FORTY: THE LEGS OF ROME
I have shown how Rome has ruled the earth from the days of the Caesars until about 1600 A.D. She has torn and plundered and deceived her way to power by use of Roman swords, German kings, Spanish Inquisitors, French missionaries. The Mistress riding every known power on earth, including elements of Christendom, to the heights of wealth, success, and pre-eminence is, I believe, a manifestation of the woman of the Revelation of John.
But wait. Almost 400 years left in the story. Can she not change, even yet? After all, even most Catholics agree with what I have recorded so far. Let us give her a chance to prove herself, to make things right, to repent.
We shall indeed give her that chance.
And now the story takes more and more of a multi-dimensional flavor. We slow our pace to view as many aspects as possible in our walk. And when it is finished - may I give you a preview? -
• much more bloodshed
• much greater deception which will bring Babylon to
• much greater power than she now has, for a short time.
I refer readers once more to the interpretation of the vision by Daniel:
The leg begins, on its way to the foot, as a substantial amount of flesh and bones. At the knee it has grown somewhat less substantial. And after the knee, a slight resurgence. Then it becomes quite thin at the ankle, and soon after joining the foot it loses its identity as a leg.
The Pagan Roman Kingdom was a super-power, as was the original Papal Kingdom. Through the years the substance, that is, the extent, of that Kingdom, has waned. But it still is identifiable as Rome, the only world power to be expected from the days of Greece until the days of antichrist, from whose Kingdom it will one day be severed.
Before we move on let us see how Jesus' countrymen, the Jews, are doing: a bull is issued in 1555 by Pope Paul IV. It becomes one of the landmarks in human persecution. There is to be, under the conditions of the bull, only one synagogue in every city. All others are to be destroyed. Jews are to own no real estate. What they presently own is to be sold to Christians. They are to wear a badge. Converted Jews who secretly continue to observe their faith are to be burned alive. Printed Hebrew books are to be burned.
The power, the greed, the Babylonian style religion, the enmity to the people called by God's name or seeking a deeper walk with God...the same identifying traditions - threads -continue, though names and faces change.
In the category of names that change: the term "inquisition" is changed to the "Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office"(1542). Though given a new name, the job is still the same, even to our present day (though its name has been changed again!): to protect faith and morals (Catholic-style faith and morals) to judge heresy (and to turn those condemned over to the secular arm, when nations involved will allow it) to examine and prohibit dangerous books, etc.
We'll meet the Holy Office again a little later.
FORTY-ONE: THE JESUITS
Multiplied hundreds of books have been written about the Jesuits. If in the mouth of two or three (reputable) witnesses it can be said that a thing is established, it is probable that the Jesuits have a lot of explaining to do.
Adolphe Michel, quoted in such a book, says,
"As long as there are Jesuits, books will have to be written against them. There is nothing new left to be said on their account, but new generations of readers come every day...will these readers search older books?"
Initially they are named the Society of Jesus. I gasped when I first realized that this was the name. But I must allow that some part of the Spirit of Jesus was involved here. If we judge too harshly, we shall be judged. Some good has come from the Jesuits. But let's look at the rest of the fruit.
Their founding father is don Inigo Lopez de Recalde, born in 1491 in Spain. "Inigo" later becomes "Ignatius" and his place of birth, the castle of Loyola, becomes his "last name," as we look at it.
As a young man, Ignatius becomes a soldier, but is handed a broken leg for that effort. The highly emotional saint-to-be suffers a nervous breakdown following the wound, and the surgeries, which must be administered without anesthesia.
Forever slightly crippled, Ignatius devours the melancholy aspects of the life of Christ during his pain. He seems to have become a mystic at this time, and shortly afterward he embarks on the life of a Christian soldier, wanting to serve God in the best way he knows.
Through a series of alleged visions, Ignatius is confirmed in the dogmas of Rome, thus his intention to serve God in Rome, not outside her, as his contemporary Luther.
The "visions" include subjects such as the trinity, the creation, the descent of Christ into the Eucharist, the Virgin, and Satan. A close-up study of these visionary activities would be very worthwhile for the earnest student of these matters. I will rely on the fruit of the Jesuit work for my refutation. But to build trust in a man because of a vision opens the doors to Muhammad, Joseph Smith, and many more. Thank God for His Word. Where would we be if we had to depend on someone's vision?
The actual founding of the Company is in 1524, and Loyola is 44. Teaching, hearing confessions, preaching, and charity are the first goals of the new group. But, little by little, the Society gets the attention of the Popes. The Society of Jesus soon enters the political machine.
We must use the word political when referring to Jesuit interaction with Rome, because it has been they, of all the orders, that have championed the causes of the Papal Kingdom, including the Pope's "infallibility," his authority, etc. To this day their aim is the submission of the world to the "holy father."
As the Jesuits grow in power through the years, they become a threat to the other orders and eventually to the Pope himself! Their philosophy has become, "We know what's best for the pontiff."
In the 18th century, Clement XIV abolishes "forever" the Society of Jesus.(Dominus Ac Redemptor Noster, 1773)
"Now , we [ the royal "we" used exclusively by popes and kings ] have perceived that the ...Society of Jesus [can] no longer produce the abundant fruits and advantages for which it was instituted...if it existed it [would be] almost impossible that the Church could have true and permanent peace...we...suppress and extinguish the said society...we suppress all its statutes, customs, decrees and constitutions, even when fortified by an oath [ some power this man has! ]...We declare...that it is perpetually broken up and dissolved..."
No fear. In Rome there are no real forevers. Pius VII, at the beginning of the 19th century, restores the Jesuits! As Halley comments:
"one infallible pope restoring for all time what another infallible pope just before him had abolished forever..."
Now, infallibility in Catholic terms only applies to statements of official church teaching, but still, it does seem rather strange to see such double-mindedness in the "highest office" of "holy church."
Back to the 1500's: The Jesuits soon become Rome's answer to the Lutheran difficulty. They take over what the Dominicans have heretofore handled so well, the killing of heretics.
Halley enumerates the methods of Jesuits, then and now, to gain Catholic power:
1. "Schools, seeking especially the children of the ruling classes.
2. " The confessional [Babylonian practice] especially with kings, princes, and civil rulers, indulging them in all kinds of vice and crime, for the sake of gaining their favor.
3. "Force, persuading rulers to execute inquisition sentences."
And, continuing with Halley:
"In France they were responsible for the St. Bartholomew's massacre [August 24, 1572, 70,000 French Protestants massacred. Rome rejoiced, had a 'praise' service, and congratulated all who partook in the killings ], and the French revolution."
And,
"in Spain, Netherlands, South Germany, Bohemia, Austria, Poland, and other countries, they led in the massacre of untold multitudes. By these methods they stopped the reformation in southern Europe, and virtually saved the Papacy from ruin." (Halley, p.781)
At various times throughout their history, the Jesuit leader (nicknamed the black pope because of his apparel) will seem to be the real head of the church, working behind the scenes, but obviously to those in the know.
Their intrigues in the political world continue to get them kicked out of country after country. Their lay group, "Catholic Action," also is considered by some a threat to men of peace.
More on the Jesuits later. For now, perhaps readers can understand why it is not necessary to be concerned about Ignatius's visions...nor the visions of any man or angel not lined up with God's Word, bearing God's fruit. Though we or Ignatius or an angel or a vision preach any other gospel, let him be accursed.
STILL no great winds of positive change in Rome... and we're running out of centuries!
FORTY-TWO: OF WAR AND PEACE
The Roman Empire ruling now in the name of the Church for about 1300 years is in trouble. People have gotten the idea that it is possible to come out of Babylon, and survive! Others try it. Many of them, labeled protestants, are killed, but greater and greater numbers are finding the light of day and rejoicing in it.
In times like these, Babylon has appealed to the god of force always available to it in one form or another. For example, in Bohemia and Hungary, as a new (17th) century begins, Protestants are in the majority. But the Emperor - the secular arm- a man educated by Jesuits, Ferdinand II, with those Jesuits begins a campaign to suppress the Protestants. The Protestants, knowing mostly what "mother" has taught about the use of force, unite their military forces to defend themselves. Thus begins the Thirty-years War. And from 1618 to 1629 the Catholic powers prevail.
(Interesting, if even a bit frightening, to note during this time period is the use of a certain group of fierce fighters that the Pope employs to help in his victories over non-Catholics: the Croats. As in the ex-Yugoslavian province of our day, that is almost daily in the news [1990's]. German Protestants so fear these fighters that they develop the prayer: "from cholera, hunger, and the Croats may the good Lord deliver us." We will discuss Croatia later in a different -but very much the same -context.)
In Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, the King, is persuaded to join the struggle, knowing that it will only be a matter of time before Protestant Sweden will be likewise attacked. When his armies enter the war, the tide is turned, and Protestantism is saved.
France, for its part, takes on the powerful House of Hapsburg, and emerges as the leading power in Europe.
For the curious, "Hapsburg" is the name of the royal Austrian-Catholic- family that holds most European power during these centuries. Some of the more well-known members of the family include: Fredrick V, the King of Germany and the Holy Roman Emperor(1452); his son Maximilian who ruled Spain; Charles I of Spain; Marie Antoinette; Maximilian of Mexico (1800's); Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary.
These powers are used in the typical whore-beast position described in Revelation, by the Vatican. That is, a religious power being carried to power and security by a secular power. Think of Jesus and His apostles. What secular power supported the church in those days? The church relied on Holy Ghost power alone!
In this seventeenth century, after such a grueling war experience, it will be good to hear of a late reformer who is a man of peace. He is Roger Williams (1604-1684), and he is a priest of the English Church who later immigrates to the New England, in my own land. Fellowshipping with the Puritans there, he soon arouses their ire because of his stance against violence, among other things. Moving from Massachusetts to present day Rhode Island, he establishes there the first state where freedom of religion is an established fact.
Williams thus becomes a reformer of the reformers, and takes the church one step closer to its original purity by defying The Bloody Tenet of Persecution :
"My ears have long been filled with ...the cry of those...whose blood has been spilt like water upon the earth, and that because they have held fast the truth and witness of Jesus, against the worship of the states and times, compelling to an uniformity of state religion...(and) the cry of the whole earth, made drunk with the blood of its inhabitants, slaughtering each other in their blinded zeal, for conscience, for religion, against the Catholics, against the Lutherans, etc. That doctrine ...that a magistrate may punish an heretic will not here avail; for what is Babel if this be not confusedly to punish corporal or civil offense with spiritual or church censures, or to punish soul or spiritual offenses with corporal or temporal weapons proper to delinquents against the temporal or civil state."
Another peace-monger of the day is George Fox, the famous Quaker. From his Journal, we extract this conversation between himself and a known Romanist, on how to find the ultimate peace, peace with God:
"Said I, 'What is it that doth bring salvation in your church?'
He answered, 'A good life.'
'And nothing else?' said I.
'Yes,' said he. 'Good works.'
'And is this it that brings salvation in your church, a good life and good works? Is this your doctrine and your principle?' said I.
'Yes,' said he.
'Then,' said I, 'neither thou, nor the Pope, nor any of the Papists know what it is that brings salvation.'
Then he asked me what brought salvation in our church.
I told him, 'That which brought salvation to the church in the apostles' days, the same brings salvation to us, and not another; namely, the grace of God, which, the Scripture says, brings salvation, and hath appeared to all men...'
Though this grace has indeed appeared to all men(Titus 2:11), "mystics" in and out of Rome continue to seek more than God has offered. Those who have no desire for the truth revealed are bound to be deceived by other revelations. One such mystic receives in 1673 a confirmation of the "sacred heart" devotion sponsored for so long by Rome. Her name is Margaret Mary Alacoque.
The Catholic Encyclopedia says that the Lord Himself appeared to Margaret on three separate occasions, telling her to spread devotion of the sacred heart, and telling her specifics of the ritual that was to be developed on earth, including a new feast day.
The Jesuits are singled out to help spread the word.
In tracing sacred heart history, that same Encyclopedia quotes Pius XII as saying that
"nowhere in the Sacred Scriptures is there clear mention of any veneration or love for the physical heart of the Word Incarnate, considered precisely as the symbol of His ardent charity."
For a man of the Word, that's the end of such talk. It's not in the Book, let's forget it. Not so in Rome. Even though it is not until the late Middle Ages that there is specific documentation for such a practice, the Church carries on with it today as though it were indeed a direct revelation from Christ. Which means that the people of God are enticed to believe the Bible plus any private revelation approved in Rome. Does not sound consistent with their anathema on Protestant private interpretations.
There are traces of the Sacred Heart devotion before Alacoque's time, but it is she who is destined to bring it into sharp focus and great popularity in the Catholic world.
Based on the fact that Jesus' heart was indeed broken for mankind, and his love poured out as physical blood, we are told that , therefore, Jesus wants us to honor his physical heart by various ritual prayers and adoration of certain icons, both at mass and in the home. Those who will thus "enthrone" Jesus, and yes, attempt to model their lives after his attributes, are promised certain specific blessings.
No Christian will object to following the attributes of Jesus, patterning our lives after Him, walking in His steps. These are revealed truths. I call into question the rest of the story, the private revelation reportedly given to this "saint," for such she has been called, now.
A little farther down this pathway. Let's examine her life, first, from her own autobiography, published by Tan Books and Publishers, Rockford, IL, in 1986. (first published, with Imprimatur, in 1930.)
As a good Catholic girl growing up, she
"did not dare address " herself "to the Son, but only to [Mary], and I often presented her with the little crown of the rosary, which I said on my bare knees, or genuflecting and kissing the ground at every Ave Maria."
"It happened once that, being seated while reciting the rosary, she appeared to me and gave me the following reprimand...'I am surprised, my daughter, that you serve me so negligently!' "
Thus Margaret Mary first perceives her guilt and unworthiness. Later, upon hearing of the sufferings of Christ, she too desires to suffer. Unwilling to allow Christ to bring her through whatever trials and fire may come to purge her, she brings the suffering on herself. Offered many proposals of marriage, she resists them as from the devil. (Bible students are now understanding what is being described here.)
She considers herself a martyr by refusing marriage. Underlying all of this is a message that she really did want to marry, unlike Paul and others who seem to have had a particular gift for continence.
Her guilt grows. Knowing how much Christ has suffered, and how little she has,
"In order to some extent to be avenged on myself for the injuries I did Him...I bound this miserable and criminal body with knotted cords, which I drew so tightly that I had difficulty in breathing and eating. I left these cords so long that they were buried in the flesh which grew over them, and I could not extract them without great violence and excessive pain...I also slept on a plank or on sharply notched sticks..."
But, alas,
"the humiliations and contradictions were...continually increasing rather than decreasing...The fear that I had of offending God was a greater torment to me than all the rest...
Obviously this is not the way to peace with God. But she doesn't give up, and tries to "mortify" her flesh by doing things she previously hated, such as looking at wounds. Not only does she look at and dress them, but kisses them. Not content merely to clean someone's vomit, she now partakes of it...
Enough. To this woman, pysically ill much of her life, told by her superiors that she is possessed by a demon, guilt-ridden, "Jesus" appears with some rather startling revelations:
"...thou shalt possess the treasures of My heart...and I will permit thee to distribute them as thou wilt, in favor of souls that are ready to receive them."
"I have willed to use thy heart as a channel for conveying them into souls according to my designs; by this means many shall be saved from the abyss of perdition."
"Learn that I am a holy Master, and one that teaches holiness, I am pure, and cannot endure the slightest stain...I cannot endure the least want of straightforwardness...I cannot bear tepid and cowardly souls..."
"Henceforth I will make My abode in thee so as to hold familiar converse with thee."
"I constitute Myself the Guardian of My Gifts, and will render thee powerless to resist me."
"I have chosen thy soul to be a paradise of rest to Me on earth, and thy heart shall be a throne of delight for my divine love."
Then, in response to her request as to what she should say to Him, that is, the exact wording of her prayers...
"Nothing but these words: 'My God, my only Good and my All, Thou art wholly mine , and I am wholly Thine.' They will preserve thee from all kinds of temptations, will supply for all the acts thou wouldst make, and serve as preparation for all thy actions."
At the end of a book of sayings by the "saint" published by the same company in the same year, are specific prayers, and other rituals which the Lord is said to have instituted. It is promised to all those who are faithful to the sacred heart devotion (Communion on the first Friday of 9 consecutive months, honoring Christ under a picture of the sacred heart, making "33 visits to the Lord on the cross," for examples) that Christ will be pleased with them, bless them with material and spiritual blessings in abundance, and grace their homes.
Now, Roman Catholics often warn the Protestant of the dangers of privately reading the Word and forming his own conclusions under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. My dear Catholic friend, the woman described above illustrates the far greater danger: That of blindly following the precepts of a religion given to one at birth, without seeing what God has to say in His Word.
Is there any hint of the lifestyle mentioned above, in Scripture? Does Christ anywhere call his followers to self-persecution? To guilt? To fear? To isolation from the world? Christ's command is to "Go into all the world," knowing that Satan, the persecutor, will follow, and yes, do damage at times. But God gives Satan only enough permission to do what He, God, wants done. Those who pray for the purging of the Holy Spirit will receive it at His hands, not their own.
But how could she know this, following Rome?
So what of the revelations? I have struggled with this, never wanting to take a chance of coming against the Lord myself. But there are a few things we know:
Satan is able to be transformed into an angel of light, and a voice. He is known especially in these last days as one who is looking for channels through which he can work; he is referred to as "Master" in occult circles. It is interesting to me that in the quotes I found in these books, none of the revelations identify Jesus the Son of God as their source, but rather a "Master."
Perhaps this explains the unorthodox teachings of the "Master."
• He can't endure imperfection? He endures me. And you, dear reader. If Jesus cannot endure imperfection we are all lost!
• "Powerless to resist?" Never. Always the dove, the Spirit of God, presents Himself gently, so much so that the non-listening cannot hear. To my shame I say, I have resisted, refused, rebelled. Still He loves, and tries again.
• She is to be exclusively the "abode" of the Christ on earth? What new teaching is this?
• And Jesus is now, after 1600 years, giving out specific prayer-formulas, feast days, rituals, to keep him pleased and bring us blessing. Sounds like Catholic merit-salvation again, and is not unlike Protestant prosperity teaching of the 20th century. (Send an offering, God will bless you.)
Anyone who preaches any other Gospel, remember? Let him be accursed. The thought that the spreading of a particular devotion to a particular picture will bring the grace of God into a person's life is another gospel and must be repelled with the whole package of Babylonian teachings we are unwrapping piece by piece.
Oh hear the heart of God! Come out of her!
