Good morning, welcome to Inquisition Update.
My name is Tom Friess and I'll be your host for the next hour.
You're listening to FirstAmendmentRadio .com.
Thanks for tuning in everybody.
Now we're going to get back to our reading and discussion of the book, A Woman Rides
the Beast, by Dave Hunt.
We're in the chapter entitled, An Incredible Metamorphosis.
How did the Christian faith result in what we know today as the Roman Catholic
Church?
Apostasy of apostasies.
We're going to begin by backing up as we customarily do here on the program.
We're going to back up a few paragraphs for continuity purposes, beginning with
the last full paragraph and the quote at the bottom of page 203.
Dave Hunt writes, With the at first reluctant but increasingly enthusiastic
consent and participation of the bishops, the Church entered upon an apostasy which
led to Roman Catholicism and has lasted unto the present time.
In fact, it is now gaining momentum for God's final judgment upon the great whore.
Will Durant, a purely secular historian with no religious ax to grind,
comments upon the marriage of Christianity and paganism that came about through
Constantine's pretended conversion to Christianity and the assumption of
Christian Church leadership.
Quote, Paganism survived in the form of ancient rites and customs condoned or
accepted and transformed by an often indulgent church.
An intimate, trustful worship of saints replaced the cult of pagan gods.
Statues of Isis and Horus were renamed Mary and Jesus.
The Roman Lupercalia and the Feast of Purification of Isis became the Feast of
the Nativity.
The Saturnalia were replaced by Christmas celebrations, an ancient festival of the
dead by All Souls Day, rededicated to Christian heroes, Incense, lights,
flowers, processions, vestments, hymns, which had pleased the people in
older cults, were domesticated and cleansed in the ritual of the Roman
Church.
Soon people and priests would use the sign of the cross as a magic incantation to
expel or drive away demons.
Paganism passed like maternal blood into the new religion and captive Rome captured
her conqueror.
The world converted Christianity.
That's Roman Catholicism, a worldly church.
It's called Christianity, but it's not Christianity at all.
It mixes the holy with the profane.
That's the same sin that Israel repeatedly committed against God and were judged
repeatedly for it.
Now, beginning where we left off with the subtitle, From Persecuted to Persecutor,
Dave Hunt writes, Referring to developments after Constantine,
Peter Brown writes, Far from being a source of improvement, this alliance with
the state was a source of, that is, the union of the church with the state
government under Constantine.
This alliance with the state was a source of greater danger and temptation than
persecution had been.
The spread of Christianity in Africa, by indiscriminately filling the churches,
had simply washed away the clear moral landmarks that separated the church from
the world.
Political considerations began to subtly influence Christian life and doctrine,
just as today.
Because what was best for the state loomed large in ecclesiastical affairs,
and the emperor was now in charge of both.
With the fall of the Roman Empire, the popes would assume the emperor's role,
and the marriage with the world would be complete.
In its new role as the favored and eventually official religion of the
empire, quote-unquote Christianity became polluted by its avid pursuit of secular
power.
The purity and spiritual power of the early church had been so awesome that
unbelievers dared not join it.
See Acts chapter 5 verse 13.
In contrast, what the church would become after Constantine has been described
eloquently by Peter De Rosa.
Quote, the time is not far off, that is, after Constantine, when Peter's
alleged successors will not be the servants, but the masters of the world.
They will dress in purple like Nero and call themselves Potifex Maximus.
They will refer to the fishermen as, quote, the first pope, unquote,
and appeal not to the authority of love, but the power invested in him to act as
Nero acted.
In defiance of Jesus Christ, Christians will do unto others what was done unto
them, and worse will they do.
The religion that prided itself on triumphing over persecution by suffering
will become the most persecuting faith the world has ever seen.
They will order in Christ's name all those who disagree with them to be tortured,
and sometimes crucified over fire.
They will make an alliance between throne and altar, church and state.
They will insist that the state is the guardian of the church and the guarantor
of faith.
Their idea will be for the throne, the state, to impose the Christian
religion on all its subjects.
It will not trouble them that Peter fought against such an alliance and died because
of it, unquote.
From being persecuted, the church became the chief persecutor, not only of
religious faith, but, as we have seen, of any form of freedom of conscience.
Hassler explains how the metamorphosis occurred, quote, Once Christianity became
the state religion, deviations from orthodoxy threatened both the unity of the
empire and of the church.
And it was the emperor who had the greatest interest in settling doctrinal
disputes.
He convened ecumenical councils and largely dictated their results,
unquote.
The popes, however, had the trump card, the keys to heaven, and used it to
intimidate kings and emperors into becoming the secular arm which did their
bidding, especially the executions during the Inquisitions.
In 1864, Pope Pius IX's Syllabus of Errors condemned, quote, the whole existing view
of the rights of conscience and religious faith and profession, unquote.
The syllabus said it was, quote, a wicked error to admit Protestants to
equal political rights with Catholics or to allow Protestant immigrants the free
use of their worship.
On the contrary, to coerce and suppress them is a sacred duty when it has become
possible.
The church will, of course, act with the greatest prudence in the use of her
temporal and physical power according to altered circumstances, unquote.
The Bible was the most dangerous book in the world and had to be kept from the
common people.
The Roman Catholic clergy would give them selected readings and then tell them what
it meant.
The Protestant view that anyone could read and understand the Bible would destroy
Catholicism.
Pope Clement XI's Constitution Unigenitus, dated 1713, denounced the following
Jansenist propositions presented by Pasquier Castel, quote, Christians are to
sanctify the Lord's Day with reading godly books, more particularly the Holy
Scriptures, unquote.
Clement's judgment?
Condemned.
Another quote, to pull the New Testament out of the hands of Christians is to shut
the mouth of Christ against them.
The conclusion?
Condemned.
Another quote, to forbid Christians the reading of the Holy Scriptures and
especially the Gospels is to forbid the use of the light by the children of light
and to punish them with a kind of excommunication.
That, too, was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church.
Now, what is freedom according to Rome?
The Vatican can't enforce its edicts today in the totalitarian manner it once
employed, and I differ a bit with the author on this count, but nonetheless,
he says, the Vatican cannot enforce its edicts today in the totalitarian manner it
once employed.
So it professes to stand for freedom of religion and conscience, because it wants
such rights for its own people, where Catholics are in the minority.
Vatican Council, too, has an entire section entitled Declaration on Religious
Liberty, which contains such statements as, quote, the human person has a right to
religious freedom, unquote.
What it promotes, however, is freedom from government interference or discrimination
in religion.
The dishonest impression is given that Rome advocates full religious freedom.
There is no mention of, much less repentance for, the millions of people who
were martyred and massacred century after century simply because they would not
accept the Roman Catholic interpretation of the Bible.
Nor does Vatican Council, too, concede genuine freedom of conscience.
Yes, it says everyone is free to pursue truth, but it declares that truth exists
only within the Roman Catholic Church.
Nor does the Council point to the Bible, God's word as the source of truth,
to be read and understood by all.
As in the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church alone can interpret the Bible.
She alone has the sacraments and is the means of salvation.
The Church possesses the truth and its guardian, the sole dispenser for all time.
That's Rome's attitude about religious freedom.
It's not what it appears to be.
You are free to be Roman Catholic.
That's how Rome defines religious freedom.
He says, therefore, for all the talk about freedom of religion and conscience in this
section of Vatican Council, too, there is no true freedom because this same
document makes it clear that the truth can only be known and the soul saved by
complete and blind submission to Rome.
Consider the following from this section on religious liberty.
Quote, we believe that this one true religion continues to exist in the Roman
Catholic Church, to which the Lord Jesus Christ entrusted the task of spreading it
among all men.
So while the religious freedom which men demand in fulfilling their obligation to
worship God has to do with freedom from coercion in civil society, it leaves
intact the traditional Roman Catholic teaching on the moral duty of individuals
and societies toward the true religion and the one Church of Christ.
Throughout the ages she, that is the Roman Catholic Church, has preserved and handled
on the doctrine which she has received from her Master and Apostles.
In forming their consciences, the faithful must pay careful attention to the sacred
and certain teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.
For the Roman Catholic Church is by the will of Christ the teacher of truth.
It is her duty, and her duty alone I will add, to proclaim and teach with authority
the truth which Christ and at the same time to declare and confirm by her
authority the principles of the moral order which spring from human nature
itself.
Unquote.
So you can clearly see what Rome's attitude is about religious freedom.
It is freedom to be Roman Catholic, and it is to be imposed by the secular
government.
That's Vatican Council too, and that's exactly what was affirmed at the Council
of Trent in the early 1500s.
Now it says, so while in theory there is freedom of conscience, in fact there is
not.
One is free to pursue truth, but truth exists not in the Bible in a form which
the conscience can recognize and is available to all mankind, but resides only
within the Roman Catholic Church, and her prelates alone can recognize it
and dispense it.
No one may judge her, quote-unquote, truth by conscience or God's word,
but her dogmas must be accepted blindly, because she is the one true church founded
by Christ upon Peter, and her popes are Peter's successors.
Antichrist will himself acknowledge this fantastic claim, the woman will ride the
beast, but with no more sincerity than did Constantine.
It will be a ploy to use the church to his own ends, until finally he puts his image
in the temple and demands that all people worship him as God.
At that point, the beast will turn upon the woman and devour her.
See Revelation chapter 17 verse 16.
Shepherds deceiving the sheep is the subtitle of this next portion.
Dave Hunt says, remember, it was the totalitarian papal system which,
first of all, destroyed those men who became part of it, and then through them
destroyed the church.
The shepherds became corrupted with the lust for power, and then corrupted all the
clergy, who in turn corrupted the people.
Cardinal Satellet said of Pope Clement VII, whom he knew intimately, that before
his election to Pope, he studied the Bible constantly, but afterward, his character
deteriorated, and his pontificate was a series of mistakes, a perpetual dodging to
evade the counsel, which he hated and feared.
Before he became Pope, Pope Paul IV favored church reformation, but afterward,
he avidly pursued his own selfish interests and the advancement and
enrichment of his nephews.
A contemporary described Pope Paul IV before his pontificate as, humane,
tolerant, beneficent, gentle, and unselfish, but just the reverse as Pope.
He, quote, abandoned himself to vulgar sensuality and lusts, ate and drank
immoderately, became imperious and crafty, unquote, and even stopped attending,
quote, divine service in the chapel, unquote.
So it was with Innocent X, Alexander VII, and a host of others.
With his usual clarity, Peter de Rosa provides further insight, quote,
in the 10th century, for all its adolescent, adulterous, and murderous
Popes, the papacy was a local phenomenon.
The head of a powerful Roman family put his cherished teenage son on the throne.
The lad made hay for a few frantic months or years and was ambushed by members of a
rival family whose hour had come.
But since the 11th century, Gregory VII had put his stamp upon the papacy.
It had grown in stature and prestige.
It was able to control the entire church from the simplest country curate to the
most powerful archbishop.
What emerged was the most appalling corruption that Christianity has ever seen
or is likely to see.
It began at the top.
The papacy was auctioned off in conclave to the highest bidder, irrespective of a
candidate's worth, unquote.
Von Dollinger extended the blame to the papal curia.
Here's what he said.
When the cardinals said in the letter they addressed to their Pope, Gregory VII,
or excuse me, Gregory XII in 1408, that there was no soundness in the church
from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head, they should have added,
if they wished to tell the whole truth, it is we, our colleagues, and your
predecessors, it is the curia who have gone on saturating the body of the church
with moral poison, and therefore is it now sorely diseased, unquote.
St. Bonaventure declared that in Rome, quote, church dignities were bought and
sold.
There did the princes and the rulers of the church assemble, dishonoring God by
their incontinence, adherents of Satan, and plunderers of the flock of Christ.
The prelates, corrupted by Rome, infect the clergy with their vices,
and the clergy, by their evil example of avarice and profligacy, poison and lead
into perdition the whole Christian people, unquote.
Others, quote, called the curia the utterly corrupt carnal church,
unquote.
Those who still had some hope for a reformation of the church, writes
Bonaventure, quote, predicted a great renewal and purification through a holy
pope, the Papa Angelicus, long looked for but never willing to appear, unquote.
Petrarch, close observer for many years of the Roman curia, came to the conclusion
that Rome was the fulfillment of John's vision of Revelation chapter 17.
She was, quote, the apocalyptic woman, drunken with blood, the seducer of
Christians and plague of the human race, unquote.
Von Dollinger says that Petrarch's description of the papacy and the curia
are, quote, so frightful that one would suppose them the exaggerations of hatred
were they not confirmed by all his contemporaries.
Augustinian monk of Florence, Luigi Marsigli, said, the papal court no longer
ruled through hypocrisy, so openly did it flaunt its vices, but only through the
dread inspired by its interdicts and excommunications, unquote.
The popes had loaded St. Bonaventure with honors.
As a cardinal and general of his order, he was bound by the closest ties to Rome.
Yet in his commentary on the apocalypse, he declares that Rome was, quote,
the harlot who makes kings and nations drunk with the wine of her whoredoms,
unquote.
Dante, too, applied to the popes the apocalyptic prophecy of the harlot on the
seven hills who is drunk with the blood of men and seduces princes and peoples.
It was a metamorphosis that John found hard to believe could ever occur,
but it has been fulfilled exactly as Christ revealed it.
Some contrasts to ponder.
The church holds a position for the average Catholic that is entirely
different from the relationship between an evangelical and whatever denomination to
which he or she belongs.
For the evangelical, Christianity involves a personal relationship between the
believer and God and Jesus Christ.
Many Protestants lack that personal relationship, and thus are not real
Christians.
The lack of that personal relationship, however, is not because they have been
taught to look to a Baptist or a Methodist or a Presbyterian or some other
denominational church for salvation.
At least, that's not generally the teaching of any Protestant church.
In contrast, a Mormon is taught that salvation comes by belonging to and
remaining in good standing with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The same is true of a Jehovah's Witness, a Christian scientist, or a member of most
other cults, whether Christian or Hindu or Buddhist.
Rome, too, decrees that the individual can only receive, quote, the merits and graces
of Christ, unquote, through the Church, the Roman Catholic Church.
The essential personal relationship with Christ, apart from any institution,
and the accompanying assurance of being with Him the moment one dies, is denied to
individual Catholics.
Their hope is in the Church.
They hope that its continued efforts, even after their death, will eventually
bring them to Heaven.
All their faith is in the Church, not in Christ.
That is apostasy.
And we'll be back right after this.
You're listening to FirstAmendmentRadio .com.
Worldwide, freedom is never free.
We need your support today at FirstAmendmentRadio.com.
Visit CrossTheBorder.org, C-R-O-S-S, CrossTheBorder.org, to get your print,
e-pub, or PDF version of Nicholas Archer's new book titled, When the Third Temple is
Built.
That's CrossTheBorder.org.
When it comes to prophecy today, much of the Evangelical Christian world
has their eyes on Israel, waiting and watching to see when the Third Temple will
begin to be built.
The plans are drawn.
The Jewish people are eager.
Most Evangelical Christians today believe that the rapture will happen before the
Third Temple is built.
Hi, I'm Michael Eugene.
I was taught that Daniel's 70th week was in the future.
Is that really what the Bible teaches?
Have we searched the Scriptures and found this to be true?
Why is it so important for a re-established Israel to build a Third
Temple in Jerusalem?
Is it necessary to build a Temple on the same location already occupied by the Dome
of the Rock?
Is it necessary for sacrifices to take place in the Temple on Temple Mount?
Is there really a rapture followed by seven years of tribulation?
What is the New Testament Temple?
Can we identify history and prophecy?
Who is the first beast in Revelation Chapter 13?
Who are the seven kings in Revelation 17?
I have asked all these questions and I have found Nicholas Arthur's new book,
When the Third Temple is Built, answers all these questions and more using
Scripture to interpret Scripture.
The Bible says that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private
interpretation.
Nicholas shows us in his new book, When the Third Temple is Built,
how the Bible interprets prophecy and not man's private interpretation.
Visit crosstheborder.org to get your print, e-pub, or PDF version of Nicholas
Arthur's new book titled, When the Third Temple is Built.
That's crosstheborder.org.
The book of Revelation says the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus Christ.
This is at the very heart of firstamendmentradio.com.
In that spirit, we have created the Prophecy Reality News app for all of your
mobile devices.
Streaming First Amendment Radio 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Available for your Apple, Android device, and smartphone.
Absolutely free.
Get the Prophecy Reality News app installed today, so you can listen to
First Amendment Radio wherever you are.
The Prophecy Reality News app.
Get it now.
Welcome back from the break.
You're listening to the second half hour of Inquisition Update on First Amendment
Radio.
And if you would like to support Inquisition Update, to help keep
Inquisition Update on the air, please support First Amendment Radio,
who sponsors the program.
And if you wish to contact me, you may do so by email.
Now, returning to the book, A Woman Rides a Beast by Dave Hunt, having already told
us that cults are defined by having full faith and trust in their churches,
and not in Christ.
He explains that while the Bible teaches submission to church leaders, it also
insists that this submission go only as far as the leaders are followers of Christ
himself.
The Apostle Paul wrote, quote, Follow me as I follow Christ.
See 1 Corinthians 11, verse 1.
He did not suggest that all Christians must follow him because of his high
office, but only as he was true to Christ and to his word.
Obviously, to make that judgment, the individual must know Christ and his
word for himself.
Paul says that each believer, and not just a special clergy class, as is propounded
by another host on First Amendment Radio, not just a clergy class, is free to
present God's truth to the church.
And that when leaders speak to the church, those who hear them are to judge for
themselves the validity of what he says.
See 1 Corinthians, chapter 14, verse 29 and 32.
In contrast, Catholicism's code of canon law says, quote, The first C, that is the
papacy, is judged by no one.
Unquote.
Vatican II declares that pronouncements by the Pope on faith and morals are
infallible and irreformable.
Quote, In no way in need of the approval of others, and do not admit of appeal to
any other tribunal.
Unquote.
The same is said of, quote, the body of bishops, when together with Peter's
successor, the Pope, they exercise the supreme teaching office.
Unquote.
John says that all true believers have the anointing of the Holy Spirit and thus must
not follow anyone blindly.
1 John, chapter 2, verse 20-27.
But must discern whether a doctrine is biblical by following the leading of God
through his word and the Holy Spirit.
How else could each of us judge whether those who preach and teach are presenting
God's truth?
As Paul says, we must.
In Catholicism, however, it is explicitly declared that no one may come to his or
her own personal opinion concerning biblical truth, but must accept whatever
the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy teaches.
This is Nicolaitanism, people.
This is the description given to us in the Bible of Antichrist.
The spirit of Nicolaitanism do I hate, he said.
Now, what are the great responsibilities and great privileges?
As we've already seen from the language of Matthew, in chapter 28, verse 19 and 20.
Quote, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.
Unquote.
Several conclusions are inescapable.
Number one, an unbroken chain of command flows from our Lord Jesus Christ through
successive generations of disciples down through history to Christians today.
Number two, every ordinary Christian is to obey every applicable command that Christ
gave his original disciples and to do what he trained and commanded them to do,
including preaching the gospel in all the world and making disciples.
Number three, each Christian has been given by the Lord the same privileges,
the same responsibilities and the same authority and the same power which the
original twelve received.
How else could each generation of new disciples obey every command Christ had
given the original twelve?
Makes sense, doesn't it?
Now, the early Christians followed these instructions.
Not even the knowledge that they would be killed deterred them from it.
After the death of Stephen, the Christians were scattered.
And we're told that everywhere they went, they preached the gospel.
Deacts, chapter 8, verse 4.
We must do the same.
Each individual Christian is a full-fledged successor of the apostles,
called and empowered by the Holy Spirit to carry on the task of representing Christ
and bringing his gospel to the world.
Charged with the great commission to preach the gospel to every creature,
each disciple at every moment in history is a soldier of the cross and an
ambassador of the King of Kings.
What an awesome responsibility.
But what a great privilege.
Unfortunately, many Christians are unwilling to take this responsibility.
They want to leave it to a special class of professionals, many of whom are only
too eager to lord it over the flock.
Every Christian has the authority to resist the devil and to see him flee,
to bind and to loose as Christ empowered his first apostles, and to be his
ambassador to mankind.
In the metamorphosis in the centuries following Constantine, the Roman hierarchy
claimed for itself the exclusive right to do what Christ had intended to be the task
of all his disciples.
Some vital distinctions.
Christ made a clear distinction between Caesar and God.
Quote, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that
are God's.
Mark chapter 12 verse 17.
This is foundational.
The Roman Catholic Church wedded God to Caesar.
Church and state became one, with the church in control and the state doing its
bidding.
That situation is still much the same in Roman Catholic countries today.
Roman Catholic countries like the United States of America.
Christ made a clear distinction between his kingdom, which is not of this world,
and the kingdoms of this world.
See John chapter 18 verse 36.
In disobedience to Christ, whom they claim to represent, the popes have built a
kingdom which is very much of this world.
Yet they claim it is God's kingdom.
And they have done it in unholy alliance with secular rulers.
Many of them the most wicked personalities in history.
Many of them as wicked as the popes themselves.
Christ made a clear distinction between his church, which he called out of the
world, and the world itself.
See John 17 verses 18 through 20.
John declared, quote, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
Unquote.
First John chapter 2 verse 15.
The distinctions that Christ made must be adhered to by those who belong to him.
Quote, if a man love me, he will keep my words.
He that loveth me not, keepeth not my sayings.
Unquote.
John chapter 14 verse 23 and 24.
Quote, why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say?
Luke chapter 6 verse 46.
That concludes chapter 14.
We will continue now with chapter 15 entitled, Unholy Alliances.
It begins with two quotes.
This first one from Revelation chapter 17 verse 1 and 2.
Come hither, I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth
upon many waters, 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.
And this is a quote from Giuseppe Mazzini, Italian patriot, dated 1863.
You, in reference to Pope Pius IX, you have stooped to unite in political
fornication with the civil government of any and all despotic countries.
You have prostituted the cross, the symbol of sacrifice and salvation,
into the symbol of tyranny and ruin.
Those who call themselves the vicars of God on earth have become the vicars of the
genius of evil.
And what is the genius of evil?
Dayton himself.
Giuseppe Mazzini was right.
Despite all else that he was wrong about, he was right about this.
The popes are not the vicars of God.
They are the vicars of Satan himself.
That is the protestant truth.
That is the biblical truth.
That is the historical truth.
It is the prophetic truth.
And if we ever, in any count, depart from that truth, we have been deceived.
Chapter 15, Unholy Alliances.
A city built on seven hills is accused of committing fornication with the kings of
the earth.
We've noted that the term, quote-unquote, fornication, is used often in the Bible in
a spiritual sense, signifying unfaithfulness to God.
Ezekiel chapter 16 is devoted entirely to denouncing Jerusalem for her
unfaithfulness to God, liking her to a, quote, wife that committeth adultery,
which taketh strangers instead of her husband.
Unquote.
See verse 32.
Jerusalem had violated her spiritual relationship to God through idolatry and
alliances with pagan nations.
That meaning is clear from many passages of scripture.
Jerusalem, however, cannot be this woman, because, as we have seen, she isn't built
on seven hills, and doesn't meet any of the other criteria.
Obviously, then, the city with which this woman represents must claim a faithful
relationship to God similar to Jerusalem's.
In fact, Rome claims to have replaced Jerusalem in God's affection.
This is where we get the doctrine of replacement theology.
Right here, the holy city is no longer Jerusalem, it's Rome.
Wherever the Pope rules, that's the holy city.
That's replacement theology.
That the Jews who brought us the oracles of God have been replaced by Roman
Catholicism who brought us Roman Catholic canon law.
In fact, Rome claims to have replaced Jerusalem in God's affection.
And she has violated that relationship by entering into unholy alliances with
godless earthly kings.
Rome alone meets this and many other criteria that John sets forth in his
vision.
History is replete with the record of unholy alliances between the Vatican and
secular governments.
Much of the evidence remains today in Rome's churches and monuments.
For example, the Vatican Museum is filled with priceless ancient paintings,
sculptures, tapestries, gold and jewels once worn or treasured by despotic rulers.
Most were given to popes by kings, queens, emperors or governments in token
of papal partnerships with these worldly figures.
Relationships which the Bible condemns and which would be unthinkable for the true
bride of Christ.
Now we are going to talk about the witness of history.
Driven from Rome by a popular uprising against his oppressive reign, Pope Leo III
fled to the Frankish court of Charlemagne to enlist his help in recovering those
territories over which the popes reigned.
That bloodthirsty warrior's enemies recaptured Rome and, in the name of
Christ, restored Leo to the papal throne.
While Charlemagne knelt at mass in St. Peter's on Christmas Day of AD 800,
the Pope placed a crown on his head and proclaimed him Emperor of the West.
The title was eventually recognized by both the Eastern Emperor in Constantinople
and the Caliph of Baghdad.
As Maurice Keenwright reminds us, quote, The restoration of the worldwide
dominion of Rome was the dream not only of medieval popes and emperors, but also of
many of their subjects and servants, unquote.
This dream will be fully achieved at last under Antichrist.
The Pope's move was a shrewd one.
Charlemagne's power had threatened to overshadow the authority of the papacy.
After his coronation by the Pope in St. Peter's, however, Charlemagne,
in solid partnership with the papacy, quote, worked for some forty years to
create a Christian commonwealth such as St. Augustine had earlier outlined,
unquote.
The Emperor's brutal military campaigns in northern Europe were accompanied by the
forcible conversions of the heathen.
Charlemagne was the Pope's secular arm that Christianized the pagans with the
sword, and thereby enlarged the Roman Catholic domain as the Spanish
conquistadors would later do in America.
Charlemagne's father, Pepin, as we have previously noted, on the basis of a
fraudulent document entitled the Donation of Constantine, which we've talked about
voluminously here on the program, had subdued and turned over the Pope's the
huge territories thereafter known as the Papal States and ruled by the papacy.
Charlemagne, too, was deceived by this fraud.
Based upon this fraudulent Donation of Constantine, he formally drew up a charter
which acknowledged the papacy as both spiritual and temporal ruler over,
quote, all the regions of Italy and the West, unquote.
Thereafter, Charlemagne acted as the Pope's protector and partner, much as
Constantine had at the very beginning of the developing coalition between church
and state.
Such an arrangement, totally contrary to the teachings of Christ, is only one
example of the spiritual fornication which this woman, the Roman Catholic Church,
would be involved in, exactly as John foresaw it in his vision.
Eventually, the church and the state became so closely allied that there was
scarcely any distinction between them.
Emperors convened and presided over the great councils of the church and looked
upon the Popes and the rest of the church hierarchy as their partners in governing
the masses.
Such unholy papal alliances, soon to become commonplace, would have been
anathema to the early church.
They made a mockery of Christ's rejection and crucifixion by the world.
Consider another example from the shamelessly flattering speech by Eusebius,
a different portion of which we quoted earlier, in praise of Constantine.
He attributes to the pagan Emperor Constantine the very spiritual qualities
and ecclesiastical authority and functions now claimed by the Popes.
Our Emperor, that is, Christ's friend, acting as interpreter to the word of God,
aims at recalling the whole human race to the knowledge of God, proclaiming clearly
in the ears of all, and declaring with powerful voice the laws of truth and
godliness to all who dwell on the earth.
Invested as he is with a semblance of heavenly sovereignty, he frames his
earthly government according to the pattern of the divine original,
the monarchy of God." There can be no doubt as to the amazing accuracy of the
Apostle John's vision of a city that claims to belong to Christ, yet
prostitutes herself to the kings of the earth.
To have pagan rulers enforcing Christianity by military power upon an
ever-widening papal empire was a blasphemous travesty of the truth that
Christ proclaimed.
It was such a gross misrepresentation of the gospel, and such a confusing
identification of the state with the church, that eventually Christ was
considered the true ruler of Byzantium.
Coins depicting him wearing the imperial crown and icons represented him clothed in
the vestments of the emperor.
The emperor's own throne sat next to another one, empty except for a copy of
the gospels, indicating that Christ was the co-emperor of Byzantium.
Such was the spirit of the times that prevailed in the west as well.
Eventually, as we've already noted, Pope Innocent III abolished the Roman
Senate and placed the administration of Rome directly under his control with a
single senator as his deputy.
In 1266, Clement IV gave this function to Charles of Anjou, who founded the
University of Rome.
The papacy continued to be at the heart of almost every political intrigue,
and its armies were allied with the forces of many a king in the continual wars that
plagued Europe.
In the New World, the church was the partner of the Spanish conquistadors and
the Portuguese of Africa.
Recently, Native American activists called on Pope John Paul II to formally revoke a
papal bull entitled Inter Satira, issued in 1493, which declared that,
quote, barbarous nations discovered and yet to be discovered should be subjected
to the Catholic faith in order to propagate the Christian empire,
unquote.
Examples of, quote, fornication with the kings of the earth, unquote, from ancient
history could be multiplied.
But we need to move on to modern times.
Now we're going to move to 1929.
That precipitous date, 1929, and the Concordat with Mussolini.
We've already referred to the fact that in 1870, the independence of Italy was
declared, and what remained of the papal states was absorbed by the new united
nation.
We've also noted that the Italian people voted overwhelmingly against the Pope's
rule and for the new independence.
The temporal powers of the Popes were ended, including their prestige and
alliances with earthly regimes.
The Pope's civil authority was limited to the Vatican, where they remained in
self-imposed exile for nearly 60 years, until in 1929, Benito Mussolini and the
Pope, Pope Pius XI, signed the Lateran Treaty.
This Concordat made Roman Catholicism, once again, by national law, quote,
the sole religion, unquote, of Italy.
Neither Peter nor Paul, and surely not Christ, would have ever entered into such
an arrangement with any government, let alone with a fascist dictatorship.
The Vatican, which claimed to be the true and only church, the bride of Christ,
who said his kingdom was not of this world, was acknowledged once again as a
sovereign state, with the status of a secular nation able to send and receive
political ambassadors.
For having seized the papal territories in 1870, Italy paid to the Holy See 750
million lira in cash, and 1 billion lira in state bonds.
Some of these funds would be used to start the Vatican Bank, now infamous for its
corruption.
Some would end up in rather strange investments for her holy mother church,
such as, quote, an Italian firearms factory and a Canadian pharmaceutical
company that manufactured contraceptives.
That's right, Rome invested where she could most multiply her wealth,
that is, in killing people through arms and killing people through contraceptives.
That's right, it's the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican, the papacy,
the biblical, historical, and prophetic antichrist, that through a French company
positioned in Canada, a pharmaceutical company, gave us the birth control pill.
Rome presents herself as being against abortion, but the birth control pill does
not prevent conception.
The birth control pill just prevents that conceived life from attaching to the womb,
and it passes out of the body, dead.
That's Roman Catholicism.
It stands piously before the world, condemning contraception, but it financed
the most lethal killing machine ever devised upon mankind, the birth control
pill.
Let that soak in until we return tomorrow, and we'll continue revealing the
historical and prophetic evil that is the Roman Catholic Church.
You've been listening to Inquisition Update on First Amendment Radio.
I'll see you tomorrow.
The program you are listening to is 100% sponsored by you, the listener,
on this First Amendment rights media channel.
You will notice that there are few commercials on this radio network.
There's a good reason for that.
Corporate advertising dollars come with strings that limit program content.
So without your help, these programs cannot continue on satellite, internet,
or our several affiliates.
If you benefit by the educational law programs, we ask you to give.
If you are admonished or nurtured by the Bible and ministry programs, we ask you to
give.
If some voice accosts that you are passionate about, we ask you to give.
If you believe in any of these, we ask you to support them as you would a
missionary on a continual basis, as if giving a tithe for missionary radio.
These programs are not commercially viable and must be supported by those faithful to
the cause of truth.
Look for the button to sponsor your favorite programs at our listen and
schedule pages on the internet.
We will also give you unlimited archive access to all of our programs.
We're asking you to give much less than a tithe, so that you may also send support
directly to a particular program host, cause, and anywhere else the Spirit may
lead you.
Do all to the glory of our God and Creator, for His holy nation, the only
kingdom that will last forever.
Thank you for listening.
Visit crosstheborder.org, C-R-O-S-S, crosstheborder.org, to get your print,
e-pub, or PDF version of Nicholas Arthur's new book titled, When the Third Temple is
Built.
That's crosstheborder.org.
When it comes to prophecy today, much of the Evangelical Christian world
has their eyes on Israel, waiting and watching to see when the Third Temple will
begin to be built.
The plans are drawn, the Jewish people are eager.
Most Evangelical Christians today believe that the rapture will happen before the
Third Temple is built.
Hi, I'm Michael Eugene.
I was taught that Daniel's 70th week was in the future.
Is that really what the Bible teaches?
Have we searched the Scriptures and found this to be true?
Why is it so important for a re-established Israel to build a Third
Temple in Jerusalem?
Is it necessary to build a Temple on the same location already occupied by the Dome
of the Rock?
Is it necessary for sacrifices to take place in the Temple on Temple Mount?
Is there really a rapture followed by seven years of tribulation?
What is the New Testament Temple?
Can we identify history and prophecy?
Who is the first beast in Revelation Chapter 13?
Who are the seven kings in Revelation 17?
I have asked all these questions and I have found Nicholas Arthur's new book,
When the Third Temple is Built, answers all these questions and more using
Scripture to interpret Scripture.
The Bible says that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private
interpretation.
Nicholas shows us in his new book, When the Third Temple is Built,
how the Bible interprets prophecy and not man's private interpretation.
Visit crosstheborder.org to get your print, e-pub, or PDF version of Nicholas
Arthur's new book titled, When the Third Temple is Built.
That's crosstheborder.org.