Revelation 17 - The Pope will rule the world

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A church that will take us to Judgement Day

Why is Mankind headed for God's Judgement Day?

This is as a result of listening to and following teachings that are different from Scripture.

Revelation Chapter 17 deals with the rise and the spread of the antichrist spirit, the main source of unscriptural error.

We need to know who the enemy is if we are to avoid being caught up in his clutches.

This  Chapter deals with some harsh truths as it details the main reason why humanity is being swept along to face the judgements of God. It describes a very popular system of error that has survived for two thousand years, as Satan used it to deceive multitudes of people down through the ages. All Satan has to do is get us to believe something that is different from what is written in the Bible.

And if we are not wide awake, these errors will sweep us into the 3.5 years of great Tribulation.

REVELATION 17:1And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:

The seven Vials will be poured out in the 3.5 years of great Tribulation as they represent God’s wrath against sin, which is unbelief, not believing what is written in the Bible. Preferring to believe something different.

One of the judgement angels came to inform John about what had gone so wrong as to deserve these terrible judgements. How did mankind end up in this mess?

The central villain that has so angered God is a woman.

A literal woman or something that a woman symbolizes?

She sits on many waters. No literal woman can do this, so it must be a symbol.

What does a woman symbolize?  The church.

This is a crucial chapter as it speaks of God's judgement against sin. Who is it that is being judged?

We need to know. A woman symbolizes a church. The true church is called the bride or wife of Christ.
REVELATION 19:7Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

II CORINTHIANS 11:2For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

:3   But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

But John sees a bad woman who represents a church that has been corrupted by other men.

A good wife lives true to her husband. The true church only believes what Jesus says. He is called the Word of God. Thus we must only believe what is in the Bible.

This church that John sees believes what other men say. Basically, this church is messing around with other men's ideas and opinions.

The human mind is a spiritual womb that conceives doctrines from the ideas or thoughts that men put into our minds.

All the ideas which form our beliefs must come only from what is written in the Bible. If people inject ideas into our minds that cause us to conceive doctrines that are unscriptural because they are not written in the Bible, then we are being unfaithful to Christ.
MATTHEW 15:9But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

Anything that we believe which is not written in Scripture is a waste of time.

If we believe in a church-doctrine that is different from Scripture, then we are in serious trouble with God.

REVELATION 17:15And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

The sea represents the restless multitudes of people who drift hither and thither as they are influenced by the pressures of life, and all the temporary and fashionable but changing opinions of their times. People are easily influenced by the opinions of powerful and charismatic preachers.

So this chapter sets the scene for the rise of a global power that wants to control the world.

Napoleon tried to control Europe and failed. Hitler tried and failed. Communism tried to rule the world and failed. Why? None of these powerful movements had a religious component. Man is born with a vacuum in his soul that craves spiritual fulfillment.

Deep currents in the sea represent the unseen influences of dark satanic spirits and demonology, which so easily influence our human thinking and generate a mob spirit, a feeling that we must belong to and not disagree with a group. That attitude makes us reject outside criticism and correction. But when you follow the herd, you will find that the green grass has already been eaten. Learn to think for yourself.

When Jesus cast out the Legion of demons from a man at Gedara, these spirits entered some pigs who rushed into the sea. This symbolizes how evil spirits rush into and find a home in the "sea", the restless multitudes of people.

The true church will be filled with the Holy Spirit and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ which makes them believe and follow the Bible. The rest of the churches will seek the comfort and complacency of the ritual and glamour of 'Churchianity'.

Each church develops its own traditions and beliefs. Churches can get people saved and doing good works which is very good. But then there are 45000 different types of churches and denominations that lead their people down many unscriptural paths. Today the churches even bless same-sex marriage, which is contrary to Scripture.

ROMANS 1:26   “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

:27   And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.”

Gay people have a higher incidence of sexually transmitted diseases like AIDS and VD.

As Christians, we want some kind of religious belief so that we can serve God in a way that we feel comfortable with.

But human leadership and traditions will cause the churches to be taken over by the influence of the rising power of this dominating woman who symbolizes the Roman Catholic church.

Islam is a very formidable foe to the church because it has a religious component, and thus survives in the hearts of the Muslim people. Thinking that they will go to heaven, the suicide bombers queue up in their willingness to get a shortcut to heaven. Such is the incredible power of religious thinking. No power will effectively dominate the world unless it mixes politics with religion.

We must not be surprised to find out that errors must come from inside the church world. The bad guy when Jesus lived on earth was Judas. He was a follower of Jesus, a chosen disciple, not an outsider.

Judas was a church leader and an apostle.
So error lies in the leadership of the church.

Consequently, this fallen woman is a church full of error that has risen to power and influence on a worldwide, global scale.

REVELATION 17:2With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

Kings represent political power. So this church has huge political clout. World rulers consult this system.

It is a massive combination of religious and political importance.

Fornication means that she is not married.  If she was married the Bible would have used the word adultery. This church is thus not the wife of Christ although she claims to be the wife of Christ.

Carnal people drink wine to get happy. Spiritually, wine represents the stimulation of revelation.

Understanding something in the Bible makes us happy and stimulates our thinking.

But this church's revelations, though intoxicating, are wrong because fornication is forbidden in the Bible. It is sex before marriage. So this woman, a fallen church, is not going to be married to Christ as He will only marry a virgin. This church offers people something that they find intoxicating, but yet it is very wrong, just like premarital sex.
ACTS 2:4And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

ACTS 2:13Others mocking said,

These men are full of new wine.

14   But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:

15   For these are not drunken, as ye suppose,

seeing it is but the third hour of the day.

The disciples were so stimulated by the Holy Spirit that they even staggered as they walked.

A major weakness amongst churchgoers is that clever men can develop exciting ideas that captivate our minds. Then, like drunkards, we cannot reason Scripturally in order to correct our mistakes.

We cannot take these fascinating human ideas and impressive ceremonies back to Scripture, so we just believe them because they suit us and interest us. New Year, Christmas, and Good Friday are unscriptural expressions that are widely believed in the churches.

Religion is when we tell God how we want to worship Him in a way that suits us. Think of Christmas (unscriptural word), 25 December (unscriptural date), Christmas tree (a heathen practice that we should not copy says Jeremiah Chapter 10)

JEREMIAH 10:2Thus saith the LORD,

Learn not the way of the heathen,

and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

3   For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.

4  They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

The wise men went into a house, not a stable, when Jesus was a young Child, not a Baby. And only Mary is mentioned, not Joseph.
MATTHEW 2:11
And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.

But we Christians are so brainwashed by Christmas card pictures, preachers wanting to be popular, and the nativity plays that we see every December, that we refuse to believe that the wise men did not go into the stable. The wise men, after all, are the reason for us giving gifts to our children (and everyone else that we feel obliged to buy presents for).

Thus Christmas is entangled with this powerful money spirit, and we Gentiles just do not seem to be able to break that religious and financial habit. Even when we struggle to afford these presents. Then January for many becomes Janu-worry.

The Babylonian priesthood that developed after Noah's Flood was very clever. Their ideas continue to impress us. Think of how many Christians still read their sun signs from the Zodiac, which is another clever trend from ancient Babylon.

Drunkards express emotion rather than facts.

Christians speak of Christmas in terms of their emotions, because the Bible never asks us to celebrate the Lord's birth.

The Trinity God has no name

The Christmas issue illustrates the powerful spirit of the peer pressures that urge us to follow the crowd rather than following the Word. But Christians, like drunkards, remain obsessed with Christmas.

But there are many serious issues where Christians lack a Biblical foundation for their beliefs.

Water baptism is presented in two different ways in the Bible. This thus requires us to think clearly.

MATTHEW 28:19Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them

in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

ACTS 2:38Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you

in the name of Jesus Christ

for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

If Christians are spiritually drunk and can no longer reason correctly, they will not be able to see clearly enough to reconcile these two verses and will simply, very rashly, reject the one as a mistake and believe the other.

In order to establish the truth, we need to obey both verses.

Rejecting one Scripture because we believe it is wrong, is fatal. We then have no absolute truth if there are mistakes in the Bible.

Saying that "Peter got it wrong and I will rather believe Jesus" is a dangerous philosophy because we then claim that the apostles did not know what they were doing.

II TIMOTHY 3:16All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

When Jesus prayed for His disciples He said :

JOHN 17:20Neither pray I for these alone, but for

them also which shall believe on me through their word;

We can only learn about Jesus from the disciples.

If we disagree with the disciples then we are the people who are wrong, not them.

In this last church age, we are supposed to go back to the New Testament teachings of the early church.

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

If we disagree with Saint Paul then we are accursed.

Paul repeats himself to stress the importance of never disagreeing with him.
GALATIANS 1:8   But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

:9   As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

How did Paul baptize? Like Peter, in the name of Jesus.

ACTS 19:5   When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Lord is a title not a name.

Christ is not a name, it is a title meaning Anointed One.

Many men have the name of Jesus. To show which Jesus we are talking about, we must add at least one title to His name.

Thus we say Lord Jesus, or Jesus Christ, or Lord Jesus Christ.

So, the question we need to ask is "What is the  Name of God?".

Here Christians struggle. We have been taught about a Trinity (the word is not in the Bible) of one God in three Persons (an unscriptural statement). The Roman Catholics developed and refined this idea over a couple of hundred years from about AD 250 to about AD 500.

Then we Protestants swallowed it without any protest.

In the process, we lost the Name of God because three Persons cannot have one name. So, like the Catholics, we substitute three titles "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" for one Name.

But Peter tells us the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. It is Jesus Christ.

The mistake we made was to believe the pagan Babylonian idea of their trinity and merge that idea into a 'Christian' Trinity. Forget the unscriptural word Trinity and let the fullness of the Godhead (the Spirit of God) dwell in the human body of Jesus and then we have "Jesus" as the human Name of God.

COLOSSIANS 2:8Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

9   For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

As the Father, God was above His people, the Jews.

As the Son, God was with us, Emmanuel.

JOHN 14:17    Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

The Holy Spirit is God in His church when He indwells the hearts of men and women.

We call this the anointing and the Holy Ghost baptism.

God living in His church to control His people from within.

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost represent God above, with, and in His people. God's entire Plan with humanity.

These are the manifestations of God when God took on the human name of Jesus.

Christ is a title, meaning Anointed One

Greek philosophy produced the idea of three-in-one or one-God-in-three-Persons. Neither of these statements is found in Scripture.

Greek philosophy claimed that Father and Son were of the same essence. "Essence" is an unscriptural word.

Eternal Sonship is also unscriptural.

Greek philosophy claimed that Father and Son were one in substance but not one in Person.  "One in Substance" is unscriptural.

Greek philosophy is very accurate in terms of the Greek words that are available to describe God, but unfortunately, the words that they chose are not Scriptural.

The Catholics evolved a Trinity concept that is not written in the Bible. We Protestants accepted it and now we follow the same path of desperately defending the Trinity and other ideas that are also not written in the Bible. So Catholics and Protestants both have the same attitude.

We are happy to believe something that is not written in the Bible.

Like drunkards, Christians remain obsessed with the Catholic Trinity, defending the idea emotionally and not with Bible verses.

REVELATION 17:3So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

The wilderness.

A sad truth. If you want the Spirit of God to instruct you, you will become unpopular. The wilderness has few people in it. The first price we pay for truth is rejection. But once he was in that lonely wilderness, John reaped the benefits: he saw something. His inner eyes or insight suddenly opened. We are unlikely to see the truth in a crowd because we become more interested in being accepted and agreeing with the crowd. People-pleasers don’t learn much truth. The truth will disagree with the crowd’s opinions so we will never find truth unless we are prepared to stand alone against the crowd.

A beast is a power. But this colossal power has a church sitting on it, in control of it. The beast is scarlet. This is the colour of sin, but is also the colour of importance in the Roman Catholic church as their cardinals, who run the church, dress in scarlet.

ISAIAH 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD:

though your sins be as scarlet

62-1104M  BLASPHEMOUS NAMES
Now, they hollering about me kicking against organizations. It's those blasphemous names, that call themselves,

"churches of God, and churches of Christ, and churches of Methodist, and churches." It's lodges, not churches.

One Church, that's the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what is It? The mystical Body of Jesus Christ in operation on earth, made up of a member of any of these congregations, that would be a member of Christ's Body. You have to be born into It, not joined into It.

But she is "full of blasphemous names," Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, all calling themselves, "churches of God."

Blasphemous names! Lot of difference between "names of blasphemy" and "blasphemous names." Call themselves, "the Church of God," and representing themselves before the world; and card parties, and drinking, and carrying on, and soup suppers, and everything else, and all kind of stuff go.

We have no right to call ourselves anything but Christians.

To justify all of the more than 45000 different types of denominational and non-denominational churches that have sprung up, men have invented endless names to describe themselves. This system of denominational Churchianity makes us part of this beast and it is "full of the names" of these myriads of denominations and church-groups.

A true bride only takes on the name of her husband, no other name. Our Husband is Jesus Christ. According to Scripture we are Christians.

ACTS 11:26And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.

ACTS 26:28Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.

I PETER 4:16Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.

If we want truth then we must go, like John, into a spiritual wilderness where there are few people so that we can get away from human opinions and traditions.

The problem with the motto "Go with the flow" is that the journey is always downwards. The truth will not make us popular.

The Roman Catholic church wants to rule the world

REVELATION 17:3So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness:

and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast,

full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

The entire beast is scarlet-coloured. This is a subtle indication of the rise of the Roman Catholic church to world power.

Look at the original beast that John saw in Revelation Chapter 13. There was no scarlet colour which is the colour of the cardinals.

This beast was the deadly and brutal spirit of pagan Rome with its devastating military power. It had absorbed the Babylonian mysteries with its trinity of pagan gods and goddesses and the pagan evils of Greece, Persia, and Babylon.

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.

: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 final military power of this beast will be the ten dictators, ruling as kings, who give their military power to the final Pope so that he can control the world.

: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.

The seven heads are the seven hills of Rome. The Capitoline Hill, with the Temple of the triad or trinity of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva was the nerve centre of the Roman Empire that was wounded to death when the western Roman Empire was destroyed by the barbarians in AD 476.

This deadly wound recovered when the Roman Catholic church then rose to power in Europe.

The pagan Roman triad was a god and two goddesses with three names. Then the pagan Roman spirit was resurrected on the ruins of the Roman Empire as the Roman Catholic Church with its headquarters in the Lateran Palace on the Caelian Hill. They changed the triad into a Trinity that is one God Who is three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. But this Trinity God has no name. You cannot find one name for three Persons.

When John sees this pagan Roman beast again in Revelation 17 it is scarlet, meaning it is dominated by the Roman Catholic cardinals who wear scarlet robes.

REVELATION 17:3   So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

A woman, the Roman Catholic church, rides on and controls this spirit.

Thus, when the Roman Empire collapsed, the only Roman institution to survive that collapse was the Roman Catholic Church. That enabled the Pope to pick up all the power that the Roman Emperor or Caesar lost. The Pope came up in the Vatican as the head of a worldwide Roman Catholic church power. The Vatican is also the world's richest organization which gives it incredible political power. Finally, ten dictators will give the last Pope their military power. Then he will rule 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.

[They have power as kings. They are not crowned kings but have a king's power. They will be dictators]

:13   These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.

The 10 dictators give their military power and strength to the beast.

John saw this woman, the Catholic church, riding on and thus controlling, a savage pagan beast or power. The Pope came up in the Vatican as the head of a worldwide Roman Catholic church power. The Vatican is also the world's richest organization which gives it incredible political power. Finally, ten dictators will give the last Pope their military power. Then he will rule the world.

Look at many of the Roman Catholic beliefs that are unscriptural as they come from paganism:

Trinity, Christmas trees, Easter eggs, Easter bunnies, Lent, monks, nuns, cardinals, archbishops, Popes, 25 December, Good Friday, Ash Wednesday, monasteries, mother and child worship, and rosaries which are all of pagan origin.

This religious, political, and financial power had been developed by trial and error over almost two thousand years as the Roman Catholic Church reacted to world events or shrewdly took advantage of the changing political and religious scenarios.  Her pursuit of power has enabled her to build up an international church organization that will one day allow her to control the world with her powers. She is the only person who is riding on the beast. No one else can control it.

We Protestants are so impressed with what the Catholics have achieved, and the sheer survival capacity of this amazing worldwide religious organization, that we are now trying hard to build up an image of the beast.

This is a Protestant international church system with political clout that can rival the Catholic church.

Like the Catholics, we Protestants do not worry too much about being strictly Scriptural. Our idea of being a successful church is based on the amount of money coming in and the number of people in the congregation. After all, in our attempts to copy-cat or imitate the more than 1.4 billion Catholics we must also produce large, wealthy congregations.

A man is elevated to be the head of a church

The Bible pattern was to have a group of local elders ruling each local church.

A very strong spiritual power is the spirit that makes us worship or idolize or imitate another human being. We speak of the film 'idols' and sports 'idols'. We elevate and admire them.

So the church will provide leaders that are reverenced and uplifted.

Mary is venerated and prayed to by many Catholics. Many believe that she can influence Jesus to save us. People are driven by this spirit of uplifting a fellow human being. We cannot even call our church leader "Joe" or "Francis". We have to say "Pastor Joe" or "Pope Francis". This was never done in New Testament days. The word "Pope" is not in the Bible. The word "pastor" is only mentioned once in the New Testament, and then as the fourth out of five ministries.

EPHESIANS 4:11And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

Thus to make a pastor the head of the church is unscriptural. You cannot draw that conclusion from this single verse.

In the Book of Jeremiah, pastors are condemned six times.

There is no Scripture that says a shepherd is a pastor.

So elevating a human as leader over the church is not the way that we Christians should have gone.

I CORINTHIANS 12:28And 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.

Notice, when God sets up the church, there is not even a mention of pastors.

So, to have pastors dominating the church clearly indicates that it is people who have set up our modern churches, not God. If the Pope is the head of the Catholic church, and if a pastor is the head of each Protestant church, then it is no wonder that the true Head of the church, Jesus Christ, stands outside the church (Revelation 3). No church body can have two heads.

REVELATION 3:14   And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write;
:20   Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice,

Standing outside the church door, Jesus appeals to individuals. Not to the church.

REVELATION 17:4And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:

The Roman Catholic church is the wealthiest organization in the world. But God is not impressed with what she is offering in her expensive cup.

Outwardly she looks fabulous. Inwardly it is all wrong and corrupt.

The typical colours of a cardinal are scarlet and purple.

The cardinals form the highest council, which runs the Roman Catholic church.

"Gold".  The Roman Catholic Church is the world's wealthiest organization.

A coin showing the pagan Roman emperor Tiberius, who ruled from AD 14 -37, as Maxim(um) Pontiff. The highest Pontiff or high priest of the pagan mysteries of Babylon. He was emperor when Jesus was crucified.

Pope Leo 12  in 1825 struck this medal of a woman, representing the Roman Catholic church, sitting on the earth.

The words say, "She sits above the whole earth"  or  "the whole earth is her seat".

The Popes believe that the Catholic church should rule the world. This is the ongoing aim of the papacy.

Notice how she holds out a cup of her beliefs or doctrine. The Popes believe that you must be subject to the Roman Catholic church in order to be saved. This was declared by Pope Boniface 8 in 1302.

Above is a 100 lire coin of Pope Paul 6 - Pont(ifex) Max(imus) (High priest of the Babylonian mysteries) - Vatican City  1963.

So the Pope has taken over the title of Pontiff or high priest of the Babylonian mysteries from the pagan Roman emperors.

Fides means Faith. The woman symbolizes the Catholic church that is faithful to the Pope and what he believes. She holds a cup in her hand, which symbolizes her beliefs or doctrines that she offers to the world in order to save the world.

The mother harlot produced daughter churches

So the Popes view the Roman Catholic church as a woman that is holding out a cup which represents the doctrines of the church.

REVELATION 17:5And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

The Lateran church on the Caelian hill in Rome (one of the original seven hills) is the oldest church in the west. That is why it calls itself the mother church. The  Protestant churches separated from the Catholic church at a much later date and can thus be referred to as the daughter churches of the mother Catholic church. Luther was a Catholic monk until he broke away from the Catholic church when the Pope condemned him in 1520.

The following inscription is carved into the Lateran church (or basilica) on the Caelian Hill, one of the original seven hills of Rome.

A fairly literal translation reads, " The sacred Lateran church of the whole city and world, the mother and head of the church."

So the Lateran church declares itself to be the mother church. We Protestants came along later, and although Protestants were born as virgin daughters under the original reformers, we did not stay that way as time went by.  To build up our denominations (an unscriptural word)

we followed the Catholic example and accepted the efficiency of human leadership,

and thus Jesus was no longer our Head. Now we believe the quotes and opinions of different men instead of being able to just quote the Bible. Thus we are no longer faithful to our Husband, the Word. God is obviously not impressed with all of us, Catholic and Protestant alike, because His condemnation of all of our churches is scathing.

There is no parable or prophecy dealing with the end-time church that says anything good about the church.

Ancient Babylon was a cradle of religious errors, and these mysteries were revealed to people by men called Cardinals.

"Cardo" meant a hinge. These Cardinals controlled the door to the chamber that held the mysteries. If you paid enough and confessed all your sins to them so that they could blackmail you if you left, then they were sure of your membership. As long as you believed in them, they would open the door on its hinges a little more so that you could see more of their man-made mysteries behind the door.

Over the ages, the Popes claimed that Peter has the key to the door and he will only let people into Heaven if they obeyed the Pope. This doctrine of "Unam Sanctam" was announced in 1302 and means that there is no salvation outside the Catholic church. Notice how salvation is not just from Jesus, but is now also in the hands of Peter who has to unlock the door for you. Do you think God is impressed with this idea?

Protestant churches often make the same mistake. They condemn people who leave their church, as though church-membership is essential for salvation.

But there are 45000 different kinds of churches and denominations, all different. Yet each one claims to be correct. Thus there is a lot of error circulating amongst the churches.

A church drunken with blood of those who disagree

REVELATION 17:6And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

The Roman emperors, from Nero in AD 64, when he began killing Christians, to AD 312, when Constantine became emperor and stopped killing Christians, organized the deaths of about 3 million Christians.

In about AD 400, Augustine, a powerful Roman Catholic preacher who was called the Bishop of Hippo in North Africa, claimed that it was acceptable to persecute Christians who disagreed with the Roman Catholic church. Some historians have labeled him the Prince of Persecutors. Around AD 450, Leo I, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Rome interpreted Augustine’s teaching as meaning that Catholics could kill dissenting Christians. He rejoiced when Priscillianists in Spain were massacred.

Leo I tried to establish the claim that the Bishop of Rome was the supreme ruler of Christianity.

So, a killing machine was set in motion that swept through the Dark Ages and the Counter-Reformation, whereby the Catholic Church murdered tens of millions of Christians and others who did not believe in Catholicism. This violent counter-Reformation stopped the spread of the Reformation in many countries. This killing in the name of religion stopped around 1648 with the end of the Thirty Years' War that devastated Germany, causing the Germans more damage than in the First World War.

Not to mention all the Jews, Muslims, and other local residents who got slaughtered in the Crusades that Pope Urban inspired. His claim was that killing unbelievers would give the Crusaders a place in Heaven. Error at its worst claims that "I can go to Heaven if I kill you". Man cannot sink much lower than that. Historians say that the Spanish conquered Mexico and South America by killing about 15 million native Americans.

The cruelest of all systems is religion when it has no mercy.

The woman, or church, was drunk with blood. These numbers were excessive. There was no excuse for all this blood-shedding.

But the Protestant daughters were also tainted by this bloodlust. Protestants also killed Catholics, and some Protestants killed other Protestants that they disagreed with.  Other Protestants drowned Anabaptists who baptized by immersion in water. So the deadly example of religious murder spread from Catholics to Protestants. Methodists shot Joseph Smith of the Mormons in America. Protestants killed far fewer opponents than the massive killing machine set up by the Popes and the Vatican, but even though Protestants produced a far smaller death toll, each of those murders was dreadful and very wrong. Protestant Queen Elizabeth I allowed about one and a half million Irish Catholics to be slaughtered.

John Calvin, that great reformer, blotted his testimony when he burned Servetus at the stake, who believed in Oneness rather than the Trinity. Man's inhumanity to man is quite frightening.

So we Protestants do not have an unblemished record.

"Great admiration".

Yet John wondered with great admiration. How beautiful are the Vatican buildings? The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was painted by Michelangelo, the world’s greatest artist. How impressive and colourful are the pomp and wealth of her services and processions. How widespread is her influence among the world’s people and their leaders? Mother Theresa, the most famous Catholic nun, set a charitable example of devotedly nursing the terminally ill and helping the helpless in Calcutta, which impressed the world. She gave away all the millions that she won from her Nobel prize to the poor. Very few have set such an incredible example of selflessness.

The Catholic system looks so brilliant. John wondered how could it have been so murderous. They claim that their first Pope was Saint Peter. But when Peter saw Judas betray Jesus, Peter attacked one of the High Priest’s servants with a sword.

Jesus told him to put away his sword.

So how could the church, which claimed to follow Peter, now use the sword to kill millions of fellow Christians just because they disagreed on doctrine?

The Roman Catholic church remains a mystery and a puzzle. They are so impressive in so many ways; they have done so many charitable works in terms of uplifting the poor. They offer spiritual counsel and welfare to so many. Then they blot their pastoral care with their worldly political involvement.  They also have such an excessive track record of torture and murder.

REVELATION 17:7And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.

John will now get an explanation of these symbols.

Now, the angel begins to explain the symbols to clarify who this fallen woman, this fallen church, is.

Fallen from what? Fallen away from following the Bible just the way that it is written.

A beast with seven heads is a frightening monster. This church rides on a powerful spirit that is very frightening. This religious-political Roman Catholic system is actually sweeping the world along towards the judgements of God, while the people in this system are convinced that they are serving God. So John wondered.

How could so many sincere people be so fooled?  Both the Catholic Church and her Protestant daughters.

The Beast was right from the beginning

REVELATION 17:8The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world,

when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

A bottomless pit has no Bible foundation. Thus preachers with a creative imagination can continually pull up new ideas and speculations based on human traditions and opinions. They feel that there is no need to be strictly Scriptural.

We Gentiles were once trapped in the pit of paganism during the Old Testament days. Jesus came to free us from that spiritual prison. Now the denominational system of 'Churchianity' is dragging us back into these pagan mysteries.

Christians enjoy the emotionally soothing yet spiritually empty ceremonies and traditions of the church.

But these traditions are often not part of the Bible, like the huge cathedrals, religious robes, the sign of the cross, rosaries, Christmas trees, Easter bunnies, disco music, homosexuality, and gender choice.

Christians want fashionable feel-good spiritual tranquilizers to ease nagging anxieties that maybe we are not in a good place.

We do not want to be informed that we could be wrong in our beliefs.

We do not want our comfortable materialistic life to be threatened by any doctrinal issues.

Today, we think our beliefs do not have to rest on what is written in Scripture.

Try finding the words Pope, Cardinal, and Archbishop in the Bible. Pagan beliefs are pulled out of the pit, and then dressed up in Christian words. The goddess Ishtar came down onto the Euphrates River in an egg and hatched. This is the basis for our Easter eggs, sorry, Ishtar eggs.

"The beast that was, and is not, and yet is".

This sentence represents the succession of the Popes.

The church system controls these powerful but dangerous spirits. The Pope is the boss and figurehead of the Catholic church. As time went on, they always elected a Pope who was the ruler, and then suddenly it is announced that he is not, he has died. The man dies, but the office of the Pope does not die away because a new Pope is elected by the Council of Cardinals. Despite the death of the current Pope, there yet is another man to take his place.

The man dies, but not the spirit of the antichrist that is in him. That spirit just jumps onto the next Pope that is elected.

By claiming Peter as the first Pope, the Catholic church claims that there always was a Pope, right from the beginning.

So, the papacy survives by having the Council of Cardinals elect a new Pope. This method has successfully produced the longest unbroken line of rulers that there is in the Western world.

The Pope is the figurehead of the religious system. “the beast that was” (this is the Pope when he ruled after having been elected by the Cardinals), “and is not” (the Pope dies), “and yet is” (a new Pope is elected to take his place).”

The succession of Popes is based on their claim they are descended from St Peter and the early Bishops of Rome. This pedigree is impressive. No other system has had such power for survival. People wonder at their persistence and endless continuity in a changing world. 

But Peter was never in Rome. There is no historical document that claims this. Peter was the apostle to the Jews. He went to Babylon to the Jews who did not return when Cyrus freed the Jews from their Babylonian captivity. Catholics desperately want to call Rome Babylon so that they can say that Peter was in Rome. That is not true. Rome is not Babylon. The woman, the Roman Catholic church,  has  Mystery Babylon written on her forehead. The forehead symbolizes the mind which is in the brain that is behind the forehead. So the Roman church, in her mind, believes the mysteries of Babylon. That is why God condemns her. But Babylon is the city on the Euphrates. That is where Peter was.

Bishop Siricius, who died in AD 399, was the first Roman bishop to call himself Pope. So the concept of a "Pope" took almost 400 years to develop. That idea certainly did not come from the Bible. The idea of a bishop being in charge of a city did not develop until after the death of the apostle John, which occurred around AD 100. Between AD 60 and AD 70, many of the original twelve apostles were killed, while others went far away, like Thomas, who went to India. The last apostle, John, was imprisoned on the island of Patmos sometime after Domitian became emperor in AD 81. John was released when Domitian died in AD 96.

The beast is that powerful spirit whereby people want to hero-worship and magnify another human. Then each uplifted human leader wants to have the complete submission of the people to the ideas and opinions of the leader. A typical motto of a one-man church leader is "Everyone is entitled to my opinion."

Leaders, both in politics and religion, easily become addicted to power.  The church world today is big business.

The Pope is the figurehead of this powerful spirit that has built up a massive universal church system or denomination (another unscriptural word).

REVELATION 17:9And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.

Wisdom, not tongues, is the highest gift of the Holy Spirit.

The wisdom to link Scriptures together and make them dovetail with each other and with the facts of church history so that we can know what is going on and what has happened in the past. Scriptures never clash with each other. When they seem to clash, it simply indicates that our understanding of the topic is just too shallow and faulty.

I CORINTHIANS 12:8For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;

9   To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;

10  To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:

I CORINTHIANS 12:31But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.

The word of wisdom is the first gift mentioned. Without wisdom, we cannot understand the Bible.

Marcus Terentius Varro (116 BC – 27 BC) in De Lingua Latina v. 41 wrote:
"Where now is Rome, was once Septimontium, named by the so many mountains, afterwards enclosed by the city walls."

Septimontium means  "seven mountains".

The above is a coin from the days of the emperor or Caesar Vespasian (69 -  79) which depicts the city of Rome as the goddess Dea-Roma seated on 7 hills. The emperors were called Caesar.

PM stands for Pontifex Maximus or Pontiff.

The pagan Romans of those days worshipped the woman goddess Roma. Today Mary is an object of worship to many Catholics. Pope John Paul II, one of the greatest Popes, really venerated Mary. Thus the Babylonian pagan mystery of ancestor worship entered Rome when Julius Caesar, the most famous Roman, bribed his way to win the election for Pontiff (or Pontifex Maximus) in 63 BC.  Then he had to go to war in Gaul (modern France) in order to get loot to pay off his massive debts. Some historians claimed that he killed about 1 million Gauls. Religion and violence were mixed for financial gain. This toxic brew of religious violence is still rampant today.

So we keep following the example of pagan Rome. This Roman worship of a woman, shown on the above coin, shows that the mysteries of Babylon are still in the church today. The worship has just been transferred from Dea-Roma to Mary. It is the same paganism, just dressed up in Christian clothes. The Babylonian priesthood certainly had brilliant ideas that still fascinate us enough to follow them.

On the above coin, PM  stands for Pontifex Maximus, the high priest of the Babylonian mysteries. Julius Caesar was the first ruler of Rome to take this title in 63 BC. The emperors continued with this title until about AD 379 when Theodosius dropped it because he felt that, as a Christian,  the Emperor should not have a pagan title. By AD 450 the Bishop of Rome, Leo 1, was calling himself Pope and Pontifex Maximus (Pontiff).

Rome was originally seven little villages built, for protection,  on seven hills at a place where the trade route crossed the Tiber river. Romulus decided to set up a toll system there, a legal form of highway robbery. You had to pay to cross the river.  As the numbers in Romulus's band of bandits grew, the people had to start building on top of the seven hills for protection.

To protect these people it was necessary to build a wall right around all seven hills.

Whenever a wall was built around the buildings of a town or village, then people would refer to it as a city. So, this city became known as the City of Seven Hills. But the Bible refers to them as seven mountains. Why? We will refer to this later.