4 unusual names in the first 4 church ages
Balaam. Jezebel. Nicolaitans. And then Pergamos which is the Greek version of Pergamum. Only the third church has a Greek name.
Why do three of the four churches in Revelation Chapter 2 mention these unusual names? What do they teach us?
54-0512 THE SEVEN CHURCH AGES
... the Nicolaitan priesthood, how it begins right there in Ephesus. And that's where that church age fails ... Before it went out of existence, the Nicolaitanes begin to start up a doctrine, a priesthood of brethren.
The Ephesian church age ended around the year AD 170. The influence of the apostles was getting less as most of them had been killed by the year AD 70. Then preachers began to promote themselves as a priesthood that was above the congregation or laity. Organization and titles took over the church.
To symbolize this, the harbour in Ephesus was silting up from the sediment and silt that was carried down by the Cayster river during its seasonal floods. Seven metres of silt was deposited in about 40 years at one stage.
By the time the first church age ended around 170 AD, it was common to have a bishop as head of the church in a city. Presbyters were then regarded as an inferior rank to the bishop. Elders were losing importance. Rank and titles were taking over the leadership of the church.
The church began to see itself as a worldwide organization like the Roman empire was.
The church allowed its environment to determine its line of growth.
It became a practical organization for social duties. An organization obeying human rules, not a collection of individuals who loved Jesus, with no bond of union beyond certain practices like baptism, communion and foot washing, and their beliefs in the written Word.
Romans were skilled administrators, and all organizations tended to this highly efficient and effective system.
Man-made rules multiplied and truth got lost.
The church became more and more Roman in its practical organizational methods like feeding the poor.
Different areas in different cultures had to be kept the same. So officials were needed to travel between groups to maintain common policy.
By 170 AD every community was ruled by officials who had certain ranks, at whose head was a bishop, and the bishop represented the community. All the communities were part of the same universal or Catholic church (so-called by Ignatius who was the first to use this word “Catholic”). Councils of bishops were called up and determined and expressed the common views of a number of communities. Slowly the edicts of these councils began to deviate from Scripture.
54-0513 THE.MARK.OF.THE.BEAST
Now, that same Nicolaitan doctrine that started here in the first church, after the first three or four rounds of apostles, it become a deed. They begin to think, "Well, this would be It." Now, all of you knows how it's come out, you Bible readers.
Now, it started up in about A.D. 306, what they call the conversion of Constantine. He never was converted. The guy that do the dirty things that that man done, wasn't converted.
… Now, that Nicolaitan had become a doctrine, and then become a persecution.
Elevating a man always leads to the persecution of those who oppose him.
Oppose the elevated pastor and get kicked out of the church.
63-0319 THE SECOND SEAL
The Nicolaitane was called in the Bible, antichrist, because it was against the original doctrine of Christ and the apostles.
… He was the Nicolaitane spirit to begin with. And then he become incarnate in a man, and then he was crowned, and received a throne, and was crowned.
Pope Nicholas 1 was crowned around AD 860 with a single crown. After 1305 this became a triple crown that was worn until 1963. When brother Branham revealed six of the seven Seals in Revelation Chapter 6 in 1963, both the Pope and the Catholic President Kennedy of America died. The new Pope, Paul 6, was crowned but then took off the triple crown which the Pope has not worn since. They realized that there was something wrong. The light from the revelation of the Seals had a big impact on the darkness of the Catholic system.
61-0806 THE SEVENTIETH WEEK OF DANIEL
... we know that God always was and always has been and against organized religion.
Yes, sir. He said, "Nicolaitane is what I hate." "Nico" means "conquer the laity." The laity is the church, the body. "Nico" means "to conquer, overcome," in other words, ... make a holy man, somebody above the other We're all children; we got one King; that's God. We got one holy One; and that's God. Amen. And He's in the midst of us in the form of the Holy Ghost. That's the holy One.
… Then it come the next thing unto a doctrine. Then it come marriage of the Nicolaitane church and the persecuting of the saints.
… They seen this Nicolaitane stuff was rising up; they was going to make a holy man. To what? Pope.
… and the Jews are in their homeland now, and the Gentile church age has hit exactly to the end time, to the Nicolaitane time--or to the Laodicean time, how close is the coming of the Lord, the end of all things, the end of this age, and the rapture?
In the final church age of the Laodiceans there is much emphasis on the Nicolaitane spirit which elevates men up as church leaders and dictators.
“nikē” (victory) and “laos” (people).
Nicolaitan means "victorious over people".
1960 12 07 THE PERGAMEAN CHURCH AGE
So has thou also them that hold the doctrine... (it's deeds back there in Ephesus, now it's become a "doctrine")... doctrine of the Nicolaitanes,... (You remember me telling you that the other night, how it had approached to that? As deeds in Ephesus, now it's a "doctrine")... the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which things I hate.
Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them... (not the real Church)
… Christianity, which was leaning towards a priesthood, and wanted it in their church, that we have taken in future studies of the church of Ephesus, and so forth, and of Smyrna; those Nicolaitanes.
… Remember, the true Church has always been the little bitty group that's been pushed out of the other churches. The true Church never was organized, because it's not an organism, it is the mystical Body of Jesus Christ living on earth, the Holy Spirit moving in these members. So, you can't organize Christ, you can't do it. I want you to hold on to that for that Laodicean Age, now. And remember it and keep it, 'cause every Word I speak is on this tape.
… Now, so Constantine, with this in his mind to strengthen his empire (as Rome always did, to hold the keys to the world), he had to bring his pagan ideas and take the Christian ideas, and someway consolidate them together, to weld this together and make hisself an empire that would be second to none. See? Because that he was... That would make him yet the greatest ruler in the world, Constantine.
And as far as conversion: he was a politician, but not a saint of God, as some of them try to make him. He wasn't!
… Now, then it would strengthen his empire. And then to do this, he brought in pagan ceremonies, over into the Nicolaitane Christian church. I'll call it the formal denominational church that was forming. He brought pagan ceremonies over into this Nicolaitane church, and that was the birth of Catholicism.
… In order to get this thing to working, Constantine set up a lot of worldly entertainments to attract the attention of both pagan and Christians into the church.
… Now, Constantine used the same strategy that Balaam did. They had a meeting after this council meeting here that the bishops was put over the churches, and so forth, to rule it, and take all the power from the laity,
"And they had no thinking of themselves, neither did they have any right to interpret the Scriptures." And that it was all to the priests, was to do the interpretation of the Scriptures.
… "all the understanding belongs to the priest, and the congregation don't have to read the Bible, they don't have to do nothing;" and, frankly, the Bible's kept from them.
And now they've taken it all over upon themselves and it was voted in to us because it looked good.
It looked good because they was rich, and so forth, and at this great meeting, when he called together, Constantine gave the bishops nice buildings; he got a hold of some money and all these big places of great... like buildings, he gave these over to the church, that they could use them as church houses. Oh, they were nice buildings, all dressed up, and so forth, so he gave them over to the church.
…
Besides that, he dressed up these bishops with great big robes, and the underskirts and things under them. And besides that, he put them up on... or built a high place like this, and put them up on there like an idol. And down below them he made marble altars, under them. And he did all this converting, from the pagan idea, over, and bringing Christianity into it by taking their bishop. See, they just took down the idol and put up the bishop. See, making him an altar, the same thing, and making him a god. Put up the bishop, and he had all the say-so, dressed him all up and made him look like a god. Instead of putting him like their pagan gods, they put him on a robe like Jesus wore. See? And they made him just look like an idol setting there.
Oh, you can imagine how the pagan said, "Well, I can go for that, there's somebody can speak back to us. We've been talking to an idol, but this man can speak back to us."
… Ceremonies. Where? Baptists, Presbyterian, even Pentecostals, just become a religious ceremony. Only thing they do is beat on a piano, something or another, jump up-and-down awhile; and as soon as the piano stopped: Blew! Go out, cheat, steal, lie, everything else. But the real... And enough temper to fight a buzz saw, talk about everybody and everything. See? There you are. Not only Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Catholic, but Pentecostal church in the Laodicean Age here.
… Now, the Nicolaitanes then had the formal side, and they married to the pagan church; bringing in pagan altars, making Christian altars; brought in a pagan god, and made it speak and talk, in the form of a bishop. Set up there, robed it up and make it look like a god. You see? It's not what's on the outside, it's what's on the inside. Them two grains of corn looked the same; it wasn't what was on the outside, it was what was on the inside. See, the inside, the Life.
… God's sheep knows His Voice, they know, they know exactly. You have to find first... You go out without being known, then you just... What do you do? You do them more harm than ever.
… So what did he do? He sent over to the pope, or to the bishop, Balaam, a hireling prophet, one that loved money more than he loved God. And the King Balac told him, "If you'll come out here and curse this people, I'll make you a great person." And God spoke to Balaam. Wonder how many Balaams is in this world tonight? Methodist ministers, Baptist ministers, Catholic priests, (Mercy!) that knows that God... if you read this same history and the same Book I do. "Balaam!"
… But, now notice, he said, "Just look at the back part, the back, the worse part of it." Balaam said, "Yeah, I'll just look at the back part, that bad part what they do. That's what I'll do, I'll just look at their--their orneryness, they're no-good." Because if you was looking at the no-good, they wasn't. That's right. They had done every sin on the calendar. But what he failed to see, he failed to see that smitten Rock, that Brass Serpent, that joy of the King among them, healing, signs, wonder, and that Pillar of Fire hanging over them.
That blinded prophet couldn't see It. No, sir. But he was showing the dirty part of them, "Well, I know one that run away with another man's wife. I know this, he stole some money." That's right. That's right. I'll admit that; but they got the same thing over there, but they didn't say nothing about it. See? So he just showing the worse part.
But He said, God said, "You just say what I say." And Balaam got into the Spirit, fell into a trance; and instead of cursing Israel, he blessed it.
… the church married from the baptism of the Holy Ghost to a denomination, they become dead.
… The spiritual adultery, that you profess to be a "Christian" and still living like the world.
… Now, Constantine's feast, just like Balaam. Now watch. Like Balaam's pagan feast, Constantine had a pagan feast. All right. Pergamos was invited.
… And Boniface III was the Pope who become the first Universal Bishop…. A god they had in human form
Pope Boniface III, as the Universal Bishop, was dressed up in fine robes and set up on a throne as the Vicar of Christ, in the place of Christ (VICARIVS CHRISTI).
[WIKIPEDIA Boniface III 606-607 His other notable act resulted from his close relationship with Emperor Phocas. He sought and obtained a decree from Phocas which restated that "the See of Blessed Peter the Apostle should be the head of all the Churches". This ensured that the title of "Universal Bishop" belonged exclusively to the Bishop of Rome, and effectively ended the attempt by the Patriarch Cyriacus of Constantinople to establish himself as "Universal Bishop"]
60-1211 THE TEN VIRGINS AND THE HUNDRED AND FORTY FOUR THOUSAND JEWS
"The vicar of the Son of God." In other words, "Just like the Son of God sitting here on earth," see, "all powers to change the Bible," change anything he wants to. Therefore, "Say 'Hail Mary'!" What does the pope say? "We'll have 'Hail Mary'!" That settles it. Uh-huh, uh-hum. "Well, we'll do so-and-so." What the pope says, that's it, that's it. "A vicar instead of the Son of God."
Just recently they had that dogma out that "Mary was not buried," (And they got her grave and everything marked where she was buried.) said, "No, she rose again and resurrected." The pope said, "That's it!" and that's just it. "It's infallible, see," the pope said so. See, "Vicar of the Son of God."
The seven churches mentioned in Revelation Chapters 2 and 3 are regarded just as seven historic churches by most of today’s Christians.
But if that interpretation is correct, then certain names that are mentioned just make no sense.
The names Nocolaitans, Jezebel, Balaam, Antipas.
No Christians in recorded church history had these names.
Thus, they must refer to trends that entered the church to mislead the believers.
Then, another puzzle, because the third church was called Pergamos.
Six of the churches are given their usual name but the third church of Pergamum is given a Greek ending and called Pergamos. The Greek name for Ephesus is Ephesos. But the Bible never uses the Greek name Ephesos.
Pergamos is the only one of the seven churches that has a Greek ending. Why is that?
When the disciples asked Jesus about the future in Matthew 24, His first reply was “Take heed that no man deceives you”.
All these unusual names are associated with deceptive beliefs. And religious deception would be very convincing when it is based on Greek philosophy. Greek scholars were known for their brilliant defense of errors. They were more concerned with cleverness than truth.
From about AD 70 to AD 120 is a time when there are virtually no historical documents about the early church.
These were silent years that kept their secrets.
Historians have to rely on what people wrote in later times about these “silent” years. Thus, legends were easily confused with facts.
The legend of Peter going to Rome and eventually being killed there has no historical facts to support it. Nevertheless, today, 1.4 billion Catholics and many of the 0.8 billion Protestants believe this myth about Peter as if it is the truth. Such was and still is, the power of fake news to fool almost everyone.
After the apostles died, God wanted groups of elders to oversee each local church and keep each church faithful to the doctrines of the apostles. But slowly the word “bishop” began to be mentioned more and more as the head of the church.
Historians say that within two generations after the apostles died, in a manner that is shrouded in secrecy, the bishop somehow emerged as the head of the church.
All pagan temples had one man, a priest, as the head of the congregation.
Christians slowly began to follow this pagan example.
Antioch was a city whose church history was held in high regard. Ignatius of Antioch, claimed to be bishop of Antioch, and stated that the local bishop of a city was God’s representative on earth and said, “We ought to regard the bishop as the Lord Himself”.
A bishop being the head of the church in a city was a new idea that captured the imagination of the Christians.
This was the way that the majority would go. This was an unscriptural elevation of a man to be the head of the church.
Making a man the head of the church was unscriptural, and then comparing him to God was completely wrong. Christians, thinking that this was the best way to combat error, were promoting Nicolaitanism which is the elevation of a holy man above the church.
Bishops were now classified as above the presbyters or elders.
An Aaronic priesthood was beginning to form that stood between the congregation and God.
The church was too relaxed to take this error seriously and stamp it out. Christians became careless about keeping the details of their faith strictly in line with what the apostles taught.
This stress on human leadership entered slowly, but surely. After a while, having forgotten what the apostles had said, (or being too relaxed to research the truth from Scripture) the churches submitted to having a man as head of the church. Just like it is today.
The emperor Nero persecuted Christians from AD 64 after the great fire of Rome until he died in AD 68. By then, the apostles had been killed except for John who was twice imprisoned for years on the island of Patmos. He was imprisoned on the island of Patmos under the Roman emperor Nero from AD 64 to AD 68. Then the emperor Domitian persecuted Christians between AD 82 and AD 96. John was imprisoned for a second time on Patmos.
Consider the famous Christian Polycarp who was born around AD 69.
Written records of the church after AD 70 are so minimal that when Polycarp was burnt at the stake in AD 156 at the age of 86, that remains the first historically recorded martyrdom after the deaths of the New Testament apostles. His death was actually recorded at the time, not many decades later.
Despite living for 86 years, we only have one written letter by Polycarp which he wrote to the Philippians.
That is hard evidence, a letter that he actually wrote.
Everything else we know about Polycarp is second hand. What other people said about him. And these stories often got modified to suit the errors and opinions that had crept into the church.
Look at this picture of the Trinity. Because the Pope wore a triple crown the artist made God the Father wear a triple crown because this would be acceptable to the Catholics of those days. Evidence was always changed to fit in with the opinions of that time. Thus religious opinions and statements are biased and are not to be confused with facts.
Polycarp’s early life is described by tradition i.e. made-up plausible stories that lack evidence from that time.
Some claim that certain of the apostles appointed him as bishop of Smyrna. This is not very likely as most of the apostles were dead before Polycarp was born.
The original apostles never appointed a man as a pastor of a church.
(The word pastor is only mentioned once in the New Testament).
Nor did the original apostles ever appoint a man as the bishop of a city. Philippians 1:1 has Paul writing to the bishops (plural) of Philippi. The bishops were the elders.
PHILIPPIANS 1:1 Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:
57-0908M HEBREWS CHAPTER FIVE AND SIX.1
Show me by the Bible what's greater, in the Bible, than a local elder to a local church? That's right, yes, sir, the sovereignty of the local church,
I CORINTHIANS 12:28 And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.
The three main ministries were apostles, prophets, and teachers. These were used to set up the local churches.
There is not even a mention of pastors.
Sound Bible teaching of what the apostles had written in the New Testament was rated as more important than the supernatural gifts of miracles, healings, and tongues. Prophets were always able to predict the future to prepare the believers for what was about to happen.
But with most of the apostles dying by AD 70 a strange interval of silence due to lack of written evidence between the dates of around AD 70 to AD 120, descended.
Slowly and silently a shadow spread across the church.
The unscriptural idea of a bishop being the head of the Christians in a city, crawled in while men relaxed and lost their first love of being Scriptural. They dropped their guard and forget to check with what was written in Scripture.
Ephesus means relaxed or aimed at.
The early church began a slow slide into the bondage of human leadership.
Consider Ignatius, known as the bishop of Antioch. (Bishop of a city was a new title, unknown to the apostles). Historian Richard Pervo dated Ignatius' death to AD 135-140. However, the Catholic historian Eusebius who wrote around AD 314 onwards, said Ignatius died in AD 108 but Eusebius never substantiated this claim. By the time of Eusebius, the bishop-of-of-a-city was an accepted “fact”. Thus, Eusebius who was the bishop of Caesarea Maritima, was pushing this bishop-of-a-city idea 30 years or so further back into the past to try to link this error to the apostles. As far as dates are concerned, after the apostles were killed, we look through a glass darkly for many decades. Such is the inaccuracy of dates at this time. Ignatius of Antioch wrote 5 letters. One of them gave emphasis to the bishop of a church:
Ignatius wrote “See that ye all follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father, and the presbytery as ye would the apostles; and reverence the deacons, as being the institution of God. Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop”.
1965 AN EXPOSITION OF THE SEVEN CHURCH AGES THE DOCTRINE OF THE NICILAITANES
Now, this doctrine actually started as a deed in the first age. It appears that the problem lay in two words: 'elders' (presbyters) and 'overseers' (bishops). Though Scripture shows that there are several elders in each church, some began (Ignatius among them) to teach that the idea of a bishop was one of preeminence or authority and control over the elders.
Now the truth of the matter is the word 'elder' signifies who the person is, while the word 'bishop' signifies the office of the same man. The elder is the man. Bishop is the office of the man. 'Elder' always has and always will refer simply to a man's chronological age in the Lord. He is an elder, not because he is elected or ordained, etc., but because he IS OLDER. He is more seasoned, trained, not a novice, reliable because of experience and long-standing proof of his Christian experience.
The idea of elevating a man above the laity or congregation was beginning to enter the church.
This was the “deeds of the Nicolaitans”. Human leadership was conquering the free movement of the Holy Spirit in each church. So the Nicolaitans were any people who lifted human leaders up above the people. A big mistake.
The only Person Who should be lifted up above the people is Jesus.
JOHN 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
We should focus on Christ, lifted up on the cross in order to pay for our sins.
We should not lift up a human leader who requires us to pay our tithes to him.
Irenaeus, the great Christian of the second church age was born sometime between AD 120 and AD 140. That is how inaccurate our dates are for that time. When he was writing at about the age of say 30, that would be around AD 170 which is about 100 years after the death of most of the apostles. History was repeated by word of mouth and the most repeated stories tend to change with time and became the “facts”.
Historians have the same problem with the history of Thyatira.
There are no historical facts to show that the Christian church actually existed there before the year AD 96 when John was released from Patmos.
So John was not writing to an actual church that existed in his day in Thyatira. Thus, the letter to the church of Thyatira was prophetic. Describing the characteristics of a church that would come into existence after the Book of Revelation was written. The emperor Domitian died in AD 96. Whenever the Roman emperor died, all the political prisoners were released.
Speaking to the church of Thyatira, God says:
REVELATION 2:22 Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
Something about the Thyatira church must be thrown into the Tribulation.
But in 1922 the church in Thyatira ceased to exist as all the Greek Orthodox believers were deported to Greece.
The 1914-1922 genocide of Greek Orthodox believers in Turkey caused their flight from Turkey.
In 1923 this flight was made permanent.
1.2 million Greek Orthodox people in Turkey were declared refugees and deported to Greece.
In 1923 a compulsory population exchange between Greece and Turkey was signed at Lausanne, Switzerland.
400 000 Muslims were also made refugees and sent from Greece to Turkey.
Thus, there is no longer an existing Christian church in Thyatira that can be thrown into the Tribulation.
REVELATION 3:10 Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.
The Philadelphia church was to be kept from the trial that would test the whole earth.
This never happened to the actual church of Philadelphia as the city suffered earthquakes and Moslem conquest, like the other churches. But nothing happened to Philadelphia that affected the whole world.
Philadelphia was to be spared but Smyrna hammered. This could not happen at the same time. This represents two different times in history.
Christians in both cities were persecuted by pagan Roman emperors, suffered from earthquakes, and were conquered by Muslims who still rule them today. So clearly these Bible verses are referring to different times in history.
The missionary age of Philadelphia was to be spared the very deceptive temptation of the ecumenical move that is uniting the churches in the last church age. But Smyrna was to be tried by tribulation during a particularly vicious ten-year persecution to end 130 years of intermittent persecution.
Smyrna is the second church age which was heavily persecuted by pagan Roman emperors with a final and most vicious ten-year persecution from AD 302 to 312 that was started by the pagan emperor Diocletian.
REVELATION 2:10 ... that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
Can ten days of tribulation represent ten years of persecution?
A day can represent a year in Scripture.
Look what Laban said to Jacob, who wanted to marry Laban’s daughter Rachel.
GENESIS 29:27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
A week of seven days represents seven years. So, a day can represent a year.
This savage persecution was finally stopped in AD 312 by the new emperor Constantine.
Satan stopped attacking the church from the outside because it kept growing despite the 3 million martyrs who died between AD 33 and AD 312. So outside persecution was helping the church to grow.
Then the third church age of Pergamos (meaning thoroughly married) saw the Roman emperor Constantine make a hireling out of the bishop of Rome by giving him the beautiful Lateran palace as a headquarters for the Roman Catholic church and a lavish amount of money.
This was the final disaster of elevated human church leadership.
This talented Roman bishop Sylvester sold out his birthright in order to gain money and prestige as the politically compromised lackey of the brutal emperor. The Lateran is still the headquarters of the Roman Catholic church and the Pope rules there as the elevated dictator of the worldwide Catholic church.
REVELATION 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
The beast is the Roman Catholic church system that rose to power in Europe until it formed the Vatican City which controls the worldwide church. The Pope is the figurehead of the beast, ruling as the only dictator in modern-day Europe.
The sea is the restless multitudes of people.
The seven heads are the seven mountains that the city of Rome was originally built on.
Seven villages built a wall around themselves, and thus became a city. The City of Seven Hills.
The name of blasphemy is, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost”.
These are the Triune titles that have replaced the name of God. Consequently, the Trinity God has got no name.
Another aspect of the blasphemous name was to call the church the Roman Catholic church. Church-goers now called themselves Roman Catholics instead of calling themselves Christians.
Denomination is an unscriptural word.
The ten horns represent ten future dictators who will give their military power to the final Pope when he emerges to start the 3½years of Tribulation and world conquest.
REVELATION 17:12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
Power "as" kings. They are not crowned but have a king's power. So they are dictators.
REVELATION 17:13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
The end time Pope or antichrist ruler will have the money and religious power of the Roman Catholic church. He will make a covenant with the Jews for their stock exchange money. But as a churchman, he has no military power to enforce his rule. This military power will be given to him by ten dictators.
DANIEL 8:23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.
This is the final antichrist Pope. He will probably be called Pope Peter 2.
DANIEL 8:24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
His military power does not come from the church, but from the ten dictators.
Rome was founded by Romulus. The first emperor of the empire was Augustus.
The last emperor was Romulus Augustulus.
So the first rulers had the same name as the last ruler.
That way Rome tries to be the "first and the last" in order to imitate Jesus.
The Catholics claim, falsely, that Peter was the first Pope. Thus the last Pope will also be Peter. Pope Peter II.
REVELATION 13:2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
The leopard represents the speed with which Greek philosophy overran the church from the days of the Nicene Council of AD 325. Pagan Greek philosophy made it easy for the church to accept pagan beliefs.
The bear represents the crushing power of man-made denominational organizations. The Persians ruled the first worldwide empire thanks to their ruthless and efficient organizational skills. The individual was just a cog in a vast machine. People were brainwashed to be totally submissive to the leaders.
Once a religious organization was built up, Satan got the leaders to speak deception and human error as if that was God’s truth. When enough people believe a religious lie, then other individuals are easily swallowed up by the plausible fake news.
REVELATION 13:2 And the beast which I saw … and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
The dragon is the Devil. The Lateran complex on the Caelian hill in Rome was given by the Roman emperor Constantine to the Pope. There is placed the seat of Saint Peter which gives the Pope his power and authority over the church
I PETER 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Satan tries to imitate Jesus as if the Devil is a lion of truth.
But Satan never stays with Scripture. Satan always deviates from the Bible or changes Bible verses or ignores Bible verses.
So, Satan uses religious deception with charming denominational and church ministers looking like men of God as they spread their false unscriptural ideas in very convincing and clever ways.
But these pastors quickly learn to hate you if you quote Scriptures that contradict their beliefs.
REVELATION 13:3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
Rome was originally built on seven hills.
The temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill was the centre of the pagan Roman Empire where laws were officially passed. When the Heruli general Odoacer took over from the teenage emperor Romulus Augustulus in AD 476, that was the death wound of the Roman Empire. Never again would it rise to power.
The Capitoline Hill was wounded to death as it completely lost its political power.
In the chaos of the collapsed empire, the barbarian tribes occupied Europe. During these long years of distress, the Popes of Rome took over much of the political and financial responsibilities in Italy. In AD 754 Pope Stephen II crowned Pepin as king of the barbarian Franks, the most powerful barbarian tribe. Thereby the Pope rose to power as the only person who could crown a barbarian leader as king.
Then the Pope told Pepin that only Peter had the keys to open Heaven’s gate for Pepin when he died. Peter would only do this if Pepin gave the Pope, who claimed to be Peter’s successor, protection and land and money. The barbarians had to obey the Pope if they wanted to please Peter.
The Catholic Church thus got people to look away from Jesus and start focusing on Peter and then Mary as their intercessors. The beast of false religion was growing.
And the Pope’s headquarters was on the Caelian hill where the Lateran palace and the Pope's special Lateran church (called a basilica) was.
So, the Pope on the Caelian hill recovered all the power over Europe that the Roman emperor once held.
The deadly wound where the barbarian sword had destroyed the power of the Capitoline hill was healed.
Pergamos, the third church, means “thoroughly married”.
The third church age ran from AD 312 when Constantine stopped persecuting Christians to AD 606 when the Pope became Universal Bishop of all the churches and was happy to persecute Christians who disagreed with him.
To achieve this elevation over all the churches of the world, the Roman Catholic church had to marry into politics, paganism, and worldliness.
The Babylonian mysteries had always specialized in impressive ceremonies, processions, and brightly coloured robes.
The sparkling wealth of the Vatican, their endless paintings and sculptures, and their eye-catching ceremonies fascinate the world. The religious show that they put on is second to none. But it is style without substance. How so many brilliantly painted nude pictures can appear on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel is mind-boggling.
The Bible believes in the beauty of holiness and covering the body modestly.
Greek philosophy stressed nakedness and homosexuality and claimed that holiness was manifest in naked beauty.
In the Sistine chapel the nakedness of Greek philosophy won. The rise of gay rights in the modern church is further proof of how Greek thinking and philosophy is taking over the church.
Constantine demanded that Christians and pagans must merge.
The bishop of Rome had to sanitize pagan rituals and beliefs by giving them Christian names.
The church, according to the great historian Gibbon, became baptized paganism.
In AD 274 the pagan emperor Aurelian declared 25 December to be the birthday of the sun god. Just before he died in AD 352 the bishop of Rome, Julius 1, declared 25 December to be the birthday of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
The Bible never asked us to celebrate the Lord’s birth. But the Catholic church called this festival Christ’s Mass. Mass, of course, is an unscriptural word.
Protestants rejected the mass. But there is nevertheless one unscriptural mass that they keep. Christmas.
Under the domination of Constantine, The Nicaean Council of AD 325 was forced to accept the unscriptural Trinity doctrine.
The emperor Constantine (a type of the ancient Moabite king Balak) bribed and thereby got the obedience of the spiritual leader, the Pope (a type of the false prophet Balaam). Then the Pope and Constantine forced the approximately 318 bishops at the Nicene Council to accept the Trinity doctrine, despite the word “Trinity” not being in the Bible. The bishops all went back to their cities and forced the churches in their cities to believe in Trinity. Thus this spiritual virus spreads by person-to-person infection until it spread through Europe and then further out into the world.
Today there are 45000 different kinds of denominations and churches, all believing different things. Many other unscriptural ideas have entered the church world since the unscriptural Trinity was accepted at the Nicaean Council. Churches blatantly say, "Trinity is not written in the Bible but it is true". "Thus any other unscriptural word like 'Christmas" must also be true". This is horribly flawed logic.
There are over 100 different translations of the English Bible because, thanks to the word “Trinity”, the church-goers are not too concerned with being Scriptural anymore. So any words used in a Bible translation are just accepted as long as it suits the opinions of the people.
Pope Sylvester, in the days of Constantine, thus qualified as the false prophet. The prophet of a false religion.
This opened the door to so many other unscriptural words.
Denomination. Apostle’s Creed. Purgatory. Lent. Monks. Nuns. District Overseer. Catechism. Mary is Mediatrix. Rosary. Praying the Hail Mary, “Hail Mary full of grace”. Praying for the intercession of dead saints which is spiritism. Confirmation. Holy Orders. Mass. Buying indulgences to get your sins forgiven. Pope. Pontiff. Archbishop. Cardinal. Christmas. Christmas tree. 25 December. The Pope is the successor to Saint Peter. Peter will only open the door to Heaven for you when you die if you are submissive to the Pope.
All these unscriptural statements are simply falsified data as they are not written in the Bible.
But falsified data, just like junk food, quickly catches the attention and interest of people.
The Roman Catholic denomination is a house of cards built on fake news using Greek philosophical ideas and Babylonian mysteries as its propaganda.
Churches have got so used to not being Scriptural that even the godless Evolution and Big Bang theories are now accepted and defended by church-goers. Gay rights and abortion have also sneaked into the churches. The trickle of unscriptural Trinity has become a torrent of unbelief. A real spiritual swamp.
Consider this unscriptural statement.
“One-God-in-three-Persons”.
This expression is based on Greek philosophy. It captured the imagination of the church world.
Nobody understands what it means but church preachers proudly “parrot” this statement as a great mystery truth.
The brightest and the best of the Greek philosophers were brought together to hammer out the basic idea of three separate Persons Who are each God. Yet there is only one God.
This mental muddle took hundreds of years and much killing of opponents before it was finalized.
Top preachers still do not understand the Greek philosophy of Three-Persons-in-one-Godhead.
So, the Trinity-concept has never actually been finalized.
Trinitarians continue to chase shadows in the mist as they assemble more and more unscriptural terms in an artificial mental haze to try to explain their unscriptural Trinity.
They cannot link three People to one God so they now try to link three People to one Godhead.
As if there is a difference between God and the Godhead. Thus they play with words as if the Bible is some kind of game.
Whatever you think of God and the Godhead, all of God and the Godhead dwells inside the Man Jesus Christ.
COLOSSIANS 2:9 For in him [Jesus] dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
Catholic scholars relied entirely on Greek philosophical words like “hypostatic union”. This term was officially adopted in AD 533 despite being totally unscriptural.
The unscriptural First Person of the Godhead, Second Person of the Godhead, and Third Person of the Godhead were thought up, to try to clarify the issue.
Greek philosophy had the three People as co-equal.
So “God the Son” and “God the Holy Ghost” emerged despite them being unscriptural statements.
The only person who was ever called “god the son” was Nimrod, the original rebel against God. Nimrod was called “El Bar” or “god the son”.
Yet “God the Father” is Scriptural but only in the New Testament as “God the Father” is never mentioned in the Old Testament. Trinitarians cannot explain this.
Greek Philosophy had Father and Son as being of the same essence (whatever that means).
“Essence” is an unscriptural word that seems to mean whatever you want it to mean. As long as you do not have to try to explain the word “essence” too clearly.
Eternal Sonship. An unscriptural expression that is never mentioned in the Bible.
"Jesus is in the Godhead".
This now contradicts Colossians 2:9 that says the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily in Jesus.
JOHN 14:10 … but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
The Father is the Spirit of God that dwells fully in the Man Jesus.
The Trinity is a very deceptive house that is built of fake cards, based on human opinions and imagination.
The Triune God has no name because you cannot find one name for three Persons.
Thus, they keep saying, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” but they have absolutely no idea what that name is.
So, the Christian God consisting of three Persons has no name.
The Holy Spirit has no name in Scripture. Trinitarians cannot explain this.
Thus, Pergamum was changed to the Greek name Pergamos as Greek philosophy with its love of theological speculation entered the church to try to explain the concept of the unscriptural Triune Godhead.
This trap allowed Bible truth to be buried under the rubble of human wisdom.
Having introduced words that are not in the Bible at the Council of Nicaea, the Catholic Church set up a denominational system (unscriptural word) in order to dominate Europe and force everyone to bow down to the idea of a Trinity God.
Thus, the fourth church of Thyatira (meaning a dominating woman) referred to the 900 odd years of the Dark Age after the Pope declared himself to be Universal Bishop in AD 606. He claimed to be Head of all the churches.
This Trinity doctrine would rob God of His name and sweep through the Protestant churches as well. That is a major reason that the last church age of the Laodiceans is described as being blind.
So, the Trinity doctrine of Nicaea will ensure that the Protestant churches, as well as the Catholic church, are swept into the Tribulation which is the garbage dump for unscriptural beliefs.
Roman Catholics fiddled with the Bible and changed it. Fiddle with a light source and it will go out.
So, the Catholic Church led Europe into the Dark Age or Middle Age.
Seven churches are mentioned in Revelation Chapters 2 and 3.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Four is in the middle of 1 to 7.
The fourth church thus represents the Middle Age of Europe’s history.
This is also the Dark Age where Bibles were banned and people were killed for having a Bible.
Thyatira means a dominating woman.
A woman represents a church. The true church is the Bride of Christ.
The Roman Catholic Church dominated Europe in the Dark or Middle age. Historians say that from AD 904 to AD 963 the Roman church was ruled by harlots.
Revelation Chapter 17 describes the Roman church as a harlot.
Never was a churchwoman called Jezebel, so this name refers to the Catholic Church.
The Old Testament showed Jezebel’s cruelty as she killed the innocent Naboth. This cruelty describes the awful crusades of the Dark Age that slaughtered Jews, Muslims, the Christians of Constantinople, and the Christian communities in southern France known as the Albigenses and Waldenses. Then there was the slaughter of the Indians in South and Middle America as they were conquered by the Spanish and Portuguese. Then the horrific death rate of some 11 million African slaves who were sent to make sugar in the West Indies and had to mine silver, using deadly mercury, at the Potosi mountain in southern Bolivia.
REVELATION 2:20 Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, … , and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
The “sacrifice of the mass” claims that Christ dies on the altar with the round wafer that is eaten, and the wine, are His actual body and blood. The congregation cannot drink the wine. They can only eat the wafers.
Only the priest can drink the wine. That process separates the priest from the congregation or laity and elevates him above the laity. This is Nicolaitan.
Statues of Christ, Mary, the apostles, and various saints fill the Catholic church with idols.
The Pope and Mary are idolized by the Catholics.
This ceremony of the mass was introduced to the Franks in AD 754 by Pope Stephen II when he crowned Pepin as king of the Franks when he went to Paris. Pepin, in turn, had to chase away the Lombard tribe that was threatening Rome and give extra land as a donation to the Papal States. The Pope already had the yellow area on the map and Pepin's donation, given to the Pope in order to buy Pepin a place in Heaven, is shown in red. Ruthless, greedy, deception.
Then the Pope claimed that he would get Peter to open the door to Heaven for Pepin when he died. This doctrine of serving the Pope as Peter’s successor in order that Peter would open Heaven’s door swept through the barbarian tribes that had conquered the Roman Empire.
Thus the Pope conquered the barbarian tribes that had conquered the Roman empire.
Protestants claim not to believe in the Catholic mass.
Yet they have been fooled into celebrating Christmas or Christ’s mass. The Bible never asked us to celebrate the Lord’s birth. Protestants also have been fooled into believing in the Trinity. So Rome is conquering the Protestants who thought that they had left Rome. Now Protestants call themselves denominations and take on blasphemous names like Anglican, Methodist, and Baptist etc. Just like the Roman Catholics did.
Sardis, the escaped ones of the Reformation.
REVELATION 3:1 ... that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.
You got saved by faith as Christians, then you called yourselves Lutherans and Calvinists and Anabaptists. Dead names.
Nicolaitans in the first church age performed deeds that promoted people to be the heads of the churches. But in the third church, their deeds were established as doctrines. A local church that wanted to start was obliged to get a priest or pastor from some Bible college as only that person could be the head of the church. This artificial rule suddenly became binding. Those who controlled the Bible colleges controlled what was taught in the churches. These Bible-college-trained pastors stopped any new ideas from entering the churches. So when Luther got a revelation of salvation by faith alone, without any good works being required, he was kicked out of the Catholic church. They could not adapt to this new revelation. The same problem carried on in the Protestant churches. The Methodists got saved and also learned holiness and stopped drinking but could not accept baptism by immersion.
As soon as a denomination set up its beliefs, all the church leaders are trained to protect those beliefs and to reject any newer Bible revelations.
The Nicolaitans’ deeds of Ephesus that became the doctrines of Pergamos, indicate the passage of time.
Deeds become habits that harden into man-made doctrines as time moves on.
A church starts with new ideas that become accepted as regular habits. Sheer repetition will result in these ingrained habits being accepted as church doctrines.
People like Ignatius of Antioch began to spread the idea of a bishop being supreme in a church. The idea caught on and after a long enough time period it became the accepted habit. Then it hardened into a firm church doctrine that had to be obeyed.
The bishop of Rome could claim that Saint Paul died there. That was true. But Peter was given the keys to Heaven. The Pope wanted this power as he was claiming that he was the successor of Peter. He kept repeating that Peter was the first Pope in Rome and after this lie had been repeated enough times, it became accepted as the truth.
In the 600s the Muslims conquered the rival churches of Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria. This left the Roman Pope without any rivals in the west. The Pope thus became the Universal Bishop of western Europe. When the Muslims captured Constantinople in 1453, then Rome ruled Europe as the supreme church.
There never was a churchwoman called Jezebel. Her name describes the character and actions of the Roman Catholic church.
Her fate is to be thrown into the Tribulation.
This is the fate of the Roman Catholic church as described in Revelation Chapters 17 and 18.
In 1922 the Orthodox Christian population was deported from Thyatira. Only Muslims remain.
There is no church in Thyatira today to be thrown into the Tribulation.
Never was there a churchman called Balaam.
Jezebel, being a woman describes the Roman Catholic church. Pagan, cruel, vicious and going to be destroyed just like Jehu had Jezebel killed. Ten dictators will finally drop a nuclear bomb on the Vatican according to Revelation Chapters 17 and 18.
REVELATION 17:16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
REVELATION 18:9 And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,
:10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
Why do they stand afar off? Why do they not go in and put out the fire. It will be a nuclear bomb that cannot be put out because of the intense radiation. That will be the end of Rome.
When the antichrist Pope moves from Rome to Jerusalem then he will get the ten dictators to bomb the Vatican with nuclear bombs or missiles.
Balak was king of the Moabites. He paid the prophet Balaam to curse Moses and the Jews.
Balaam had a genuine prophetic ministry but wanted to be paid for misleading the Jews.
Denomination ministers want to be paid for deceiving their people with wrong beliefs.
He organized a feast of Baal at Peor where he introduced the Jews to Moabite prostitutes. The Jews fell for these women and died in their thousands.
Saved Christians get involved with churches (women) that rely on human leaders that take them away from Scripture.
Balaam thus refers to a characteristic of the third church age that started in AD 312 when the emperor Constantine, like Balak, paid the bishop of Rome (who later became the Pope) to obey him. The Pope ensured that the Trinity was forced onto the church at the religious feast of the Nicaean Council. The church of Rome in Revelation Chapter 17 is called a harlot. Thus, the Christians left the Bible and committed spiritual fornication with the unscriptural doctrines of the Catholic Church.
Because they thought that the Pope alone could get Saint Peter to open the gates of Heaven for them, the people obeyed the rituals of the Catholic church which doomed their souls to spiritual death.
Balaam (symbolizing the Pope) opposed Moses and led the Jews astray to false worship.
Balaam means “perhaps”.
“Perhaps” we can change what the Bible says and that will be all right. A big deception.
NUMBERS 31:16 Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD.
Balaam was a gifted man but he sold out his gifts for money and prestige. He ended up getting Jews killed by joining in with the Moabites who were illegitimate descendants of Lot and his daughter.
NUMBERS 25:1 And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab.
NUMBERS 25:2 And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods.
Constantine and the Pope got the churches to bow down to a Christianized version of the trinity gods of the heathens, at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325.
Egyptian trinity
Church Trinity
Notice the similarities. The Catholic church copied the basic pagan idea and then sprinkled it with Christian words.
But there is no one name for this Triune God.
NUMBERS 25:3 And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.
II PETER 2:15 Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
Being paid to preach denominational error.
JUDE 1:11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
The name Balaam is always linked to preaching for profit. Preaching for a meal ticket.
The Jews eventually killed Balaam.