5. HER ILLICIT RELATIONSHIP WITH CIVIL
GOVERNMENT IDENTIFIES HER WITH ROME
(“with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication,” Rev.
17:2).
The apostles never yoked together with secular
government. They gave their attention to establishing churches and their
principle was that the church has its business and the state has its (Rom. 13:1-7).
They wrote: “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what
fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath
light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part
hath he that believeth with an infidel?” (2 Cor. 6:14-15).
Apostate Christianity, on the other hand, does
not hesitate to unite with godless men in government to accomplish its
purposes.
During the Dark Ages the Roman Catholic Church
yoked with secular government and oftentimes even ruled over it.
In 1302 Pope Boniface VIII issued a papal bull
entitled Unam Sanctam, in which he claimed that no one can be saved who
does not submit to the pope as the supreme head of the church and demanded that
kings and all earthly authority be subject to him (subject
to his spiritual authority).
Pope Gregory VII humbled (sounds like a good thing) Emperor Henry IV. In
1076, the pope called a council of bishops and proclaimed that the emperor
could no longer rule his kingdom. In January 1077, the emperor traveled to Italy to the
castle where the Pope was staying on a visit to the duchess Matilda and begged
his forgiveness. The haughty Pope forced the emperor to stay outside in the
winter cold, barefoot and fasting, for three days.
Pope Innocent III humbled (again, sounds like a good thing!) King John of England
(1199-1216). When his highness the pope became displeased with the king, he
excommunicated him and issued a decree declaring that he was no longer king and
releasing the people of England
from any obligation to him. The haughty Pope ordered King Philip of France to organize an army and navy to overthrow
John, which he began to do with great zeal, eager to conquer England for
himself. The Pope called for a crusade against John, promising the
participants remission of sins and a share of the spoils of war. In the
meantime, King John yielded to the pressure and submitted to the Pope, pledging
complete allegiance to him in all things and resigning England and Ireland into the Pope’s
hands.
Pope Innocent III also humbled (it's another great thing when a king or prince is humbled
before a successor of the Apostles and, therefore, Christ himself who gave the
Apostle's their authority) Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, in France. Raymond
was a Roman Catholic but he favored the Waldenses and attempted to protect them
from the wrath of the pope. The pope excommunicated him, threatened him, cursed
him, and finally called for a crusade against him. Those who responded were
promised forgiveness of sins, the cancellation of all debts, and if they died
in battle, they would go directly to Heaven. Hundreds of thousands responded.
When Raymond saw that he was surrounded by such an armed multitude, he
submitted. He appeared before the pope’s representatives. A rope held by a
bishop was tied around his neck, and he was beaten upon his naked shoulders
until he was covered with blood. The 300,000 papal crusaders (more like 10,000, but I guess a difference of 290,000 is
close enough... right?) then descended upon the Count’s territories
uninhibited and destroyed the Waldenses (also called Albigenses). It is
impossible to describe the barbarities poured out upon this people. As many as
100,000 people were slain in one city alone, that of Beziers (FALSE!
Beziers, even today, has not reached 100,000. It reached a little over 84,000
in 1975 and that's the highest the population has ever been). In
another city, they put out the eyes of 100 of the defenders. On one occasion,
four hundred “heretics” were burned alive together in massive pyres, while the
Catholic priests mocked them and chanted “Come, Holy Ghost.” At Merindol,
five hundred women were locked in a barn, which was set on fire.
The Roman Catholic Church still yokes together
with secular government. It has hundreds of ambassadors to the nations.
The Protestant state churches in Europe yoked up with the government in their heretical
“state churches.”
The World Council of Churches works closely with
secular governments and international bodies such as the United Nations.
Evangelicals and the emerging church work closely
with secular governments in the goal of building the kingdom of God
in the world today.
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I think we should look to what St. Paul did. St. Paul did not give up his Roman citizenship; instead, he used his citizenship to preach in Rome to many of the higher-ups. So we see that it is not entirely wrong for Christians to work with and comport with secular governments.
Now, let's be clear: the people that make up the Catholic Church have failed and sinned. They have done horrible atrocities, as well as great acts of valor. Why? Because we are not yet in heaven. We cannot judge any Christian organization based upon its members' sins. Look at your own denomination and yourself... because of your sin, does that mean that you are somehow evil/the antichrist/etc.?
On a side note, it's always important to question and look at anything a Fundamentalist has to say about history, because it's often wrong. A simple check of some of my wife's history books revealed the problems (and many other that I didn't state) with the above history.
6. HER BLASPHEMY IDENTIFIES HER WITH ROME (“full of
names of blasphemy,” Rev. 17:3).
Rome
is indeed full of blasphemy, having exalted herself to the place of God in
people’s lives.
The titles of Rome’s popes are blasphemous. He calls
himself the “holy father” and “his holiness,” names that belong solely to
Almighty God (where in the Bible does it say that
the terms Holy Father, His Holiness, etc. belong only to G-d? It should also be
noted that these are terms for the position, not for the person himself.
This is an important distinction). He calls himself the “vicar of
Christ,” which is the office of the Holy Spirit. (Vicar
means, essentially, representative. The term first appears in writing around 88
AD by St. Ignatius- yeah, that's right, around the time the New Testament was
being written. "Your bishop presides in the place of G-d." So the
Pope is the representative of Christ.)
Rome’s
priests also take to themselves blasphemous titles and claims. They want to be
called “father,” which Christ forbade (yeah, except
Christ didn't forbid it. Click here to read, from the Bible, how we
know). They are ordained after the order of Melchisedec, but
this is an office that belongs to Christ alone.
Her exaltation of Mary is another example of Rome’s blasphemy. In the
late 19th century John Burgon rightly observed that Mary “can only be fitly
described as the tutelary [guardian] Deity of modern Rome.” (It would be more accurate to say that
Mary can only be fitly described as the Queen Mother that the Israelites
foreshadowed. Click here for posts defending the
Catholic doctrines regarding Mary) Indeed, Mary is everywhere in Rome. Most of the
churches are named in her honor and feature her statues and paintings. They
celebrate fables surrounding her sinless birth , her presentation in the
temple, her assumption into Heaven, and her coronation as Queen (except these aren't fables).
Consider Santa Maria Maggiore (Saint Mary Major),
which was built to honor Mary as the “Mother of God.” It features a large
mosaic from the late 13th century, depicting Mary sitting on the right hand of
Jesus on his throne and being crowned by him as Queen of Heaven. The Latin
inscription translated says: “The Virgin Mary assumed into the dwelling place
of the heavens, where the King of Kings sits on the starry throne. The Holy
Mother of God is elevated into the Kingdom
of Heaven, above choirs
of angels.” Christ has an open book in his hand which has the words in Latin
meaning “Come my beloved and I will place you on my throne.” Another prominent
image of Mary in this church is titled “Mary Queen of Peace.” In this statue
image, Mary is depicted holding the child Jesus with one arm while holding the
other out in a sign of blessing. One of the church’s chapels enshrines an
ancient icon of Mary titled “Salus Populi Romani” (the health or well-being of
the Roman people). Outside of the St. Mary Major Church she is even depicted
hanging on the cross with Jesus! The large cross has Jesus hanging on one side
and a crowned Mary hanging on the other (she's not
actually hanging, in the sense the Christ is hanging. It's more artistic. It's
meant to be decorative, like the face of angles you will sometimes see on the
edges of some crucifixes).
The Saint Stanislaus Kostka Catholic church in Chicago has an image of
Mary sitting on the Ark of God and surrounded by worshiping angels. This is a
great blasphemy, as the Ark
was the place where Jehovah (let's not forget,
Jehovah is a made-up word that was an attempt at translating the word YHWH)
God abided in the Tabernacle.
In the Church of the Mother of God of Polish
Martyrs in Warsaw, Poland, Mary is also surrounded by the 12 apostles who are
adoring her rather than Jesus Christ (I've been
looking for a picture of it, and I can't seem to find it. My bet, though, is
that it's actually an image of Pentecost).
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I don't think there is much to say about this. I think the bold red comments speak for themselves.
7. HER CLOTHING IDENTIFIES HER WITH ROME (“arrayed in
purple and scarlet colour,” Rev. 17:4).
The apostles and Christians of the early churches
were humble Bible-believers (even though the Bible
was in the process of being written, right?) who lived simple lives
and did not follow the pattern of the world’s leaders and religions. The harlot
church, on the other hand, loves impressive cathedrals, colorful robes,
gorgeous ritualism, expensive ecclesiastical clothing and trappings. (When a child gives their mother a macaroni card, it's
showing honor. When an adult son, who is a millionaire, gives his mother a
macaroni card... it's pretty pitiful and does not show honor. Why? Because the
older, millionaire son should show honor equivalent to his abilities and means.
So, too, the Early
Church could not build
beautiful cathedrals and have expansive liturgies in celebration and love of
G-d. These things are all to the glory of G-d. My question is why wouldn't
you want to build something big and beautiful for the worship of G-d? Can
anyone say Church envy?).
Revelation 17:4 describes exactly how Rome’s bishops and
archbishops and cardinals and popes are clothed even to this day. In 2003 I
witnessed a mass in Rome’s
St. Paul Without the Walls in which the bishops were clothed in scarlet. One
year I watched a televised broadcast of the papal Christmas mass at the Vatican, and it
looked like a sea of purple and scarlet! When Pope John Paul II died, the
College of Cardinals, which met to elect a new pope, was clothed in
scarlet.
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Make sure you understand what this person is saying: because of the color that bishops wear, the Catholic Church is the antichrist/Whore of Babylon/whatever.
What clothing does the Fundamentalist wear? What clothing does their pastor wear?
I see preachers wearing purple and red all the time, does that mean that they, too, are part of the Whore of Babylon? Almost everyone has either a purple or red outfit in their closet. Are these millions-billions of people part of the Whore of Babylon because of their clothing? Purple and scarlet were popular clothing choices throughout the Roman world, including to today. Are all of those people, too, part of the Whore of Babylon?
What to Take Away...
I think there are two things to take away from these, aside from the short answers to these Fundamentalist claims that the Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon.
First, always do a check of Fundamentalist statements on history. Often they either get it wrong or they exaggerate it. Even when they get it right, what does it matter? Most of the time, they use it to try and show bad things that the Catholic Church has done. As I've reiterated time and again, you don't leave Christ because of Judas. The people that make up the Catholic Church have done bad things, which only makes sense because we're human. We sin and do wrong, yet the Apostles did not forsake Christ because of Judas' sins.
Second, it's always good to just take a second and think about what's being asked/said. In some of the above, the argument is just crazy (the color of the clothes). At other times, it appears that the argument has some validity to it. But when you actually think about what it being said/asked, you realize that there is not point to it. For example, when someone makes a claim about something bad that the Catholic Church has done in the past, there really is no point to that statement. What does it prove that the people in the Catholic Church have done bad things? It only proves that the Catholic Church is made up of people who are sinners, and who need the Church and her sacraments desperately.
Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V
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