AS WE CONTINUE THIS MESSAGE WE HAVE TITLED “IDENTIFYING THE ANTICHRIST,” LET ME AGAIN REASSURE EVERY PERSON WHO MAY READ THIS ARTICLE, THAT WE ARE NOT PICKING ON INDIVIDUAL PERSONS AS WE CALL YOUR ATTENTION TO VARIOUS FORMS OF ECCLESIASTICAL CORRUPTION, BUT RATHER, OUR PURPOSE IS TO EXPOSE THE SPIRIT OF SATAN THAT IS BEHIND IT ALL AND HELP YOU SEE AND UNDERSTAND WHAT IS GOING ON AND WHERE IT IS ALL GOING TO LEAD TO. WE ARE LIVING IN A DAY WHEN SPIRITUAL COMPROMISE IS A POPULAR THING, A DAY WHEN SO MANY PEOPLE WILL SAY, “I DON’T THINK IT MATTERS WHETHER WE ALL BELIEVE EXACTLY ALIKE OR NOT, JUST AS LONG AS WE BELIEVE IN JESUS AND HAVE LOVE ONE FOR THE OTHER.” BUT LET ME TELL YOU, SAINTS, THAT STATEMENT IS DEVIL INSPIRED. THERE HAS NEVER BEEN AN HOUR WHEN GOD DID NOT KNOW EXACTLY WHAT HE WANTED HIS TRUE CHILDREN TO BELIEVE AND THERE HAS NEVER BEEN AN HOUR WHEN TWO PEOPLE COULD BELIEVE DOCTRINE THAT WAS CONTRARY, THE ONE TO THE OTHER AND BOTH OF THEM BE RIGHT. THEY MAY BOTH BE WRONG, BUT YOU BELIEVE ME, THERE IS NO POSSIBLE WAY THAT THEY COULD BOTH BE RIGHT. SOME PEOPLE ARE SO CARNAL MINDED THEY CAN NEVER RECEIVE A SPIRITUAL REVELATION OF THE SCRIPTURES NO MATTER HOW MUCH THEY HEAR. BUT GOD IS NOT LIMITED BY THAT, FOR HE ALWAYS HAS A FEW HUNGRY SOULS THAT ARE ANXIOUSLY AWAITING THEIR NEXT SPIRITUAL MEAL, AND THEY KNOW THAT WITH GOD THERE IS ONLY ONE RIGHT WAY AND EVERY OTHER WAY IS WRONG. YOU WILL NEVER HEAR ONE OF THEM SAY, “WELL I WOULD RATHER BELIEVE WHAT JESUS SAID, THAN TO BELIEVE WHAT PETER SAID, (MATT. 28:19-ACTS 2:38) FOR PETER EVEN DENIED THE LORD THREE TIMES.” TRUE SAINTS KNOW BY REVELATION THAT WHAT PETER SAID, WAS WHAT JESUS MEANT BY WHAT HE SAID, AND THAT DOES NOT JUST APPLY TO WATER BAPTISM, FOR EVERYTHING THOSE APOSTLES TAUGHT TO THE CHURCH WAS BY REVELATION. THAT BRINGS OUR THINKING TO THIS PRESENT HOUR OF TIME WHEN THERE ARE MORE PEOPLE PROFESSING TO BE CHRISTIANS THAN EVER BEFORE IN ALL OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA AND SO FEW OF THEM EVER RECEIVE A TRUE REVELATION OF THE WORD OF GOD AND THE SPIRIT OF DECEPTION (ANTICHRIST) IS LEADING GREAT MULTITUDES TO DESTRUCTION. SHOULD WE NOT ENDEAVOR TO EXPOSE THAT SPIRIT FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL WHO DESIRE TO KNOW THE TRUTH, BUT HAVE NOT YET HEARD IT? I BELIEVE WE SHOULD AND BY THE HELP OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD, THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT WE INTEND TO DO BY THE TIME WE FINISH THIS MESSAGE.

IDENTIFYING THE FOURTH KINGDOM

Let me take you back to the 7th chapter of Daniel and review a little of what we published last issue and then I will read some excerpts from history to back up what I have been saying to you about the Catholic Church and especially about the popes that have ruled that Antichrist system for centuries. Most people in America today know very little about what has transpired through the centuries of time that actually makes this prophecy of Daniel stand out like today’s newspaper headlines. Right here in this one chapter, the geographical origin of the authority of the Antichrist is pinpointed. His authority originates from Rome. It was Rome that the angel explained to Daniel concerning the fourth beast of his vision, saying that it was the fourth kingdom that would rule the world. Therefore, I want you to understand that what started out to be Rome will wind up being Rome. It will not change over to Communism nor any other of the various projections of carnal minded preachers of our day and hour. We are considering the fourth beast described in chapter 7, verses 7 & 8, and the little horn that came up among the ten horns that were on that fourth beast. I believe it will be sufficient just to take up right there in verse 23 now, where the angel is speaking to Daniel, “Thus he says, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon the earth, (Rome) which shall be diverse (different) from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it to pieces.” One thing that made this fourth kingdom different from all the rest was the way it outlasted all the others before it. The Babylonian kingdom, in a space of somewhere between 70 and 100 years, was swallowed up by the Medio-Persians, and that empire only lasted through a period of three major kings until it folded up and the Grecians had their opportunity to rule the world. But after the death of Alexander the Great, that kingdom was divided up into four heads instead of the one. (We covered that in part one of the message.) But this Roman empire was to be the last world beast system ever to rule the world; therefore, she is the one we must devote our attention to. Rome was in power in the beginning of the New Testament era, when the gospel of Christ was preached first to Jews and later to Gentiles, and Christian churches were founded throughout the regions represented there in Acts 2, where Jews of sixteen languages were present to hear Peter preach that day. In other words, Rome dominated the Middle East and all of Europe. She had stretched her borders to the British Isles, where even today archaeologists find evidence of Rome’s ancient past. Naturally, when we speak of Rome ruling the world, that pertains only to the old world nations of the Middle East and Europe, as we have already stated. This was the beast that had the great iron teeth that devoured and break in pieces and stamped the residue with its feet.

HOW TEN HORNS WERE FORMED

Prior to the Roman empire, men had not learned the skill of how to melt and work iron into the various metals as we know it to be used today. But Rome was in power when weapons of warfare were made of this, (Iron was actually discovered more than 1200 years B.C. but the common use of it in tools and weapons was not until somewhere just prior to the Roman era.) instead of brass. So this fourth world kingdom was pictured to Daniel as a dreadful and terrible beast with great iron teeth and ten horns, so the angel says in verse 24, “And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: (We have already spoken of how Rome, under the rulership of the ancient caesars was just one great head without the ten horns that were seen on it later, and how, through rebellion against Rome authority, the Roman empire was eventually split up into ten separate kingdoms, long after the death of the last old imperial caesar. That is how this same beast came to have ten horns, for horn denotes power, ([or authority.]) And another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.” In other words, these ten horns seen by Daniel are nations of Europe today, but in the days of the first advent of Christ, there were no such nations as France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, and such like. It was all a vast area called Gaul, controlled by the Roman empire. Yet, within that you had the races of people such as French, the Lombards, and so forth, and it was these various races of people that eventually rebelled against Rome and separated themselves into certain geographical areas and became separate nations exercising their own will in government, apart from Rome. Until that began happening though, that whole territory was looked upon by the Romans as a bunch of barbarians. They saw them only as uneducated ruffians, mean as the devil. But that did not prevent them from getting tired of domination of old imperial Roman rulership, so as they would break away and establish their own rulership, that would form or establish a horn, (a power) and it continued like that until there were ten of them (horns, powers) where there was once a kingdom with one great imperial head. But what about this little horn? What was it and how did it subdue three of those ten horns? If you read part one, you know already, but here is what happened. After the 3rd or 4th century, there was such a power struggle among the bishops of universal Christendom and so many disputes among them, that they were constantly coming together for another council and it seemed that the bishop of Rome would always end up having the last word in the matter at hand. That is how the spirit of Satan was pushing the whole thing and it was for the sole purpose of stripping those other bishops of their authority to speak and judge in matters of spirituality. That way, the bishop of Rome could be elevated to the position of supreme head of the universal church. No, they were not called popes in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, nor even in the 4th, but in the 5th century when Christianity had spread to the borders of Russia and to the British Isles and all over the Middle East and the old Roman imperial system was going through so many upheavals, that bishop of Rome little by little, began to exercise authority throughout all of Christianity. Then his influence began to be exercised in secular matters, (politics) and that reached out into those horns that were trying to gain their freedom from the old imperial system. It took many centuries for the power of the papacy to be fully established, but in the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries, the pope of Rome had more power and authority than all of those royal kings put together. The power of the papacy was in full swing, and this was that little horn Daniel saw come up among the ten horns, by whom three of the ten were plucked up, or subdued. As we said before, they were not destroyed as far as their political identity, but their power to resist papal authority was stripped from them. Naturally it goes without saying, the reason the other seven were not dealt with like that was because they never resisted papal authority. Actually, verse 24 explains verse 8 for where verse 8 refers to a little horn plucking up three of the first horns by the roots, verse 24 tells us that the ten horns are ten kings that shall arise, and that another shall arise (another power, different from the ten) and that he shall SUBDUE THREE of the kings. But then we have to go into our history books to see where and how this actually was fulfilled, and we already have that included in part one of the message.

COMPROMISE – THEN SPIRITUAL FORNICATION

Alright now, verse 25, speaking of this little horn that would subdue three of the kings of the nations of Europe, says, “And he shall speak great words against the most high, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” We have some more history to read, that will let you see exactly why it was prophesied that he would speak great words against the most High. That is what makes me wonder about some of these highly educated preachers of our day that will stand up and say, “The pope cannot be the Antichrist, for he believes in God.” It makes me wonder what their definition of the very word Antichrist is. Nowhere in the holy scriptures are we ever given any reason to believe the Antichrist man himself could be an atheist. Antichrist does not mean anti-god; it simply speaks of something or someone that opposes the doctrine taught by the Christ. I just have to believe that such preachers as these are afraid to speak out against Catholicism. They are no doubt afraid some of these Jesuit priests might do to them what was done to a number of preachers back around the turn of the century, (right here in America) when they would stand in the pulpit and try to expose the spirit behind Catholicism. They were either attacked right in the meeting or on their way home and beaten so badly that some of them died later as a result of it. (I have the records of it right here if you want to examine them.) That is why I said, Protestantism today no longer protests anything; they are all just looking for way that they can compromise enough to join the great big camp of love preaching preachers, that obviously know very little, if anything at all, about the kind of love that Jesus and His apostles preached about. They excuse their compromising by saying, “We do not want to fight each other, for after all, we are all going to the same place in the end.” Sure they are; straight to hell. True love (the kind Jesus taught) has some standards to be held up. It will not allow you to climb into just any old spiritual bed and commit fornication. World religion is doing it, but true saints of God are not, and when I say saint, I am referring to living people; not dead ones like the Catholic church does. Nevertheless, everything I see concerning the Antichrist that is soon to appear on the scene points to the pope of the Roman Catholic church that will be holding that office when the hour of the Antichrist arrives. No, the man does not know ten years ahead of time what he will do in the middle of that last week of Daniel. He will do what it is prophesied he will do, simply because Satan will take control of him, like he did Judas Iscariot, the apostle that betrayed Jesus Christ. That is another time when he will wear out the saints of the most High; there in that tribulation hour, just like he did in the Dark Ages. As for changing times and laws, the pope of Rome did that in the Dark Ages, and he will do it again in his reign as the Antichrist, when he reigns for a time and times and the dividing of time, which is exactly three and a half prophetic years of 360 days each.

TARES CAME IN – TRUTH WENT OUT

In that first century, it was Judaism that persecuted the Christians or that fought against Christianity at first, but as the age moved on, that old Roman imperial system also fought against Christians. But then in 69 A.D., when the Roman army destroyed the city of Jerusalem and tore the temple down and carried its inhabitants away into captivity, Judaism was no longer able to persecute the church of the living God. That spirit of Satan had to use an altogether different means to harass the church and he did it by sending his agents to pervert the gospel message and the pure revelation of the Godhead that those early Christians had. So all down through the grace age, there has been two spirits active in the church, the Spirit of Christ through which the church received true leadership and the spirit of Satan that always tried to pervert every true doctrine. Therefore, recalling once again how Jesus said to His disciples, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth,” we need to realize that when it came time for Jesus to drop a new revelation into the church, He always had His human instrument on earth through whom the Holy Ghost could work. However, that did not prevent Satan from keeping his human instruments on hand to give our false revelations and the only way anyone could know which was the true and which was the false, was to be filled with the Holy Ghost themselves and have him bear witness to the truth when it was brought forth. That way the true child of God continued growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ right on through that first age. But like we have said before, Little by little those tares worked their way into the church and from the 2nd church age until now, they have been right in there sitting among the true saints and projecting their carnal interpretations of the scriptures. When we are on this subject, we never fail to point out that as early as 54 A.D., Paul wrote to the Thessalonians that the mystery of iniquity was already at work and in 90 A.D. John wrote, (1 John 2:18) that even there were already many Antichrists in the picture, meaning of course, that their teaching was contrary to the true revelation taught by that first church. God can take predestinated souls from any environment and from any race of people and cause them all to have the same revelation of the scriptures, for it is the Holy Ghost’s presence in each and every true child of God that actually imparts the revelation to them. The apostle Paul wrote these truths to the church at Ephesus calling their attention to the fact that in times past, Gentiles were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But then in 2:13, he says, “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Jesus Christ. For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us.” God puts no difference between those that are born again by His Spirit. Regardless of whether they are black, white, red, yellow, Jew, or Gentile, the new birth makes them one in Christ. “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God (How?) through the Spirit.” This is what Paul wrote to those former pagans, who were washed by the blood of Jesus Christ and filled with the Holy Ghost. God does, through His Spirit in the true saints, what Satan tries to do through politics and protests and brute force for his children, the carnal minded and unbelieving man. What you actually see on your national news broadcasts so much of the time is this spirit of Antichrist, that has church going people, union leaders and outright criminal type people all marching to the same tune, and for the same cause, Brothers and Sisters, it ought not to be so. You will not find where the apostle Paul ever led any kind of a protest march against Rome. That is not the way an all powerful God handles things. If Christian people would do more sincere and earnest praying instead of carnal protesting, God would have a lot more opportunity to move on their behalf. In other words, a new creature in Christ ought to learn to behave himself, or herself, as Jesus Christ our example did. He did not like everything Rome was doing, but He knew His purpose on earth was a much higher calling than interfering in carnal man’s politics and riots. Likewise, those early Christians, even though they had been redeemed from every kind of environment, took upon themselves the very same attitude and purpose as He whose Spirit they received. Even though they may have formerly been meaner than the devil, they then became sweeter than honey. Therefore, speaking strictly from the human standpoint, realizing that everything went exactly as God knew it would, we could say this, if the devil had never gotten into the church, there is no way the dispensation of grace could have lasted two thousand years. For the church would have been so clean and pure, that no doubt, Jesus would have come for it long ago. Each new generation would have run right into His open arms and received a pure revelation just like their parents had. As it was though, we do not find anywhere in history where the Holy Ghost ever imparted any new revelation to the church after the turn of that first century. Instead, Satan was allowed to bombard it with his Antichrist teachings, and by 325 A.D., the greatest jewel the church held was taken away from her. Satan took her revelation of One God manifested in three offices, and gave her a “holy trinity” in place of it. They still talked about one God, but they were taught that this one God was three separate persons, all equal in authority, and in perfect unity. What a perverted mess! Yet man has been so spiritually blind and void of true revelation, that God in three persons doctrine has held up for over 1600 years now, and only a small minority of world-wide professing Christianity has enough of the Spirit of Christ in them to even question such a perverted mess as that. Thank God for the few that are being restored to true apostolic doctrine though, for these are those that Jesus is coming for according to Paul’s revelation in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17.

THE ROCK OF REVELATION

It took him a few hundred years to do it, but Satan finally succeeded in convincing the world that the Roman Catholic church is the church that Jesus was speaking of, when he said to peter, “Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” They say Peter was the first pope, because Jesus went ahead and said, “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” How many of you do know what Jesus was actually saying as He spoke there that day? It is recorded in the 16th chapter of Matthew, where Jesus asked His disciples, “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?” They gave various answers, and then He asked them straight out, “But whom say ye (His own disciples) that I am?” It was Peter who had the revelation ready to answer His question. That is not to say that the others had no revelation at that time, but Peter seemed to be the one that was prone to speak or act before the others, so he replied, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Naturally, a person can only know that as a reality by revelation of the Spirit of God, so Jesus answered him right back, “Blessed art thou Simon Barjone: (why?) for flesh and blood (natural man) hath not REVEALED it unto thee, but my Father (the great eternal Spirit) which is in heaven.” Now notice, and keep in mind that at this moment Jesus is speaking concerning the REVELATION that Peter has just expressed to Him, and He said to Peter, “And say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock (spiritual revelation) I will build my church.” Now some say that He was speaking of Peter being the rock upon which He would build His church, and others say that He was speaking of Himself, but in this particular instance He was not speaking of either one. That was His way of saying, Only those who are able to receive revelation by the Spirit will be in the true church of the living God. Or He could have said, My church will be made up only of those that know who I am because My Father has revealed it to them. The Catholic church says, (because they do not have a revelation) that the very fact that He called Simon by a name that meant LITTLE STONE OR ROCK, proves that he was telling them that He would build His church upon Peter. But that was the furthest thing from His mind, for the only thing that the gates of hell cannot prevail against is a true revelation of the Spirit. Anything you learn only with the mind can be taken away from you simply by the devil telling you something that sounds better. But once you receive something by divine revelation of the Spirit of God, it can never be taken away from you, for it becomes a part of you. It is as solid as a rock in you, when it becomes a revelation. That is why the gates of hell can no longer prevail. So it was not Peter’s name that was the rock upon which Jesus Christ would build His church, it was his revelation. That revelation will live forever, but Peter himself did not even live to be old like John did. You tell a Catholic priest that and he will just laugh at you and say, We know it was St. Peter, for the Bible says that he had the keys to the kingdom. That is because Jesus said, “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven,” and so on, we have read it already. But I say to you, brothers and sisters, Did He not give unto Peter the keys that unlocked the kingdom to those 3000 Jews from various nations, on the day of Pentecost, and to another 5000 a little later? Peter had not planned to preach that day, but when those home town scribes and Pharisees started making fun of those disciples that had received the Holy Ghost in the upper room experience and accusing them of being drunk, the Holy Ghost that he had just received, moved upon old Peter and opened his understanding of the things that Jesus had taught them while He walked with them. Then by divine inspiration Peter stood there with the other eleven apostles and used those keys for the very first time saying unto them, “Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to MY WORDS: (Keys) For these are not drunken, as ye suppose (not on fermented wine) seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,” and so on. You can read the rest of it there in Acts 2. But my point is this, That little short sermon he preached to them right there, was unlocking the kingdom to all that believed what they heard, and in just a short span of days more than 8,000 souls were ushered into the kingdom of God. Therefore, I believe it is sufficient just to say, Peter, as a man was not infallible, but the revelation he had was and that infallible revelation is what gives a believing soul eternal security. Just look at eternal security like this and you will not have any trouble with the doctrine of it. If what you are believing is what imparts eternal life to you through the spiritual process of the new birth and that is only possible because it is a revelation to your spirit, and a revelation actually becomes as much a part of you as the very members of your physical body are to it, then tell me, How in the world could such a believing soul ever be lost again? It is a spiritual impossibility. Praise God forever! Hallelujah! I am so glad he included me.

TRUTH ABOUT THE INCARNATION

I was reading in one of their books how the Catholic’s talk about the incarnation of God the Son. No wonder their doctrine is such a great mystery and no man can understand it. There was no such thing as the incarnation of God the Son, for He (Jesus the Son) was not God at all before the incarnation and just 30 years prior to the incarnation. He was not even the Son of God, except in the mind of the great eternal Spirit that begat Him. He did not exist with the Father prior to is virgin birth, no matter what the Catholic church teaches. He was there in the mind of the Father of all creation as a spiritual reality, but definitely not as a person. So it was not God the Son that was incarnated; it was the Son of God, and you believe me; there is as much difference between those two phrases as there is between light and dark, for one of them is light to your soul, and the other is complete spiritual darkness. When Jesus was born by virgin birth, that was His first existence as a person and for the first 30 years of His life, He was not to be thought of as God in the flesh at all. That became a reality only after He was baptized by John, in Jordan, and the heavens were opened unto Him and the Spirit of the Father descended from heaven in the form of a dove, in the fullness of His majesty and power, to dwell in this vessel of clay called Jesus. From that moment on, it has been God in His Son, redeeming lost mankind. No wonder Jesus could say, (John 14:11) “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.” Why would He say that? Because the works that He was doing, were works that only God Himself could do. Is that not right? Even those scribes and Pharisees that hated Him confirmed that truth. He looked at a crippled man one day and said, Son: Thy sins be forgiven thee and His enemies said, Only God can forgive sins. Well, we do not need to spend time proving that He was God in the flesh, for even the Catholic church believes that. Their problem is, they just do not know when He became that. They have to juggle the Godhead around so it will justify their trinity doctrine; therefore, they harp on Father, Son and Holy Spirit as three persons. Then you look over to the other side of that and you will find the oneness Pentecostals that are afraid to mention the Son of God, afraid it will misrepresent their doctrine of One God. But when you look in the Bible and read after an apostle that had a true revelation of the Godhead, you will see that he was not afraid to write, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as He (the Father) hath chosen us in Him (Jesus the Christ) before the foundation of the world (there is your predestination.) that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, (How?) According to the good pleasure of HIS (singular) will.” Not their will; HIS will. God is ONE SPIRIT, not three persons; and there is only ONE PERSON in the Godhead, Jesus the Son, and the Father dwells in Him, making Him The God Man, but we do not have to be afraid to speak of the Son of God for fear of distorting our revelation, if we truly do have a pure revelation of One God in three offices. Here are some numbers you might be interested in while we are on this subject. You will find the same truth, almost in the same words, in 2 Corinthians 1:3, Ephesians 1:3, and 1 Peter 1:3, and if you have a revelation of the Spirit on that truth, then you will be interested to read Revelation 1:3, which holds a promise that can only be claimed by those that have this truth by revelation of the Spirit, and that brings us right back to the purpose for which we are publishing this message, to call your attention to those things that are written in this prophecy concerning the Antichrist along with what Daniel and Paul, and others wrote.

SOME HISTORY ON CATHOLIC POPES

I promised to read some excerpts from various writings taken from actual history, so this seems like as good a time as any to do that, for I do not want to put anything in print, nor on tape, that cannot be verified, so we will first read from a book written, calling attention to various facts recorded by a Catholic historian named Philip Hughes, in his book titled, “A Popular History of the Catholic Church,” page 85. Here is what we read in this book. “Writer Hughes, the historian already mentioned in this chapter, says that some of the popes were good men and some were very bad men. He states that the popes of the 9th century; for instances were in many ways like the evil, brutal and ignorant baronage from which they came. (Speaking of more or less, the political dignitaries of the world systems.) They paraded their sinful lives in the face of the world. Some of them married in defiance of all they pretended to believe and teach. (Celibacy for the priests) Hughes says their reigns were a series of long and bitter financial strains upon the people, (Now this was written by a Catholic historian, so they cannot blame any Protestant for it.) and for about one hundred years in this period the scandals of the papacy rocked the Roman world. The papacy became a prize to the wickedness of the day and this honest writer calls it a time of horror. This introduced another question. Rome claims that its councils are also infallible, that when they sit in solemn session to elect a pope or to consider matters of doctrine, their actions and edicts carry the weight of God. Is it not strange that infallible councils could place in the high office of pope men who turned out to be libertines and profligates?” Now, Saints: We will turn to another page where I want to read, for this man really begins to tell some things there. Notice now. “Then there is the tragedy of Pope Boniface 7th. This pope gained the throne by pushing Pope John 13th from his place and strangling him. Under pressure that arose from this horror, Pope Boniface fled to Constantinople with much of the papal treasury. This left Rome without a pope, since one had been choked to death and the other had absconded with church funds. The cardinals assembled and elected another pope who reigned for nine years. When the new pope died, he was replaced by Pope John 14th. But over in Constantinople, Pope Boniface had grown restless with the years and he decided that he would return to Rome and be pope once more. He went back to Rome, murdered Pope John 14th and took over once more the leadership of the Catholic church. He ruled eleven months and died. In this case we see a pope who had murdered two other popes, had stolen vast amounts of church money and then had proven himself so powerful politically that he could assume once more his honored place and rule until he died. And when he spoke, his voice was the voice of God. (No wonder Daniel wrote, And he shall speak great words against the most High.) Unfortunate Catholic people were helpless as long as Boniface lived, but when he died, by sudden means in 985 A.D., his body was cast into the street, mutilated and dragged about the town. (Let me say once again to anyone who may hear this tape or read this in the Contender, I am not reading these things to belittle, nor to make fun of any Catholic individual. I am only reading this so you can hear, read from histories written by their own historians stating that what is claimed by that system is not Biblically true at all. Some of it tells about how those poor Catholic people suffered when popes like some of them mentioned, were in rulership. I will just have to say to any Catholic person who may come into contact with this article, Do not ever think that the system of religion you belong to is so holy and virtuous and clean. All you need do is investigate their past a little and you will know better.) When the citizens wearied of this pastime they threw the bloody and shapeless mass that had been a Roman pope under a statue of Marcus Aurelius. The next morning some priests found it and buried it. (Marcus Aurelius was one of the old Roman emperors, shortly after the advent of Christ.) So ended the colorful career of an infallible pope, a vicar of Christ and a man who moved under the authority of heaven. You may read of this in The Catholic Encyclopedia. Some time later the first dignitary from the north was elected to the papal chair. He was a German named Bruno, and he took for himself the name of Gregory 5th. He was twenty-four years of age at the time of his elevation. A rebellion broke out against Gregory and he was forced to flee to Pavia. At his escape, the cardinals elected a new pope who was to be known as John 16th. But Gregory, still in Pavia, longed for the office of pope once more. He went back to Rome and announced that he had returned and was taking over the office. He commanded Pope John to appear before him, and John did so. Gregory ripped the robes from John’s body, had his eyes put out, cut off his nose and ears, and placed him upon a donkey to be paraded about the city of Rome. Cast into prison, John died in a short time. Alexander Flick gives an account of these two popes, as does The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 8, page 428. (We are still reading.) Many of the popes who took the name of John lived colorful lives and died unusual deaths. The Catholic Encyclopedia does not mince words in describing them. Pope John 8th was poisoned by a relative. When it was seen that the poison acted too slowly, the relative killed the pope with a hammer. Pope John 10th was reportedly smothered to death in his bed. Pope John 12th was reportedly stricken with paralysis while in the act of adultery. He died from his paralysis. (It goes on about what happened to the Pope Johns’, but let us skip some of it.) The Catholic Encyclopedia does not spare other popes. Of Pope Leo 10th, the prelate who attracted the unwelcome attention of Martin Luther, the encyclopedia says that the only possible verdict on his pontificate is that it was unfortunate for the Catholic Church. (Meaning of course, that the man was allowed to do what he did.) Pope Benedict 6th was imprisoned and in August 974, he was strangled. Pope Benedict 9th was called a disgrace to the hair of St. Peter. He lived in great sin and resigned the papacy. Pope Benedict 12th was a fat man and the object of many jests. Pope Stephen 7th was the son of a Catholic Priest. He died by strangling. Pope Sixtus 5th was so unpopular at his death that the people of Rome tore down his statue and destroyed it. The statue of Pope Paul 4th received like treatment when he died in 1559. The catalogue of horrors of Catholic popes makes a long and heavy book. To write a history of the blunders, political movements and moral ruptures of these men would demand the devotion of a great portion of a writer’s life. In any good library the student will find himself amazed at the profusion of materials concerning the unhappy fortunes of the popes. Some of these accounts would be unbelievable and might be credited to a prejudice or hatred against the church of Rome, were it not for the fact that so much of the matter is substantiated by Catholic authors and historians.” That is all I am going to read from this book, but we are going to take a few excerpts from another book, written by another man shortly after the turn of this century and see what he says about the popes and their office, for he takes it right from the very writings of Catholicism. I do not want to tire you out with too much of this, but these are things that people need to know about this old mother system and her leaders in this compromising age when there is so much emphasis placed upon loving everyone, no matter what they may believe or teach. I am not promoting hatred for individual souls, but there are certainly a lot of things going on in religion these days that the true child of God ought to hate. Not only hate it, but keep completely free from it.

WHAT DOES CATHOLICISM SAY?

These things that we are reading will let us see why or what was meant over in Daniel where it says that this little horn (the popes of Rome) that came up among the other ten had eyes like the eyes of man and a mouth speaking great things, great words against the most High. Now from the writings of these Catholic dignitaries, here is what we find. “The pope is the supreme judge of the law of the land. He is the vice regent of Christ the King of kings and Lord of lords. The Pope, by virtue of his dignity, is at the summit of both powers, the temporal and the spiritual. From Civilta Catholica, official organ of Pius 9th, written March 18, 1871.” That Brothers and Sisters, makes him the supreme judge of all matters. Which for any man to claim such earthly power and authority is blasphemy against God who is truly the Supreme judge. Listen to this now. “None may reopen the judgment of the Apostolic See, of whose authority there is none greater; nor can any lawfully review its judgment.” First Dogmatic Constitution. Vatican Council, 1871. “A princess should kiss the feet of the Pope.” Saints, please tell me where in the Bible they find anything like that? You know what the apostle Peter did when Cornelius fell down at his feet to worship him. In Acts 10:26, it says, “But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man.” Yet these popes claim to be holding the apostle Peter’s office. I say, if they are in Peter’s office. I say, if they are in Peter’s office, let them conduct themselves in the same manner he did and not take to themselves power and authority that belongs sovereignly to God Himself. Peter never did and neither did any of those other early apostles. Over in Asia Minor, when a cripple was healed by the ministry of Paul and Barnabas, the pagan priest and all the people were ready to bow down and worship, but what did those men of God do? Acts 14:14-15 says, “When the apostles Barnabas and Paul, heard of it, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, and saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these VANITIES (That is what all such as this is.) unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein.” That is how a true man of God reacts when someone tries to bestow upon him something that belongs only to God. Therefore, let me say this, there is no place in the Bible that these popes can find any justification for what they require of their subjects. I certainly do not want any daughter of mine kissing the feet of any of them. Notice now, “His judgment no man can reverse, but he can reverse all other judgments. The Roman Church never erred, nor will she ever err.” Epistle 55, book No. 11. Let me just skip over here a couple of pages and read you something that really ought to make you sit up and take notice. The Catholic religion with all its rites ought to be exclusively dominant, in such sort that every other worship shall be banished and interdicted. It is a cause of supreme bitterness to the heart of the Holy Father not to be able otherwise to impose a limit to so much evil as he certainly would if he could make use of other means to bridle their insane license.” Pius 9th. The Roman pope will get his chance to do just exactly that and a lot more in the last 3½ years of the seventieth week of Daniel, but he will not be against evil; he will be the most evil one of them all. “From the decisions of the popes, it is clearly to be understood that the origin of public power is to be sought from God Himself and not from the multitude; that the free play of sedition is repugnant to reason; that it is a crime for private individuals and a crime for states to treat in the same way different kinds of religion; that the uncontrolled right of thinking and publicly proclaiming one’s thoughts, is not inherent in the rights of citizens.” From the Life and Letters of Pope Leo 13th, page 384. “It is necessary to call attention to the fact that the point raised about discrimination in favor of one church at the expense of another cannot be said to apply in the case of cardinals. They are something besides ministers of the Gospel and ecclesiastics.” (We are just copying these statements right from the book just like they are written.) “Indeed a cardinal is not necessarily a priest, but he is from a secular point of view, a very great personage, who is regarded and treated everywhere abroad not as a dignitary of any church, but as a prince of the blood.” (Brother, they demanded attention.) “Under the circumstances it must be borne in mind that even though cardinals Farley, O’Connell and Gibbons are at heart patriotic Americans and members of an American hierarchy, yet they are cardinals, foreign princes of the blood, to whom the United States, as one of the great powers of the world, is under an obligation to concede the same honors that they receive abroad.” Listen to this next one. “Were Cardinal Farley to visit an American man-of-war, he would be entitled to the values and naval honors reserved for foreign royal personages, and at any official entertainment at Washington, the Cardinal will outrank not merely every cabinet officer, the speaker of the house and the vice president, but also foreign ambassadors, coming next to the chief magistrate himself.” You know where such a spirit as that comes from, for Jesus Christ Himself never expected such honor and attention when He walked upon earth among men. “Incidentally, it may be mentioned that when a royal personage not of sovereign rank visits New York, it is his duty to make the first call on Cardinal Farley.” These five extracts are from The Boston Pilot, Cardinal O’Connell’s paper, April 6, 1912. Let me get a few more of these while we are at it. “And inasmuch as the destiny of the state depends mainly on those who are at the head of affairs, it follows that the church cannot give countenance or favor to those whom she knows to be inbred with a spirit of hostility to her, who refuse openly to respect her rights, to make it their aim and purpose to tear asunder the alliance that should, by the very nature of things, connect the interests of religion with those of the state.” Taken from the Catholic Encyclopedia of Pope Leo 13th, written January 10, 1890. Listen. “The Catholics of the United States compelled the government and compelled the officers of the navy and the army to undo the work of spoilation of the Philippines. And the vestments were all returned, the altars were all restored, and the churches were all given back, the lands were all paid for, and the government of the United States spent nearly twenty million dollars paying for the ravages of the army.” This was copied from a sermon by Priest Prelan, St. Louis, June 30, 1912.

THE PRINCE THAT SHALL COME

I did not live in the time of the Spanish American war, but we realize that in those early years just prior to it, Spain had ruled the Philippine Islands for better than three hundred years. (I believe this is right.) She had established the Catholic Church there and the church had woven its way into the political structure, and the people of the Philippine Islands had been subjected to such servitude and poverty, just like in Latin America, that by the time the war was fought, even though it started out much like any other civil war would, the United States took the opportunity to conquer Spain and throw her out, and she did Puerto Rico the same way. It was called The Spanish American War and the United States, at that time, was very much Protestant dominated; therefore, the military men that went in there no doubt had a very strong dislike for that Catholic spirit that had brought those poor people under such bondage, so they did not have as much regard for the property as maybe they should have. Anyway, it says here that the United States ended up paying out nearly twenty million dollars because of it. Can you imagine what that figure back then would compare to in today’s economy? It would set your head in a spin just to think about it. Even so, let me read a couple more and we will quit for now. I do not want to tire you out with too much of this, but I do feel the necessity to establish the fact that the Antichrist we are seeking to identify is not going to come out of some modern day ism as some fear he may. But that the spirit and office he will represent has been around a long time and is well established in the realm of religion already. Yes, we are talking about the prince that shall come of Daniel 9:26, the prince that will come in his own name and be accepted, according to the words of Jesus. Brother! Listen to me! He will be such a sweet talking, peace loving, world unity promoting pope, that only those who have already been taught what to expect, by the Spirit of God revealing His word to them, will be wise enough to see through his disguise. He will not be able to come on the scene with brutal force as those popes of old did, so he will get himself into position by universal deception until he is given what he wants by world leaders, and then by the time that seventieth week of Daniel’s prophecy is half fulfilled, he will be ready to make his dictatorial move to fulfill the last half of it.

CATHOLICISM’S BELIEF ABOUT HERETICS

All right, let us read some more. “The Pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, but he is Jesus Christ Himself hidden under the veil of the flesh. (Does that sound familiar? Now you know where that same spirit in the following of Bro. William Branham’s teaching comes from. It is the same spirit that was on those Roman Catholic popes.) Does the Pope speak? It is Jesus Christ who speaks. Does the Pope accord a favor or pronounce an anathema? It is Jesus Christ who pronounces the anathema or accords the favor. So that when the Pope speaks we have no business to examine. We have only to obey.” Written by Archbishop of Venice who became Pius 10th. “The Catholic Church has the right and duty to kill heretics, (They have really done that.) because it is by fire and sword that heresy can be extirpated. Mere excommunication is derided by heretics. If they are imprisoned or exiled they corrupt others. The only recourse is to put them to death. For the highest good of the church is the unity of faith, and this cannot be preserved unless heretics are put to death.” By Professor Hugh O’Donnell, author of “The Ruin of Education in Ireland,” page 3. No wonder they are still fighting in Ireland today. They never have forgotten what they were taught. “The American Federation of Catholic Societies has been organized to bring the powerful influence of the entire Catholic Church in America against the injustice of the Public School System, to secure the revision of histories and books of reference prejudicial to the Catholic Church, the removal of bigoted officials from holding office, and a move toward stricter divorce laws.” By Bishop McFaul, before Federation of Catholics, in Milwaukee. You can be sure of one thing; the Catholic Church would like to get the history books revised if they could, for there are a few people in the world that read those histories, and take note of just how rotten and corrupt some of those old popes have been, while at the same time, claiming to be the representative of Jesus Christ on earth. What a joke. Well, we still have some more to read, but we will take a little break from reading history at this time. Some of what we still have to read will allow you to see just how evil that Satanic spirit on some of those old popes of the Dark Ages really was. We have already read how three of those political horns (kings) were subdued to fulfill Daniel 7:8 & 7:24, but we want to show you some of the other things that were taught by that Antichrist system of religion, and reading it from actual histories is better than just telling you about it, for then it becomes more to you than just my own words. Furthermore, not all of us have easy access to those books that really tell it like it is. They are available, but how many people would know what to look for if they even had an opportunity to go read them in the libraries of the land? This way, when we give you the references, you can go check them if you want to. Of all the books that have been written exposing the spirit behind the Catholic Church system of religion, you could fill any library with them and still have books left over, so that is why we just read excerpts that confirm the point we are dealing with in this message. There is no reason for us to read about the popes that were actually good men as one writer stated that some of them were, for our purpose in dealing with this subject is to expose the evil, corrupt spirit on the system that lays the groundwork for the manifestation of the last pope that will ever fill that office. Antiochus Epiphanes was a Jew hating Syrian and he set a type of the kind of hatred this last pope will have for the Jewish people in the last 3½ years of his reign, but we want to be sure you understand that the Antichrist talked about by so many, but revealed to so few, cannot possibly have his seat of authority anywhere other than Rome, for he has to come out of the last kingdom ever to rule the world, just like the angel told Daniel. So as we have already said over and over, his office is already a well established one. Paul referred to him as The Man of Sin, and I will have to say, knowing what he is going to do as this age closes out, I can think of no more appropriate terminology to use than that. Scripturally, the word S-I-N applies to unbelief, and not just to unchristlike deeds of the flesh. He will be a deceiver that will accomplish his great endeavors through flatteries, just like we read in the 11th chapter of Daniel, verse 7, we find that he will scatter the power of the holy people. That will be fulfilled completely in the middle and last half of the week of Daniel, just like John wrote in Revelation, chapter 12, where he speaks of the woman (spiritual Israel) fleeing into the wilderness to hide for 3½ years. Thank God for those two years. Thank God for those two Jewish prophets that will prophesy to Israel for the first half of that week, for it will be because of their ministry, that the spiritual element of Israel will know where to go when she flees from the Antichrist armies of that hour of time. Like I have said many times, we do not know if this present pope is the one that will fulfill these prophecies or not, but we have seen already that he is one of the most influential figures on the face of the earth today. Every nation he has gone to has rendered to him the highest honors that any man on earth today could expect to receive. That in itself should be enough to let us know that we are living in the last days, for except for the great falling away that the apostle Paul said should come before the man of sin is revealed, the head of the Roman Catholic Church would not be so readily accepted by so many. Yes, the falling away is a present reality, but thank God we do not have to be a part of it ourselves; we can be children of light, walking in all the truth God sees fit to shed upon our pathway. There is an atmosphere of great tension hovering over the world, and a dark hour of great trouble looming upon the horizon, but frankly Saints, I am not alarmed nor disappointed, for we have a book that has already told us that such an hour must come, before we can go to our promised reward. I do not enjoy seeing people suffer hardships of destruction and mistreatment, but I am very thankful to be living in the days just before the coming of the Lord for His bride people.

HOW HISTORY HELPS US UNDERSTAND

Gentiles have had accessibility to the greatest thing on the face of this earth for almost two thousand years and for the most part, they have just played around with it. I am talking of course about the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the gospel of our salvation. If you have missed it, you have missed the most precious thing a human soul has ever had access to and now God is doing something else. It is time we realized that there will never be a great move of the Spirit of God upon earth again to draw lost Gentile souls to a salvation experience; we are too close to the end to expect that. The Holy Ghost is perfecting a called out number of predestinated seed, getting them ready to meet the Bridegroom that is soon to return for them. The tares are being bundled together for burning just like Jesus said in Matthew 13, that it would be just before harvest time. But do you know what else He said about it? After the tares are severed from among the righteous, notice what He said in verse 43. “Then, T-H-E-N shall the RIGHTEOUS shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. WHO HATH EARS TO HEAR, LET HIM HEAR.” Brothers and Sisters, this is why I do not feel that I need to apologize for preaching things that some of you have heard over and over many times before, for it is the purpose of God that all His true children in every part of the world, hear the truth of His word, so they can have the same opportunity to dress themselves for His appearing to them in the clouds as anyone else. What some of you have heard a dozen times before, others are hearing or reading it for the very first time and these excerpts from history that we are reading are not even available in some areas of the world where saints of God are receiving this paper. At least they do not all have access to it and when people have nothing themselves that they can look to as a fact of history to verify what they read in the Bible, they are left open for someone to come along and give them something that is incorrect. In other words, if you have nothing at all to go by, how do you know if what someone tells you is right or not? On the other hand, if we can give them enough history to verify what we print, they have something other than just what someone tells them and they have the Holy Ghost to bear witness when they hear the truth. These are all just tools that God uses to open our understanding to the scriptures. Otherwise, he would have to deal with every one of His children by the means of a supernatural dream or vision in order to impart revelation to them. What thrills my soul about all of this is how He gave His old prophets those drams and visions of things that would transpire centuries later and then when the time for certain things to be revealed approaches, He leads His human instruments to various things that open up avenues of revelation. Take Daniel 7:19-27 for instance. Daniel says, “Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron and his nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet; and of the ten horns that were in his head and of the other (horn) which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout (more authoritative) than his fellows.” Daniel is recording all of this, but there was no way for anyone of his day and hour to know what these symbols pertained to. Even after the angel explained the vision in quite a bit of detail, Daniel still could not understand much about it, for it was all for a future time. That is why Daniel’s head was still in a spin after the angel had finished explaining it to him. Actually, even though the explanation was given to Daniel, it was meant for saints of our day. No other age has ever needed to know the whole truth of all of this until our day, just before the little horn of the prophecy is ready to appear on the scene for his final role before destruction.

ECCLESIASTICAL MOTHER AND DAUGHTERS

Verse 21 had its first fulfillment in the Dark Ages, but having the revelation of what it meant, could not have kept it from taking place, for it is a prophecy from start to finish. Then verse 22 jumps all the way to the end of time where all of this is judged by the saints of the most High. Notice verse 21, though, “I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them.” All you have to do is read the Fox Book of Martyrs and you will see where that verse had its first fulfillment, but the final phase of it is still ahead, in the great tribulation where the Gentile foolish virgins and many spiritual Jews (orthodox) will be martyred because they refuse the mark of the beast. You do not hear much about the Fox Book of Martyrs any more in America. Do you know why? It is because of Satan’s brainwashing techniques. He is swaying apostate christendom away from everything that reveals the bare facts of what took place in the Dark Ages through the evil practices of the Catholic Church. Let me state once again, I am not picking on individuals that may belong to the Catholic Church. We are revealing a system of religion that has desecrated the word of God and yet in the eyes of the world in general, she is the most decorated, dressed up, and disciplined system on the face of this earth. She has outlived every other form of government, and she claims to be the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, simply because she is the oldest organization. Brothers and Sisters, we just have to realize that she is exactly what Revelation 17 pictures her to be. She is the mother of harlots. Well, if Roman Catholicism is the mother of harlots, what could her little daughters be but apostate Protestantism? And the apostate Protestantism is none other than the Confederation of the world Council of Churches. She is following the same spirit as her aged mama, and even though she had not yet been guilty of the sort of terrible atrocities her mother is guilty of from the Dark Ages, she will show herself to be of that same spirit during the last half of the week of Daniel. She will be just as wicked and evil in the sight of God, as old mama ever has been. Therefore, let me remind you that this message is not condemning Catholicism any more than it is apostate Protestantism, for they are both of the same spirit, and that spirit is Antichrist. What that spirit did through Catholicism in the Dark Ages, it will do again in the 70th week of Daniel for the last 3½ years. Daniel 12:1 says that it will be a time of trouble (especially for Israel) such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time. Thank God the bride of Christ will be gone from here before then.

HISTORY WRITTEN AFTER REFORMATION

All right, let us continue with our announced purpose for this message and get the Antichrist identified beyond any shadow of doubt. We have some more history to read into the message and this also was taken right from the writings of Catholic men. If I had time, I would like to read to you some of what is written in here concerning the Spanish Inquisition, but for the present, I will just read what I have marked and the first portion I will read is from a chapter titled “By Their Fruits,” so let us read. “According to Lord Acton, the Corpus Juris makes the murder of Protestants Lawful. (We should realize by this that these things were not written until after the Reformation hit the world.) Pope Gregory 15th applauded the massacre of St. Bartholomew. A speculative Jesuitism separate from theories of tyranny, mendacity and murder, keeping honestly clear of the Jesuit and his lies, of the Dominican with his faggots, of the popes with their massacres, has not yet been brought to light.” The writer further says, “Cardinal Newman defended the Syllabus, and the Syllabus justified all those atrocities. (Webster’s definition of a syllabus is “a summary outline of a discourse.” That is one definition anyway.) Pope Pius 5th held that it was sound Catholic doctrine that any man may stab a heretic condemned by Rome and that every man is a heretic who attacks the papal prerogatives.” Professor Von Dollinger, one of the most noted scholars of the Roman Church, for forty seven years Professor of Theology in a great German University, condemned the dogma of papal infallibility. He says of the Vatican Council (1870) “They were confirming without let or question, a power they saw in daily exercise; they were investing with new authority the existing Bulls, (in this case, a bull is a solemn papal letter sealed with a bulla, and a bulla is a lead seal.) and giving unqualified sanction to the inquisitor and the index, to the murder of heretics and the deposing of kings. (There was a period of time, as we have already stated, that the Popes of Rome claimed the authority to depose or dethrone kings. Can you just imagine the apostle Peter going to Rome and saying, Nero: I have come to remove you from your office? What do you suppose he would have got for that? Think seriously. He would have gotten his head whacked off and you know it.) They approved what they were called to reform and blessed with their lips what their hearts knew to be accursed.” The Professor having condemned the dogma of papal infallibility was excommunicated. He says, “I had sentence pronounced against me and incurred all the punishments which are heaped by the canonical law upon those who are excommunicated. The first of these punishments, according to the Bull of Pope Urban 2nd, decides that every one may put to death one who is excommunicated, when it is done from a motive of zeal for the church! At the same time he had sermons preached against me from all the pulpits of Munich, (Germany) and the effect was that the Chief of Police informed me that attacks were being plotted against me and that I should do well not to go out without company.” Some of these sweet talking, compromising Protestants of today say, But the Catholic Church is no longer like that; she has changed. My Brothers! My Sisters! Don’t you believe a word of such talk as that. The Catholic Church has outlived every other political system in the world. Therefore, when she talks sweet, walks calmly, and has her hand outstretched as a gesture of fellowship; you rest assured that underneath that sinister cloak, there is a dagger, ready to be used. Because if the Catholic Church has never erred, nor can ever err, it means she will never reprint her dogmas for world domination. I hope you can all see that as clearly as I see it. Let us continue reading. Again Professor Dollinger says of Jesuitism, “It is the soul and sovereign of the whole Roman Church. The results are the incarnation of superstition, united with despotism. To rule mankind by means of the Pope, who has become subservient to them, is their task, their aim and their art, which they practice in a masterly way. Hence their endeavors to make religion mechanical, which results in the sacrifice of the intellect.” For this very reason, I feel the necessity to deal with the very reason why that particular period of time known as the Dark Ages, was called that. In other words, what was the Dark Ages and caused it? Liquori, one of the greatest of Rome’s theologians says, “The priest has the power in the keys of the papacy to deliver sinners from hell, of making them worthy of Paradise, and of changing them from slaves of Satan into the children of God, and God Himself is obligated to abide the judgment of His priest and to grant their pardon or to not pardon according as the priests absolve or refuse absolution.” It is well to remember the Council of Trent, which declares, “If any one saith that priests, who are in mortal sin have not the power of binding and loosing, let him be accursed.” What would one expect to be the natural and inevitable result of such teaching? We will give a few examples. It sets up the kingdom of the foreigner, even though terribly corrupt, within the domain of the nation. “The state (the country) has NOT the right of asserting the supremacy of its own laws when they come in conflict with ecclesiastical law. In such a conflict the laws of the church MUST PREVAIL.” The State has NOT the right to require the ecclesiastical power to obtain permission of the civil authority to exercise its domain. It has NOT the right to treat as an excess of power, anything that the Roman Pontiffs or Ecumenical Councils have done, nor has it the right to deny to the church the use of force, nor to deny to it the possession of either direct or indirect temporal power.” This is taken from the Syllabus of Errors, Pius 9th.

RESISTING THE LAWS OF THE LAND

Do not ever think this ecumenical spirit that is covering the earth today is not the same thing as that of Catholicism, for it is just a disguise to lure unsuspecting souls into a trap. Everyone seems to be worrying about Communism these days, but do you know that according to the Bible, Communism was raised up by God Himself to destroy Catholicism. She (the Catholic Church) is pretending to work with Communism where she is forced to by circumstances, hoping that she can outlast it also, as she had every other form of government, but it will one day destroy her. That is what Revelation 17:16-18 is pertaining to and you find out right there that God is putting it into men’s hearts to fulfill His word and His will and purpose. From the Encyclical of Leo 13th, dated (Jan. 10, 1890) we have the following: “If the laws of the State are manifestly at variance with Divine Law, containing enactments harmful to the Church or conveying injunctions adverse to the duties imposed by religion, or if they violated in the person of the Supreme Pontiff (we are just copying these statements as they are written,) the authority of Jesus Christ, then truly, TO RESIST BECOMES A POSITIVE DUTY, TO OBEY A CRIME! The supreme teacher in the Roman Church is the Pontiff.” As a sequence of what has gone before, we quote from a sermon by the noted Ecclesiastic, D.S. Phelan, (June 1914). “He (the pope) tells us we must be foreigners, we (Catholics) must be foreigners in every land and in every country of the world, (Saints this may never have been a real fact, yet we do believe that it has always been a motive of the Catholic Church, so we read it just like it is written here.) foreigners under every sky, foreigners under every law, foreigners everywhere and always; and that is why we Catholics are universally expatriated. (That simply means to be driven into exile, or to renounce one’s country.) Every country would claim us, every country would like to have us as its own. England would like to have its Catholics all Englishmen, France would like to have her Catholics all Frenchmen, Italy, Spain and Germany would like to have their Catholics thorough nationalists, and here in the United States they would like to have us Catholics to be American first and before everything. Well, we would like to be accommodating, we do the best we can, but the truth is that we can never be French, or English, or Italian, or Germans, or Americans, we can never be these things entirely; and why? Because we are uncompromising foreigners, and we must never forget that BY OUR OWN LAWS WE ARE FOREIGNERS.” Do you know why they teach that? They have carnalized the Bible truth, that we are pilgrims and strangers on this earth, because it is not our eternal home. At least not in this natural life. But that dos not give anyone the right to resist government authority of the nations, for the New Testament teaches that we should be subject to those that have the rule over us saying, Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Then we find Paul instructing Titus (3:1) “To put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work.” Spiritually our citizenship is in heaven; but in this natural life, there is no scripture to justify what Mr. Phelan was saying. We have a lot of ex-Catholics right here at Faith Assembly, but I seriously doubt if very many, or even if any of them ever knew just what Rome teaches on that subject. She may not teach it very strongly, but it is there anyhow. That Roman Catholic spirit would utterly destroy anything, or anyone that opposes the power of the papacy if it could get by with it today as it has in the past. That is why the great tribulation is going to be so terrible; he (the Pope) will again be permitted to unleash his evil and corrupt deeds upon mortal mankind. It will be worse than what took place in the Dark Ages, believe me. Those old popes that we read about in history are dead, and their bodies have already returned back to the elements, but that spirit that caused them to be so evil and ungodly is still alive, just waiting for the hour when it can anoint another one of them to do the same as some of those in the Dark Ages did.

PAGAN PRACTICES ADOPTED

We are going to read some more in a little bit, from a chapter in this book titled, “Priestly Rottenness.” These particular pages were taken from Congressional records in Washington, D.C., so do not think we do not have proof of what we say about Catholicism. Personally, I am not familiar with these titles carried by various ones of the Catholic Church, but I am informed by some who are that a FRIAR is not an officiating priest that would give Mass and such like; but rather, his duties are more of a secular nature for the Catholic Church and usually in remote areas such as little communities scattered around here and there. Not so much in America as in other countries, for America, especially in remote areas, has always been predominately Protestant controlled. South America, Spain, the Far East, and places like that, would be more likely to have friars than in this country. In some of these countries where Catholicism is so strong, the natives that were converted to Catholicism many times were not converted at all; they just simply changed the names of their particular pagan gods from what they were before to the Catholic Christian name, and then they would just go right on doing the same things that they had always done. The only difference is now their sacrifices and rituals are performed in the name of Catholicism; just like what we saw in Mexico in March, 1983, when we were there. We went out to one of the shopping areas one day and all of a sudden we heard drums beating and these little shaker type things that some musicians use, and here came a number of Indians, dressed up and with false faces that made us think of Halloween here at home. Some had drums and some had those little shakers and one had an offering box. Around their legs they had ring after ring of rattlesnake rattlers that rattled when they walked. They were dressed up like that, out taking up offerings for the church, because it was the time of Lent. My point though, is that those Indians have been dancing like that for hundreds of years, one generation after the other. They just keep their same customs, but now they use them for the Catholic Church. Therefore, is it any wonder that within that system of religion, we read of so many hideous practices? When people are never converted to true Christianity and born again by the new birth, what can we expect out of them? They have no Christian standard to come up to.

QUESTION AND ANSWER INTERVIEWS

Let us read now what this writer says. Remember as you read this, Rome’s doctrine that sin does not disqualify a priest; “A priest once, always a priest”. (Now notice this.) The evidence of immorality and political intrigue that appears in succeeding pages is not the product of imagination or of lurid yellow journalism. It is reprinted from Document No. 190, of the Fifty Sixth Congress, second session, and consists of questions and answers propounded by a commission appointed by the United States government to investigate the titles of certain lands and properties in the Philippine Islands claimed by the Roman Catholic Church. (This interview was with Senor Don Felipe Calderon, Oct. 17, 1900.) Q. How many friars have you known personally? A. Very many. I have known all the Jesuits, because I was educated by them, but I may add that the Jesuits are not friars. I have known all the friars of Santo Tomas, beginning with Archbishop Nozaleda, who was one of my professors. Q. What class of society were the friars drawn from in Spain? A. I cannot say of my own knowledge, but quoting the friars themselves and persons who have traveled extensively in Spain, I should say that they came from the lowest orders of society; and this is corroborated by the fact that the majority, if not all of them, when they first come, have not the slightest conception of social forms and etiquette, and it might be said that they have the hair of a dog on them. Q. Were there not a good many well educated friars? A. The fact is, that they are almost totally unconscious of proper social forms. They act indecently and use indecent expressions in the presence of ladies in public to such an extent that I was forced on one occasion to throw out a friar who was not only using indecent language, but acting indecently in the presence of my wife. (Evidently by this, at least in the Philippines, the friars were teachers in the schools, as the Spanish era of Catholicism came into existence, and this is a question and answer interview with a Philippino man.) Q. As to the morality of the friars, have you had much opportunity to observe as to this? A. Considerable. From my earliest youth. With respect to their morality in general, it was such a common thing to see children of the friars that no one ever paid attention to it or thought of it and so depraved had the people become in this regard that the women who were mistresses of the friars really felt great pride in it and had no compunction in speaking of it. Now the rule is, for the friar to have a mistress and children, and he who has not is the rare exception, and if it is desired that I give names I could cite right now one hundred children of friars. (It sounds like this man knew what he was talking about. Would you not say so?) Q. In Manilla or in the provinces? A. In Manilla and in the provinces, everywhere. Q. Are the friars living in the islands still who have had those children? A. Yes, and I can give their names if necessary; and I can give the names of the children too. Beginning with myself; my mother is the daughter of a Franciscan friar. I do not dishonor myself by saying this, because my family begins with myself. Q. How do you know these things? A. In some cases through family relations, others because they were god children of my father, and in others I became possessed of the facts through being an attorney. I myself have acted as godfather for three children of friars. I am now managing an estate of $40,000 that came from a friar for his three children. A family lives with me who are all children of friars. Q. It was not a general licentiousness on the part of the friars? (This was a question asked of the man, and that word speaks of a lack of legal or moral restraints; especially: disregarding sexual restraints.) A. It was a general licentiousness, because, as I have said the exception as to the rule among the friars was to not have a mistress and to be the father of children by her. The friar who was not so mixed up with a woman in some way or other was like a snowbird in summer, but it must be confessed that for the past ten years they have improved somewhat in this regard. Q. That would seem to indicate that the immorality of the friars is not the chief ground of the hostility of the people against them, would it not? A. That is not, by any means, because the moral sense of the whole people here had been absolutely perverted. So frequent were these infractions of the moral laws on the part of the friars that really no one ever cared or took any notice of them; and this acquiescence on the part of the people was imposed upon them; for woe be unto him who should ever murmur anything against the friars, and even the young Filipino women had their senses perverted, because when attending school they had often seen the friars come in to speak to their openly avowed daughters, who often were their own playmates. Q. So to swell the taxes, they robbed the cradle and the grave? A. They augmented the cradle, but diminished the grave. The friars had a system of blackmail, by which they held the rod over all the citizens of a pueblo, about whose habits and closet skeletons they learned through making little girls of from 5 to 7 years of age, who could barely speak, and who naturally must have been sinless, come to the confessional and relate to them everything that they knew of the private life in their own homes and in places that they might visit.” Whether you have anything to hide or not, you sure would not want these immoral characters questioning your little daughters like that. But then they would take that information and blackmail the adults with it. In other words, you either give me so much money or I will tell on you, or whatever. This will be the testimony of another man conducted by questions and answers just like the other one.

TESTIMONY OF SENOR NOGALES

“Q. What do you know about the morality or immorality of the friars? A. Too much, I have nothing to ad to what Senor Calderon says, save to cite some more names. Q. Have you known a good many young women and young men who were the reputed daughters and sons of friars? A. I have known a great many and now have living on my estate six children of a friar. Q. Were all the friars (priests) licentious? A. I believe that they all are. Q. Do you think that was the ground of hostility against the friars? A. No sir Caesarism (imperial authority or dictatorship) was. Everything was dependent upon them, and I may say that even the process of eating was under their supervision. Naturally, their immorality had a slight influence in the case, but it became so common that it passed unnoticed. Q. Charges have been made against the friars that they caused deportations of Filipinos. A. In my own province the large majority of the friars, and more especially Antonio Brabo, had great influence in the deportation of many influential citizens, as also in the incarceration of several of them in order to subsequently have them released so as to show their power with the authorities. I, myself, at the instigation of friars, have been the victim of their machinations, (scheming or plotting) for they wanted me sent to manilla to be criminally prosecuted, but thanks to the governor, and my father-in-law, who was a European, I escaped. Q. It is charged that they were guilty of physical cruelty to their own members and others. A. They were cruel not only in the treatment of their own servants by beating them, but they also took great delight in being eye witness to tortures and beatings of men in prison and jails by the civil authorities. Q. What have you to say of the morality of the native priests as compared with that of the friars? (They have this notation here “The friars are priests imported from Spain,” and the question is to draw a comparison between them and the ones of local origin.) A. They are about on an even footing. All the priests now officiating have the same vices and when you take into account that they were purposely kept from following their natural bent to obtain an education by the friars, in order to show the Pope that there was a natural want of capacity in the Filipino, it can be seen why they became easy tools of the Spanish priests and great mimics of them in their loose life.”

INTERVIEW WITH NOZARIO CONSTANTINO, OCT. 1900

“Q. What was the morality of the friars (priests)? A. There was no morality whatever, and the story of immorality would take too long to recount. Great immorality and corruption. Q. Have you known of the children of friars being about in Bulacan? A. Yes, sir. About the year 1840 and the year 1850 every friar curate in the province of Bulacan had his concubine. Dr. Joaquin Gonzales was the son of a curate of Baliuag, and he has three sisters here and another brother, all children of the same friar. We do not look upon that as a discredit to a man. They were all of the same kind, and to name the number of children of the multitude of friars who came here from 1876 to 1896 and 1898 would take an immense amount of space. (Brothers and Sisters: I hope you understand why we are taking the time to read all of this. You are aware of how the Catholic Church has always preached this celibacy thing as a mandatory requirement of all priests and nuns of the Catholic Church, and the world looks upon that highly decorated and adored, and ritualized system of religion as the church started in the book of Acts. What a deception. Yet apostate Protestantism is falling for their deceiving tactics by the thousands. So let us take heed to the things we have heard, lest we be found caught up in a spirit of deception also. We will continue reading now.) There was a case, for instance, of the governor of the province of Bulacan named Canova; he was a man who was very strict in the performance of his official duty, an honest man and upright. He endeavored to put a stop to deportations by the friars, and they combined and called upon him in a body and asked him in a threatening manner if he desired to remain as governor of that province. He told them to go to hell; and they said: ‘Now, if you don’t want to stay here, you had better ask to be transferred to another province, because if you don’t leave voluntarily you will not remain here three months longer.’ A very short time after that he had to leave. Q. Did not the people become so accustomed to the relations which the friars had with the women that it really played very little part in their hostility to the friars? A. That contributed somewhat to the hostility of the people, and they carried things in this regard with a high hand, for if they should desire the wife or daughter of a man, and the husband and father opposed such advances, they would endeavor to have the man deported by bringing up false charges of being a filibuster or a Mason, and after succeeding in getting rid of the husband, they would, by foul or fair means, accomplish their purposes. I will cite a case that actually happened to us. It was the case of a first cousin of mine, Dona Soponce, who married a girl from Baliuag and went to live in Agonoy, and the local friar curate, who was pursuing his wife, got a position as registrar of the church, to have him occupied, in order that he might continue his advances with the wife. He succeeded in this undertaking and in getting the wife away from the husband, and afterwards had the husband deported to Puerto Princessa, where he was shot as an insurgent, and the friar continued to live with the widow and she bore him children. His name is Jose Martin, an Augustinian friar. I give the above as samples of the priests in the Philippines, where they have the right of way and where our government will not allow a Protestant teacher to read the Bible in his school or to talk Christianity. This is Romanism, pure and simple. To ask the devil if it is Christianity would insult him.” “The women in the convents,” remarks Savonarola, “are worse than the courtesans;” and Hesnaut, writing of Julius 2nd, speaks of that “prominent debauchee who, became Pope in 1503, will not take off his shoes on Good Friday, for the adoration of the cross, because his foot is eaten by the French disease, Pox.” “As I have remarked, no pope of this epoch was exempt from homosexual practices, with the possible exception of Pius 3rd, who, however, only wore the tiara twenty seven days.” “Pope Alexander 6th, was a notoriously immoral man who, beside his pederastic (perverted sex) exploits, and a few poisonings between, had only recently impregnated his own daughter, Lucretia. (Though like other priests he was a bachelor.) In our time, says Pontano, the sovereign Pontiff no doubt follows the example of Lot, who, the Hebrew historians state, had known his daughter carnally and rendered her pregnant. I will not dilate any further upon this subject, says Pontano, on account of the majesty of the pontifical seat.” “Princes, queens and popes, writes P. Garnier, toward the end of the fifteenth century, filled the world with their lewdness.” He mentions especially the foulness in unnameable villainy, of Sixtus 4th. “The last Sunday of October, in the evening, there supped with the Duke Valentinois, in his apartment of the Apostolic (papal) palace, fifty honest prostitutes. The latter, after the meal, danced with the servants and others of the company, at first dressed and afterwards stark naked.”

MYSTERY BABYLON

Saints: This is just a small portion of what is written here about the rottenness of the Catholic priesthood, and of the system in general, and we are only reading this much, because I realize that it could become very tiring to some of you. Nevertheless, we ought to thank God for these writings of history, for they are what makes the Catholic Church stand out so clearly in Bible prophecy. Knowing all of this, when we read in Revelation 17:1, where the angel said to John, Come hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: (people) with 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, we know that the terminology applies both physically as well as spiritually. Politically she is held in high esteem, but in the eyes of God, the Catholic Church is a whore, and she has a lot of daughters that are following right along in her footsteps. You may not like to hear it, but it is the truth just the same. John said he was carried away in the spirit into the wilderness where he saw a woman arrayed in purple and scarlet colors and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, sitting upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns, and she had in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. Being the dedicated old saint that he was, John still could not help but admire the beauty of what he saw. Yet, in spite of all the beauty, there was a lewdness that stood out also, and rightly so, for there has never been a more corrupt system of religion upon the face of the earth than the Catholic Church. She was further displayed before John, for he saw written upon her forehead a name, MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. He also saw that this woman was drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus Christ. So you tell me, could we find anywhere in the world, a system of religion that fits this description any better than the Catholic Church? Now, I realize some may say, I never heard anything bad about the Catholic Church. That is exactly why we are reading so much of this history; I do not want you hearing it just from me.

TESTIMONY FROM CUBA 1957

I am still going to read part of another chapter of some of the things that have taken place in nunneries and convents. As I understand it, they have both the open and the closed nunneries and convents. From the open ones nuns go out and work in hospitals, teach school, and such like. But in the closed convents, those young ladies are cut off completely from all outside knowledge and activity. Ceremonially they die a total and complete death to the outside world. Supposedly to be dedicated virgins to the Lord Jesus Christ; but in reality that is not the outstanding truth of the matter, for there have been some shameful stories come out of those places. Young women that thought they were dedicating their lives completely to God, found out much too late that they were in reality slaves to a bunch of depraved, demon possessed priests. We are going to read some of this so you can hear with your own ears what is written about them, but first I want to relate to you something that took place when we were in Cuba, in 1957. We pulled into a gas station to gas up the car and I just stepped out of the car waiting for the man to fill the tank and I saw this Cuban man sitting in a char over against the wall and heard him speak to our interpreter, but naturally, I did not know what he had said. But the interpreter turned to me and said, He wants to know if you are a Catholic missionary. I said, Tell him, No sir. When he told him that, the man replied, I was just going to say, if he was, I did not want a thing to do with him. Then in the interpreters own words, he told me what had happened in one of the Cuban cities by the name of Santa Clara, one of the large cities, a number of miles from where we were. Word leaked out of mistreatment and wrong doings inside this closed convent. The Cuban government sent soldiers in to investigate, and in the basement they found a secret passageway that led back into a long tunnel. Once inside, they found skeletons of little babies by the untold numbers lying everywhere. Those evil people had poured quick lime on the little things and just left them lying there. When the Cuban officials learned of this, they closed the convent completely for a period of time and many Cubans became very bitter toward the system that these represented. But up until Castro took over the country, Cuba had been under the complete influence of Roman Catholicism. I think some of you will remember what Castro did when he came to power. He deported three hundred Catholic priests back to Europe. I remember reading that in the newspaper at the time. So let us read here some of what is recorded in history of the things that have taken place in these convents.

ROME’S NUNNERIES AND CONVENTS

“One of the most shameful things in the history of crime and fraud is Rome’s treatment of women. From childhood, these women had been taught to believe that the nunneries and convents are exceedingly sacred, wonderfully like heaven. Their visions have been of joy, and rest, and holy calm; of sweet peace and grace, of sunshine and happiness, to her deluded ones. They are rather dens of iniquity, prison houses of oppression and shame. There are two kinds of convents, the open and teaching convent, whose occupants carry forward the work assigned them in the interest of the system. The other is the closed convent, which is simply a dark, forbidding jail; a prison-house of oppression and lust and infernality. The descriptions of Rome’s slave-pens by women who have made their escape are terrifying; they are heartbreaking. (Now this man relates the testimony of one of them.) Anna M. Lowry, who was for many years a teaching nun, gives some of her experiences, and relates some things she learned, in her book, “The Martyr in Black.” She says that in her convent experience in England, she found the sisters to be, with few exceptions, the off-scourings gathered from many parts of England and Ireland. These supposedly angelic doves, I found in reality, rough, coarse, underbred creatures, a disgrace to the holy name, woman. She tells us that unbelievable ignorance and superstition ran riot. The inmates regularly drank intoxicants at dinner and supper. Wine and liquor were reserved for feast days, the mere fact of their drinking not being so disgusting as the manner in which they drank. She mentions one covenant of which the former Superior was a “hopeless, bestial drunkard.” She states that the endless strife and superstition had sapped her individuality and strength, after six years of convent slavery. She speaks of another convent at which she spent a time until the place “was broken up because the Superior was a drunkard.” She tells us that there were “unpleasant conditions of malice, envy, petty meanness, deceit and heartless domination.” Her last experiences were in the convent at Guthrie, Oklahoma. She says that in pursuing her life’s story you will “read of the sordid surroundings, of envy and of grasping avarice, of ignorance and superstition, of the heartless peonage and the cruel secrecy of the roman Convent,” and from this you read veritable pen-pictures of every other Roman Catholic convent; that is, of the teaching and working orders of Catholic nuns. Elsewhere in her book, Miss Lowry gives a picture which she says depicts another peculiarly striking step in the ceremony, whereby, through a manmade process of superstition mummery, a frail, trusting, erring woman is duped into a lifelong belief that she is a spouse of Jesus Christ. The candidate, lying prostrate on the floor, is entirely covered with a black pall (thick cloth) upon which is a cloth cross of startling whiteness. During this prostration, the passion is read aloud and a bell is solemnly tolled. This ceremony of prostration signifies the death of the candidate to the world and is made as nearly as possible a reproduction of a Catholic burial service. She tells of their rising at 4 o’clock A.M., of their long spiritless mumbling of prayers in Latin for more than two hours till their breakfast at 7 A.M. She depicts a day of toil, without anything cheering or inspiring and with constant recurrence of those so called “devotions.” Such an endless grind would sap the life and mar the salvation of any intelligent being. But the experience of the teaching nun is nothing to be compared with that of the cloistered nun. She is simply in jail, where she is subject to the lusts and viscousness of the conscienceless priests. One of the saddest stories in literature is that of Barbara Ubruk. I should like to give it more space than I can; however, here is a brief outline, taken from “Center-Shots at Rome,” by George P. Rugledge. “I could talk for hours upon convent horrors. I could specify cases like that of Barbara Ubryk, who, as court records are reported to show, was confined in a living tomb, eight feet long and six feet wide, for twenty one years. According to the published story in booklet form, by L. J. King, she was never given water with which to bathe. She was kept half-starved and periodically she was beaten. Her garments rotted away and during a majority of those years, she had only nature’s raiment in the heat of summer and the cold of winter. The hair fell from her head; her nails became as birds’ claws; vermin ate her body, which was reduced to a skeleton; and she nearly lost her reason. And she was thus punished by the Mother Superior because, as a beautiful girl, she is alleged to have stubbornly withstood the infamous advances of her father confessor, the priest. The indignant Catholics, themselves, it is asserted, tried to demolish the convent. And the sleek, well-groomed priest, who, during all these twenty-one years enjoyed the confidence of his bishop and the best Catholic people is said to have committed suicide to escape the verdict of the court.” “That the cloistered nunneries are merely priestly harems, is evident from many sources; not only has it been charged by Protestants but converted Romanists in great numbers, both priests and nuns, and many Catholic writers, have denounced them as assignation houses.” “Many Catholic writers, as Father John Busch, Dr. Claude d’Espence, (member of the Paris Sarbonne) Nicholas de Clamenges (rector of the University of Paris.) St. Bridget, daughter of Berger, a Swedish prince, and Charles Borromeo, could be quoted. The story of Maria Monk and other converted nuns fully establish all the charges made by others, and every Romanish should be abundantly willing to accept the word of one of their infallible popes, namely, Gregory 7th, who said: “In these monasteries almost all religion has been laid aside, lust and carnal corruption between the males and the nuns have entered in, and many other vices which shame forbids us to speak of minutely.” “Many of the nuns commit fornication with the very monks who are placed in authority over them; and in the same monasteries many bring forth sons and daughters.” “What is most grievous is, not a few nuns destroy the children who see the light.” (Meaning of course, that probably most of them do.) Now Saints, I want to read to you two cases, actually records of what happened when they broke into these nunneries.

WHAT GOES ON IN THE NUNNERIES

“Modesty forbids me to say much concerning them (the nuns) which could be said, but instead of speaking of virgins dedicated to God, we should ourselves be dragged into the shameful discourse about brothels, the craft and wanton tricks of harlots, about lewd and incestuous deeds. I will not call the convents sanctuaries of God, but execrable stews of Venus, and receptacles where lascivious and shameless young men gratify their lusts, so that it is the same thing in our days, to put a nun’s veil on a girl, as to expose her to public prostitution.” “In 1843 a judicial investigation made in France, proved that the same conditions which produced immorality and crime in the nunneries of the middle Ages, produce it now.” “When the nunneries of Barcelona were suddenly opened several years ago, the nuns led their living children out and the news flashed through Christendom.” “Some of those Spanish nuns were in the delicate condition (with child) which caused so many of the Mexican nuns to hastily seek lying in hospitals, in 1914, their priestly paramours loudly asserting that Villa’s soldiers had soiled those doves of the temple.” (Pancho Villa, the Mexican revolutionist and his soldiers, were blamed for the condition those nuns were in, but I seriously doubt that anyone believed it. At least this next paragraph sounds that way.) “And while we were laughing at the way Roosevelt (Theodore) swallowed the priestly fable, an American nun was taken short, and had a baby in the ladies’ restroom of a Cincinnati department store.” “Human nature has never changed; unnatural restraints perpetually imposed upon red-blooded mortals, merely drive them to unnatural relations with the other sex.” The above quotations and most of the facts are from Thomas E. Watson’s tract, “WHAT GOES ON IN THE NUNNERIES.” A news item published in a New York paper, (April 10, 1915) mentions the demolition of a convent in Vera Cruz, Mexico. In the account, we read, “In the demolishing the old interior walls a few days ago, a horrible discovery was made. Niches were found in these walls, the masonry being of great thickness, and in the niches which had been sealed up, we found quantities of bones which we recognized as those of little children, mostly infants.” But this is nothing new. Time and again such things have been disclosed in the history of Romish convents, in France, in Spain and in other nations of Europe and South America. The murdered innocents of Rome will make a vast host when they are gathered in the final day of reckoning to face their priestly fathers and their deluded mothers – murderers all.

VESTAL VIRGINS OF ROME

Brothers and Sisters, I am going to give you a rest now from all of this reading, for I believe we have read enough to establish our point for now. But I realize that just to read all of this without some explanation from the Bible that would blend it all together into some sort of picture, might possibly lose its purpose, so let me just fill in a little right here. According to the histories of time, when the Christian faith went from the Jewish realm to the Gentiles, by the missionary endeavors of the apostle Paul, Rome had what was known as Vestal Virgins in their pagan temples, and even though they were supposed to be dedicated to a life of celibacy, it was known that this same sort of thing went on among them, as what we have been reading about, in the various convents. Those young girls were chosen to be priestesses in the temple when they were between the ages of six to ten years, and they served for thirty years. After that, they were free to marry and have children if they so desired, and that form of worship was continued by Rome until the 4th century of the Christian era. That is why it has been said by many that Roman Catholicism is nothing more than a mixture of some Christian teachings of the early church, blended together with Roman, pagan worship practices, and hand-me-down traditions of paganism. Their very religious forms and practices cultivate immorality. One of the first things Satan tried to do after he managed to get his agents into the Christian Church in the 2nd age with perverted teachings, was to destroy the morality of the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

MARY INSTEAD OF JESUS

Of course, I realize that these young Catholic girls do not go into those convents for the purpose of partaking in immoral practices, but after they are in there, and it is too late to turn back, one way or another, they are forced into situations such as we have been reading about, by ungodly priests that have no more of the Spirit of God in them than a rattlesnake does. Their attack on those young women is just as deadly as rattlesnake venom. But my point is, Rome has always had to have women in the picture whether it be outright pagan worship or so called Christian worship. That helps to explain why they have elevated Mary to the place they have. When you pin them down, they will say, Oh no, Mary is not our mediator; Jesus Christ is our mediator. But if you will notice their prayers, you will find that they are always directed to Mary, Pray for us sinners, Pray for us sinners. You never hear them say, Jesus; Pray for us sinners. Jesus Himself said, I will pray the Father; He never one time ever said, My mother will pray to me for you. No. I will pray to the Father. I was noticing in one of their books we have upstairs, they give certain prayers for the average Catholic person to pray. Every day, when they go out the door of their home they are to say, Hail Mary, and every time they see a statue of Mary in someone’s yard or wherever, they are to say, Hail Mary. Why is it always Hail Mary? Why do they never feel led to say, Thank you Jesus, Thank you Lord? I will tell you why. It is a legal way to deprogram the natural senses of scriptural reasoning and then put in that mind a perverted understanding of what looks like truth, but in reality is the farthest thing from the truth.

A MARKED MAN

I have read a great deal from history books concerning Roman Catholicism, and how it had such a hold on poor souls, especially in the midst of the Dark Ages and onward and how those old priests would do exactly what we read from these books here. They gained such high handed authority over their subjects that every king and every prince was afraid of the power of the Church. Everyone lived in constant fear as to what those old priests could and would do to them. Their confessional booths so much of the time were used just to gain information for their personal ambitions of blackmail and immorality and even those that knew what was going on were helpless to do anything about it because of the leverage they held over them. So it is easy to understand why the angel said to Daniel, that the little horn would wear out the saints of the most High and why Daniel saw him prevailing against them. Every predestined soul of every age has always had something in him, or her a the case may be to have certain feelings as to how he should live. Naturally, that would cause that person to stand out among all the rest, and eventually subject them to persecution and then many times to martyrdom for that old system did not allow any of that. You either had to be with them or they would find a way to cut you off. You can read in various histories how, in the Dark Ages, saints of God were slaughtered like animals at the butcher’s block. I was reading just this morning, how that the King of England, long before the break came between the King of England and the church. The King of England went to the Vatican to be crowned by the Pope of Rome and it plainly states that as this new King of England bowed on his knees before the Pope, the Pope placed the crown upon his head saying, (something like this) I now crown you King of England, and as he stood there looking at him, he hauled off and kicked the crown right off of him. Just to show him, (I suppose) I’m still more powerful than you are and don’t you forget it. This should let any reasonable person know that the Catholic Church is not the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, no matter how sweet and lovable this present pope appears to be. His predecessors have already got him marked. Therefore, knowing what they (his predecessors) have done in the past should help us better understand what the last one will do when he is anointed by Satan to fulfill all that is prophesied of him in the holy scriptures. That Satanic anointing will turn him into an evil tyrant, the meanest and most wicked of any that this old world have ever seen. And Brothers and Sisters, it is sad to say, but the Protestant denominations are trotting right along behind him. No wonder the Lord gave Bro. William Branham that vision of the bride passing in review, or preview, and those denominational churches, their women half naked, following a witch. The witch is none other than the Roman Catholic Church. They are following right after he. But I thank God for truth. We may not look like very much sitting down here and the dead end of Potters Road, but I will say this, I believe God has put something in our hearts that will stand the trials and tests of this life, and cause us to make ourselves ready to meet the bridegroom, when He comes to call us to the marriage supper. Do you believe that? Praise His Holy name! I am so thankful for the day he opened my blinded eyes and lifted me up out of sin and unbelief, took that old stubborn attitude from me that I had towards His word, and put something in my heart that makes me love very word written in it. Regardless of what is written, Paul said, “All scriptures is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. That the man of God (or woman) may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” I sure don’t find any authority given to the apostles, to kill, torture, or even believe what they taught though, do you? That is why it is so important that we actually do receive a true revelation of what the early church did teach. For when we are really put to the test, as some of us, if not all are sure to be, before we get out of here, it will not be sufficient to say, Brother Branham said, so and so. You had better have it in your heart as a living reality when that time comes, or you may just drift with the tide like so many others have.

HARVARD AND YALE – BIBLE SCHOOLS

Alright now, I said I would give you a rest from reading, but I did not say that I would not read any more. Did I? I believe we have some things here that you will be interested in hearing. This big book that I am holding in my hand is entitled, THE GLORIES OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. It was written by her own bishops and historians. I have had it in my possession for a long time now and I pretty well know what is in it. It was printed in 1835 and has the history of the church right from the day of Pentecost, in the book of Acts, right on up to the 19th century. Every movement, every reformer, and every person that stood out in the Reformation period whose life and ministry contributed to the coming out from the Catholic Church in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, is in here. Also, something else I never knew until I read it in here, Harvard and Yale Universities were both founded as Bible schools, where young men who felt a call to the ministry, could go to further their educations. Harvard was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in just 18 years after the first Christian pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. Then Yale was built in Connecticut, some 80 years after the Pilgrims landed and the reason why it was built, was because many times the ministers would get together for what we call a convention, (but they did not call it that) and Harvard was too far away for them all to go there. But it also was a Bible school at its founding. Just look what they are teaching in those two places today though; it is a disgrace to their founding fathers.

THE WICKED ONE

I want you to know also, that what we teach about the Catholic Church and the Antichrist is not some new idea that we have cooked up. For it may interest you to know, that right here in this book, after giving a long list of dignitaries that contributed material for its publication, it calls the Roman Catholic Church the mother of harlots, calls the Roman Catholic Church Pope the Antichrist, the man of sin, and the little horn of Daniel, chapter 7. Now I say, if they could teach that, way back there in 1835, thirty years before the Civil War was over, it proves that this present generation is spiritually blind as bats, or they could see it also. Their sophistication and education has blinded them to the truth. I will be reading from, or making reference to some of these books I have here, as we continue on, but first I want to go back into 2 Thessalonians once again, where in chapter 2, verse 7, Paul says, “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, (He is talking about the literal man, the Antichrist, in verse 8.) whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming: Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders.” As long as it was the mystery of iniquity working, it was only a Satanic spirit promoting Antichrist doctrines, and He who now letteth, or restraineth is the Holy Ghost. Only allowing him (Satan) to go so far. But when this grace age for Gentiles has run its course, the Holy Ghost will be taken out of the way and Satan can anoint his literal man for his endtime role to fulfill all scripture concerning the Antichrist. (Though he is never actually called the Antichrist in the scriptures.) Verse 9 lets us know that this Wicked one, (this son of perdition) will be coming into focus by a gradual process of Satanic powers, signs, and lying wonders. Therefore, we want to use the Bible and also these other books I have here and see if we can identify some of these particular signs and lying wonders and such things.

TRADITIONAL WORD OF GOD

In this Catholic book I have here, the Bible is referred to as the written word of God, handed to the Church by the early apostles. But it also explains that there is the traditional word, taught by the Catholic Church today, and that it is equal or superior in authority to the written word, due to the fact (as they explain it, but we know it is not a fact at all) that the Catholic popes are the continuation of the apostolic office that was given to the apostle Peter. They claim that since the death of Peter, every man that has occupied that papal office, has held the same authority that Peter held, and that the Holy Spirit has continued to reveal things to that office that was never recorded by Peter, nor any of the other original apostles, revelation for the church pertaining to the hour of time they supposedly received it. Therefore, in defense of the Bible, let me just say this, What the Catholic Church calls traditional word, is to them what tradition was to the Judiastic fathers in the days of the first advent of Christ. Do you remember what Jesus said to them? He said to the Scribes and Pharisees, You teach for doctrine, the commandments of men. Then in another statement, He said something like this, By your traditions, you annul the word of God. Now that is what the Catholic Church and her Protestant daughters are doing today. By their very man-made traditions, they make the true word of God of none effect to them. The Jewish nation had had the law of Moses for 1500 years and instead of living according to the law as it was given, they gave it ten thousand man-made interpretations, and forced everyone to follow their version of it. Do you think they were serving God with all those traditions? Absolutely not, and neither are these others who follow religious traditions. I tell you Saints, there is absolutely no excuse for any true child of God to be brainwashed by this Antichrist system of religion. Their priests have spent years of time just studying the traditions of their system, instead of the Bible where they could find the true word of God. From the testimony of some who have had opportunities to debate Catholic priests, I would say they (the priests) are just about like some of the preachers who preach Bro. William Branham all the time. They can hold their own in a debate on the books they study, but when they have to debate some man of God on the Bible, their head goes into a spin, and they are completely lost.

DECEPTIONS OF THE DECEIVED

One of the strong points of the Catholic Church is, and you hear it often, we are the oldest! Well, no one would deny that as long as you are talking about denominational churches, but if you go beyond that, I will have to say, you just simply do not know what you are talking about, for the true blood-washed church of the Lord Jesus Christ is not a denomination and those that are baptized into that church by the baptism of the Holy Ghost are in THE CHURCH that is older than the Catholic Church. The Pharisees also claimed to be the true representatives of the word of God because they were the oldest, but Jesus called them hypocrites, vipers, serpents, white-washed tombs full of envy and strife and all such like, so that ought to tell us something. Just being the oldest is not worth very much spiritually; being in the will of God with present revealed truth from His written word is what really has value to it. That is why Jesus just simply led a believing number of disciples right out of that old Judaistic system and straight into the will of God. By the same token, the Holy Spirit is leading God’s chosen ones right out of those systems of religion and straight into a true revelation of the word of God. One thing you will notice: true men of God are not afraid to preach against sin, afraid they will offend someone in the church. If they are in the assembly of the saints of God and their lives are caught up in sin, let them get offended. Did you know, before I ever really came to know the Lord Jesus Christ in reality, it made me feel so good to hear a preacher preach a sermon that never said a thing about those sinful things that unbelieving people do. It just sort of sets your mind at east and makes you feel good. In other words, it gives you a certain feeling of security, for you think, I’m not such a bad fellow after all. There is nothing wrong with me, for that preacher did not say one thing that made me feel bad. You can feel pretty good about yourself, if you never hear anything that makes you feel like you need to repent and get right with God. You can hardly find a carnal character anywhere that would not enjoy sitting in a church where they never preach against sin. But what did Jesus say in John 16, about the Comforter that was to come? He said He would reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment. Therefore, if you are sitting in a church somewhere and the Holy Spirit is not present to do that, you ought to flee from that place and let God lead you to some place where He still has something to say in the services. Now that brings us to another point. The Catholic church has a deceptive doctrine all worked out to the point where they can point an accusing finger at their parishioners and turn their sins into a monetary gain for their church. How? By selling indulgences. They have no interest in getting their people cleansed up from their sins. That would rob them of much of their income and deprive them of a vital source of blackmail information as we have already read from history. But Saints, do you realize what was the first thing Satan had to do in order to drag the church world into such a mess of darkness and tradition. He had to get that One God revelation out of the church before he could get all this other conglomeration of rituals and routines into it. Furthermore, the Catholic Church will plainly tell you that that trinity concept of the godhead is a profound mystery, revealed to them by God. Let me read it to you right from this Book. Listen. “This is a profound mystery, revealed to us by God. The Catholic Church teaches that in one God there are three persons; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; really distinct one from the other and equal in eternity, power, immensity, and all other perfections; because all the three persons have one and the same divine nature or essence. It would be a contradiction to assert that there are three Gods and one God, or that there are three persons and one person; but it is no contradiction to affirm that God is one in essence and three in personality. A thing can be one in one respect, and three in another respect. Thus, the human soul, though one, is threefold in its powers; namely, the understanding, the memory, and the will. Likewise, a man is one human being and threefold in its rational, animal and vegetative life. Comparisons, however, are necessarily imperfect upon such a subject as the blessed Trinity. It is a great mystery, surpassing all understanding, to be adoringly believed on earth, and to be understood only in heaven.” They cannot explain it, but there are no extremes they will not go to, in their efforts to cram such a doctrine down the throats of all who will listen to them. I say, when you have a genuine revelation of the Godhead, it is not at all hard to explain. Notice this next paragraph. “We are not able to understand how each of the three persons can be God, and yet that there is but one God. It should be borne in mind that many things exist also in nature which we cannot explain, or even comprehend, and yet know to be facts. Among such may be noted the nature of latent substance of bodies, the cause of gravitation, the attraction of the magnet, and the amazing power and swiftness of the electric current. Human reason cannot of itself discover or demonstrate that there are three persons in God and yet this revealed truth far from being repugnant to reason can be shown to agree with it. For God as an intelligent being of infinite perfection must naturally know Himself, and in Himself know all things. To this end He must form to Himself an inward word through which the effected.” There is still a lot that could be read on this, but we just simply do not have the room for it. They go on to tell how certain church fathers in the second and third centuries arose, attacking the revelation of the Godhead, trying to make God one, instead of three. Hallelujah! With their own words, they establish what we have been teaching all along; that over in the second and third centuries, some of those old saints still stood for the true revelation given to that first age. The only thing is, they make it sound like it was a trinity all along and those old saints tried to make it one instead of three. They condemn those who taught that God is only one, and call them heretics. There is also a chapter in here on the incarnation of God the Son, but remember, this is a false teaching also. There is no such thing as the incarnation of God the Son. Like I said earlier, it was the Son that was incarnated alright, but before the incarnation he was not God. He was only the perfect Son of God, obedient to Joseph and Mary, and in the perfect will of the Father (God) in all things.