WEBVTT 00:07.450 --> 00:09.640 Hello and welcome to Z3 News. 00:09.780 --> 00:13.840 I'm James Bailey, and today is Monday, May 18, 2020. 00:14.560 --> 00:20.420 And today I'm continuing along the lines of the programs I shared last week. 00:20.680 --> 00:25.920 And this is part of a new series that I started based on a prompting I received on 00:25.920 --> 00:31.460 Sunday, May 10, where I believe God put it in my heart to start sharing news items. 00:32.240 --> 00:34.200 And I am going to do that. 00:34.300 --> 00:35.580 That's what I'm working toward. 00:35.700 --> 00:40.780 But I wanted to start by sharing a scriptural foundation for what I believe, 00:40.920 --> 00:46.520 because otherwise I think my views are going to sound like nonsense to a lot of 00:46.520 --> 00:46.880 people. 00:47.200 --> 00:54.020 But I believe the scriptures are our most reliable, most trustworthy source of 00:54.020 --> 00:54.580 information. 00:55.100 --> 01:00.180 And what's amazing to me is that the scriptures provide us with all the answers 01:00.180 --> 01:05.340 we need to understand what's happening in the world today and what's coming in the 01:05.340 --> 01:05.700 future. 01:06.280 --> 01:11.600 It really is amazing if we just take the time to study what it's saying. 01:11.860 --> 01:18.020 It gives us all the information we need, yet so many of us have spent our time 01:18.020 --> 01:24.560 listening to other sources and we haven't had to try very hard because the whole 01:24.560 --> 01:29.380 world is bombarding us with other narratives, false narratives that 01:29.380 --> 01:31.600 contradict the scriptural perspective. 01:32.720 --> 01:35.400 As a result, there's a lot of confusion. 01:35.940 --> 01:37.680 We've been bombarded in our schools. 01:37.920 --> 01:45.780 Our teachings from history textbooks have omitted the reasons behind historical 01:45.780 --> 01:46.240 events. 01:46.400 --> 01:52.580 So when it's presented to us, we just get this series of events and dates and names 01:52.580 --> 01:55.580 and there's no real ability. 01:55.720 --> 02:00.280 We don't connect the dots because the key pieces of information were removed. 02:00.620 --> 02:06.740 God has been removed and he is the key piece of information that we need to 02:06.740 --> 02:08.180 understand these things. 02:08.700 --> 02:13.080 So in the previous programs I've been sharing from the scriptures, starting with 02:13.080 --> 02:18.520 Daniel chapter 2 regarding Nebuchadnezzar's dream about seeing a 02:18.520 --> 02:24.400 great statue that showed different sections of the statue were revealing 02:24.400 --> 02:30.420 different kingdoms to come upon the earth, starting with his own kingdom and then 02:30.420 --> 02:38.300 ending there was a total of four kingdoms and it ends with the legs made of iron and 02:38.300 --> 02:42.160 the feet made of clay and iron mixed in. 02:42.840 --> 02:48.980 And what's so amazing about that dream, that vision, and that picture that it 02:48.980 --> 02:56.420 portrays of the legs of iron and then the feet of iron and clay is it completely 02:56.420 --> 03:04.220 illustrates what has been happening in the world for the past 2700 years. 03:05.200 --> 03:08.540 And so I'm going to start shifting the focus just a little bit. 03:08.580 --> 03:14.920 I still have more scriptures to share, but I want to start shifting the focus to 03:14.920 --> 03:21.640 show how the events from history in the past few hundred years especially have 03:21.640 --> 03:29.200 exactly aligned with what Nebuchadnezzar saw in that transition from the legs of 03:29.200 --> 03:33.660 iron to the feet of clay with iron mixed in. 03:34.060 --> 03:41.580 It's really amazing when you start seeing it in history and then it really sets the 03:41.580 --> 03:49.300 stage for us to understand where we are and who is truly behind the events that 03:49.300 --> 03:51.300 are happening in the world today. 03:51.420 --> 03:57.420 It's so vitally important for us to get that perspective both from the scriptures 03:57.420 --> 03:58.500 and from history. 03:58.920 --> 04:06.760 But then I also shared from Daniel chapter 9 because that also reveals Rome is the 04:06.760 --> 04:11.140 empire that will be behind the Antichrist at the time of the end. 04:11.620 --> 04:13.980 And I explained that in a previous program as well. 04:14.620 --> 04:22.000 And then I also went into Revelation chapter 13 to show that the one who comes 04:22.000 --> 04:28.660 as the second beast who comes as a lamb perfectly fits the description of the 04:28.660 --> 04:30.320 Roman Catholic Pope. 04:30.500 --> 04:35.180 And I'm going to be sharing more scriptures along that line to show the 04:35.180 --> 04:41.880 connection between the Roman Catholic Church and Mystery Babylon as it's 04:41.880 --> 04:43.380 described in the scriptures. 04:44.120 --> 04:46.620 It's also called the mother of all harlots. 04:46.920 --> 04:52.660 Now when it comes to history, I do not like taking anyone else's word for it. 04:53.060 --> 04:56.960 As soon as someone makes a claim, I want to know where did you get that 04:56.960 --> 04:57.320 from? 04:57.900 --> 04:59.220 And I look for the source. 04:59.220 --> 05:05.440 And I like to find sources that are as close as possible to the time of the 05:05.440 --> 05:10.400 actual event, preferably they were there as a first-hand eyewitness if possible. 05:10.880 --> 05:18.380 So it's great to base our beliefs on the scriptures, but when it comes to history, 05:18.820 --> 05:25.260 I really want hard factual evidence to know what I'm talking about. 05:25.480 --> 05:30.120 And so for the past several days, I have been digging and digging and 05:30.120 --> 05:37.840 digging, and I am really so excited about what I've found because it is clearly the 05:37.840 --> 05:43.160 start, that transition period, maybe you call it the ankles of the statue 05:43.160 --> 05:50.300 that Nebuchadnezzar saw because we, the world, went through a major shifting, 05:50.800 --> 05:59.120 a major transformation when we changed over from the legs to the feet. 05:59.840 --> 06:02.580 And that happened a couple of hundred years ago. 06:03.060 --> 06:07.260 And I'm going to go back, I'm going to take some time to explain that because 06:07.960 --> 06:14.760 when you can see that from historical facts, and thank God there's enough hard 06:14.760 --> 06:19.560 facts that we can know without a doubt, I don't have to have any doubt about it, 06:19.860 --> 06:26.840 as to what happened, who was behind it, who came out of it on top, and how the 06:26.840 --> 06:31.480 world was dramatically changed ever since. 06:32.220 --> 06:38.980 And it's really something everyone needs to understand, but sad to say, 06:39.060 --> 06:44.160 I mean these are events that I was taught in school, I was required to read books 06:44.160 --> 06:47.940 about them, never had the slightest idea what any of it meant. 06:48.740 --> 06:55.320 And it's not a coincidence because you can go back and find historical evidence that 06:55.320 --> 07:02.720 different organizations have made a concerted effort to rewrite the events of 07:02.720 --> 07:08.300 history, to omit the crimes committed by the culprits, the true culprits behind 07:08.300 --> 07:11.800 these things, so that we never ever hear about it. 07:12.600 --> 07:18.300 And then when we finally do hear about it, it sounds so bizarre, so way out there. 07:19.200 --> 07:23.360 And it's because we've lived our whole life in deception. 07:24.220 --> 07:29.220 It's an amazing thing, especially when you've lived as long as I have, 07:29.540 --> 07:34.520 to think, good grief, I've been believing this false narrative my whole life. 07:35.020 --> 07:41.440 So I'm very eager to share what I've discovered regarding this major shift that 07:41.440 --> 07:41.900 occurred. 07:42.580 --> 07:48.960 And I was planning originally to share that today, but it occurred to me that 07:48.960 --> 07:58.780 just as historians have omitted the truth about that shift, they have also misled us 07:59.330 --> 08:04.780 about another shift that has supposedly happened in the Roman Kingdom that never 08:04.780 --> 08:05.540 did happen. 08:05.960 --> 08:12.360 So we've been misled on both counts, and I think it's important to lay the 08:12.360 --> 08:20.560 groundwork to go back and establish the truth about that first major shift that 08:20.560 --> 08:21.640 never did happen. 08:22.380 --> 08:27.700 And then on tomorrow's program, hopefully, we'll be able to go into the 08:27.700 --> 08:32.180 details about the shift that we were never told about that did happen. 08:33.400 --> 08:34.560 What a mess! 08:35.080 --> 08:41.900 Anyway, we don't need to spend forever studying the history of Rome, but we do 08:41.900 --> 08:47.320 need to have at least a basic understanding of the facts of history, 08:47.400 --> 08:51.600 because this Kingdom, we need to understand who this is that we're dealing 08:51.600 --> 08:55.640 with, and who this is that's ruling over planet Earth. 08:56.200 --> 09:01.700 It's a major important thing because if we can understand what's operating, 09:02.040 --> 09:08.280 then we can understand and believe what's happening today, because otherwise it can 09:08.280 --> 09:17.260 be very difficult for the sheep to believe that the wolves could be so evil, 09:17.560 --> 09:22.100 because sheep are not used to thinking like wolves. 09:22.100 --> 09:27.940 And so I think it's really important that we understand the nature of this Kingdom 09:27.940 --> 09:34.740 that they have demonstrated through all of their 2700 years of existence. 09:35.200 --> 09:41.240 Now the popular narrative about the Roman Empire, which I'm calling the Roman 09:41.240 --> 09:46.800 Kingdom to kind of cover all the different spans of it, but the popular narrative has 09:46.800 --> 09:54.120 been that they were a pagan empire, but in the 4th century AD they converted 09:54.120 --> 09:59.480 to Christianity, and they've been a Christian empire ever since. 09:59.800 --> 10:06.420 Well, that narrative is easily proven false by the facts of history, 10:06.920 --> 10:13.060 and it's really even comical to the point of absurdity that they continue to make 10:13.060 --> 10:20.060 the claim, because all the facts of history centering around that period of 10:20.060 --> 10:24.400 the 4th century all disprove that it ever even happened. 10:24.640 --> 10:30.400 It all goes back to Emperor Constantine in the 4th century and his supposed 10:30.400 --> 10:33.160 conversion to Christianity. 10:34.240 --> 10:38.260 Constantine became emperor in the year 306. 10:38.760 --> 10:45.440 At that time, the kingdom was divided into four parts, so he initially was just 10:45.440 --> 10:47.620 emperor over one of those parts. 10:48.340 --> 10:52.620 He later, through military conquests, unified the kingdom. 10:53.660 --> 10:59.300 But at that time, the Roman Kingdom had been in existence for about a thousand 10:59.300 --> 11:06.540 years, and in all that time, they were unquestionably devoted to this what they 11:06.540 --> 11:13.540 called the Pantheon of Roman Gods, and this included gods like Jupiter, 11:14.040 --> 11:23.200 Mars, Mercury, Saturn, Venus, Apollo, Diana, Mithras, and many others. 11:24.360 --> 11:31.320 They had constructed temples to these gods throughout their kingdom, and they had 11:31.320 --> 11:37.820 people who acted as oracles to speak in behalf of their gods so that when they had 11:37.820 --> 11:43.360 important decisions to make, they went to the oracle, and they would perform these 11:43.360 --> 11:50.380 ceremonies where they would sacrifice an animal and spread out the insides of the 11:50.380 --> 11:58.120 animal, and supposedly the oracle could read the entrails to determine the 11:58.120 --> 12:03.020 direction that the Roman emperors needed to take. 12:03.840 --> 12:10.080 Now, by the time Constantine came to power, Rome had been consistently 12:10.080 --> 12:17.300 persecuting the Jews for hundreds of years, and in more recent times, 12:17.680 --> 12:22.200 the past 300 years, they had been persecuting the Christians right alongside 12:22.200 --> 12:23.020 of the Jews. 12:24.320 --> 12:31.480 It was the Roman armies in 70 AD that surrounded Jerusalem and destroyed the 12:31.480 --> 12:39.540 temple and the city and killed over one million Jewish people, and they captured 12:39.540 --> 12:44.920 another hundred thousand and took them back to Rome to be sold into slavery. 12:45.700 --> 12:51.660 And that's the event that I mentioned in a previous program that's recorded in Daniel 12:51.660 --> 12:58.340 chapter 9 as a prophetic event that was to come, but was later fulfilled over a 12:58.340 --> 13:02.040 period of a few years from 66 to 76 AD. 13:02.960 --> 13:06.260 And that was not an isolated event. 13:06.680 --> 13:14.040 It was part of an ongoing pattern of persecution that continued relentlessly, 13:14.740 --> 13:16.380 emperor after emperor. 13:17.060 --> 13:25.900 But despite all their severe persecution and execution of Christians, their 13:25.900 --> 13:32.560 strategy was failing to work, and the spread of Christianity just continued 13:32.560 --> 13:38.860 stronger and stronger until by the time Constantine came to power, there were 13:38.860 --> 13:46.120 Christians at every level of Roman society and in every kind of occupation. 13:46.740 --> 13:55.140 For example, in the Roman military in the year 286, there was an entire legion of 13:55.140 --> 13:57.680 Roman soldiers who were all Christians. 13:58.300 --> 14:04.260 And this legion consisted of 6,666 men. 14:04.400 --> 14:11.860 It's called the Theban Legion because all the men in that legion had been raised in 14:11.860 --> 14:14.040 a city called Thebius. 14:15.040 --> 14:21.020 And at that time, the emperor Maximian ordered them to march to Gaul, 14:21.100 --> 14:26.740 which would be modern day France, to assist them in a war against the people 14:26.740 --> 14:27.460 of Burgundy. 14:28.520 --> 14:34.300 And they were loyal to the emperor's orders until he ordered the whole legion 14:34.300 --> 14:41.000 to participate in a sacrifice to the pagan gods and also to take an oath of 14:41.000 --> 14:47.380 allegiance in which they were required to swear their assistance in exterminating 14:47.380 --> 14:50.280 all the Christians living in Gaul. 14:51.340 --> 14:53.140 And so these soldiers were forced 14:59.660 --> 15:01.680 to obey the emperor's orders. 15:01.960 --> 15:07.740 And the emperor was, of course, infuriated by their refusal to obey his 15:07.740 --> 15:08.100 orders. 15:08.820 --> 15:10.860 And so they had a standoff. 15:11.520 --> 15:17.400 And the emperor ultimately ordered one-tenth of them to be put to death by 15:17.400 --> 15:23.760 the sword, hoping that the other 90% would reconsider and follow his commands. 15:24.400 --> 15:28.820 But they killed, it's called decimating, they killed one-tenth of them by the sword 15:28.820 --> 15:30.840 and the other 90% held firm. 15:31.180 --> 15:36.080 So he ordered a second time to kill another 10%. 15:36.080 --> 15:42.280 And again, the survivors all stood firm, refused to compromise. 15:43.580 --> 15:50.340 And so this really infuriated the emperor and he ordered his other legions to just 15:50.340 --> 15:53.320 execute the entire Theban legion. 15:53.660 --> 15:56.340 And they were all put to death by the sword. 15:57.640 --> 16:05.220 Now that event just illustrates the climate of Rome at the time that 16:05.220 --> 16:08.660 Constantine took power in 306. 16:08.720 --> 16:12.040 So that was just 30 years before he took power. 16:12.500 --> 16:17.380 The Christian influence had become a major problem for Rome. 16:18.440 --> 16:22.380 There were Christians in business who were prospering. 16:22.860 --> 16:25.160 There were Christians in government positions. 16:26.020 --> 16:31.700 So this issue of the Christians was threatening to divide the entire empire. 16:32.640 --> 16:38.420 And so Rome did what they always do, they consulted the oracle of their pagan 16:38.420 --> 16:38.960 gods. 16:39.520 --> 16:43.880 And the emperor, one of the emperors that ruled right before Constantine, 16:44.140 --> 16:46.020 was named Diocletian. 16:46.840 --> 16:53.560 And when Diocletian went to the oracle of Apollo, the oracle told him that they were 16:53.560 --> 17:00.160 unable to receive clear instructions from the gods because their connection was 17:00.160 --> 17:06.680 being hindered by the presence of these Christians who were described by the 17:06.680 --> 17:09.360 oracle as the impious on the earth. 17:09.660 --> 17:16.340 So in the year 303, Diocletian issued what's called the Edict against the 17:16.340 --> 17:21.460 Christians in which he ordered the destruction of the Christian scriptures, 17:22.120 --> 17:23.580 Christian places of worship. 17:24.200 --> 17:28.060 He prohibited Christians from assembling together to worship. 17:28.700 --> 17:32.340 He had many Christians arrested and put in prison. 17:33.220 --> 17:39.420 He had many of their homes set on fire with them inside so that many families 17:39.420 --> 17:41.700 just perished in the fire. 17:42.780 --> 17:49.100 He had others taken out to sea and had stones tied around their neck and thrown 17:49.100 --> 17:50.060 into the sea. 17:51.060 --> 17:56.760 Others were strung up and suspended over flames until they boiled to death. 17:57.700 --> 18:04.160 And all these events are recorded in great detail in Fox's Book of the Martyrs. 18:04.520 --> 18:09.720 And there he says, it's impossible to ascertain the numbers martyred or to 18:09.720 --> 18:12.120 enumerate the various modes of martyrdom. 18:12.860 --> 18:17.740 Racks, scourges, swords, daggers, crosses, spears, spears, axes, 18:18.160 --> 18:23.820 poison, famine were made use of in various parts to dispatch the Christians. 18:24.560 --> 18:30.920 An invention was exhausted to devise tortures against such has had no crime. 18:32.200 --> 18:38.260 Now by the time Diocletian issued the Edict against the Christians, the Roman 18:38.260 --> 18:41.640 Empire had already been divided ten years prior. 18:42.620 --> 18:44.660 And he's the one who had issued the order. 18:45.440 --> 18:51.560 And so Rome was divided in more ways than one, geographically as well as 18:51.560 --> 18:52.860 religiously. 18:53.820 --> 18:57.580 So that's the environment that Constantine grew up under. 18:58.080 --> 19:02.300 And he grew up trained as a soldier fighting in the armies of Rome. 19:03.000 --> 19:08.860 And as a good soldier, he understood the importance of having his men behind him 19:08.860 --> 19:10.360 together in agreement. 19:11.080 --> 19:17.180 So he was a first-hand eyewitness to the challenges that were faced by the Empire 19:17.180 --> 19:18.580 over this issue. 19:19.660 --> 19:27.480 So then in the year 306, at the age of 34, Constantine became emperor over one of the 19:27.480 --> 19:29.580 four Roman kingdoms. 19:30.400 --> 19:38.420 And five years later, he saw one of the other emperors, Galerius, admit publicly 19:38.420 --> 19:45.960 that his attempts to stop the Christians through persecution was a dismal failure. 19:47.300 --> 19:49.420 And so that was in the year 311. 19:49.800 --> 19:55.780 And in that same year, Galerius, after having many Christians put to death, 19:56.300 --> 20:01.480 he was struck down with an illness that was described as a very painful illness. 20:01.900 --> 20:07.700 And he was in such pain that he even called on the Christians to please pray 20:07.700 --> 20:08.300 for him. 20:08.700 --> 20:13.440 But he died of his sickness after just 16 days. 20:14.240 --> 20:20.840 And it was the next year, in 312, that Constantine was engaged in a battle 20:20.840 --> 20:24.520 against one of the other Roman emperors, Maxentius. 20:24.820 --> 20:27.620 And it's called the Battle of Milvian Bridge. 20:28.000 --> 20:32.680 And it was during that battle that Constantine, many years later, 20:33.300 --> 20:36.700 13 years later, claimed that he had had a vision. 20:37.520 --> 20:43.300 And in the vision, he claims he saw a cross up in the sky, and he heard God say, 20:43.800 --> 20:45.520 in this sign you shall conquer. 20:46.560 --> 20:52.340 Now, there's some very big problems with his testimony, because first of all, 20:53.340 --> 20:58.560 no one had ever heard a single word about it until 13 years later. 20:59.060 --> 21:07.120 In the year 325, Constantine was facing many challenges of trying to keep control 21:07.120 --> 21:11.840 over this Christian influence that was growing stronger and stronger. 21:12.620 --> 21:20.080 And so in that year, he sent out word, an invitation, to 1800 leaders of 21:20.080 --> 21:22.080 Christian churches who were called bishops. 21:23.140 --> 21:29.900 And 300 of them accepted his invitation and made the trip to Rome and met with 21:29.900 --> 21:38.160 him, where he attempted to take control over the Christian world, putting himself 21:38.160 --> 21:39.500 at the head of it. 21:40.200 --> 21:46.660 Now, I think it's very odd that at this time, when he's trying to present himself 21:46.660 --> 21:52.040 as a candidate to be the leader of all the Christian churches, that at that very 21:52.040 --> 21:59.180 time, right prior to that council meeting, he comes up with this testimony that he 21:59.180 --> 22:03.940 has his scribe record for him, a man named Eusebius. 22:04.860 --> 22:11.200 So it was clearly to Constantine's advantage at that time to come up with a 22:11.200 --> 22:16.780 testimony to claim that he also was a Christian that would then qualify him to 22:16.780 --> 22:19.320 be the leader over all the other Christians. 22:20.180 --> 22:26.860 So that's point number one, that I think is a glaringly big problem for his 22:26.860 --> 22:27.320 testimony. 22:27.540 --> 22:34.460 But the second thing is his own testimony, which he had carved in stone, telling the 22:34.460 --> 22:36.140 stories of his conquests. 22:36.720 --> 22:43.620 Some three years after his supposed conversion in 312, in the year 315, 22:44.520 --> 22:48.320 he had constructed what was called the Arch of Constantine. 22:48.940 --> 22:54.620 And this arch has carved into it the stories of his military victories. 22:55.020 --> 23:01.060 And what's really interesting about the arch is that it has not one single 23:01.060 --> 23:05.080 reference to any kind of Christian symbol. 23:05.740 --> 23:10.000 There are no crosses found anywhere in any of the statues. 23:11.180 --> 23:15.420 Yet he claims to have had this dramatic conversion in which he was told, 23:16.360 --> 23:17.960 in this sign you will conquer. 23:18.540 --> 23:25.280 So if the sign of the cross was the key to his military victories, why in his own 23:25.280 --> 23:32.080 testimony would he omit it and any reference to it while including references 23:32.080 --> 23:33.460 to his pagan gods? 23:33.540 --> 23:37.100 Right on top of the arch was the god Apollo. 23:38.040 --> 23:43.720 And carved into other parts of the arch were references giving honor to other 23:43.720 --> 23:44.600 pagan gods. 23:44.960 --> 23:51.460 So all throughout the arch, we see him giving honor to his pagan gods while 23:51.460 --> 23:55.300 making not one single mention of anything Christian. 23:56.240 --> 23:59.200 Now that arch still stands today in Rome. 23:59.400 --> 24:00.660 It's near the Colosseum. 24:01.480 --> 24:06.300 And so to this very day, his own testimony, which is carved into that 24:06.300 --> 24:12.620 stone, testifies against him as being a true convert to Christianity. 24:13.840 --> 24:16.300 And so that's the second reason why he's a true convert. 24:16.300 --> 24:19.900 And the third reason why I do not believe his conversion ever happened. 24:20.700 --> 24:26.260 But there's a lot more evidence because well into the later years of his life, 24:26.320 --> 24:33.420 in the year 330, five years after the Council of Nicaea, he has another monument 24:33.420 --> 24:35.760 constructed to honor the god Apollo. 24:36.040 --> 24:38.220 It's called the Column of Constantine. 24:38.600 --> 24:40.680 And at the top of it stands Apollo. 24:41.120 --> 24:45.600 But instead of Apollo's face, he puts his own face on the statue. 24:46.680 --> 24:51.840 Now at the base of that column, there was a little storage compartment. 24:52.560 --> 24:58.140 And in there, he had a wooden statue of the pagan goddess Pallas Athena. 24:58.940 --> 25:04.800 And along with that little statue, he had some Christian relics such as 25:04.800 --> 25:08.300 little wooden pieces that were supposedly pieces of the cross. 25:09.420 --> 25:13.060 So there you have a great example near the end of his life. 25:13.300 --> 25:21.480 He's still giving honor to the pagan gods, and he's just added this Christian relic 25:21.480 --> 25:28.260 in the mix as if it's just a way of covering the bases to include all the 25:28.260 --> 25:28.700 gods. 25:29.200 --> 25:34.620 And you know as the Romans had this pantheon of gods, they were very used to 25:34.620 --> 25:36.760 having lots of gods. 25:37.640 --> 25:42.640 So why not just add one more god to the mix, and that way you've got them all 25:42.640 --> 25:43.060 covered. 25:43.580 --> 25:46.020 That's what it looks like Constantine did. 25:46.220 --> 25:49.360 There's no evidence of a genuine conversion. 25:50.580 --> 25:54.180 Christians don't build monuments to pagan gods. 25:54.940 --> 25:59.480 Christians don't just add their god to the mix of their other existing gods. 25:59.860 --> 26:06.080 Christians receive the one true god and center their whole life around a personal 26:06.080 --> 26:07.360 relationship with him. 26:07.580 --> 26:12.680 There's no room to have all those other gods if there's a true conversion. 26:13.920 --> 26:19.380 And that brings me to my last point of concern about Constantine's testimony, 26:19.760 --> 26:24.400 is that he doesn't mention any conversion of the inner man. 26:24.780 --> 26:28.680 He doesn't mention any kind of relationship, personal relationship with 26:28.680 --> 26:30.040 God through Jesus Christ. 26:30.300 --> 26:33.620 Matter of fact, he never even mentions the name of Jesus Christ. 26:34.140 --> 26:40.500 All he said was in this supposed vision is that in this sign you will conquer. 26:41.240 --> 26:45.620 And this is exactly the kind of thing that was popular throughout the pagan culture. 26:46.180 --> 26:47.740 They were superstitious. 26:48.080 --> 26:54.900 They believed in the power of objects, the power of relics to deliver them and 26:54.900 --> 26:57.580 give them some kind of supernatural favor. 26:58.420 --> 26:59.560 And it's idolatry. 27:00.080 --> 27:05.640 What he did was he made Christianity into a form of idolatry. 27:06.440 --> 27:12.900 He actually perverted the meaning of the cross as if it's some kind of a relic that 27:12.900 --> 27:13.860 would give him power. 27:13.980 --> 27:19.300 Almost like in the Lord of the Rings movie, whoever possesses the ring has this 27:19.300 --> 27:19.960 great power. 27:20.320 --> 27:21.780 And that's how it is in Babylon. 27:22.000 --> 27:27.400 The kingdom of Babylon is always focused on the visible realm because they cannot 27:27.400 --> 27:29.620 see the invisible realm. 27:30.800 --> 27:36.960 And that's why they have all these pagan gods that are connected to things in the 27:36.960 --> 27:37.740 visible realm. 27:37.980 --> 27:44.040 It's either the sun or the moon or the planets or the stars or something in the 27:44.040 --> 27:49.400 physical realm because that's where they focus their attention. 27:50.380 --> 27:56.500 And just think about what a joke it was for him to convene this council of Nicaea. 27:57.720 --> 28:04.280 He sent out the invitation to 1,800 bishops and less than 20% of them showed 28:04.280 --> 28:06.040 up, only 300. 28:07.240 --> 28:13.380 And that makes a lot of sense because these people understood this is the 28:13.380 --> 28:18.360 emperor of the empire that kills Christians, tortures Christians. 28:19.960 --> 28:26.300 And now they receive this invitation from Brother Constantine who wants to come and 28:26.300 --> 28:28.080 have fellowship with them. 28:28.640 --> 28:34.220 Can you imagine how they must have felt when they're meeting together with him to 28:34.220 --> 28:36.240 discuss church doctrines? 28:36.660 --> 28:41.740 I mean, who's going to debate with him when he could instantly have them put to 28:41.740 --> 28:42.120 death? 28:42.980 --> 28:48.520 I mean, the whole thing is just beyond absurd to think that they're going to have 28:48.520 --> 28:54.480 a legitimate meeting to decide on the future of Christian doctrine. 28:55.140 --> 29:02.020 So the only one that had anything to gain from this was Constantine because he put 29:02.020 --> 29:07.800 himself in the position that he wanted to be in which all the Christians were now 29:07.800 --> 29:10.680 accountable to him as the head of the church. 29:11.500 --> 29:14.180 I mean, it was a downright devilish thing to do. 29:15.360 --> 29:22.280 Yet to this very day, the Roman Catholic Church claims that their kingdom, 29:22.460 --> 29:27.640 their empire, had a change of heart with the conversion of Constantine. 29:28.140 --> 29:32.540 And from that time on, they were a Christian empire. 29:33.260 --> 29:39.960 But if that was true, then there should be evidence of that even after the life of 29:39.960 --> 29:40.700 Constantine. 29:41.420 --> 29:47.180 But instead, what we see is the Roman emperors who followed after him continued 29:47.180 --> 29:51.100 to persecute and put to death the Christians. 29:52.320 --> 30:00.040 For example, 23 years after the death of Constantine, Julian became emperor and he 30:00.040 --> 30:05.360 renounced Christianity and banned Christians from having any positions 30:05.360 --> 30:06.780 within the Roman government. 30:07.480 --> 30:12.600 And he made a concerted effort to unify paganism. 30:13.820 --> 30:20.520 And I want to read a paragraph from Fox's book of the martyrs regarding the events 30:20.520 --> 30:25.920 of the year 363, which was the year after Julian became emperor. 30:26.080 --> 30:29.860 So now this is 24 years after the life of Constantine. 30:29.860 --> 30:36.300 It says, In Palestine many were burnt alive, others were dragged by their feet 30:36.300 --> 30:40.400 through the streets naked until they expired. 30:41.080 --> 30:47.060 Some were scalded to death, many were stoned, great numbers had their brains 30:47.060 --> 30:48.480 beaten out with clubs. 30:49.180 --> 30:55.500 In Alexandria, Egypt innumerable were the martyrs who suffered by the sword, 30:56.240 --> 31:00.320 by burning, by crucifixion, and by stoning. 31:01.260 --> 31:09.000 In Eruthisa several were ripped open, and corn was put in their bellies so the 31:09.000 --> 31:14.200 swine were brought in to feed on the corn which was in them. 31:15.280 --> 31:21.060 And in devouring the grain, they likewise devoured the entrails of the martyrs. 31:22.120 --> 31:29.400 And in Thrace, Aemilianus was burned at the stake, and Domitius was murdered in a 31:29.400 --> 31:32.800 cave, whither he had fled for refuge. 31:34.040 --> 31:40.180 Now that was during the reign of Julian, and I wish I could say that he was just an 31:40.180 --> 31:46.780 odd man out, and that after him, Rome behaved themselves, but that's not 31:46.780 --> 31:47.380 the case. 31:48.100 --> 31:55.500 The evidence shows persistent, continuing, ongoing murder of Christians 31:55.500 --> 31:59.140 and Jews for hundreds of years. 32:00.500 --> 32:04.340 In fact, it has never stopped, it has continued to this day. 32:04.760 --> 32:10.660 And that's the whole point that I wanted to bring out, that this Roman Empire has 32:10.660 --> 32:17.220 been anti-Christ from the beginning, and has continued all the way through. 32:18.000 --> 32:24.440 It is true that in the year 380, Emperor Theodosius issued what's called 32:24.440 --> 32:30.140 the Edict of Thessalonica, which made Christianity the state church of the Roman 32:30.140 --> 32:30.620 Empire. 32:31.360 --> 32:39.100 So yes, there was this move made to put on a Christian face, but the evidence of 32:39.100 --> 32:45.300 their actions across many centuries afterwards shows that they never became 32:45.300 --> 32:45.880 Christians. 32:46.960 --> 32:52.220 And in the same way that they continued persecuting the Christians, they continued 32:52.220 --> 32:58.140 also persecuting the Jews, burning down their synagogues, exiling them from their 32:58.140 --> 33:02.900 nations, mass murdering them in many different places over many different 33:02.900 --> 33:03.400 years. 33:04.360 --> 33:10.620 But you know, to this very day, the Roman Catholic Church puts forth this 33:10.620 --> 33:17.160 story that their empire converted to Christianity with the conversion of 33:17.160 --> 33:17.960 Constantine. 33:18.440 --> 33:25.060 Their whole story hinges on his testimony, which has all sorts of serious flaws in 33:25.060 --> 33:25.260 it. 33:25.900 --> 33:32.420 And they even commissioned an artist, Raphael, to paint his story on the walls 33:32.420 --> 33:33.160 of the Vatican. 33:34.000 --> 33:40.420 But by the time he painted that, it was 1,200 years after the life of 33:40.420 --> 33:41.140 Constantine. 33:42.520 --> 33:47.120 But they still keep it on the Vatican walls because they have to have this 33:47.120 --> 33:47.620 narrative. 33:48.140 --> 33:49.820 They have to have this conversion. 33:50.520 --> 33:54.760 They have to have something to show that they are who they claim to be. 33:55.280 --> 34:00.000 But even though they've got a beautiful painting telling the whole story right 34:00.000 --> 34:03.400 there on the walls of the Vatican, it doesn't make it true. 34:04.080 --> 34:09.720 And they have another story painted on the walls of the Vatican, and that is called 34:09.720 --> 34:17.820 the Donation of Constantine, in which supposedly Constantine deferred power on 34:17.820 --> 34:22.660 the Bishop of Rome at that time, who's known as Pope Sylvester I. 34:23.700 --> 34:30.620 And so there's this painting that shows Constantine deferring power to the Pope, 34:30.660 --> 34:36.560 which he needed that for credibility, just like Constantine needed credibility 34:36.560 --> 34:41.060 with the bishops coming to his meeting for the Council of Nicaea. 34:42.060 --> 34:46.860 But did you know that this whole story about the Donation of Constantine, 34:47.320 --> 34:54.560 even on Wikipedia today, identifies it as a fraudulent, fabricated story that never 34:54.560 --> 34:55.040 happened? 34:56.120 --> 35:02.140 I mean, it's a historical proven fact that it was a fraudulent document that told 35:02.140 --> 35:08.580 this story because Pope Stephen needed the credibility that would come from something 35:08.580 --> 35:09.480 like that. 35:10.620 --> 35:18.120 And so what we see is a consistent pattern of behavior by the Roman Catholic Church 35:18.120 --> 35:25.480 to give themselves credibility where they need credibility to pull off the claims 35:25.480 --> 35:31.520 that they're trying to make because they actually have no legal right, no real 35:31.520 --> 35:32.140 authority. 35:32.680 --> 35:37.260 So the only authority that they can come up with is false. 35:37.780 --> 35:39.180 It's all based on lies. 35:40.520 --> 35:44.220 Instead, what they've done is exactly what Constantine did. 35:44.740 --> 35:47.800 They took the Christian faith and paganized it. 35:48.260 --> 35:53.260 They just adopted Christian language to continue their pagan practices. 35:54.240 --> 35:59.480 So whereas they had always worshipped these pagan goddesses of fertility like 35:59.480 --> 36:06.120 Ishtar and Venus and Artemis and Demeter and Diana and all of those, they just 36:06.120 --> 36:10.120 continued the same story with Mary and baby Jesus. 36:10.680 --> 36:17.300 And whereas before, the child was Horus, who is a type of the Antichrist, 36:17.820 --> 36:22.760 whose left eye is shown on the back of every United States dollar bill. 36:23.340 --> 36:27.580 It's called the all-seeing eye, the all-seeing eye of Horus. 36:28.720 --> 36:36.240 This is the child that they honor through their statues, through their adoration of 36:36.240 --> 36:36.640 Mary. 36:36.940 --> 36:41.920 And this is why they have so many false teachings, unscriptural teachings, 36:42.040 --> 36:46.340 that try to exalt Mary to this godlike status. 36:47.060 --> 36:53.140 And so the Roman Catholic Church has just continued in the ways of Constantine in 36:53.140 --> 37:00.480 paganizing Christianity, not honoring the spirit of Christianity or believing the 37:00.480 --> 37:06.320 word of God in any way, shape, or form, never repenting humbly before 37:06.320 --> 37:12.840 God, but instead continuing to do their way and follow their pagan gods. 37:12.960 --> 37:20.160 They did the same thing with the communion elements, where Jesus instructed us to 37:20.160 --> 37:24.840 remember him as we partake of the bread and the wine. 37:25.100 --> 37:32.160 But what they've done is taken those elements and required their followers to 37:32.160 --> 37:37.760 believe in what they call transubstantiation, which means that the 37:37.760 --> 37:44.880 bread literally becomes the physical body of Jesus, and the wine literally becomes 37:44.880 --> 37:46.180 the blood of Jesus. 37:46.880 --> 37:54.540 And that is an ancient pagan practice where the priests would eat the flesh and 37:54.540 --> 37:57.680 drink the blood of their pagan god, Osiris. 37:57.840 --> 37:59.740 And it continued through the centuries. 38:00.320 --> 38:05.980 It was a very popular practice in the Roman Empire in a religion called 38:05.980 --> 38:09.720 Mithrasism, where they worshiped the god Mithras. 38:10.800 --> 38:12.960 And they performed the exact same ritual. 38:13.460 --> 38:17.880 So they just took those same practices and now they've made it Christian. 38:18.880 --> 38:24.840 And there are many other examples of how they have paganized the Jewish and the 38:24.840 --> 38:26.220 Christian faith. 38:26.700 --> 38:28.160 For example, the calendar. 38:28.500 --> 38:31.240 They threw out the Hebrew calendar. 38:31.240 --> 38:34.620 That God has referred to throughout the scriptures. 38:35.100 --> 38:39.220 Total disregard and total disrespect for his word. 38:39.380 --> 38:44.720 And they just replaced it with their own Roman calendar, which we all live by 38:44.720 --> 38:45.260 today. 38:45.880 --> 38:53.060 And in that process, they Romanized the celebration dates for Christian holidays, 38:53.360 --> 38:54.920 such as Christmas. 38:55.760 --> 39:01.020 December 25th was a date that they honored their pagan god, Mithras. 39:02.040 --> 39:07.240 And it was on that day that they would give gifts to one another to celebrate and 39:07.240 --> 39:08.400 honor Mithras. 39:09.280 --> 39:13.480 And so they just completely paganized the Lord's birthday. 39:15.060 --> 39:20.420 And they did the same thing with the celebration of the Lord's resurrection, 39:21.200 --> 39:26.200 so that the focus is shifted to Easter bunnies and Easter eggs. 39:26.680 --> 39:32.620 And we call it Easter because it's named after the pagan goddess of fertility, 39:33.040 --> 39:34.700 whose name is Ishtar. 39:35.960 --> 39:43.960 And just like Constantine, they place all the emphasis on physical objects in the 39:43.960 --> 39:44.920 visible realm. 39:45.440 --> 39:50.340 And that's why they have this adoration for all sorts of religious relics. 39:51.080 --> 39:54.700 Fragments of pieces of the wood that come from the cross, they claim. 39:55.540 --> 40:01.380 Fragments of the bones of saints, or holy water that comes from the Holy 40:01.380 --> 40:01.900 Land. 40:02.240 --> 40:06.480 Or rosary beads that you have to hold onto when you're praying. 40:07.400 --> 40:10.440 Or crucifixes that they place on the wall. 40:10.440 --> 40:16.640 Or statues of saints that they keep in their possession, little statues or large 40:16.640 --> 40:17.160 statues. 40:17.520 --> 40:21.900 But these things are like idols, and they're all in the physical realm 40:21.900 --> 40:24.820 because that's the way pagans operate. 40:26.280 --> 40:34.540 And so what happened was, by the year 476, the Roman Empire, historians will tell us, 40:34.840 --> 40:36.400 it came to an end. 40:36.980 --> 40:44.460 But yet, it did not come to an end, because it was just the beginning of this 40:44.460 --> 40:53.260 new form of Rome operating as the papacy, under the control of a new kind of emperor 40:53.260 --> 41:02.240 called the Pope, whose commands were just as mandatory as any command of the 41:02.240 --> 41:03.460 emperors ever was. 41:04.460 --> 41:11.760 And the men who occupied this new office of Pope used the exact same title that the 41:11.760 --> 41:17.180 Roman emperors had used for many centuries, which is called the Pontifex 41:17.180 --> 41:22.080 Maximus, which is Latin, and it means the Great Bridge. 41:22.460 --> 41:27.520 And what it's referring to is they are calling themselves the Great Bridge 41:27.520 --> 41:34.940 between God and man, which is a complete blasphemous statement, because the Bible 41:34.940 --> 41:41.160 tells us that there is only one mediator between God and man, and that is the Lord 41:41.160 --> 41:42.200 Jesus Christ. 41:42.440 --> 41:48.160 So we can have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. 41:48.300 --> 41:53.050 We do not need this Great Bridge, this self-appointed bridge. 41:54.390 --> 42:01.120 But by calling themselves the exact same name that the emperors used, it shows that 42:01.120 --> 42:02.760 the empire did not stop. 42:03.680 --> 42:07.000 And to this day, they call themselves by that title. 42:07.780 --> 42:10.960 Every Pope calls himself Pontifex Maximus. 42:12.340 --> 42:17.880 And in the same way that the Roman emperors wore crowns on their head, 42:18.560 --> 42:19.980 so do the Popes. 42:20.480 --> 42:26.540 They have these very ornate crowns that they wear in the tradition of Rome. 42:27.340 --> 42:34.900 And so all these things are just examples showing that this Roman kingdom is alive 42:34.900 --> 42:35.860 and well today. 42:36.880 --> 42:43.600 So contrary to what historians tell us, contrary to the popular narrative we've 42:43.600 --> 42:50.880 all been indoctrinated with for all of our life, the Roman Empire never went away. 42:51.620 --> 42:59.100 What happened was, over the next three centuries, the Popes decreed what they 42:59.100 --> 43:03.300 call canon law, which is the law according to the Church. 43:04.100 --> 43:08.840 And this canon law then replaced what had been Roman law. 43:10.000 --> 43:16.100 And so initially, the Popes had limited influence, but they exercised their 43:16.100 --> 43:22.340 influence to try to bring, as Constantine did, to try to bring all the Christian 43:22.340 --> 43:24.440 churches under their control. 43:24.960 --> 43:30.940 And they used threats of excommunication for anyone who dared to defy them. 43:31.340 --> 43:39.180 And they used this same role as the Pontifex Maximus to intimidate leaders of 43:39.180 --> 43:41.140 other nations and of other cities. 43:42.440 --> 43:47.580 And in this way, they gradually increased their influence and brought more and more 43:47.580 --> 43:51.360 areas into submission to their canon law. 43:52.200 --> 43:58.640 Until finally, by the year 800, they initiated what became known as the 43:58.640 --> 44:06.760 Holy Roman Empire, where the ruler of the empire had to be crowned by the Pope. 44:07.300 --> 44:11.840 So that put the Holy Roman Empire to the Pope at the ultimate pinnacle of all the 44:11.840 --> 44:15.120 world government, with everyone else under him. 44:16.140 --> 44:22.420 So it was a genius idea on their part, because they succeeded in exalting 44:22.420 --> 44:26.660 themselves to the highest place above all the thrones of the earth. 44:27.800 --> 44:33.600 So I think this is a good place to stop for today, because this brings us to the 44:33.600 --> 44:40.060 start of the Holy Roman Empire, which lasted for about 1,000 years. 44:40.960 --> 44:49.080 And in tomorrow's program, I'll explain how the end of that empire marked a huge 44:49.080 --> 44:52.620 transformation in the Roman Catholic Church. 44:53.020 --> 44:59.120 And it was a pivotal point in history that directly impacts our lives today. 44:59.580 --> 45:03.740 And that's why I believe it's so vitally important that we understand what 45:03.740 --> 45:12.560 happened, because even as that Holy Roman Empire was extremely dangerous to anybody 45:12.560 --> 45:19.620 who had a genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, what came out of it at the end was 45:19.620 --> 45:25.680 something far more dreadful, far more terrifying, something that perfectly 45:25.680 --> 45:31.040 matches the description given by the prophet Daniel when he described the 45:31.040 --> 45:33.820 fourth beast in Daniel chapter 7. 45:34.420 --> 45:38.660 So thanks for joining me today, and I hope to be back again soon with 45:38.660 --> 45:39.540 another program. 45:39.860 --> 45:41.400 Until then, so long.