Bride of Christ.

Many Catholics believe that there is no idolatry in their Church and in many cases this may not be apparent in their own Church but exists worse than you could ever imagine in the Catholic system and is especially obvious in South America and in Rome. For example, the Catholic Church originally changed the Sabbath to Sunday in favour of Sun Worship as the Catholic Church was entrenched in Sun Worship especially in the early days. Another such example, as paganism was brought into the Catholic Church the pagan statues had to be given Christian names, eg: the Statue of St Peter in St Peters Cathedral was originally the statue of the pagan god Jupiter. This statue has had its foot kissed away and replaced several times because of the multitude of Catholics that have bowed down to this statue and kissed its foot. There can be no other name for this other than idolatry, especially when this was originally a pagan god. There are many more such examples that could be given of where the Catholic Church is involved in worshiping other gods. Many people don't realise that the biggest sun dial in the world is the eight-rayed sun wheel, which was symbolic of the god Ishtar and is located in St Peters Square in the Vatican seen in the picture to the left. You will note in the following verse that God refers to Israel as a harlot because she was guilty of worshiping other gods.

Jeremiah 3:8 “And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the HARLOT also.”

The following verse should now make more sense. Here God is calling the Catholic Church the Mother Church. As we have just seen, the Catholic Church also refers to herself as the Mother Church and she is called the Mother of Harlots in this verse because she has been guilty of worshiping other gods and as previously stated has Daughter Churches.

Revelation 17:5 “And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”

The only reason we have given the extra information in these previous few paragraphs is so that if one chooses to acknowledge God's call to come out of her (Catholic Church), the last thing one wants to do is to end up in one of the Daughter Churches instead, which of course God also wants one to avoid. Hence the web site who is the Remnant Church will help one find a suitable Church if one chooses to follow this through.

We do indeed understand how hard these things must be to accept but there is no shortage of evidence to verify these facts that are NOT our own thoughts or opinions. Truth must always be the ultimate goal as Jesus is the truth, and so we prayerfully ask that you do read the web sites given previously above and check for yourself against the Bible and the history books so you can discover for yourself whether this is Biblical and historical fact. Once again, please accept our apology for any hurt that these truths may have caused you as this was definitely NOT our intention.

LUTHER’S 95 THESES: AN INTERVIEW WITH CARL TRUEMAN

This Sunday is Halloween. But more importantly, it’s Reformation Day—when the church celebrates and commemorates October 31, 1517. It was on this day (a Saturday) that a 33-year-old theology professor at Wittenberg University walked over to the Castle Church in Wittenberg and nailed a paper of 95 theses to the door, hoping to spark an academic discussion about their contents. In God’s providence and unbeknownst to anyone else that day, it would become a key event in igniting the Reformation.

I thought it might be helpful to ask a few questions of Carl Trueman, Professor of Historical Theology and Church History, and Academic Dean, at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Dr. Trueman wrote his dissertation on Luther’s Legacy, teaches on Luther’s life and theology, and is writing the volume on Luther for the Theologians on the Christian Life series, forthcoming from Crossway, edited by Steve Nichols and me.

Had Luther ever done this before—nail a set of theses to the Wittenberg door? If so, did previous attempts have any impact?

I am not sure if he had ever nailed up theses before, but he had certainly proposed sets of such for academic debate, which was all he was really doing on October 31, 1517. In fact, in September of that same year, he had led a debate on scholastic theology where he said far more radical things than were in the Ninety-Five Theses. Ironically, this earlier debate, now often considered the first major public adumbration of his later theology, caused no real stir in the church at all.

What was the point of nailing something to the Wittenberg door? Was this a common practice?

It was simply a convenient public place to advertise a debate, and not an unusual or uncommon practice. In itself, it was no more radical than putting up an announcement on a public notice board.

What precisely is a “thesis” in this context?

A thesis is simply a statement being brought forward for debate.

What was an “indulgence”?

An indulgence was a piece of paper, a certificate, which guaranteed the purchaser (or the person for whom the indulgence was purchased) that a certain amount of time in purgatory would be remitted as a result of the financial transaction.

At this point did Luther have a problem with indulgences per se, or was he merely critiquing the abuse of indulgences?

This is actually quite a complicated question to answer.

First, Luther was definitely critiquing what he believes to be an abuse of indulgences. For him, an indulgence could have a positive function; the problem with those being sold by Johann Tetzel in 1517 is that remission of sin’s penalty has been radically separated from the actual repentance and humility of the individual receiving the same.

Second, it would appear that the Church herself was not clear on where the boundaries were relative to indulgences, and so Luther’s protest actually provoked the Church into having to reflect upon her practices, to establish what was and was not legitimate practice.

Was Luther trying to start a major debate by nailing these to the door?

The matter was certainly one of pressing pastoral concern for him. Tetzel was not actually allowed to sell his indulgences in Electoral Saxony (the territory where Wittenberg was located) because Frederick the Wise, Luther’s later protector, had his own trade in relics. Many of his parishioners, however, were crossing over into the neighboring territory of Ducal Saxony, where Tetzel was plying his trade.

Luther had been concerned about the matter of indulgences for some time. Thus, earlier in 1517, he had preached on the matter and consulted others for their opinions on the issue. By October, he was forced by the pastoral situation to act.

Having said all that, Luther was certainly not intending to split the church at this point or precipitate the Holy Roman Empire and the Papacy into conflict and crisis. He was simply trying to address a deep pastoral concern.

Was Luther a “Protestant” at this point? Was he a “Lutheran”?

No, on both counts. He himself tells us in 1545 that, in 1517, he was a committed Catholic who would have murdered—or at least been willing to see murder committed—in the name of the Pope. There is some typical Luther hyperbole there, but the theology of the Ninety-Five Theses is not particularly radical, and key Lutheran doctrines, such as justification by grace through faith alone, are not yet present. He was an angry Catholic, hoping that, when the Pope heard about Teztel, he would intervene to stop the abuse.

How did that act of nailing these theses to the door ignite the Reformation?

On one level, I am inclined to say “Goodness only knows.” As a pamphlet of popular revolution, it is, with the exception of the occasional rhetorical flourish, a remarkably dull piece of work which requires a reasonably sound knowledge of late medieval Catholic theology and practice even to understand many of its statements. Nevertheless, it seems to have struck a popular chord, being rapidly translated into German and becoming a bestseller within weeks. The easy answer is, therefore, “By the providence of God”; but, as a historian, I always like to try to tie things down to some set of secondary or more material causes.

Certainly, it was used in a way that appealed to popular anti-clericalism, resentment of the Roman curia, and a desire to stop money flowing out of German speaking territories to Rome. Yet, even so, the revolutionary power of such a technical composition is, in retrospect, still quite surprising.

For those today who want to read the 95 Theses, what would you recommend?

The place to start is probably Stephen Nichols’s edition (with an introduction and notes).

Nevertheless, if you really want to understand Luther’s theology, and why it is important, you will need to look beyond the Ninety-Five Theses. Probably the best place to start would be Robert Kolb and Charles P. Arand, The Genius of Luther’s Theology.

The illustrations in the right, painted by Greg Copeland, are used by permission of Concordia Publishing House and found in Paul Maier’s excellent book for older kids, Martin Luther: A Man Who Changed the World.

Disputation of Doctor Martin Luther
on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences
by Dr. Martin Luther (1517)

Published in:

Works of Martin Luther:
Adolph Spaeth, L.D. Reed, Henry Eyster Jacobs, et Al., Trans. & Eds.
(Philadelphia: A. J. Holman Company, 1915), Vol.1, pp. 29-38
_______________

Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light, the following propositions will be discussed at Wittenberg, under the presidency of the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and of Sacred Theology, and Lecturer in Ordinary on the same at that place. Wherefore he requests that those who are unable to be present and debate orally with us, may do so by letter.

In the Name our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

1. Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said Poenitentiam agite, willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance.

2. This word cannot be understood to mean sacramental penance, i.e., confession and satisfaction, which is administered by the priests.

3. Yet it means not inward repentance only; nay, there is no inward repentance which does not outwardly work divers mortifications of the flesh.

4. The penalty [of sin], therefore, continues so long as hatred of self continues; for this is the true inward repentance, and continues until our entrance into the kingdom of heaven.

5. The pope does not intend to remit, and cannot remit any penalties other than those which he has imposed either by his own authority or by that of the Canons.

6. The pope cannot remit any guilt, except by declaring that it has been remitted by God and by assenting to God's remission; though, to be sure, he may grant remission in cases reserved to his judgment. If his right to grant remission in such cases were despised, the guilt would remain entirely unforgiven.

7. God remits guilt to no one whom He does not, at the same time, humble in all things and bring into subjection to His vicar, the priest.

8. The penitential canons are imposed only on the living, and, according to them, nothing should be imposed on the dying.

9. Therefore the Holy Spirit in the pope is kind to us, because in his decrees he always makes exception of the article of death and of necessity.

10. Ignorant and wicked are the doings of those priests who, in the case of the dying, reserve canonical penances for purgatory.

11. This changing of the canonical penalty to the penalty of purgatory is quite evidently one of the tares that were sown while the bishops slept.

12. In former times the canonical penalties were imposed not after, but before absolution, as tests of true contrition.

13. The dying are freed by death from all penalties; they are already dead to canonical rules, and have a right to be released from them.

14. The imperfect health [of soul], that is to say, the imperfect love, of the dying brings with it, of necessity, great fear; and the smaller the love, the greater is the fear.

15. This fear and horror is sufficient of itself alone (to say nothing of other things) to constitute the penalty of purgatory, since it is very near to the horror of despair.

16. Hell, purgatory, and heaven seem to differ as do despair, almost-despair, and the assurance of safety.

17. With souls in purgatory it seems necessary that horror should grow less and love increase.

18. It seems unproved, either by reason or Scripture, that they are outside the state of merit, that is to say, of increasing love.

19. Again, it seems unproved that they, or at least that all of them, are certain or assured of their own blessedness, though we may be quite certain of it.

20. Therefore by "full remission of all penalties" the pope means not actually "of all," but only of those imposed by himself.

21. Therefore those preachers of indulgences are in error, who say that by the pope's indulgences a man is freed from every penalty, and saved;

22. Whereas he remits to souls in purgatory no penalty which, according to the canons, they would have had to pay in this life.

23. If it is at all possible to grant to any one the remission of all penalties whatsoever, it is certain that this remission can be granted only to the most perfect, that is, to the very fewest.

24. It must needs be, therefore, that the greater part of the people are deceived by that indiscriminate and highsounding promise of release from penalty.

25. The power which the pope has, in a general way, over purgatory, is just like the power which any bishop or curate has, in a special way, within his own diocese or parish.

26. The pope does well when he grants remission to souls [in purgatory], not by the power of the keys (which he does not possess), but by way of intercession.

27. They preach man who say that so soon as the penny jingles into the money-box, the soul flies out [of purgatory].

28. It is certain that when the penny jingles into the money-box, gain and avarice can be increased, but the result of the intercession of the Church is in the power of God alone.

29. Who knows whether all the souls in purgatory wish to be bought out of it, as in the legend of Sts. Severinus and Paschal.

30. No one is sure that his own contrition is sincere; much less that he has attained full remission.

31. Rare as is the man that is truly penitent, so rare is also the man who truly buys indulgences, i.e., such men are most rare.

32. They will be condemned eternally, together with their teachers, who believe themselves sure of their salvation because they have letters of pardon.

33. Men must be on their guard against those who say that the pope's pardons are that inestimable gift of God by which man is reconciled to Him;

34. For these "graces of pardon" concern only the penalties of sacramental satisfaction, and these are appointed by man.

35. They preach no Christian doctrine who teach that contrition is not necessary in those who intend to buy souls out of purgatory or to buy confessionalia.

36. Every truly repentant Christian has a right to full remission of penalty and guilt, even without letters of pardon.

37. Every true Christian, whether living or dead, has part in all the blessings of Christ and the Church; and this is granted him by God, even without letters of pardon.

38. Nevertheless, the remission and participation [in the blessings of the Church] which are granted by the pope are in no way to be despised, for they are, as I have said, the declaration of divine remission.

39. It is most difficult, even for the very keenest theologians, at one and the same time to commend to the people the abundance of pardons and [the need of] true contrition.

40. True contrition seeks and loves penalties, but liberal pardons only relax penalties and cause them to be hated, or at least, furnish an occasion [for hating them].

41. Apostolic pardons are to be preached with caution, lest the people may falsely think them preferable to other good works of love.

42. Christians are to be taught that the pope does not intend the buying of pardons to be compared in any way to works of mercy.

43. Christians are to be taught that he who gives to the poor or lends to the needy does a better work than buying pardons;

44. Because love grows by works of love, and man becomes better; but by pardons man does not grow better, only more free from penalty.

45. 45. Christians are to be taught that he who sees a man in need, and passes him by, and gives [his money] for pardons, purchases not the indulgences of the pope, but the indignation of God.

46. Christians are to be taught that unless they have more than they need, they are bound to keep back what is necessary for their own families, and by no means to squander it on pardons.

47. Christians are to be taught that the buying of pardons is a matter of free will, and not of commandment.

48. Christians are to be taught that the pope, in granting pardons, needs, and therefore desires, their devout prayer for him more than the money they bring.

49. Christians are to be taught that the pope's pardons are useful, if they do not put their trust in them; but altogether harmful, if through them they lose their fear of God.

50. Christians are to be taught that if the pope knew the exactions of the pardon-preachers, he would rather that St. Peter's church should go to ashes, than that it should be built up with the skin, flesh and bones of his sheep.

51. Christians are to be taught that it would be the pope's wish, as it is his duty, to give of his own money to very many of those from whom certain hawkers of pardons cajole money, even though the church of St. Peter might have to be sold.

52. The assurance of salvation by letters of pardon is vain, even though the commissary, nay, even though the pope himself, were to stake his soul upon it.

53. They are enemies of Christ and of the pope, who bid the Word of God be altogether silent in some Churches, in order that pardons may be preached in others.

54. Injury is done the Word of God when, in the same sermon, an equal or a longer time is spent on pardons than on this Word.

55. It must be the intention of the pope that if pardons, which are a very small thing, are celebrated with one bell, with single processions and ceremonies, then the Gospel, which is the very greatest thing, should be preached with a hundred bells, a hundred processions, a hundred ceremonies.

56. The "treasures of the Church," out of which the pope. grants indulgences, are not sufficiently named or known among the people of Christ.

57. That they are not temporal treasures is certainly evident, for many of the vendors do not pour out such treasures so easily, but only gather them.

58. Nor are they the merits of Christ and the Saints, for even without the pope, these always work grace for the inner man, and the cross, death, and hell for the outward man.

59. St. Lawrence said that the treasures of the Church were the Church's poor, but he spoke according to the usage of the word in his own time.

60. Without rashness we say that the keys of the Church, given by Christ's merit, are that treasure;

61. For it is clear that for the remission of penalties and of reserved cases, the power of the pope is of itself sufficient.

62. The true treasure of the Church is the Most Holy Gospel of the glory and the grace of God.

63. But this treasure is naturally most odious, for it makes the first to be last.

64. On the other hand, the treasure of indulgences is naturally most acceptable, for it makes the last to be first.

65. Therefore the treasures of the Gospel are nets with which they formerly were wont to fish for men of riches.

66. The treasures of the indulgences are nets with which they now fish for the riches of men.

67. The indulgences which the preachers cry as the "greatest graces" are known to be truly such, in so far as they promote gain.

68. Yet they are in truth the very smallest graces compared with the grace of God and the piety of the Cross.

69. Bishops and curates are bound to admit the commissaries of apostolic pardons, with all reverence.

70. But still more are they bound to strain all their eyes and attend with all their ears, lest these men preach their own dreams instead of the commission of the pope.

71. He who speaks against the truth of apostolic pardons, let him be anathema and accursed!

72. But he who guards against the lust and license of the pardon-preachers, let him be blessed!

73. The pope justly thunders against those who, by any art, contrive the injury of the traffic in pardons.

74. But much more does he intend to thunder against those who use the pretext of pardons to contrive the injury of holy love and truth.

75. To think the papal pardons so great that they could absolve a man even if he had committed an impossible sin and violated the Mother of God -- this is madness.

76. We say, on the contrary, that the papal pardons are not able to remove the very least of venial sins, so far as its guilt is concerned.

77. It is said that even St. Peter, if he were now Pope, could not bestow greater graces; this is blasphemy against St. Peter and against the pope.

78. We say, on the contrary, that even the present pope, and any pope at all, has greater graces at his disposal; to wit, the Gospel, powers, gifts of healing, etc., as it is written in I. Corinthians xii.

79. To say that the cross, emblazoned with the papal arms, which is set up [by the preachers of indulgences], is of equal worth with the Cross of Christ, is blasphemy.

80. The bishops, curates and theologians who allow such talk to be spread among the people, will have an account to render.

81. This unbridled preaching of pardons makes it no easy matter, even for learned men, to rescue the reverence due to the pope from slander, or even from the shrewd questionings of the laity.

82. To wit: -- "Why does not the pope empty purgatory, for the sake of holy love and of the dire need of the souls that are there, if he redeems an infinite number of souls for the sake of miserable money with which to build a Church? The former reasons would be most just; the latter is most trivial."

83. Again: -- "Why are mortuary and anniversary masses for the dead continued, and why does he not return or permit the withdrawal of the endowments founded on their behalf, since it is wrong to pray for the redeemed?"

84. Again: -- "What is this new piety of God and the pope, that for money they allow a man who is impious and their enemy to buy out of purgatory the pious soul of a friend of God, and do not rather, because of that pious and beloved soul's own need, free it for pure love's sake?"

85. Again: -- "Why are the penitential canons long since in actual fact and through disuse abrogated and dead, now satisfied by the granting of indulgences, as though they were still alive and in force?"

86. Again: -- "Why does not the pope, whose wealth is to-day greater than the riches of the richest, build just this one church of St. Peter with his own money, rather than with the money of poor believers?"

87. Again: -- "What is it that the pope remits, and what participation does he grant to those who, by perfect contrition, have a right to full remission and participation?"

88. Again: -- "What greater blessing could come to the Church than if the pope were to do a hundred times a day what he now does once, and bestow on every believer these remissions and participations?"

89. "Since the pope, by his pardons, seeks the salvation of souls rather than money, why does he suspend the indulgences and pardons granted heretofore, since these have equal efficacy?"

90. To repress these arguments and scruples of the laity by force alone, and not to resolve them by giving reasons, is to expose the Church and the pope to the ridicule of their enemies, and to make Christians unhappy.

91. If, therefore, pardons were preached according to the spirit and mind of the pope, all these doubts would be readily resolved; nay, they would not exist.

92. Away, then, with all those prophets who say to the people of Christ, "Peace, peace," and there is no peace!

93. Blessed be all those prophets who say to the people of Christ, "Cross, cross," and there is no cross!

94. Christians are to be exhorted that they be diligent in following Christ, their Head, through penalties, deaths, and hell;

95. And thus be confident of entering into heaven rather through many tribulations, than through the assurance of peace.

Did Constantine Change the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday?

Many are asking did Constantine change the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. The short answer is No! Did Constantine's first Sunday law play a key part in the final change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday? The answer is an unmistakable resounding Yes!

Please consider carefully the following two questions. Does Satan hate God and His law? And since breaking the law of God is sin, would Satan attack and attempt to change God's law and deceive us on the truth of obedience to it? The wise will understand that he would and has attacked the Ten Commandment law of God and that there can be no doubt that he would do so. When did he first begin this attack on planet earth? In the very beginning in the Garden of Eden..

And while the second Commandment defines who and what we should not worship, the fourth Commandment defines who it is we do worship. Most are unaware of this fact and yet there is no shortage of scriptures both clearly stating and demonstrating this. Satan wanted to be worshipped like the most High (Isaiah 14:12-14) and so instituted his own church and his own day of worship. And when did this begin? This can traced back as far as the tower of Babel around 2000 B.C. See the origin of Babylon and Sun worship first for a better understanding of this topic and the role of Emperor Constantine.

It should come as no surprise that Satan has had no trouble in finding those he can deceive into posting false information about the Sabbath and hence attack any facts that prove there has been foul play with the fourth Commandment. So in an attempt to cover up the truth on the part Constantine played that resulted in the final change to the Sabbath, the proponents' whole argument is typically that Emperor Constantine did not change the Sabbath and only instituted the first Sunday law. That much in fact is true, but there is a lot more to the story which they very conveniently fail to mention like why and the major role Constantine did play in the change of the Sabbath to Sunday.

The deceived proponents usually say something like it is well documented that the early Church adopted Sunday as their day of worship. This statement is false and based on the abuse of two or three scriptures that refer to the first day of the week such as Acts 20:7 and 1 Corinthians 16:2. And if their statement was true, then there would have to be a very clear instruction from God as Jesus made it extremely clear that no change would occur to the law. This is the Ten Commandment law of God and something this important does not change on assumptions. There would always be very clear scriptures if there were to be so much as a jot or a tittle of a change. See Matthew 5:18 and Luke 16:17.

If the early Church really had changed to Sunday worship, the Apostles would have been instructed to do so by God and yet no such instruction exists. And absolutely all scriptures relating to worship in the Church would be on Sunday in the book of Acts if this were true, which would be many scriptures. So how many verses are there in the book of Acts showing Christians worshipping in the Synagogue (Church) on the first day of the week? Zero! There is not one single scripture! How many scriptures are there that show both Jew and Gentile worshipping in the synagogue on the Sabbath? Every single one of them and more than you can count on both hands! Not just those two or three scriptures that say “first day of the week” that do not even occur in a Church and are bad assumptions and deliberate attempts to bury a Commandment of God. Here are just a few examples of scriptures that are not assumptions unlike those trying to prove a fallacy: Mark 1:21, Mark 6:2, Luke 4:16, Luke 6:6, Luke 13:10, Acts 13:14, Acts 13:27, Acts 13:42, 44, Acts 15:21, Acts 17:1-2 and Acts 18:4. See what day is the Sabbath and who changed the Sabbath for full detail and all the proof.

These same people who are determined to squash the Sabbath day truth also typically quote Colossians 2:16, Galatians 4:10 and Romans 14:5. Are these scriptures all talking about the same thing? Yes! Are they talking about the Sabbath of the Lord? Not a chance! See Galatians and the law for a very misunderstood book.

Note what The People's New Testament (1891) by B. W. Johnson states in regards to these scriptures.
“Romans 14:5 – One man esteemeth one day above another. A second difference of opinion is now cited. Some, Jewish converts or Gentiles who did not understand that the old covenant was ended, believed that the Jewish sabbaths and new moons should be kept sacred. Compare Col_2:16, and Gal_4:10.”

This Bible commentary links all three passages but not with the Sabbath of the Lord thy God but the Mosaic Law with all the Jewish ceremonial sabbaths such as Passover and the Day of Atonement as well as the New Moon festivals etc. These were practiced because of sin and that is why they all ended at the cross.

Here is another from the Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge by Canne, Browne, Blayney, Scott on Romans 14:5.
“Romans 14:5 – esteemeth: Gal_4:9-10; Col_2:16-17”

Again we see that all three passages are connected. But with what? See the Ten Commandments and the ceremonial law or Colossians 2:16, Galatians 4:9-10 and Romans 14:5 for full detail. See also Adam Clarke and Albert Barnes Commentaries on Colossians 2:14-16, Albert Barnes and People's New Testament Commentaries on Galatians 4:9-10 and People's New Testament and Adam Clarke Commentaries on Romans 14:5.

There are many web sites out there claiming these scriptures end the fourth Commandment but how many really know that these scriptures are quoted in ignorance and do not refer to the Ten Commandments or the Sabbath at all, but to the sacrificial law that was practiced before the cross when the Ten Commandments were broken? I believe this shows one of two main things. Those erecting these erroneous web sites are either deceived by Satan or they just simply have no idea on the sanctuary service and just read these scriptures and decide what they think they mean when in fact they have no idea. If you study the real truth on these passages, you will know that when you encounter anyone quoting these scriptures that they do not understand Biblical truth and thus one cannot trust anything they do say.

One such site called got questions has truth mixed with error on every topic I read and yet so many are linking to their pages because what they write sounds good even though most of their material is seriously wrong. Don't just believe what tickles your ears but examine the scriptures daily as the Bereans did. (2 Timothy 4:3-4, Acts 17:11) Now is not the time to be apathetic as the return of Christ is imminent and so Satan is working harder than ever to spread lies on crucial topics. Below you can find the real truth on the very significant part that Emperor Constantine did play in the change to the Sabbath.

So how do those that oppose the Sabbath truth say this Commandment has ended? It was changed to Sunday in the Bible. Wrong! Colossians 2:16 says let no one judge you for keeping it. Wrong! Romans 14:5 says we can observe any day. Wrong! Galatians 4:9-10 says the day is bondage. Wrong! It is only nine Commandments now. Wrong! All Ten Commandments were nailed to the cross. Wrong! The Sabbath is a ceremonial law. Wrong! It does not matter what day we keep. Wrong! We do not know the true day so we should not bother. Wrong! We are under grace so the law is gone. Wrong! The calendar has changed and the day is lost. Wrong! Jesus broke the Sabbath so we can too. Wrong! Jesus is our Sabbath rest so the day is gone. Wrong! The Sabbath was only for the Jews. Wrong again! So which is it? It seems that all those who say the Sabbath is abolished cannot decide on why they say this Commandment is gone. Does anyone see a problem here? To begin with, many of these reasons contradict each other and so have to be wrong! If the Sabbath Commandment was really abolished then there would have to be one clear reason that everyone would agree on but not so! Why are there so many different reasons? Because they all have one thing in common. They are all excuses perpetuated by Satan!

Did Constantine Change the Sabbath to Sunday?

In 312 A.D., prior to his pivotal victory over his rival Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge, Constantine became a “Christian” after claiming to see in broad daylight a vision of “a cross above the sun” with these words emblazoned, “in hoc signo vinces” (by this sign conquer”). After defeating his enemies and becoming Emperor of Rome, Constantine presided in full royal pomp over the “First Council of Nicea” in 325 A.D.

As a shrewd political genius, his scheme was to unite Christianity and paganism in an effort to strengthen his disintegrating empire. Constantine knew that pagans throughout the empire worshiped the sun on “the first day of the week,” and he discovered that many Christians and especially in Rome and Alexandria also kept Sunday because Christ rose from the dead on that day. So Constantine developed a plan to unite both groups on the common platform of Sunday keeping. On March 7, 321 A.D., he passed his famous national Sunday law:

First Sunday Law enacted by Emperor Constantine - March, 321 A.D.

“On the venerable Day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country, however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits; because it often happens that another day is not so suitable for grain-sowing or for vine-planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost. (Given the 7th day of March, Crispus and Constantine being consuls each of them for the second time [A.D. 321].)” Source: Codex Justinianus, lib. 3, tit. 12, 3; trans. in Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol.3 (5th ed.; New York: Scribner, 1902), p.380, note 1.

Now a professed Christian, Constantine nevertheless remained a devout sun worshipper. “The sun was universally celebrated as the invincible guide and protector of Constantine,” notes Edward Gibbon in his classic Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch. xx, par. 3.

Constantine even printed coins which “bore on the one side the letters of the name of Christ, on the other the figure of the sun god.” Arthur P. Stanley, History of the Eastern Church, lect. vi, par. 14.

Again, Constantine’s promotion of Sunday observance was part of his definite strategy to combine paganism with Christianity: “The retention of the old pagan name of dies Solis, or 'Sunday,' for the weekly Christian festival, is in great measure owing to the union of pagan and Christian sentiment with which the first day of the week was recommended by Constantine to his subjects, pagan and Christian alike, as the ‘venerable day of the Sun.’” – Stanley’s History of the Eastern Church, p. 184.

In spite of the rising popularity of Sunday sacredness, Church historian Socrates Scholasticus (5th century) wrote: “For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries [of the Lord's Supper] on the Sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this.” – Socrates Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History, Book 5, ch. 22.

Another historian also confirmed this by stating, “The people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week, which custom is never observed at Rome or at Alexandria.” – Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History, Book 7, ch. 19. Thus even in the 5th century, Sabbath keeping was universally prevalent (except in Rome and Alexandria) along with Sunday keeping. Many Christians kept both days, but as the centuries wore on, Sunday keeping grew in prominence and especially within Roman Catholic territories.

In 330 A.D., Constantine moved his capital from Rome to Constantinople (modern Istanbul), thus preparing the way for the Roman Catholic Popes to reign in Rome as the successors of Constantine. As the Papal Church grew in power, it opposed Sabbath observance in favour of Sunday sacredness and made the day change official in the Council of Laodicea (A.D. 363-364). Constantine's law had now been fully integrated into the Papal Church and the final step of the Sabbath to Sunday change was complete.

So around the year A.D. 364, the Catholic Church outlawed Sabbath keeping in the Council of Laodicea when they decreed 59 Canon laws. The following is the relevant Canon law: Canon XXIX: “Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord's Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.” (Percival Translation).

Four hundred years after the death of Christ and one hundred years after Constantine's linking of Church and State by his Sunday law edict, Rome and Alexandria were the only places in the world where many of the Christians kept only Sunday and not the true Sabbath. Why was it that Rome and Alexandria were also the first locations that Sunday worship began? Because this is where the pagan practices of Babylon eventually landed after it was conquered. And what was the dominant pagan practice that the Babylonian priests brought with them? Sun worship which was done on Sun-day!

So one can understand why Rome and Alexandria did not bother to keep the true Sabbath as they had not done so for 200 years. Throughout the entire history of the changeover from Sabbath to Sunday, Rome and Alexandria had worked together. Alexandria provided the philosophical reasons for the changes and Rome provided the decrees and anathemas. Constantine's help was given only to the worldly Church leaders at Rome and those Christians that resisted the errors that were being introduced into the Church met with his opposition. “Unite with the bishop of Rome or be destroyed,” was Constantine's position.

“Great as were the favors which Constantine showed to the church, they were only for that strong, close-knit, hierarchically organized portion that called itself Catholic. The various [so-called] heretical sects could look for no bounty from his hands.” – Williston Walker, A History of the Christian Church, page 105.

The change of the Sabbath to Sunday was totally completed by the seventh century as the Popes consolidating their enormous power persecuted all who resisted their innovations. Did Satan use Constantine to play a key part in his plan to change the Sabbath to his day being Sunday? The answer is clear! From sun worship 2000 B.C., to Sunday worship in the Church. Satan infiltrated the Christian Church and most are oblivious to the fact that this has happened or understand the relevance. Sunday or “dies solis”, the day of the sun came from Satan worship and is his day. The mystery Babylonian religion went straight into the Church of Rome and that is why God calls her Babylon.

For more information on the Sabbath you may like to start with the Sabbath day truth. I pray that all you dear Catholics especially will read the page on Catholic Church error and was Peter the first Pope? See also who is the antichrist.

The Roman Church's Admission of Changing the Sabbath

Q. What is the Third Commandment? ( Remember they renumbered! )
A. The third Commandment is: Remember thour keep holy the Sabbath day.

Q. Which is the Sabbath day?
A. Saturday is the Sabbath day.

Q. Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
A. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday."
[ The Convert's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, 1951 printing, page 50. ]

Q. How prove you that the Church hath power to command feasts and holy days?
A. By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday which Protestants allow of; and therefore THEY FONDLY CONTRADICT THEMSELVES, BY KEEPING SUNDAY STRICTLY, and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same church."

[ Henry Tubervill, An Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine, 1833, page 58. ]

"You will tell men that Saturday was the Jewish Sabbath, but that the Christian Sabbath has been changed to Sunday. Changed! but by whom? Who has authority to change an express commandment of Almighty God? When God has spoken and said, Thou Shalt keep holy the seventh day, who shall dare say, Nay, thou mayest work and do all manner of worldly business on the seventh day; but thou shalt keep holy the first day in its stead. This is a most important question which I know not how you can answer.

"You are a Protestant, and you profess to go by the Bible and the Bible only; and yet in so important a matter as the observance of one day in seven as a holy day, you go against the plain letter of the Bible, and put another day in the place of the day which the Bible has commanded. The command to keep holy the seventh day is one of the ten commandments; you believe that the other nine are still binding: who gave you authority to tamper with the fourth? If you are consistent with your own principles, if you really follow the Bible and the Bible only, you ought to be able to produce some portion of the New Testament in which this fourth commandment is expressly altered." [ Library of Christian Doctrine. Why Don't You Keep Holy the Sabbath Day? page 5. ]

    Thomaston, Georgia

    May 22, 1954

    Pop Pius XII

    Rome, Italy

    Dear Sir;

    Is the accusation true, that Protestants accuse you of?  They say you changed the Seventh Day Sabbath to the, so-called, Christian Sunday: Identical with the First Day of the week.  If so, when did you make the change, and by what authority?

    Yours very truly,

    J. L. Day

The Reply:

THE CATHOLIC EXTENSION MAGAZINE
180 Wabash Ave., Chicago, Illinois
(Under the Blessing of Pop Pius XII)

    Dear Sir:

    Regarding the change from the observance of the Jewish Sabbath to the Christian Sunday, I wish to draw your attention to the facts:

>     (1) That Protestants, who accept the Bible as the only rule of faith, and religion, should by all means go back to the observance of the Sabbath.

    The fact that they do not, but on the contrary observe Sunday, stultifies them in the eyes of every thinking man.

      (2) We Catholics do not accept the Bible as the only rule of faith.

    Besides the Bible we have the living Church, the authority of the Church, as a rule to guide us.  We say, this Church instituted by Christ, to teach and guide men through life, has the right to change the Ceremonial laws of the Old Testament and hence, we accept her change of the Sabbath to Sunday.

    We frankly say, "yes, the Church made this change, made this law, as she made many other laws, for instance, the Friday Abstinence, the unmarried priesthood, the laws concerning mixed marriages, the regulation of Catholic marriages, and a thousand other laws.

      (3) We also say that of all Protestants, the Seventh-day Adventists are the only group that reason correctly and are consistent with their teachings.  It is always somewhat laughable to see the Protestant Churches, in pulpit and legislature, demand the observance of Sundays of which there    is nothing in the Bible.

    With best wishes

    Peter R. Tramer, Editor

"Finally, at the last opening on the eighteenth of January 1562, all hesitation was set aside. The Archbishop of Reggio made a speech in which he openly declared that tradition stood above scripture. The authority of the church could therefore not be bound to the authority of the Scriptures, because the church had changed... Sabbath into Sunday, not by the command of Christ, but by its own authority." [ Heinrich Julius Holtzmann, Kanon und Tradition (Ludwigsburg: Druck and Verlag von Ferd Riehm), 1859, page 263 in the German ]

Note: This document hasn't been rigged towards plugging the Seventh-day Adventists; since this time there are now other religious groups that keep the Saturday Sabbath as well.

Here we will discover the true meaning of the scriptures, and as we've seen, explore the histroy of where things went awry. Salvation is not limited-to Seventh-day Adventists, nor will doing anything like keeping a particular Sabbath give you salvation; however, in the following we will whittle out various Christian religions. If Seventh-day Adventism is the last straw in the pile, then at least we will have covered the reasons behind it. Seventh-day Adventists have been seriously misrepresented on doctrine, theology, and habits; if Seveth-day Adventism surfaces as a worthy topic of exploration, then we will address those issues at that time. Until such time though...

More importantly, this document is not a Catholic basher. Biblical evidence that points to the Roman Catholic Church will be presented, however. It is not any person that is under attack, but the system of Catholicism itself is what is being scrutinized sharply (at this point in the discussion). And in all cases, evidence (Biblical & historical) will be presented supporting any claims made. Thus there won't be slander for the sake of slander. There are many good Catholic people, who understand and follow the plan of salvation, and who will be saved.

HISTORY OF THE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH

The Seventh-day Adventist Church had its roots in the Millerite movement of the 1830s and 1840s, during the period of the Second Great Awakening, and was officially founded in 1863. Prominent figures in the early church included Hiram Edson, James Springer White and his wife Ellen G. White, Joseph Bates, and J. N. Andrews. Over the ensuing decades the church expanded from its original base in New England to become an international organization. Significant developments in the 20th century led to its recognition as a Christian denomination.

Foundations, 1798-1820s

The Second Great Awakening, a revival movement in the United States, took place in the early 19th century. Many religious minority movements formed. Some of these movements held beliefs that would later be adopted by the Seventh-day Adventists.

An interest in prophecy was kindled among some Protestants groups following the arrest of Pope Pius VI in 1798 by the French General Louis Alexandre Berthier. Forerunners of the Adventist movement believed that this event marked the end of the 1260 day prophecy from the Book of Daniel.^[1]^[2] Certain individuals began to look at the 2300 day prophecy found in Daniel 8:14.^[1] Interest in prophecy also found its way into the Roman Catholic church when an exiled Jesuit priest by the name of Manuel de Lacunza published a manuscript calling for renewed interest in the Second Coming of Christ. His publication created a stirring but was later condemned by Pope Leo XII in 1824.

As a result of a pursuit for religious freedom, many revivalists had set foot in the United States, aiming to avoid persecution

1843 prophetic chart illustrating numerous interpretations of prophecy yielding the year 1843

Millerite Roots, 1831-1844

The Seventh-day Adventist Church formed out of the movement known today as the Millerites. In 1831, a Baptist convert, William Miller (until then a Deist), was asked by a Baptist to preach in their church and began to preach that the Second Advent of Jesus would occur somewhere between March 1843 and March 1844, based on his interpretation of Daniel 8:14. A following gathered around Miller that included many from the Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and Christian Connection churches. In the summer of 1844, some of Miller's followers promoted the date of October 22. They linked the cleansing of the sanctuary of Daniel 8:14 with the Jewish Day of Atonement, believed to be October 22 that year. By 1844, over 100,000 people were anticipating what Miller had called the "Blessed Hope". On October 22 many of the believers were up late into the night watching, waiting for Christ to return and found themselves bitterly disappointed when both sunset and midnight passed with their expectations unfulfilled. This event later became known as the Great Disappointment.

Pre-denominational years, 1844-1860

Edson and the Heavenly Sanctuary

After the disappointment of October 22 many of Miller's followers were left upset and disillusioned. Most ceased to believe in the imminent return of Jesus. Some believed the date was incorrect. A few believed that the date was right but the event expected was wrong. This latter group developed into the Seventh-day Adventist Church. One of the Adventists, Hiram Edson (1806–1882) wrote "Our fondest hopes and expectations were blasted, and such a spirit of weeping came over us as I never experienced before. It seemed that the loss of all earthly friends could have been no comparison. We wept, and wept, till the day dawn." On the morning of October 23, Edson, who lived in Port Gibson, New York was passing through his grain field with a friend. He later recounted his experience:

"We started, and while passing through a large field I was stopped about midway of the field. Heaven seemed opened to my view, and I saw distinctly and clearly that instead of our High Priest coming out of the Most Holy of the heavenly sanctuary to come to this earth on the tenth day of the seventh month, at the end of the 2300 days [calculated to be October 22, 1844], He for the first time entered on that day the second apartment of that sanctuary; and that He had a work to perform in the Most Holy before coming to the earth."

Edson shared his experience with many of the local Adventists who were greatly encouraged by his account. As a result he began studying the bible with two of the other believers in the area, O.R.L. Crosier and Franklin B. Hahn, who published their findings in a paper called Day-Dawn. This paper explored the biblical parable of the Ten Virgins and attempted to explain why the bridegroom had tarried. The article also explored the concept of the day of atonement and what the authors called "our chronology of events".

The findings published by Crosier, Hahn and Edson led to a new understanding about the sanctuary in heaven. Their paper explained how there was a sanctuary in heaven, that Christ, the High Priest, was to cleanse. The believers understood this cleansing to be what the 2300 days in Daniel was referring to.

George Knight wrote, "Although originally the smallest of the post-Millerite groups, it came to see itself as the true successor of the once-powerful Millerite movement." This view was endorsed by Ellen White. However, Seeking a Sanctuary sees it more as an offshoot of the Millerite movement.

The "Sabbath and Shut Door" Adventists were disparate, but slowly emerged. Only Joseph Bates had had any prominence in the Millerite movement.

Adventists viewed themselves as heirs of earlier outcast believers such as the Waldenses, Protestant Reformers including the Anabaptists, English and Scottish Puritans, evangelicals of the 18th century including Methodists, Seventh Day Baptists, and others who rejected established church traditions.^[11]

Sabbath observance develops and unites

A young Seventh Day Baptist layperson named Rachel Oakes Preston living in New Hampshire was responsible for introducing Sabbath to the Millerite Adventists. Due to her influence, Frederick Wheeler, a local Methodist-Adventist preacher, began keeping the seventh day as Sabbath, probably in the early spring of 1844. Several members of the Washington, New Hampshire church he occasionally ministered to also followed his decision. These included William and Cyrus Farnsworth. T. M. Preble soon accepted it either from Wheeler or directly from Oakes. These events were shortly followed by the Great Disappointment.

Preble promoted Sabbath through the February 28, 1845 issue of the Hope of Israel. In March he published his Sabbath views in tract form. Although he returned to observing Sunday in the next few years, his writing convinced Joseph Bates and J. N. Andrews. These men in turn convinced James and Ellen White, as well as Hiram Edson and hundreds of others.

Bates proposed that a meeting should be organised between the believers in New Hampshire and Port Gibson. At this meeting, which occurred sometime in 1846 at Edson's farm, Edson and other Port Gibson believers readily accepted Sabbath and at the same time forged an alliance with Bates and two other folk from New Hampshire who later became very influential in the Adventist church, James and Ellen G. White. Between April, 1848, and December 1850 twenty-two "Sabbath conferences" were held in New York and New England. These meetings were often seen as opportunities for leaders such as James White, Joseph Bates, Stephen Pierce and Hiram Edson to discuss and reach conclusions about doctrinal issues.

While initially it was believed that Sabbath started at 6pm, by 1855 it was generally accepted that Sabbath begins at Friday sunset.

The Present Truth (see below) was largely devoted to Sabbath at first. J. N. Andrews was the first Adventist to write a book-length defense of Sabbath, first published in 1861.

Trinitarianism

At the formation of the church in the 19th century, many of the Adventist leaders held to an antitrinitarian view,(although Ellen G. White was not one of them). One study, however, sees early Adventism as well as Ellen White to espouse a materialist rather than an Arian theology.

In 1876, James White compared Seventh-day Adventist doctrine with Seventh Day Baptists. He observed: "The principal difference between the two bodies is the immortality question. The S. D. Adventists hold the divinity of Christ so nearly with the trinitarian, that we apprehend no trial here...

Pretribulation Premillennialism

Beginning with William Miller's teachings, Adventists have played a key role in introducing the Bible doctrine of premillennialism in the United States. In the appendix to his book "Kingdom of the Cults" where Walter Martin explains why Seventh-day Adventists are accepted as Orthodox Christians (see pg 423) Martin also summarizes the key role that Adventists played in the advancement of premillennialism in the 19th century.

"From the beginning, the Adventists were regarded with grave suspicion by the great majority of evangelical Christians, principally because Seventh-day Adventists were premillennial in their teaching. That is they believed that Christ would come before the millennium...Certain authors of the time considered premillennarians to be peculiar... and dubbed as 'Adventist' all who held that view of eschatology"

— "Kingdom of the Cults" p419-420

However the unique contribution of Seventh-day Adventists to this doctrine does not stop there. Seventh-day Adventists are pretribulation premillennialists who accept the Bible teaching on a literal 1000 years in Revelation 20 that immediately follows the literal second coming of Christ described in Revelation 19. In contrast to almost all premillennialist groups they do not believe in a 1000 year kingdom on earth during the millennium. In Adventist eschatology Christ's promise to take the saints to His Father's house in John 14:1-3 is fulfilled at the 2nd coming where both the living and the dead saints are taken up in the air to meet the Lord (see 1Thess 4:13-18 ). John, the author of Revelation, calls this moment the "first resurrection" in Revelation 20:5-6. Instead of a Millennial Kingdom on earth, Adventists teach that there is only a desolated earth for 1000 years and during that time the saints are in heaven with Christ (See Jeremiah 4:23-29).

Adventist publishing work begins with The Present Truth

First edition of The Present Truth

On November 18, 1848, Ellen White had a vision in which God told her that her husband should start a paper. In 1849, James, determined to publish this paper, went to find work as a farm-hand to raise sufficient funds. After another vision, she told James that he was to not worry about funds but to set to work on producing the paper to be printed. James readily obeyed, writing from the aid "of a pocket Bible, Cruden's Condensed Concordance, and an abridged dictionary with one of its covers off." Thanks to a generous offer by the printer to delay charges, the group of Advent believers had 1000 copies of the first publication printed. They sent the publication, which was on the topic of Sabbath, to friends and colleagues they believe would find it of interest. Eleven issues were published in 1849 and 1850.

Formal organization and further growth, 1860-1880

Choosing a name and a constitution

In 1860, the fledgling movement finally settled on the name, Seventh-day Adventist, representative of the church's distinguishing beliefs. Three years later, on May 21, 1863, the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists was formed and the movement became an official organization.

Annual regional camp meetings

The first annual regional camp meeting took place September, 1868. Since then, the annual regional camp meeting has become a pattern among Seventh-day Adventists and is still practiced today.

The influence of Ellen G. White

Ellen G. White (1827–1915), while holding no official role, was a dominant personality. She, along with her husband, James White, and Joseph Bates, moved the denomination to a concentration on missionary and medical work. Mission and medical work continues to play a central role in the 21st century.

Under White's guidance the denomination in the 1870s turned to missionary work and revivals, tripling its membership to 16,000 by 1880; rapid growth continued, with 75,000 members in 1901. By this time operated two colleges, a medical school, a dozen academies, 27 hospitals, and 13 publishing houses.

By 1945, the church reported 226,000 members in the US and Canada, and 380,000 elsewhere; the budget was $29 million and enrollment in church schools was 40,000. In 1960 there were 1,245,125 members worldwide with an annual budget of over $99,900,000. Enrollment in church schools from elementary to college was 290,000 students. As of the year 2000 there were 11,687,229 members worldwide. The global budget was $28,610,881,313. And the enrollment in schools was 1, 065,092 students. In 2008 the global membership was 15,921,408 with a budget of $45,789,067,340. The numbers of students in SDA run universities, secondary and primary schools was 1,538,607.

Political views

Seventh-day Adventists participated in the Temperance Movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s. During this same time, they became actively involved in promoting Religious Liberty. They had closely followed American politics, matching current events to the predictions in the Bible.

"Seventh-day" means the observance of the original Sabbath, Saturday, is still a sacred obligation. Adventists argued that just as the rest of the Ten Commandments had not been revised, so also the injunction to "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy" remained in full force. This theological point turned the young group into a powerful force for religious liberty. Growing into its full stature in the late 19th century and early 20th century, these Adventists opposed Sunday laws on every side. Many were arrested for working on Sunday. In fighting against the real threat of a legally established National Day of worship, these Sabbatarians had to fight for their liberty on a daily basis. Soon, they were fighting for religious liberty on a broader, less parochial basis.

Worldwide Mission

Adventist effort for a world-wide proclamation of their message began with the mailing of publications. In 1874 J. N. Andrews became the first official Adventist missionary to travel overseas. Working in Switzerland, he sought to organize the Sabbath-keeping companies under one umbrella. During the 1890s Adventists began to enthusiastically promote a world-wide mission effort.

A world vision and growing pains, 1880-1915

1888 General Conference

In 1888, a General Conference Session occurred in Minneapolis. This session involved a discussion between the then General Conference president, G. I. Butler; editor of the review, Uriah Smith; and a group led by E. J. Waggoner and A. T. Jones about the meaning of "Righteousness by Faith" and the meaning of the law in Romans and Galatians. Ellen G. White also addressed the conference.

Early 20th century, 1915-1930

Organizational Developments

From the early 1860s the church had three levels of government: the local church, the conference, and the General Conference. As ideas developed, organizations came into existence to move forward the ideas; i.e. Sabbath Schools, health reform and medical work, printing, distribution of literature, religious liberty, missions, etc. All moved forward under the societies formed to do so. As the work progressed, the managing of all these societies became quite cumbersome.

As conferences developed in far off lands, it became obvious that the General Conference could not oversee the day to day needs of the conferences. This led to the development of Union conferences in Australia and Europe in the late 1890s and to the development of districts in the United States.

The 1901 and 1903 General Conference sessions reorganized the church's structure to include union conferences which managed a group of local conferences in their domain. By the end of 1904, the various society interests became incorporated as departments in each conference's structure.

Christ's Object Lessons and Adventist Schools

Ellen White relates how her book Christ's Object Lessons came to be linked to the financial support of Adventist schools,

"I am so thankful for the work that Christ’s Object Lessons has accomplished and is still accomplishing. When this book was in preparation, I expected to use the means coming from the sale of this book in preparing and publishing several other books. But the Lord put it into my mind to give this book to our schools, to be used in freeing them from debt. I asked our publishing houses to unite with me in this gift by donating the expense of the publication. This they willingly agreed to do. A fund was raised to pay for the materials used in printing the book, and canvassers and people have sold the book without commission.

"Thus the book has been circulated in all parts of the world. It has been received with great favor everywhere. Ministers of all denominations have written testimonials recommending it. The Lord has prepared the way for its reception so that no fewer than 200,000 have already been sold. The means thus raised has gone far toward freeing our schools from the debts that have been accumulating for many years.

"Our publishing houses have printed 300,000 copies, free of cost, and these have been distributed to the different tract societies, to be sold by our people.

"The Lord has made the sale of this book a means of teaching our people how to come in touch with those not of their faith, and how to impart to them a knowledge of the truth for this time. Many have been converted by reading this book."

1n 1902, those affiliated with Healdsburg College, now Pacific Union College, dedicated a week to sell Christ's Object Lessons. They first read the book together. Then each student was given six books to sell. Territories were assigned and for a week the school suspended classes in order to sell the books. The College Church took the territory immediately surrounding the church while the students were given territory further away from the school.^[31]

Fundamentalism and Progress

The early 20th-century brought with it new challenges to Adventist faith and practice. The death of Adventist prophetess Ellen G. White in 1915 brought new questions about how the church would continue without a living prophet. Adventist leaders participated in a variety of fundamentalist prophetic conferences during and soon after World War I. The 1919 Bible Conference was a pivotal theological event that looked at how Adventists interpreted Bible prophecy and the legacy of Ellen White's writings for the church. The 1919 Bible Conference also had a polarizing influence on Adventist theology with progressives such as A. G. Daniells and W. W. Prescott pitted against traditionalists like Benjamin G. Wilkinson, J. S. Washburn, and Claude Holmes.

Fundamentalism was dominant in the church in the early 20th century. George Knight dates it from 1919 to 1950.

The edited transcripts of the 1952 Bible Conference were published as Our Firm Foundation.

Mid 20th century-World War II

In Southern Europe, as soon as the war broke out, most of the church's workers of military age were drafted. The church lost union and local conference presidents, pastors, evangelists, and institutional workers.^[34]

When the Nazis occupied France they dissolved the conference and all the churches, confiscated church buildings, and prohibited church work. In Croatia all Adventist churches were closed, and the conference was dissolved. All church and evangelistic work was strictly forbidden. Over in Rumania, where there were more than 25,000 Adventists, the union conference, the six local conferences, and all the churches were likewise dissolved. Over three hundred Adventist chapels, the publishing house in Bucharest, and the school at Brasov were all taken from the church. All church funds were taken. Three thousand Adventists were put in prison. They were tortured and abused.^[34]

The work of the church went forward under creative cover. People baptized were reported as students graduating and receiving their diplomas. One minister reported on life insurance policies sold. Another reported on the harvest of 253 baskets of fruit.

1970s

In the mid 1970s, two distinct factions were manifest within mainstream Seventh day Adventism. Defending many pre-1950 Adventist positions was Historic Adventism, while the more liberal Adventism emphasized a different understanding of justification by faith, and sought greater fellowship with Evangelical Christianity. This controversy soon led to what some see as a full-blown internal crisis and fragmentation.

In the 1970s Kenneth Wood and Herbert Douglass, editors of the Review and Herald, began to emphasize historic Adventist teachings which had been the traditional views in the church before Questions on Doctrine such as sinless perfection of a final generation, which was opposed by many Progressive Adventists ^[35]

] Late 20th century

During the 1970s, what is now the Adventist Review carried articles by editor Kenneth Wood and associate editor Herbert Douglass rejecting Questions on Doctrine and arguing for a final perfect generation.

The General Conference addressed this controversy over "righteousness by faith" by holding a conference in Palmdale, California in 1976. Ford was the "center of attention", and the resulting document known as the "Palmdale statement"DjVu.

The 1980 General Conference session, held in Dallas, produced the church's first official declaration of beliefs voted by the world body, called the 27 Fundamental Beliefs. (This list of beliefs has since been expanded to the present 28 Fundamentals).

Firing of Desmond Ford

The year 1980 also saw the Adventist church become embroiled in a crisis over its investigative judgment teaching, known as the Glacier View controversy. This precipitated a major schism within the church, and while the mainstream believe in the doctrine and the church reaffirmed its basic position on the doctrine since 1980, many of those within the church's more liberal wing continued to be critical of the teaching, and the effects of which have persisted well into the 21st century.bFord believed strongly that the church needed to change its teaching on the Judgment, but expressed a willingness to not publicly agitate the issue. Church administration did not respond to his offer. Desmond Ford later requested that his membership with the Seventh-day Adventist Church be discontinued for other than doctrinal differences.

Ordination of women

Proposals supporting the ordination of women were turned down at General Conference Sessions in 1990 in Indianapolis and 1996 in Utrecht.

Early 21st century

Adventists began to use YouTube and other Internet media to present their messages. These included video addresses from the then-president of the United States George W. Bush, and Hillary Clinton.

A review of membership revealed an average of about 2,900 people were joining the Seventh-day Adventist Church every day, which show the denomination now has 16.6 million adult baptized members according to church statistics. Denominational membership showed strong growth and membership audits showed for 2009 as the seventh consecutive year the church had a net gain of more than one million members.^[42] In October 2011, David Trim, director of the Archives, Statistics and Research department, called for the denomination to reassess its membership records. The numbers are "not entirely accurate," Trim asserted. He did not consider the inaccuracy intentional. Rather he said the record keeping system was flawed. It needed to be more accurate and transparent. The audits, he said, will likely result in a lower overall membership number than the recent claim of 16.5 million.

SAMWITERSON

Wednesday, 18 April 2012

THE LIFE OF VICTORY Vol. 1