Our viewers today, I know, want to know a lot about you.
And so, I want you first of all to give us a little background sketch of where you
came from.
And then later on we'll talk about where you are and where you're going.
Yeah, definitely, definitely.
It's a blessing to be here.
As a matter of fact, I feel blessed to address to this public through this
telecast.
And to me, it's not only a blessing, but it's a privilege to be part of the
proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That I was deprived for many years.
As I was born in Spain, that is where originally I came from.
I was born in Spain, raised and educated Roman Catholic.
I went to a minor seminar at the age of seven years.
I was seven years old when I walked into a minor seminar.
All my relatives, my family has brought me in to a minor seminar.
Where finally I was prepared and trained to be a priest.
Then later, joining the Jesuit order.
So, you coming out of Spain, of course, to be a Roman dominated country.
Definitely, yes sir.
You were exposed to the traditions and all of the encliticals of the Roman Church.
What led to you beginning to investigate the light of New Testament Christianity?
Well, let me, as briefly as I have exposed, as a matter of fact, in most of
the series of my testimony in Christ.
From Alberto all the way to Double Cross, the Godfather, the Force.
All these that have portrayed my testimony, my experiences before I was
converted to the Gospel.
And through the time that I was already as a Christian, I became a Christian.
What led me really was studying the Holy Scripture, studying the Bible.
In a time that was given to me when I was 17 years old.
I was in what is called a major seminar already.
And that is what began that explosion in myself.
Trying to identify myself as a Roman Catholic.
Trying to identify myself as a priest to be.
I want that identity to be found in the Scripture.
I have that identity already in tradition.
I have that identity as Catholic and as going to be a priest.
I have all in tradition.
I have all in the magisterium of the Roman Catholic institution.
But I could not find that identity of me being a Catholic and me being a person
preparing to be a priest.
I could not find that identity in the Bible.
From Genesis all the way to Revelation, I searched for it.
I could not find that identity.
What was your attitude toward the Bible?
Certainly you didn't believe it was the Holy Word of God at that time,
did you?
Not quite.
As a matter of fact, that was a very despotic attitude.
A very despotic one.
The attitude and the behavior of the clergy that has been prepared and trained,
believing that the Bible is part of God's revelation, not all the revelation of God.
What that means is, according to the Council of Trent in 1546, the Council
decreed that there were three sources of divine revelation.
The magisterium, the tradition, and the Bible.
As a matter of fact, what is even more painful, and that was what prevented me
from yielding to the dictates of God's written revelation, is that I believe,
by reason of another Council of Trent decree in 1546, where the Council stated
that we have a Bible, but the Bible does not contain, even the Roman Catholic
Bible, does not contain all that is needed for the salvation of men.
Oh yes.
We talked last night that John was the last prophet.
He was.
And when he finished the book of Revelation...
That's correct.
He said, don't add to this.
No.
Don't subtract from this.
So, actually the Roman Church is fulfilling prophecy, in that John must
have known that people would add things to the word of God in traditions,
and you mentioned the magistrates...
Yes, the hierarchy.
The hierarchy, right.
It means there are sources of divine revelation.
Right.
Yes.
That place in the Bible, and the third stage of revelation.
What that means, by the time that I come to submit and yield to the magisterium of
the institution, then I come into tradition, sacraments, liturgy,
canon laws, dogmas, and then finally I have no opportunity, I mean I'm deprived,
every human being is being deprived of having access to the written revelation,
because already we have everything in tradition, we have everything under the
magisterium, what for the Bible?
Yes.
And you would be quite confused, because which magistrate would be the
really divinely inspired one to listen to, what revelation or dogma would be the one
that would be more important, and many times they contradict each other.
It was a contradiction for myself.
As a matter of fact, even among the Jesuit order today, you have Jesuit priests,
they are not Christian, of course, they are not converted to the gospel like
Hans Kahn, Malachias Martin, many of these Jesuit priests are going around the world
lecturing about the inconsistencies, inconsistencies, even today in the 20th
century, of the inconsistencies of Roman Catholic liturgy, Roman Catholic laws,
canon laws, Roman Catholic dogma, inconsistencies.
Now that was a big contradiction to me, because when I went through the tradition
and the magisterium, then I could not find in the Bible.
Then it was always contradiction, from the Bible to tradition.
Right.
The thing that I think is encumbering and hindering people from coming into the
liberty of New Testament Christianity is the quickness, the suddenness with which
the early Christian faith corrupted, you know, Jude.
Jude is the one who changed his mind.
He began to write about the common faith.
I believe in Jude 1, verse 3.
Three, that is correct.
He said, I changed my mind.
He said, I believe I want to write to you that you should earnestly contend for the
faith once for all delivered to the saints.
Yes.
Obviously, even at that early time, already the spirit of this iniquity and
lawlessness, this corruption was in the world.
And I would like for you to enlarge upon that.
But, you know, a doctrine that is 2,000 years old would be as much a lie after
2,000 years as it was when it was first taught as a lie.
Yes.
And so that's the problem, is that the tremendous traditions and the years behind
all this doctrine gives it credibility.
People think because it's old, it must be true.
It must be true.
But it's not Bible, but it's old.
Yes, definitely.
I will say this.
One thing that led to my own personal conviction on the guidance of the Holy
Spirit and reading the Scripture was in John.
And this is where I have, I would like to quote this in the Gospel of John,
Chapter 20.
And this is where the stronger conviction that I ever came across came to me to a
point that that is what really get me ready for my encounter, my personal
encounter with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
This is what happened as I was led of the Spirit of the Lord and the reading,
constant reading of the Scripture, even so that I was after my ordination as
a priest already.
This is what I have found.
In Chapter 20, most of the time the clergy is quite familiar with these teachings,
but they do memorize them, they do read them, but they do not discern.
And that is the problem here.
Verse 30 said, And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his
disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written.
There is a purpose in what is written, divinely speaking.
There is no entradition.
And the purpose is for four purposes here.
That ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
And that believing ye might have life through his name.
Ye might have.
That shocked me.
I mean, it caused a tremendous explosion like dynamite in my heart.
It went through my soul, in my mind, my intellect.
Everything went to the floor.
I could not take a piece of anything that I have learned from tradition,
from the magisterium, and use it against it.
Everything came tumbling down.
Because I knew that the divine purpose by which God has inspired the Holy Spirit was
essentially, especially, for us to be saved through Jesus Christ.
Yes.
So then, Satan, knowing that life is in Christ...
Yes.
You know, who can define life?
Yes.
There's not a scientist, or a genius, or a philosopher in the world that can
define life.
But Christ is life.
There is.
But reading this, I will not see as you mentioned right now.
Reading this, what was being confronted is that I have in my consciousness,
in my life as a priest already, I have all the set of salvation.
Not in the person of Christ, coming from the person of Christ, but based in the
sacraments.
So Satan wanted to blind people...
Yes.
...to the person, and the reality, and the understanding of Jesus Christ as
being supreme.
Yes.
Now, you mention a lot about the departure from the faith, how early it happened.
You speak of Ignatius of Antioch...
That's correct.
...where the name Christian was given for the first time.
They were called Christians.
Yes.
And then he began to change that...
To change that.
...as early as the first century.
Oh, the first century, yes.
And it happened, I believe this to be very prophetical, very prophetical.
It told me already while I was a Jesuit priest, and studying the so-called early
fathers of the Church, that he was the first of the so-called early fathers.
He was the first, Ignatius.
And being so that he was in the same city, the apostle Paul never knew about him.
Peter never knew about him.
Nevertheless, tradition said that he was a follower of the apostles, a successor of
the apostles.
But the apostles knew nothing.
Yeah, they never heard of Ignatius.
That shocked me.
As a Jesuit priest, I said, how in the world these men knew them and they knew
him not?
Yes.
And suddenly, the second thing that blew my mind, intellectually speaking not only,
but religiously speaking, is that finally I found out in the writings of Ignatius of
Antioch that he himself was the first to come with the idea that the name Christian
should be replaced by the name Catholic.
Yes.
Now, the name Christian then was lost in history almost.
Oh, it was because...
The replacement already began to take place with Ignatius already.
That's why I speak of you as being a very rare and rugged independent thinker.
You know, James O'Kelly said, I'm going to call myself a Christian.
And that was difficult for him to do because for 1,700 or so years,
no one had ever been called Christian.
That's hard to believe.
Yes.
But he had to come out and suffer just to wear the name Christian.
That had been lost over those years.
And you also mentioned 666.
You know, there's so much confusion.
Somebody says 666 is a machine, it's a computer.
Yes, yes.
The Bible said it was a man, not a computer.
A Russian, a Chinese, a Muslim.
Right, right.
It's kind of funny.
It's really childishness when it comes to the book of Revelation.
And yet, if we're seeing this mystery of iniquity rising so early in history,
even as early as Ignatius, then whatever we're talking about can't be something in
the future.
Absolutely not.
It's something that John could possibly see beginning through the Judaizers.
The Judaizers certainly were given the early church of Christ's fits.
And then he had to see it rising through the beastology of Rome.
Yes.
And then continuing all the way down to Christ destroys this Antichrist with the
breath of his mouth.
Really, we can't destroy the Roman church.
No.
You and I, and all the men in the world today, we can't do it because one thing
about the Roman church is it fulfills prophecy.
Yes, it fulfills prophecy.
In dealing with the 666, I would like to refer to the Four Horsemen, the fifth part
of the testimony of Christ in my life.
Since I wrote, I identified very well the 666 was one of the first titles that popes
are given and granted by the cardinal college.
The cardinal college, after the general Jesuit appoint two cardinals to be the
ones among whom a pope must be selected.
The black pope is the one that chooses two cardinals from the members of the cardinal
college in order for them to choose among themselves one of the two to be a pope,
the next pope.
Once that happens, and this is a tremendous elaboration, we don't have the
time to go into the details, but once that happens, all of this is fulfilling
prophecy.
Because even Jesus Christ prophesies about this dynasty, this dynasty they are
involved in.
They are called the princes of the church, the cardinal college.
That means that this is fulfilling prophecy.
In chapter 24 of Matthew, verse 5, already Jesus prophesied.
In that direction we find chapter 6 of the book of Revelation, chapter 13,
chapter 17, chapter 18, chapter 19.
Always in the book of Revelation, even coming all the way from the prophet
Daniel, that these men should have a combination of a religious and political
power.
And this is very clear.
666 already developed from the first title of that particular man that would hold two
offices in one.
Two offices in one.
That is, tu es vicarios filis Dei, a transliteration from the Latin root
meaning, you are the one that takes the place of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
God substitutes son.
Say that again now in Latin.
Yes, tu es vicarios filis Dei.
God substitutes son, taking the place of God's Son.
Taking the place.
Now, the transliteration...
Now you've had a 666...
You take each syllable into Roman numbers and come out 666.
All right.
But not only that.
Latinus, that is the root Latin for Latin.
Latinus.
Yes, yes.
That in Greek will develop into the same form.
It will develop in 666.
Now Latin is a very special language and there is no doubt that it is the language
of the Antichrist.
Yes, Latinus.
Yes.
He was the founder of the Latin race, I understand.
Definite.
And the Roman Catholic Bishop John Purcell debated Alexander Campbell in...
I remember that.
Right.
I knew about that being a Jesuit priest.
You knew about it when you were a priest?
Yes.
Is that right?
Yes.
And Jesuits hated so much Alexander Campbell as they did hate the reformers,
the Protestant reformers.
Because it happened that when a man in Christianity lives his Christian life
without touching Catholic teaching, there is no problem.
The problem comes when that Christian begins to evangelize the Catholics and
evangelize the people that has embraced such a tradition.
And they become in confrontation with religion.
That is when they create problems.
You have a tremendous burden and a tremendous compassion for the Roman
Church.
Definite.
You remind me a lot of Paul who mentioned when he said, My heart's desire for Israel
is that they might be saved.
You may say your heart's desire and prayer for the Catholicism.
For the salvation of the Catholic people, yes.
When Campbell debated Purcell, he mentioned that Latinos, the Greek
equivalency, the numerical value was 666.
And then he mentioned that Haas...
John Haas, yes.
Haas Basileus Latineus, which is the Latin kingdom, though more words, yet still
equivalent to 666.
That's correct.
Purcell challenged him and said, Well, I can make Alexander Campbell come
out 666.
And Campbell said, If you do...
No way.
He said, I will give you the victory.
Yes.
And he said, I don't know anything about numerics nor numerology.
Yes.
And Campbell said it would do you well to learn the numerical alphabet.
Yes.
It would help you in understanding because it said let him who has wisdom...
Yes.
...compute the number 666.
You have to have a little wisdom.
Yes.
And you have gotten that.
In fact, you heard about this when you were a Jesuit priest.
I still a Jesuit when I hear about the debate.
Yes, definitely.
And, as a matter of fact, Archbishop Purcell was put in disgrace by the
hierarchy because of that debate.
Because of that debate.
Oh, yeah, definitely.
It was not made public, but that is what happened.
Now, when they disgrace a man, is that like a coach losing a ball game or
something?
They become ashamed of him because of the ball game.
They are ashamed of him.
That is correct.
And what do they do?
Do they just put him in infamy or something?
That is correct.
They bring him to a ecclesiastical trial.
That will give you a sign, speaking of 666, of how that developed even in action.
Because these trials are the reflection of a very despotic dictatorship of the
papacy, of the hierarchy.
And there is no doubt about it.
We can see this in Revelation, in Prophets of Revelation, chapter 13.
By the time that we see that this combination of these two powers already
are declaring such a despotism, such a despotic behavior of power,
you know.
The cardinal that is chosen to be a pope immediately is selected by the Jesuit
general, giving him three things that coincide with Revelation, chapter 13,
about a mark, a name, and a number.
Now, what is that?
As the pope, as the cardinals are being chosen for that office, they are given a
new name.
Look at this.
They are given a new name.
They are given, beside the new name, they are given, or I would say,
beginning, let me read chapter 13 of the book of Revelation.
It says here is, verse 17, 18, here is wisdom.
Let that hath understand the count the number of the beast, for it is the number
of a man.
What that means, being the number of a man, he is given that number as any pope
is given the name, a new name, and a number, like a John Paul II.
And at the same time, he is given a mark.
He is being branded to die as a pope.
He is.
His mark, his seal, he cannot resign, he cannot reject the office, he dies as a
pope.
He could never repent, could he?
Absolutely.
And he could never turn to Christ and yield to him.
Absolutely.
His mind is totally yielded to the Antichrist spirit.
It is already a mark.
Yes.
It's a mark on him.
It talks about the man of perdition.
Yes.
That's about the same description.
Very much.
Perdition means ruin.
Very much.
Loss.
Very much.
Total loss.
Yes.
He could repent no more than Satan.
No, absolutely.
Right.
He has committed, as a matter of fact, the impermeable sin, the sin of death.
Once he replaced not only God, not only Christ, but he replaced,
according to tradition, Catholic tradition, he replaced the Holy Spirit.
Oh, my Lord.
Truth shall make you free.
Yes, man.
There is no freedom without truth.
It's painful, but we need to have loving, compassionate, tender-hearted men like Dr.
Rivera, who are not ashamed of the truth.
Now, in the Judgment Day, no one can point a finger at this man and say, you didn't
tell us the truth.
Again, the Preach the Word broadcast is committed to dispensing the truth,
undiluted and unvarnished truth.
Next week, Dr. Rivera will be with us again, and we're going to be giving more
detailed description to the 13th chapter of Revelation, and a little more
description to the prophetic understanding of Romanism and the outgrowth of political
Rome into religious Rome, and how that even Protestantism, which are children of
the mother, developed down through the ages.
Dr. Rivera, we just love you dearly.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you very much.
It's been a blessing being here.
Hearing you speak is as delightful as reading your books.
Thank you.
I would like to say something for the benefit of our audiences here.
That if they care to have personal contact with me, they can do so by writing to the
address that has been already given.
And at the same time, they can reach for the literature that we have.
We have plenty to offer.
And the different conversions of different priests.
And one little booklet that I would like to call attention is this one.
And this is in reply to many slanders and accusations that have come against my
life, my ministry, my testimony in different forms.
And this is the book that we would like to call attention among many others that we
have.
Our time is short.
Come back next week for the Priesthood Word Broadcast.
Order these books and hear more about this man of God, Dr. Alberto Rivera.
Thank you for listening.
May God bless you until next week.