4 unusual names in the first 4 church ages

We update studies as the Lord Jesus leads us. You can find the latest update of this study at ChurchAges.net

In the first church age (AD 33 - AD 170), ambitious and greedy men rose up to become the one-man head of each local church. They were called Priests. The leader conquered (niko) the laity or congregation. Niko in Greek means conquer.

Niko and laity combined to become Nico-laitan. But having a Priest as the one-man head of a church was unscriptural.

Peter wrote to the scattered Gentile converts and called them all Priests. All born-again believers are Priests.

1 PETER 1:1

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,”

2:9   But YE are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, ...

Nobody was above a Priest in the Old Testament, except for the High Priest. The only person above you is Jesus. Scattered converts could not fall under the domination of one man as a Priest, or a Pastor, or a Minister.

ACTS 20:17  “And from Miletus he [Paul] sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church.”

:28  “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.”

Local church leadership involved a group of local elders, never one man.

Paul went on to say that selfish wolves would take over the leadership of the church.

ACTS 20:29  “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.”

The big problem facing the church in the future was the leadership. The devil persecuted the church from the outside and then changed tactics to take over the leadership of the church.

The second church age (AD 170 - 312) began elevating a man as a Bishop to be in charge of a number of Priests. The Roman Catholic church was set on a path to lead the people away from Scripture, into spiritual darkness.

The Jews came back from their pagan Babylonian exile with a false Satanic synagogue system run by an unscriptural Pharisee. The Levitical Priesthood ended when the Priests condemned Jesus and the High Priest Caiaphas tore his clothes.

Putting a Priest in charge of a Catholic church just re-created the Jewish synagogue of Satan that had a Pharisee in charge.

In AD 536 Eastern Emperor Justinian began to re-conquer Italy from the barbarian Ostrogoths in a 20-year war that reinstated the Pope as the strong man of Italy. A haze of volcanic dust from a massive volcano explosion covered the sky for that year, dimming the sunlight and producing icy cold. Crops failed. People starved. Rats brought in plague. It was the worst year of the vicious, violent, and destructive 20-year reconquest of Italy that caused the awful Dark Ages.

This was during the third church age of Pergamos (AD 312 -AD 606) where Greek philosophy developed and refined the concept of Trinity. In AD 325, the Roman Emperor Constantine forced the church to accept Trinity at the Council of Nicaea.

The Pope led the church away from the Bible. In the same way, Balaam had led many Jews away from following Moses.

The Roman Catholic Jezebel church dominated Europe as truth was buried in the dirt of the Dark Ages, that ended in 1520.

Nicolaitan was a deed then a doctrine then persecution

CHRISTIANITY started out in Palestine as a Fellowship of Messianic Jews who reached out to the Gentiles.

The apostles were Jews. They established local churches to be run by groups of local elders.

After the death of the apostles, ambitious Jews tried to dominate local churches by claiming that, as Jews, they were better than Gentiles. Human leadership took over the church, producing the "synagogue of Satan" in the second church age.

In the third church age, Christianity moved to the Greek way of thinking by adopting Greek philosophy after the Council of Nicaea accepted the unscriptural word Trinity. The Council of Nicaea was the seat of Satan. Seat means authority. By getting the church to believe Trinity, Satan took authority over the church that was no longer Scriptural. Christianity became a pagan Philosophy full of unscriptural words. Trinity. One-God-in-three-Persons. Christmas. Good Friday. 25 December. God the Son. Lent. Etc. Thus the third church age is given a Greek name PergamOS (instead of its usual Pergamum).

In the fourth church age (AD 606 - 1520), Christianity moved its Headquarters to Rome/Italy and became a cruel and blood-thirsty Institution. The doctrines of the New Testament apostles were killed.

Roman Catholics stopped baptizing in the name of Jesus Christ (ACTS 2:38).

Christianity became churchianity. You were saved by going to church regularly and never disagreeing with the Priest who was in charge of the church.

The church dominated people with their unscriptural ideas, just like Jezebel had done in the days of king Ahab. Church domination of people with unscriptural ideas is "the depth of Satan".

These were the cruel and difficult years that the church had to survive between AD 33 and 1520, as truth declined after the death of the apostles.

Revelation Chapter 2 covers the first four church ages.

The bad names, Nicolaitan, synagogue of Satan, Balaam, seat of Satan, Pergamos, depth of Satan, and Jezebel are mentioned in Revelation Chapter 2 as the original apostolic truth died.

Revelation Chapter 3.

In order to resurrect from the dead Dark Ages, Christianity moved to Europe and became a Culture of Decency that first stressed salvation by grace through faith in Germany in church age 5 (1520 - 1750). Sardis means the Escaped Ones. They escaped from the Roman Catholic church.

Then holiness and outreach exploded from England to produce the great sixth Missionary age of Philadelpia, which means Brotherly love. (1750 - 1906). They loved the heathen enough to risk dying on the Mission fields trying to get them saved.

EVIL turned around to become LIVE as the Protestant churches started to return towards the original beliefs of the apostles.

Christianity finally came to America. The churches then either ignored or distorted the revealed mystery of God which is for us to return to the beliefs of the first church age apostles.

Consequently, Christianity became churchianity with its focus as a Big Business Enterprise.

The seventh church age of the Laodiceans (meaning People's Rights) that started in 1906 with the Pentecostal outpouring in Azusa Street in Los Angeles in America, is condemned as it degenerates into blindness and wealth.

In the end of the seventh church age, Christianity is a tiny rejected minority because it is a narrow road that few find. We have to be restored back to the ancient New Testament beliefs of the original apostles in the first church age.

MATTHEW 7:14  “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”

This restoration is the hidden mystery (singular) of God that today's churches are unaware of, as they complacently sleep.

Matthew 25 reveals saved church Christians as virgins, clean women. They are either wise or fooled by their Pastors.

But they are all fast asleep.

When faced by the deadly Coronavirus of 2020, saved Christians huddled safely in their homes while brave medical people risked death to bring the virus under control. Christians were helpless in the face of the virus so they then bravely attacked the vaccinations that brought the virus under control. Being asleep made them out of touch with reality.

MATTHEW 25:5  “While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.”

"Slumbered" and "slept". This repetition is an emphasis.

Church-going Christians are very fast asleep. As such, they refuse to be disturbed by suggestions that their specific church could be wrong in any way.

When some future natural disaster wrecks the world economy, then thay will all wake up to realize how inadequate their church beliefs are, because there are over 2000 different kinds of churches and denominations.

Then, they will be told to get out of their churches as none of the churches today are being restored back to the first church age, that never elevated a Pastor to be in charge of a church.

MATTHEW 25:6  “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.”

"Go ye out". The future path to the Coming of Jesus is outside the church.

Obviously, because Jesus stands outside the seventh age church door.

REVELATION 3:20  “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock:"

Jesus is the Word and today's churches have rejected the King James Bible and replaced It with over 100 different Translations. A complete spiritual swamp.

Calling the Pastor the head of the church means that Jesus cannot also be the head. No body can have two heads.

As long as the Pastor is the head of the church, Jesus has to stand outside.

EPHESIANS 5:23

For the husband is the head of the wife,

even as Christ is the head of the church:

But few there be that find the narrow path where William Branham from America showed us how to interpret the mysteries (plural) of Scripture. We have to have the wisdom to join up the scattered Bible verses into a theme or pattern that runs through the entire Bible. Then we gain an understanding of the deep Bible teachings of Saint Paul.

The Bride has to bypass the apostate seventh church age, that seems to burn very brightly, and form a bridge whereby the forgotten and ignored first church age of the apostles becomes the living present.

The seed of truth that is harvested at the end must be identical to the seed of truth that the apostles originally planted.

Do we look exactly like the first church age?

That is the great mystery (singular) of God that the churches know nothing about.

MATTHEW 17:11  “And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.”

LUKE 18:8  “... Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”

True faith is only built on the written Word. We have to understand the Scriptures.

This is the final picture that the end-time Bride should look like. Only then are we ready for the Lord's Coming.

We cannot belong to the wise virgins unless we understand the mysteries of the Bible.

The Bible-ignorance of most modern-day Christians is largely due to the scant information provided by preachers who lack the wisdom needed to link scattered Bible verses together that form a theme or pattern that runs through both New and Old Testaments. As a result, many difficult Bible verses are never read by church-goers.

Modern-day church-going communities continue to exist because the conclusions of the revealed Bible mysteries are largely kept from them. Church-goers, even if saved, only listen to what they want to hear as they have "itching ears".

They would not dream of daring to disagree with their Pastors.

2 TIMOTHY 4:3  “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;”

Nicolaitans. Balaam. Jezebel. And then Pergamos which is the Greek version of Pergamum.

Only the third church has a Greek name. Why?

Why do three of the four churches in Revelation Chapter 2 mention these unusual names? What do they teach us?

After the deaths of the apostles, talented men began to take over church leadership as the human head. At first called a Priest and then later called the Bishop. After a while, this became the accepted policy that everyone wanted. It was efficient for church growth, but not for learning the truth.

An Aaronic priesthood of the five-fold ministry took over that was above the people and the Bishop emerged as the head of the five-fold ministry.

But once he had the power over the church, nobody dared to argue with him.

A mini-dictator became the new normal in the church that was soon accepted by everyone.

Today, the Pope is the only Dictator in Europe.

The power struggle went on between the Bishops of different churches until one Bishop emerged in AD 606 as the Universal Bishop over all the churches. He was called the Pope. (An unscriptural word to describe this unscriptural power structure). This Universal Bishop was Boniface III.

In AD 366 Damasus had been elected Bishop of Rome after his followers killed more thn 100 of his rival's followers.

Brutal politics had entered the Roman Catholic church.

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. The silting up of the harbour indicated the end of the first church age as Ephesus ceased to be a port. Silt symbolized the error of human leadership of the church.

By the time the first church age ended around AD 170, 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 took over the leadership of the church

The church began to see itself as a worldwide organization like the political Roman Empire was.
The church allowed its political environment to determine its style of growth.

It became a practical organization for social duties and humanitarian aid.

This was a brilliant strategy. If you give people food then they will not question the accuracy of your preaching.

It formed an organization obeying human rules, not a collection of individuals who loved Jesus, with no bond of union beyond certain practices like baptism, communion, foot washing, and their beliefs in the written Word.
Romans were skilled administrators, and all organizations tended towards this highly efficient and effective system.

Man-made rules and ideas multiplied and truth got lost.
The church became more and more Roman in its practical organizational methods like feeding the poor.
Different areas with different cultures had to be kept the same. So officials were needed to travel between groups to maintain common policy. Rules were made for feeding the poor, which was good. But then rules were also made for what you had to believe, and that was not good.
By AD 170 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 they 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 you 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 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".

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 a priest as the head

Christians slowly began to follow this pagan example. It was an efficient way to build up an organization.

Antioch was a city whose church history was held in high regard. Ignatius of Antioch, claimed to be the 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.

A man-made elevated priesthood rose up and formed between the church congregation and God.

An Aaronic priesthood was beginning to form that stood between the congregation and God.

But God scrapped the Old Testament Priesthood when High Priest Caiaphas tore his robe.

The church was too relaxed to take this error of a fake New Testament priesthood 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 many 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 the only hard evidence (what he himself wrote) that we have about Polycarp, ONE 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 apostles never made a pastor the head of a church

The original apostles never appointed a man as a pastor of a church.

(The word pastor is only mentioned once in the New Testament, and pastors are condemned 6 times in the Old Testament as a warning).

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.

When God set up the church 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 genuine prophets tend to be rare.

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”.

This was the first blast that would push for humans to become the head of the church.

Notice the confusion. Do we follow the Bishops or the original apostles?

If we follow the original apostles, as Ignatius says, we would never "follow a bishop" because that statement is not written by the apostles in the New Testament.

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.

Have we accepted Jesus as our Personal Saviour or do we think we are saved by belonging to a certain church?

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 as the church in Thyatira only came into existence later, yet it had the characteristics that John had prophesied.

The emperor Domitian died in AD 96. Whenever the Roman emperor died, all the political prisoners, including John, were released.

Balaam was paid to prophesy and condemn Israel

Emperor Constantine paid the Pope well and bought his allegiance.

The Trinity doctrine was eagerly championed by the Bishops of Rome who became the Popes.

A spiritual feast was organized at the council of Nicea in AD 325 where the Bishops were force-fed in order to get them to accept the unscriptural Trinity doctrine.

A ruthless centralized church organization was established that you either followed or you were persecuted for not obeying.

Pagan beliefs were dressed up in Christian names to encourage the pagans to join the church.

By AD 350 the birthday of the sun god had become the birthday of the Son of God. Christ's mass or Christmas copied the pagan 25 December. An unscriptural festival on an unscriptural date. All it needed was an unscriptural Christmas tree and an unscriptural greeting, "Merry Christmas". Today this pagan custom is the main Christian festival of the year.

Nowhere does the Bible ask us to celebrate the birth of the Lord.

The antichrist horse rider on the white horse of religious deception is certainly still riding forth and conquering.

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.

[Unquote: Today, most Christians only absorb what the Pastor says. They do not search for deeper truth for themselves in the Bible. Content to join up carefully selected quotes, church-goers are becoming increasingly Bible-illiterate].

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.

[Unquote: The early church met in houses or in open-air meetings.

The earliest church building ever dug up by archaeologists dates from about AD 222.

After AD 312, when Constantine took over, church buildings grew as they converted pagan temples].

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!"

[Unquote: Balaam represents the preachers who are paid to preach their churches' specific errors, because that is what those congregations want to hear.

Preaching is big business. One preacher in America is being paid $100 million for a 6-year preaching contract].

…  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 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.

Pergamos held "Satan's seat". Pergamos represents the age where Constantine installed the Trinity doctrine and the Roman Catholic denomination. He did this by giving the Bishop of Rome the beautiful Lateran Palace on the Caelian hill (one of the original 7 hills of Rome) which today is still the official headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. It is known as the Seat of Saint Peter. The "seat" is the symbol of power and authority.

Given much wealth by Emperor Constantine, it was much easier for the Roman Bishop to gain prestige and authority.

REVELATION 13:2  ... and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

"Great authority". By AD 606 the Pope was the Universal Bishop over all the churches.

… 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 means "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."

Balaam. Being paid to preach denominational error.

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.

Denominational 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.  24000 were killed.

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 took control of the church.

Constantine paid the bishop of Rome (who later became the Pope) to obey him.

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. Constantine died but the Popes continued with his Trinity beliefs.

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 opposed Moses and led the Jews astray to false worship.

Balaam means “perhaps”.

Constantine said, “Perhaps” we can change what the Bible says and that will be all right. He did that in order to merge the pagans and the Christians together. A big deception.

But the Bishops at the Council of Nicaea ended up accepting his Trinity God and never noticed that they lost the name of God in the process. They simply fooled themselves by saying that, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" was actually God's name. But if they objected, they were severely persecuted. Everyone had to believe the same thing, or else.

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 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. The Bishop of Rome, to earn his pay-packet from Constantine, became a keen supporter of Trinity.

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;

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 linked to preaching for profit. Preaching for a meal ticket.

The Jews eventually killed Balaam.

Joshua 13:22  “Balaam also the son of Beor, the soothsayer, did the children of Israel slay with the sword among them that were slain by them.”

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 Nicolaitans, Balaam, Jezebel,  and Antipas.

There is no historical record that the church of Thyatira existed before the year AD 100, when John had finished writing Revelation. This church only came into existence later. John was writing prophetically.

No Christians in recorded church history had these unusual names.

Thus, they must refer to trends that entered the church at different times to mislead the believers.

Pergamum is called by its Greek name of Pergamos

Another puzzle arises 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.

Greeks were more concerned with cleverness than truth.

Pergamos, the third church, means “thoroughly married”.

The Roman Catholic church, thanks to Constantine's large payments, became enmeshed with his political viewpoint that wanted to merge Christianity with paganism until they were 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.

Greek philosophy believed in the holiness of beauty. The impressive show is what counted.

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.

Homosexuality was rampant in the Greek world of Alexander the Great.

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 Roman Catholic 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. This was subtly changed to Christmas. That way it does not sound like a Mass.

Protestants rejected the idea of a Catholic mass. But there is nevertheless one unscriptural mass that they are unaware 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 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 over 2000 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 as the Popes were all great believers in the Trinity. Each Pope in his lifetime qualifies as the false prophet.

The false prophet is a spirit. The Pope dies but the false prophet spirit jumps into the next Pope.

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.   A big lie is that the Pope is the successor to Saint Peter. They falsely claim that 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. Can they get worse than the same-sex marriage they now condone? Has evil reached its limit?

Greek philosophy produced an unscriptural Trinity

The Bible is not based on Greek philosophy.

When Paul went to Athens he did not want to learn their philosophy, he wanted to correct them.

Acts 17:23  “For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.”

Consider this unscriptural statement.

“One-God-in-three-Persons”.

This expression, that cannot be clearly explained, 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.

Prominent preachers like Billy Graham and Dr. David Reagan openly and honestly admit they do not understand the Trinity that they preach.

The expression "three Persons" is never found in the Bible.

Church-goers 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. This is an example of mental gymnastics.

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”. (Whatever that means). This term was officially adopted in AD 533 despite being totally unscriptural. As a result it can mean whatever you want it to mean.

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. But none of these expressions are Scriptural.

Greek philosophy had these three People as "co-equal", but that term is unscriptural.

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 supernatural 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. 

Because 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 Ages 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 great 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.

Pagan Rome is killed but resurrects as Roman Catholics

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 cruel and greedy spirit of pagan Rome.

The sea is the restless multitudes of people that Rome conquered and ruled.

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 Temple of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. Three names for a pagan god and two pagan godesses. The pagan idea of a trinity.

Three names for three god-like persons.

But the Roman Catholic church would evolve a mystery Trinity of 3 Persons Who are each God, yet only forming one God.

A mystery Trinity God Who has never been understood.

Three Persons cannot have one name. Thus the Christian God lost His name. Saying that God had not got a name is blasphemy as it breaks the 3rd Commandment.

Exodus 20:7   “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.”

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 have a double meaning. Ten refers to the end, symbolized by the ten virgins of Matthew 25.

10 refers to the binary system of 1 and 0 that dominate the end time where humanity is dependent on computers, smartphones, and the internet.

Ten horns, in terms of the pagan Roman Empire, refer to 10 of the many barbarian tribes that broke up the Roman Empire.

These 10 tribes not only helped to break up the Roman Empire but also played a role, intentionally or unintentionally, to establish the rise of the Popes to power in their intention to dominate Europe and the world.

Then the 10 horns have a compound fulfillment.

They refer to 10 future end-time national Dictators who will give their military power to the final Pope who will be the vile man of sin who rules the world for 3.5 years during great tribulation.  In 2025, almost 70% of the world live under Dictatorships. Some of those final 10 dictators may well be ruling already.

The final Pope needs military power when he emerges to start the 3½ years of great tribulation as he conquers the world.

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 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 Pope, the son of perdition. The child from hell. 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 pagan Roman 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 most likely 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 teach them unscriptural errors and propaganda because today's 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. That was originally called the seat of Saint Peter.

Peter's seat 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.

It is interesting that the new Pope in 2025 took on the name of Leo, which means a lion.

The Pope, the mouthpiece of 1.4 billion Catholics is now a Lion.

REVELATION 13:2   and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: 

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 pagan Roman power of the Capitoline hill was healed.

The recovered 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 cruel and despotic nature of the beast did not change. Only the seat of authority and power changed.

The Roman Emperor was no longer in charge. Now it was the Pope that had power over the territory that pagan Rome once ruled.

The Pope is the figurehead of the beast, ruling as the only dictator in modern-day Europe.

But the intention of the Pope was always to rule the world.

Pope Leo 12 sold medals in 1825 which showed a woman, the Roman Catholic church, sitting in authority on the whole world.

The Roman Catholic motto is "urbi et orbi".

It means "to the City of Rome and to the world".

Satan offered Jesus the chance to rule the whole world. Jesus rejected his offer.

Satan is building up the power of the Vatican so that the final Pope will rule the whole world for 3.5 years.

Roman Catholic church is Thyatira the dominating woman

Speaking to the church of Thyatira, the church of the spiritual Dark Age that lasted over 900 years, 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 final 3.5 years of great 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 great Tribulation.

To the church of Philadelphia, God says:

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 has happened whereby the city of Philadelphia was spared and the rest of the world suffered.

Philadelphia was to be spared but Smyrna was to be hammered by great tribulation. This could not happen at the same time as the two cities are close together.

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. The 10th year was the end of the persecution.

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 talented Roman bishop Sylvester sold out his birthright in order to gain money and prestige as the politically compromised lackey of the brutal emperor.

Selling out for money is the biggest temptation for church preachers as they need a meal ticket.

This was the unexpected disaster of elevated human church leadership.

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.

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 spiritual 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.

There 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.

They falsely claim that the bread-wafer 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.

Rome conquers its conquerors

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, 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. 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.

Her fate is to be thrown into great Tribulation.

This is the fate of the Roman Catholic church.

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 destroy the Vatican.