MYSTERY BABYLON
By Dave Hunt
About twenty-five hundred years ago God gave the prophet
Daniel a vision of four strange beasts representing the four world empires which
are now history: the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Grecian and Roman. Yes, there
were other large empires based in Egypt, China, Central and South America and
Arabia, but Scripture gives them no prophetic significance because they will not
rise again, only Rome will. Symbolic of the Roman Empire, the fourth beast
retained characteristics of the three empires which preceded it, yet it was far
more "dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron
teeth: it devoured" (Dan 7:7) the known world, breaking and trampling all that
opposed it.
This fourth beast had ten horns corresponding to the ten toes on the huge image
seen in Daniel chapter two, an image which depicted the same four world empires.
The image's two legs foretold the split of the Roman Empire: politically, when
Constantine moved his capital to Constantinople in 330 A.D.; and religiously,
between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, when in 1054 Pope Leo IX in
Rome excommunicated Michael Cerularius, Patriarch of Constantinople. The ten
toes of iron mixed with clay signified ten kings who must reign when "the God of
heaven [shall] set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed" (Dan 2:44).
Nearly 700 years after Daniel, around 95 A.D., the Apostle John was given three
further prophetic visions of this terrible fourth beast as recorded in
Revelation 12, 13, and 17. At that time, the world empires represented by the
first three beasts had come and gone exactly as Daniel had prophesied. The
fourth beast-the Roman Empire-was then at the height of its power. It, too,
would fall, but unlike its three predecessors and exactly as the Bible foretold,
it would not be conquered by a successor. No fifth empire would arise to take
its place.
Instead, Scripture foretold that the Roman Empire itself would be revived in a
more powerful form to control all of earth just before Christ's Second Coming.
Numerous Scriptures indicate this. Since the Roman Empire was never ruled by ten
kings at one time as foreseen in the image's ten toes and the fourth beast's ten
horns ("ten kings that shall arise" - Dan 7:24), it must be revived worldwide di-vided
into ten regions under separate sub-rulers accountable to Antichrist. Ten
nations in Western Europe could hardly represent the revival of an empire which
included far more in its day. Moreover, we are clearly told that "power was
given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon
the earth shall worship him..." (Rev 13:7-8). Interestingly, today's world has
already been divided into ten regions by the Club of Rome. Only when
Antichrist's position and power have been fully established will the Second
Coming take place with Christ returning to destroy Antichrist and his kingdom
and to set up His own Millennial reign over this earth from Jerusalem: "whom the
Lord shall destroy... with the brightness of his coming..." (2 Thes 2:8-9).
Chapters 12, 13, and 14 of Zechariah prophesy quite clearly not a gradual
take-over of the world as some teach, but a cataclysmic intervention by Christ
from heaven. So did Daniel: "...a stone [Christ] was cut out without hands,
which smote the image... [which] became like the chaff of the summer threshing
floor; and the wind carried [it] away... and the stone that smote the image
became a great mountain [Christ's kingdom], and filled the whole earth" (Dan
2:34-35). This unprecedented event known as the Second Coming can only take
place "in the days of these [ten] kings..." (2:44).
John saw this fourth beast three times: first as a red dragon seeking to destroy
Israel: "...and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and
seven crowns upon his heads..." (Rev 12). In chapter 13 this dreadful beast
appears again representing the revived Roman Empire whose "deadly wound was
healed"-and also its ruler, the Antichrist whom "all that dwell upon the earth
shall worship." Notice, "the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great
authority." So the "red dragon," who is Satan, is actually building his kingdom
and using Antichrist to his own ends.
John expresses no shock at the sight of the beast; but in his third vision of
this scarlet beast with seven heads and ten horns, he is staggered (Rev 17:6)
when he sees a woman on its back. A WOMAN RIDES THE BEAST! And not as in a rodeo
on a creature which is trying to buck her off, but sitting relaxed and
comfortable, holding the reins, obviously a key player in the unfolding drama of
Antichrist's rule over the revived Roman Empire! Who is this woman? John's
vision provides at least fourteen specifics which identify her beyond question.
FIRST OF ALL, she is a city (v
19). Some authors have identified the United States as MYSTERY BABYLON, but that
is clearly erroneous because the USA is a country and the woman is a city.
SECONDLY,
the city sits on (i.e. is built on) seven hills (v 9). Several
cities sit on seven hills. John's vision, however, eliminates all but one as we
shall see. That the seven heads also signify seven kings does not take away from
the fact that they, too, represent seven hills upon which the woman/city sits.
THIRDLY, emblazoned on her
forehead is her name, MYSTERY, BABYLON. Saddam Hussein has been rebuilding
Iraq's ancient city of Babylon, headquarters of the first world empire. The
Woman could not be that city, however, rebuilt for the Antichrist, for several
reasons. It is the fourth Empire headquartered in Rome which is to be brought
back to life, not the Babylonian Empire. The ten toes and ten horns belong to
Rome. And Babylon was not built on seven hills, nor does it meet any of the
other identifying criteria. Rome, however, was and has universally been known as
the city of seven hills. The Catholic Encyclopedia states: "It is within the
city of Rome, called the city of seven hills, that the entire area of Vatican
State proper is now confined."
Charles Dyer counters, "The seven heads are associated with the beast, not the
woman... it does not identify the location of the prostitute because she is not
an organic part of the beast." Nor is any cowboy an organic part of his horse.
The seven heads are associated with the woman: they represent seven hills on
which she sits. That's location. No organic relationship is required.
Interestingly, Rome was also known as Babylon. In his book, Catholicism and
Fundamentalism, Catholic apologist Karl Keating writes: "Babylon is a code word
for Rome. It is used that way six times in the last book of the Bible [so he
acknowledges that the woman in Rev 17 is Rome!] and in extrabiblical works such
as Sibylling Oracles (5, 159Q, the Apocalypse of Baruch (ii, 1), and Esdras
(3:1). Eusebius Pamphilius, writing about 303, noted that ...Peter ...referr[ed]
to [Rome] figuratively as Babylon [in 1 Pe 5:13]." The Bible often addresses a
person or city under another name. For example, Jerusalem is called "Sodom and
Egypt" (Rev 11:8) and Satan is addressed as the king of Babylon in Isaiah 14 and
as the prince of Tyrus in Ezekiel 28.
Could Rome be the Woman on the Beast? That would make good sense because the
Beast she rides is the revived Roman Empire.
FOURTH, this Woman is called "the
great whore... with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication..." (vs
1-2). While Ninevah (Nah 3:4) and Tyre (Isa 23:16-17) were associated with
prostitution because of their rampant sexual immorality, literal whoredom and
fornication would be impossible for a city. Spiritual fornication, however,
would be possible for a city if it were a spiritual entity.
Jerusalem is such a city. It's called the "holy city" and the "city of God,"
having been chosen by God to represent Him to the nations. Tragically, Jerusalem
violated that relationship and was repeatedly accused by God's prophets of
spiritual harlotry and adultery. Isaiah said of Jerusalem: "How is the faithful
city become a harlot" (1:21)! (See also 2 Chr 21:11; Jer 3:9, Ezek 16:1-15,
etc.) Jerusalem, however, can't be the woman riding the Beast because it wasn't
built on seven hills nor does it meet any of the other criteria in John's
vision.
There is one other city in the world-and only one-which is a spiritual entity
and could there-fore commit spiritual fornication with the kings of the earth.
And it is built on seven hills. Again that city is Rome, the headquarters of
Roman Catholicism, which claims to be the true Christianity. Its Pope claims to
be the Vicar of Christ. Moreover, the Roman Catholic Church claims that its
members have taken the place of Israel as the true people of God and that Rome
is therefore the New Jerusalem. Catholic Rome claims the very titles God gave to
Jerusalem: "the Holy City" and "the City of God" and even "the Eternal City."
Let me state right now that I have no desire to
attack Catholics. I'm not a Catholic "basher" as I've been accused of being. I
love Catholics and want them to know the truth. Let's set the record straight.
The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, which Vatican II re-proposed,
contain more than 100 anathemas damning me and every evangelical Christian for
our beliefs and our unwillingness to accept Catholic dogmas and authority. So
who is really "bashing" whom? Let's face the facts honestly from
history and the Bible-whatever they may be.
We've already discovered from John's vision that these four criteria-being a
city, known as Babylon, built on seven hills, that committed spiritual
fornication with earth's rulers-have ruled out every city on earth except Rome.
We are, of course, not talking about political/civil Rome, but about religious
Rome and more specifically, the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church as the
worldwide leader of a false and antichrist "Christianity." The pope is currently
leading the greatest ecumenical movement in history in order to unite all
religions under Rome's leadership.
As only one example, in 1986, Pope John Paul II gathered in Assisi, Italy the
leaders of the world's major religions to pray for peace. There were snake
worshipers, fire worshipers, spiritists, animists, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus,
North American Indian witchdoctors. I watched in astonishment as they walked to
the microphone to pray. The Pope said they were all praying to the same "God"
and that their prayers were creating a spiritual energy that was bringing about
a new climate for peace. On that occasion John Paul II allowed his good friend
the Dalai Lama to put the Buddha on the altar in St. Peter's church in Assisi
and with his monks to have a Buddhist worship ceremony there, while Shintoists
chanted and rang their bells outside. The prophesied world religion is in the
process of being formed before our eyes and the Vatican is the headquarters of
the movement. Is this not spiritual fornication such as no other city either has
or could commit?
The objection is raised that Vatican City is only a small part of Rome and is
not itself built on seven hills. Historically, however, the Popes ruled as kings
over all of Rome and the surrounding area, as well as over large territories
across Italy known as the papal states. Pope Innocent III abolished the Roman
Senate and placed the administration of Rome directly under his control. It
wasn't until 1870 that Rome and the other Vatican-controlled territories were
finally captured by the army of the newly united Italy, the Jews were liberated
at last from Rome's shameful ghetto and Pope Pius IX took refuge in Vatican
City, which has been the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church ever since.
Today, the Vatican owns about one-third of Rome and its influence is everywhere
through its monuments, churches and other institutions scattered throughout the
entire city of seven hills. That Church proudly identifies itself as the Roman
Catholic Church. A recent article in the National Catholic Reporter, titled
"Rome, where the pontiff is supreme," declared: "No city comes close to being so
suffused with religious culture as Rome is with Catholicism. What has emerged
over the centuries is unmistakably a culture of the papacy." The article goes on
to refer to the monuments to Roman Catholicism found everywhere in Rome and
states: "All roads lead, sooner or later, down the via della Concilizione to the
Vatican .... Rome is... the world's spiritual crossroads." Our Sunday Visitor's
Catholic Encyclopedia adds: "...hence, one understands the central place of Rome
in the life of the Church today and the significance of the title, Roman
Catholic Church .... Since the founding of the Church there... Rome has been the
center of all Christendom." World's spiritual crossroads ...center of all
Christendom! This is the one city in the world built on seven hills and known as
Babylon which is undoubtedly a spiritual entity.
Has spiritual Rome violated its claimed relationship with Christ and thus been
guilty of spiritual fornication? The popes have repeatedly engaged in
partnership and thus spiritual fornication with emperors, kings and princes.
Claiming to be the Bride of Christ, the Roman Catholic Church has been in bed
with godless rulers down through history. Hundreds of examples could be given,
not just from centuries past but from recent times as well.
Consider the alliances with Mussolini and Hitler. The Vatican literally put
Mussolini into power. Pope Pius XI and his cardinals praised Mussolini as a man
chosen by God and forbade Roman Catholics to oppose him politically. In turn,
Mussolini signed the Concordat with the Vatican in 1929, making Roman
Catholicism the sole religion of Italy. The Vatican received 750 million lire in
cash and 1 billion in state bonds. Four years later in 1933 came a similar
Concordat with Hitler, resulting in the Vatican's reception of hundreds of
millions of German marks from the Nazi regime all through World War II. Similar
concordats with many other governments have made the Roman Catholic Church the
only religion allowed in those countries and have brought persecution and death
upon thousands of evangelicals. One could not ask for clearer examples of
"fornication with the kings of the earth"! Ancient Babylon doesn't meet this
criteria, nor does any other city.
Christ never joined forces with Caesar nor did Peter or Paul.
But the Roman Catholic Church has continually engaged in
adulterous relationships with secular rulers right up to the present. The
cover of Time magazine for February 24, 1992 declared: "HOLY ALLIANCE: How
Reagan and the Pope conspired to assist Poland's Solidarity movement and hasten
the demise of Communism." The alliance between Reagan and Pope John Paul II,
between the CIA and the alleged Vicar of Christ, could only be called spiritual
fornication. It violated everything Christ taught about His church not being of
this world. Former Secretary of State Alexander Haig acknowledged that "the
Vatican's information was absolutely better and quicker than ours in every
respect." Vatican liaison to the White House, Arch-bishop Pio Laghi, kept
reminding American officials, "Listen to the Holy Father. We have 2000 years
experience in this." Two thousand years is an exaggeration, but there have been
centuries of political intrigue at which the Vatican is clearly the master! And
this is the true Church? No, this is the whore!
Mikhail Gorbachev has called the pope "the highest spiritual authority on
earth." Gorbachev paid tribute to the earthly power of the Roman Catholic Church
when he wrote in his syndicated column: "Pope John Paul II played a major
political role in the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe ...the events in
Eastern Europe might not have been possible without the presence of this pope,
without the great role... which he knew how to play on the world scene." Such
praise could never have been given to Christ or His Apostles who were martyred
by the secular world which the popes have embraced in spiritual fornication and
have even dominated.
FIFTH, this city on seven hills
"rules over the kings of the earth" (v 19). In John's day it was the Rome of the
Caesars that ruled the world. After the Caesars lost their power the popes ruled
in their place and over wider territories and often more ruthlessly. Christ said
that His kingdom is not of this world and His servants are not to fight. In
direct disobedience, the popes, who included some of the greatest military
commanders in history (Innocent HI, who "held all Europe in his net," never lost
a battle), fought with armies and navies in the name of Christ to build a huge
kingdom, an unrivaled worldwide empire of property, wealth, and political
influence which is very much of this world. Papal worldly power has been wielded
for centuries in fulfillment of John's remarkable vision-while ancient Babylon
has been in ruins. Hundreds of examples could be given. Here are a few.
Pope Alexander II decreed that Harold, the lawful King of Eng-land, was a
usurper, excommunicated him and his followers and gave the throne to William,
Duke of Normandy. With the Pope's blessing, William the Conqueror killed Harold
in battle, took over England and was crowned in London on Christmas Day in 1066.
He accepted the crown of England "in the name of the Holy See of Rome." As the
Pope's agent, William the Conqueror, now their king, was required to teach the
English people "due obedience to Christ's Vicar" and to pay their taxes to the
Pope punctually.
Pope Alexander Ill excommunicated the Roman Emperor, Frederick Barbarosa. The
latter came for revenge with his armies against the pope and was soundly
defeated. Frederick I, the emperor, came to Venice where he grovelled at the
pope's feet with his face in the dust, begging forgiveness. The pope put his
heel on the emperor's neck while the cardinals chanted, "Thou shalt tread upon
the lion and adder ...." Papal Rome has ruled the kings of the earth!
Pope Gregory VII's claim to be "King of kings" was no idle boast! In 1077,
Gregory forbade Henry IV, heir of Charlemagne (who had been crowned emperor by
Pope Leo Ell) and supreme head of the Holy Roman Empire, to rule the kingdoms of
Italy and Germany and threatened to excommunicate anyone who would serve him as
king. In fear for his life, Henry journeyed across the Alps in winter to beg the
pope's forgiveness. The humbled emperor had to stand 3 days in penitence,
barefoot and in a haircloth shirt outside the Pope's castle at Canossa before he
was granted an audience to express his repentance.
In 1155 Pope Adrian IV gave the crown of Ireland to the King of England,
consigning the Irish to the merciless cruelties of Henry II. A later King of
England, John Lackland, tried to break free from Rome, and Pope Innocent III
forced him to surrender his crown, thereafter allowing him to rule only as a
vassal of the Holy See. One 18th-century Catholic historian counted 95 popes who
claimed to have divine power to depose kings and emperors. Historian R.W.
Southern declared: "During the whole medieval period there was in Rome a single
spiritual and temporal authority exercising powers which in the end exceeded
those that had ever lain within the grasp of a Roman emperor."
Pope Gregory XI's papal bull of 1372, In Coena Domini, claimed papal dominion
over the entire Christian world, secular and religious, and excommunicated all
who failed to obey the popes and to pay them taxes. That bull was confirmed by
subsequent popes and in 1568 Pope Pius V swore that it was to remain an eternal
law.
Surely no other city at the present or in history can rival the way in which
Rome, especially Catholic Rome, qualifies as being a city reigning over kings!
Again these are but a few of hundreds of examples that could be given covering
centuries when Babylon lay in ruins. Nor is empire building an abandoned feature
of the past. The Second Vatican Council in Lumen Gentium on November 21, 1964
declared that "the Catholic Church ceaselessly and efficaciously seeks for the
return of all humanity and all its goods under Christ..," meaning, of course,
under the Pope, Christ's alleged Vicar.
THE SIXTH POINT: Not only is
Babylon the code name for Rome, but Rome's connections to Babylon go much
deeper. Ancient Babylon drew its Semitic name, Bab-ilu ("gate of god") from the
Tower of Babel around whose ruins it was built. That tower, designed to reach
heaven, was the headquarters of the first world religion, just as Rome will be
for the coming world religion of Antichrist. Furthermore, just as Babel's tower
and city ("Let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven" -
Gen 11:4) united church and state, so the popes wielded both civil and religious
authority; and in like manner the Woman and the Beast she rides unite the coming
world government and world religion.
With its attempt to reach heaven by steps of its own making, Babel/Babylon was
the ultimate works religion. And so it is in Roman Catholicism: salvation is
unquestionably by works. Vatican II declares: "To gain indulgences the work
prescribed must be done .... From the most ancient times in the church good
works were also offered to God for the salvation of sinners .... [A]II men may
attain to salvation through faith, baptism and the observance of the
commandments."
The Council of Trent as reproposed by Vatican II decreed: "If anyone says that
the sacraments of the New Law are not necessary for salvation... and that
without them... men obtain from God through faith alone the grace of
justification ...let him be anathema." Clearly good works play a key role in
earning salvation in Catholicism as the average Catholic would testify. Thus by
its practice of salvation through good works and ritual, Catholic Rome, once
again, fits the description of the Woman whose name is Babylon.
THE SEVENTH identifying feature:
John tells us that the name BABYLON emblazoned on the Woman's forehead is
preceded by the word, MYSTERY. Here again Rome qualifies: mystery is the very
heart of Roman Catholicism. Pope Paul VI's encyclical on the Eucharist is
titled, Mysterium Fidei. Vatican II refers repeatedly to "the mystery of the
Eucharist." The Vatican's new universal catechism declares that all of the
church's liturgy is "mystery" and that its aim is "to initiate souls into the
mystery of Christ (It is mystagogy)." By claiming to be the custodian of a
"mystery" which only its priests and bishops can mediate, the Roman Catholic
Church keeps its members dependent upon it rather than upon Christ for their
salvation, which it has historically sold for money and still does so today
(Mass cards and indulgences, for example) and thus trades in the "souls of men"
(Rev 18:13).
THE EIGHTH POINT: John notes that
the Woman on the Beast is clothed "in purple and scarlet" (v 4). These were the
colors of the Roman Caesars, became those of the Roman Catholic hierarchy and
remain so today. For example, the Catholic Encyclopedia declares: Cassock (also
called Soutane) - The close-fitting, ankle-length robe worn by the Catholic
clergy as their official garb .... The color for bishops and other prelates is
purple, for cardinals scarlet." Perhaps this seems like a small point, but as
one identifying feature after another falls into place the case becomes
overwhelming. No other city meets all criteria as does Rome.
THE NINTH identifying feature: The
woman is wealthy beyond calculation: "decked with gold and precious stones and
pearls, having a golden cup in her hand..." (Rev 17:4). The Roman Catholic
Church is by far the wealthiest institution on earth. Every cathedral has its
"treasury" where priceless objects are displayed. The value of innumerable
sculptures by such masters as Michelangelo, paintings by the world's greatest
artists and countless other art treasures and ancient documents which she
possesses (not only at the Vatican but in cathedrals around the world) is beyond
calculation. Nino Lo Bello, former Rome correspondent for Business Week, calls
the Vatican "the tycoon on the Tiber" because of its incredible wealth and
worldwide enterprises. His research indicates that it is probably the largest
holder of stocks and bonds in the world, to say nothing of its ownership of
industries from electronics and plastics to airlines and chemical and
engineering firms. There is no church, no city which is a spiritual entity, no
religious institution past or present which even comes close to possessing the
incalculable wealth of the Roman Catholic Church.
The rich clothing adorning the woman reflect the fact that the robes worn by
popes and the regalia used in pomp and cermony were inherited from the Caesars.
One Catholic historian has written: "...the Bishop of Rome looked like
Constantine, lived like him, dressed like him, inhabited his palaces, ruled over
his lands, had exactly the same imperial outlook... the popes had become
obsessed with power and possessions. Peter's [alleged] successors [became] not
the servants but the masters of the world. They... dress in purple like Nero and
call themselves Pontifex Maximus."
TENTH, the woman riding the Beast
has a golden cup in her hand. This is the holiest instrument in Roman
Catholicism: the golden chalice used in the Eucharist or Mass. The Roman
Catholic Church possesses literally hundreds of thousands of solid gold
chalices.
ELEVENTH, John perceives that this
golden chalice is filled with the "filthiness of her abominations," reflecting
the Bible's view of the sacrifice of the Mass, the very heart of Roman
Catholicism. Such was the conviction of hundreds of thousands of Christians
throughout history who were burned at the stake for refusing to participate in
the Mass, which they earnestly believed was the greatest abomination
conceivable. Why? Because it claims to be the literal sacrificial offering again
and again of the body and blood of Christ, whereas the Bible clearly says that
Christ's sacrifice upon the cross was completed once and for all, never to be
repeated again.
Catholicism claims that when, at the Last Supper, Christ said, "This is my
body... this is my blood," He had to be taken literally: the bread and wine He
held in His hands had, with those words, become His literal body and blood; and
when the priest speaks those words today the bread and wine become again
Christ's literal body and blood to be sacrificed endlessly on Catholic altars as
truly as Christ was sacrificed on the cross. Yet no one takes it literally when
Christ said, "I am the door, I am the light of the world, I am the Good
Shepherd" or when He called His disciples sheep. Christ was obviously speaking
figuratively when He referred to bread and wine as His body and blood. There is
no way that the bread could literally be His body when He was sitting there in
His physical body holding the bread! Much less can millions of tiny wafers each
be simultaneously Christ's literal body and blood, soul, personality, divinity,
whole and entire as Catholicism claims. That is not literalism but mysticism,
the MYSTERY emblazoned on the Woman's forehead.
There is another grave error involved. Vatican II declares, "Our Savior at the
Last Supper... nstituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood ...."
The Council of Trent agrees that Christ at the Last Supper "offered up to God
the Father His own body and blood under the form of bread and wine ...." If so,
then He was sacrificed for the sins of the world at the Last Supper before He
went to the cross! Indeed, He wouldn't have to go to the cross at all if
Catholic priests, as they claim, can truly turn bread and wine into the literal
body and blood of Christ and offer it as a propitiatory sacrifice on their
altars! This is the great MYSTERY at the heart of Catholicism!
The Pocket Catholic Dictionary states: "The Mass is a truly propitiatory
sacrifice" by which "the Lord is appeased, He grants grace... and He pardons
wrongdoings and sins ...." The Council of Trent declared, "regarding the great
mystery of the Eucharist... it is the true and only sacrifice." Then the cross
is unnecessary!
Of course, Catholicism teaches that the cross is essential, yet it reduces the
cross to the same level as the Mass, declaring that Christ's sacrifice upon the
cross is only effective in its repetition in the Mass, and then only partially
each time the Mass is repeated. It takes many repetitions of the Mass to take a
soul to heaven; nor can the Pope himself tell how many Masses may be needed. As
the Pocket Catholic Dictionary explains:
Finally the Mass is the divinely ordained means of applying the merits of
Calvary. Christ won for the world all the graces it needs for salvation and
sanctification. But these blessings are conferred gradually and continually
since Calvary and mainly through the Mass ....
The priest is indispensable, since he alone by his powers can change the
elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ... the more often
the sacrifice is offered the more benefit is conferred.
In other words, Christ's sacrifice is not yet complete but is still in process
through the Mass. Vatican II says: "For it is the liturgy through which,
especially in the divine sacrifice of the Eucharist, 'the work of our redemption
is accomplished." But the Bible says redemption has already been accomplished.
Hebrews 9:12 assures us that "by his own blood [Christ] obtained eternal
redemption for us." Ephesians 1:7 and Colossians 1:14 both state, "In whom
[Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins ...." Yet
Vatican II insists: "For in the sacrifice of the Mass Our Lord is immolated...
the Mass is... a sacrifice in which the sacrifice of the cross is perpetuated."
The Pocket Catholic Dictionary explains that in the Mass Christ "offers
himself... as really as he did on Calvary." Then what did Christ mean when He
cried in triumph, "It is finished!"? Indeed, that golden cup is "full of
abominations" (v 4).
Contradicting itself, Catholicism explains that Christ is not really being
sacrificed over and over but His sacrifice on the cross is being "represented"
or made present. Such a statement is meaningless. An event that was completed in
the past cannot be made present. Moreover, if the past event accomplished its
purpose then there is no reason for wanting to perpetuate it in the present even
if that could be done. For example, if a benefactor pays a creditor the debt
someone owes, the debt is gone forever. It would be meaningless to speak of
representing or reenacting or perpetuating the payment in the present. The debt
has been paid by a transaction that was effected and completed in the past. One
could well "remember" with gratitude the payment that was made, but no
reenactment would have any virtue since there no longer remains any debt to be
paid.
Yet the new Catechism of the Catholic Church says, "As sacrifice, the Eucharist
is also offered in reparation for the sins of the living and the dead and to
obtain spiritual or temporal benefits from God." (par 1414, p 356) That is like
trying to pay more installments of a debt that has been paid in full. Clearly
the Mass is a denial of the sufficiency of the payment Christ made for sin upon
the cross!
The Roman Catholic Church claims to be in the process of procuring through its
rituals the redemption/salvation which the Bible says Christ has already
accomplished. In order to carry on the "work of redemption," the Catholic
priesthood claims to perform the miracle of transubstantiation: turning bread
and wine into the body and blood of Christ "under the appearance of remaining
bread and wine." This MYSTERY is supposed to be a great miracle even though the
wafer and wine remain unchanged in physical qualities. There is no such
"miracle" in the Bible. Did Christ ever give a blind man his sight "under the
appearance of the man remaining blind"? Did He ever raise a dead man to life
"under the appearance of the man remaining dead"? Under those circumstances it
would not be unbelief but common sense to deny that the alleged miracle had
occurred at all!
Suppose the water turned to wine by Christ at the wedding in Cana had been this
kind of "miracle"! The servants pour it out to the governor of the feast and he
exclaims, "I asked for wine. This is water!" The servants insist, "Sir it is
wine." Angrily the governor shouts, "It looks like water, tastes like water, it
is water!" "You need faith," the servants insist. "This is a miracle! Christ
turned water into wine-but under the appearance of remaining water." "That's not
a miracle, that's a fraud!" would be the governor's response. And he would be
right. And so it is with transubstantiation! The golden cup is "full of
abominations."
The dogma of purgatory is another abomination in the golden cup. Vatican II says
that although Christ suffered to bear our eternal punishment, we must personally
suffer to to bear our eternal punishment, we must personally suffer to expiate
the temporal punishment due for our sins: "Sins must be expiated ...through the
sorrows, miseries and trials of this life... [or] in the next life through fire
and torments or purifying punishments... in purgatory the souls of those 'who
died in the charity of God and truly repentant for their sins and omissions' are
cleansed after death with punishments designed to purge away their debt." Yet
Peter himself declared that Christ has "once suffered for sins, [He] the just
for [us] the unjust, that he might bring us to God" (1 peter 3:18) not to
purgatory.
There is a further contradiction. Although Catholicism says we must personally
suffer, it also says we don't have to. Masses and rosaries can be said, even
after one's death, to reduce one's suffering in purgatory. For those who die
wearing the brown scapular of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and fulfill certain other
obligations, she promises to go into purgatory the Saturday after their death
and take them out to heaven. So they don't have to personally suffer. Christ's
sacrifice on the cross was not sufficient, but its alleged repetition in the
Mass, if done enough times, will eventually get one to heaven. Moreover, good
Catholics may offer their sufferings to release souls from purgatory. Padre Pio
manifested the stigmata for 40 years to pay the penalty for the sins of the
world so that souls could be released from purgatory. Of such alleged saints,
Vatican II says, "They have carried their crosses to make expiation for their
own sins and the sins of others. They were convinced that 'by their suffering'
they could help their brothers to obtain salvation from God ...." Catholicism
has indeed filled that golden cup with abominations! 35:25
For centuries the payment of money brought deliverance from purgatory. That
practice eventually troubled Martin Luther's conscience and sparked the
Reformation. Who can forget the infamous sales pitch of the Dominican Friar
Tetzel, commissioned by Pope Leo X to reap a fortune for Rome: "As soon as the
coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs"!
This was nothing new. Rome had consistently sold salvation for centuries. Again
we say, she has "made merchandise of...souls of men" (Rev 18:13). Popes
published lists of every crime from incest to piracy to murder with a price for
which the Church would give absolution for each. For example, a deacon guilty of
murder could be absolved for 20 crowns. The "anointed malefactors" as they were
called, once pardoned by the Church, could not be prosecuted by civil
authorities because the Church reigned supreme. Here is a further abomination
filling the Woman's cup: selling tickets to heaven which actually send people to
hell!
Similar practices continue in Roman Catholicism to this day. One may obtain a
Mass card from any mortuary. When the names of the deceased and the donor have
been filled in and an offering given to the church, the priest will place the
card on the altar during Mass, allegedly reducing the time of suffering for the
deceased in purgatory. Of course, the Church makes no guarantee how much the
suffering will be shortened nor how many more Masses must be said before the
gates of heaven can be opened. Consequently, multiple Masses are purchased
hoping that eventually enough will have been celebrated. A friend's father died
recently and he told me that $2,000 in Mass cards were purchased at the funeral.
Some Catholics claim they don't believe in indulgences; but Vatican II declares:
"The Church... teaches and commands that the usage of indulgences-a usage most
beneficial to Christians and approved by the authority of the Sacred
Councils-should be kept in the Church; and it condemns with anathema those who
say that indulgences are useless or that the Church does not have the power to
grant them." There are 20 complex rules governing indulgences. Rule 17 explains
that the use of a crucifix, rosary, scapular or medal "can gain a partial
indulgence. But if this object of piety is blessed be the Pope or any bishop,
the faithful who use it with devotion can also gain a plenary [full] indulgence
o the feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul ...."
Here is another abomination filling that gold chalice. What kind of "God" grants
favors depending upon whether a priest or a bishop has blessed some scapular or
medal and whether it is used on a feast of Peter or Paul-and favors, remember,
which the sufferings of Christ upon the cross could not procure!
TWELFTH, the Woman is called "the
mother of harlots." As well as spiritual harlots, Roman Catholicism has created
literal harlots by the millions. Throughout history, and today, priests,
bishops, cardinals and popes without number who claimed to be celibates have had
their lovers. There were popes who were the sons of supposedly celibate popes:
Pope Sylverius was fathered by Pope Hormisda and John XI by Sergius El. The list
of bastards who ruled the church includes Popes Boniface I, Gelasius, Agapitus,
Theodore, Adrian IV and others. No wonder Pope Pius II, who himself fathered
illegitimate children, said that Rome was "the only city run by bastards." For
centuries it was a favorite joke that Rome had more prostitutes than any other
city because she had the most celibates.
The sexual exploits of supposedly celibate priests and nuns, once hushed up, are
, are increasingly coming out in the open. For example, the National Catholic
Reporter recently stated: "Seven French women ... companions of priests who...
are forced to 'live clandestinely, for a lifetime, the love they share with a
priest' [and who] represent thousands of women in similar relationships...
arrived at the Vatican Aug. 20. [They] asked the pope to... look into the
reality faced by 'thousands of priest's companions who live in the shadows,
often with the approval of church superiors, and by the children who... are
raised by their mothers alone or are abandoned."
The Archbishop of Vienna recently stepped down after being charged with sexual
abuse of minors. The Bishop of Basel, Switzerland, too, resigned after admitting
to an affair with a woman whom he made pregnant. The resignation of Ireland's
Prime Minister and collapse of its government was recently precipitated by
exposure of 40 years of the Catholic Church and Catholic government officials
covering up the continued sexual abuse of a pedophile priest. Homosexual priests
are dying of aids worldwide, with estimates that as many as 70% of priests in
some seminaries are practicing homosexuals. The Roman Catholic Church in America
has paid out an estimated 1 billion dollars in the past few years in
out-of-court settlements to cover up its clergy's sexual abuse. The Franciscan
Seminary in Santa Barbara, California recently had to shut down because of the
sexual involvement of its priests. The Milwaukee archdiocese is in serious
financial trouble due to payments it has had to make for out-of-court
settlements involving its priests' sexual affairs. The Archdiocese of Santa Fe,
New Mexico is on the brink of bankruptcy because of the lawsuits against it for
priestly sexual abuse. I have a file nearly two inches thick of news articles
involving sexual immorality of Roman Catholic clergy just within the past two
years. It is not that Catholic priests and nuns are any more lustful than the
average person they may have started out with higher ideals-but they have had
imposed upon them the unbiblical rule of celibacy which becomes a burden too
great to bear. The woman is indeed and literally "the mother of harlots."
THIRTEENTH, the Woman is drunk
"with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus" (v
6). For centuries, to disobey the popes was heresy punishable by death. J.H.
Ignaz von Dollinger, a leading nineteenth century Catholic professor of Church
History, confessed: [S]ince 1183, the view of the Church had been ...[that]
every departure from the teaching of the Church ...must be punished with death,
and the most cruel of deaths, by fire.
For 1,000 years before the Reformation there were Christians who refused to give
allegiance to Rome and who were slaughtered by the millions. Everyone knows of
the Crusades to retake the Holy Land, but few know that even larger and more
numerous crusades were fought to exterminate Christians all over Europe who, out
of conscience to God and obedience to the Bible, would not submit to the
authority of the popes or embrace Rome's heresies.
The popes promised instant entrance to heaven for those who died in this
slaughter of the "heretics." It took about a century to exterminate the
Albigensian Christians who at one time were the majority of the population of
southern France. Among the cities wiped out by Pope Innocent ifi was Beziers,
France-60,000 massacred there, including women and children, in 1208 AD, which
the pope called "the crowning achievement" of his papacy. In the infamous St.
Bartholemew's massacre in August 1572, 70,000 Huguenots were killed, another
200,000 slaughtered over a period of months, causing 500,000 to flee to
Protestant countries for refuge. The Waldenses were all but exterminated as were
the Hussites. Here is part of Pope Martin V's letter commanding the King of
Poland in 1429 (100 years before the Reformation) to exterminate the Hussites:
Know that the interests of the Holy See, and those of your crown, make it a duty
to exterminate the Hussites. Remember that these impious persons dare proclaim
principles of equality... that all Christians are brethren... that Christ came
on earth to abolish slavery; they call the people to liberty .... While there is
still time, then, turn your forces against Bohemia; burn, massacre, make deserts
every where for nothing could be more agreeable to God or more useful to the
cause of kings, than the extermination of the Hussites.
We haven't time to mention the horror of the tortures and murders of the
Inquisitions which terrorized Europe for centuries. There is no city on earth
which even comes close to having shed as much blood both of Christians and Jews
as has Rome. Pagan Rome's killing of Christians during periodic persecutions in
the first three centuries was nothing compared to the slaughter of both
Christians and Jews by Catholic Rome. Historian Will Durant writes candidly:
"Compared with the persecution of [alleged] heresy in Europe [by the Roman
Catholic Church] ...the persecution of Christians in the first three centuries
after Christ [by pagan Rome] was a mild and humane procedure." Yes, this Woman
is indeed "drunk with the blood of the saints and the martyrs of Jesus" and no
other city even comes close to Rome in this regard.
FOURTEENTH, the fact that it is a
WOMAN who rides the Beast also points to Roman Catholicism. Its main figure is a
woman, a false sinless, perpetually virgin and all-powerful "Mary" whom Rome has
invented and worships. Catholics deny they worship Mary and insist that the
devotion and honor they give her is of a lesser quality than that given to God
and Christ. Perhaps in theory, but not in practice. There are thousands of large
and ornate shrines to Mary around the world (nearly 1,000 in France alone)
visited by hundreds of miserably. Obtain for me, then, the pardon of my sins
...."
The Catholic Mary is not the Mary of the Bible, but the Woman who rides the
Beast. She is appearing around the world in thousands of apparitions, offering
her peace plan for the world and millions are believing in her instead of in
Christ.
Revelation 17 and 18 refer to the same city, which was and is both religious and
commercial. By pointing out the similarities, Dyer established that last year. I
consider these chapters to be among the most remarkable prophecies in the Bible,
foretelling with absolute accuracy the rise of this city to world dominion and
its religious abominations.
The woman riding the beast cannot be the literal city of Babylon being rebuilt
in Iraq for many reasons. While Babylon could seem to meet some of the criteria
in Rev 17, she falls far short of meeting them all. She has been in ruins for
2000 years meeting none of the fourteen criteria given to John, while the
Vatican has been fulfilling them all. Even if, as Dyer argues, Babylon has never
been completely without inhabitants, she has certainly not played any role in
world affairs during that time.
Furthermore, that a rebuilt ancient city would somehow become such a great city
as to rule the world (it's not the Beast that is said to rule the world at this
point, but the woman riding it) in a brief time and make up for having been in
ruins ever since John penned these lines is rather far-fetched. It also would
seem to argue against imminency for the rapture, considering the great length of
time it would take not only for ancient Babylon to be rebuilt but to be
inhabited by hundreds of thousands of people and to become dominant in world
affairs. That it would happen to a city in Iraq makes it even more unlikely.
What we have attempted to show from the Bible and history is not some new theory
lately dreamed up but has been the conviction of untold numbers of evangelical
Christians who down through the ages existed independently of Rome and would not
give allegiance to her and were therefore slaughtered by the millions. Martin
Luther referred to them when he said, "We are not the first to declare the
papacy to be the kingdom of Antichrist, since for many years before us so many
and such great men (whose number is large and whose memory is eternal) have
undertaken to express the same thing so clearly and plainly."
Of these martyrs, historian Will Durant wrote, "The Roman Church, they were
sure, was the Whore of Babylon ...." Such was the opinion even of many leading
Roman Catholics in the Middle Ages. For example, St. Bonaventure, cardinal and
general of the Franciscans, said that Rome was just like the harlot of the
Apocalypse. The Reformers were certain of this and it was written into their
creeds. Thus D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones declared, "I would not hesitate with the
Reformers of the 16th century to [say that Roman Catholicism] is, as the
Scripture puts it, 'the whore." One could hardly come to any other conclusion
from John's vision. This has been the view of the evangelical church for 1500
years, yet that opinion is lately being abandoned by evangelicals in the
interests of ecumenism.
Currently, there are several other theories on who "Babylon The Great" refers to, such as it being a future rebuilt city in Iraq, or a great new age church that will evolve in the end times, or just "evil itself and all that it entails" instigated by Lucifer when he originally rebelled against God. Some VERY good arguments also exist as to "the daughter of Babylon" being America or New York, or even Jerusalem. More recently, some scholars suggest Saudi Arabia is Mystery Babylon referred to in the book of Revelation. The above identification of "Mystery Babylon The Great" by Dave Hunt makes the most sense to me, at this time. We'll all find out the truth of the matter soon enough. .....Keygar |
-------------------------------------------