Prophecy

Identification Mark

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Many years ago I read a book that was authored by a man that was supposedly one of the most successful sales trainers conducting seminars in large cities of the United States. During one of his seminars, he recognized a salesman who attended every year. Inquiring about the company he worked for and if any other of his colleagues were in attendance he discovered that this man was the top producer in his company. The younger salesmen that were invited felt that the course dealt with elements that were too fundamental and they did not have time to waste on things they had already studied. It was only the successful salesman that saw the necessity in reviewing the basics at least once a year.

Successful Bible workers must also review from time to time what they really understand and believe about the Bible. Jesus talked about this in Matthew 13:52. He said, “Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.” There are some people who only want to study about new things, failing to realize the importance of understanding those things that are basic and fundamental so that they will have them indelibly imprinted in their mind.

In this article we will consider five Bible facts.

  1. It is in this life before you die that whether you are saved or lost is determined. When a person dies, their position never changes. This fact is clear in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19–31.
  2. All who are alive in the final generation will worship either Christ or anti-christ. Revelation 13:8 reveals how many will worship anti-christ: “… all who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” All who are not saved will worship the anti-christ. Revelation 14:12 says, “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”
  3. There are three chapters in the Bible that identify the anti-christ power. The word anti-christ comes from two Greek words, “anti” and “christos.” The primitive meaning of the word anti is somebody or something that stands in the place of somebody else. Later on in history it came to mean against. Although most people today believe this later meaning, anti-christ is someone that stands in the place of Christ. Also, the Latin word that means the same as the word anti is the word vicar. So a vicar of Christ is anti-christ. The three chapters in the Bible that explain in detail who the anti-christ power is are Daniel 7, 2 Thessalonians 2, and Revelation 13.
  4. In the last generation every person will be marked. However, not all receive the same mark. Some will be marked for destruction and others will be marked for everlasting life. Revelation 7:1–4 talks about God’s children receiving a mark of deliverance which is called the seal of God. However, many people will not receive this mark but a different seal or mark. The other mark is described in Revelation 13:16 and 17. It says, “He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” In Revelation 14:9–12 the Lord says that if you receive this mark you will receive His wrath and suffer eternal separation from Him which is His judgment of condemnation.
  5. God raised up the second advent movement to prepare a people who would not receive the mark of the beast and who would live in a way that would prepare them to receive the seal of God.

To understand those last brief Bible points we first need to know who the beast is so we can avoid his mark. Then we need to understand what the seal of God is and how to receive it.

Who is this beast in Revelation 13 and 14? Revelation 13:1–10 gives a lengthy description of this beast. In fact, in just these 10 verses there are approximately 15 different descriptions or identifying marks of this beast or anti-christ. We know that it is an anti-christ because of what it says, “… then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven” (Revelation 13:6). This is an anti-christ power.

At the close of Revelation 13:2 it says, “… the dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.” In the Greek language it says, “his throne.” In some English translations it says, “his seat,” which means his seat of government or his throne.

Revelation 12 tells us the dragon is the devil, but although the devil is the chief anti-christ, he works through appointed or selected human agencies just as God works in this world through appointed or selected agencies. You will see that it was the devil in Revelation 12:1–6 who used Herod, the Roman governor, in an attempt to destroy Jesus Christ when He was born. Herod sent forth his soldiers to go to the homes in Bethlehem and kill the children two years old and under. It is a most horrible story. This was not a work that God authorized. This was the work of the dragon using the pagan Roman Empire to do his dastardly work. So the pagan Roman Empire in a secondary sense is the dragon.

During the first 300 years of Christianity the pagan Roman Empire attempted to obliterate all Christians and it was a miracle that they did not succeed. The capital of the Roman Empire had moved to Constantinople and in A.D. 532, 533, Justinian, the Roman governor, appointed the bishop of Rome to be the head of all the churches and gave three months for all to submit to his authority or get out of the Empire and be stripped of all of their possessions.

There were Christians who refused to submit to the bishop of Rome and his religion. They fled, leaving all of their possessions behind so that they could practice their religion in the way they saw fit. Many Christians lost their lives attempting to flee. Their enemies called them Aryans.

First fact: One of the key identifying marks of the beast is to receive its power from the dragon. We have already identified that Justinian did the work of the dragon. The Bishop of Rome then received his throne, his seat of government, and great authority. Justinian put him over all Christendom, declaring that everybody had to do what he said.

Second fact: We know in Revelation 13 that this power was a religious power because to submit to it involved worship.

Third fact: It says, “… all the world worshiped this power” (verses 3, 4). In other words, it is a world-wide religion. There is not a country in the whole world where the Roman Catholic church is not present today including Moslem, Hindu, and atheist countries.

Fourth fact: This power would receive a deadly wound. This happened in 1798 when Napoleon captured the pope.

Fifth fact: Its deadly wound would be healed. That happened in the earlier part of the 20th century.

Sixth fact: This power would speak great things. Remember the word anti-christ means someone who stands in the place of Christ. This power has stated in public, official documents: “In this world we stand in the place of God Almighty.” “We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty.” Pope Leo XIII Encyclical Letter, June 20, 1894.

Seventh fact: This power would continue for 42 months. It would make war with the saints and overcome them.

We will never know until the day of final judgment just how many people have been killed for religious reasons, not because they did anything wrong or transgressed any civil law, but simply because they refused to worship the way this power commanded them to worship God. The Society of Friends says that the number killed could be around 70 million, but it could have easily been many more. We do know of a few times when almost a million were killed, such as the massacre of Saint Bartholomew under Pope Innocent III. In one year the church was able to kill almost a million Waldenses.

Several years ago, it was my privilege to visit the headquarters of the Huguenots in southeastern France. The Huguenots were Protestants in the early days of the Protestant Reformation. There in the museum is recorded the history of the Huguenots and how they suffered at the hands of the church. In a 100-year period almost a million people were killed. That was just in France and did not include what happened in Italy, or England, and any other country. One Protestant historian made the statement: “The fact that the Church of Rome has shed more innocent blood than any other institution that has ever existed among mankind, will be questioned by no Protestant who has a competent knowledge of history.” History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe, Volume II, p. 32. Unfortunately, most people today do not have that knowledge of history.

The description of anti-christ continues in Revelation 13, stating that this power would receive authority over every tribe, tongue, and nation (verse 7), that all who dwell on the earth would worship him (verse 8), and that he who leads into captivity will go into captivity (verse 10). This latter event occurred in 1798 when the pope was led into captivity by the French. He died in Valence, France, in 1799.

There are a few other identifying marks in Revelation 13 not covered here, as a thorough reading of the chapter will reveal. However, it is not enough to know who the beast and anti-christ are; we must also know what constitutes the mark of the beast, mentioned in Revelation 13 and 14.

The basic principle of the Protestant was, “In religious matters we stick to the Bible and the Bible only.” One writer said, “The Bible and the Bible alone is the religion of Protestants.” William Chillingworth, 1602–1644.

This saying hit the papacy like a bomb. It was in a desperate situation because millions of people were leaving the Roman Catholic church. There were even some of their theologians who said, “We (the Catholic church) need to get back to the Bible and the Bible only.”

This caused a debate amongst the theologians, some of whom wanted to get back to the Bible and others who insisted that they hold on to their tradition. A council was convened to decide what to do about the Protestants, resulting in what is recorded in history as the Council of Trent. It was the lengthiest council ever held by the church. It did not meet continuously but lasted for 18 years, from 1545 to 1563. Protestantism at that time was a serious threat to the church.

A decision was finally made when, on the 18th of January, 1563, the Council of Trent ruled that tradition takes precedence over Scripture. A powerful speech was made by one of the arch-bishops in which he maintained that the fact that the church had changed the fourth commandment clearly proved that tradition was greater than Scripture. That was the argument: tradition was more important than God’s word.

During that time there were a number of famous debates or disputes between the Protestants and the Catholics. Martin Luther was a powerful debater however, there was one debate with Dr. Ek that he lost. Dr. Ek said, “If … the church has had power to change the Sabbath of the Bible into Sunday and to command Sunday-keeping, why should it not also have this power concerning other days, many of which are based on the Scriptures—such as Christmas, circumcision of the heart, three kings, etc. If you omit the latter, and turn from the church to the Scriptures alone, then you must keep the Sabbath with the Jews, which has been kept from the beginning of the world.” Dr. Eck’s Enchiridion, 1533, pp. 78, 79.

Martin Luther lost the debate. He could not answer that question because he was not a Sabbath keeper. The church claims that it was by her own authority that Rome changed the Sabbath. Her argument is that Protestants who say they adhere to the Bible and the Bible only are in error when they observe Sunday. The Catholic Church alone is responsible for Sunday observance.

The Augsburg confession, a Lutheran document written about 1530, acknowledges the following: “They [Roman Catholics] refer to the Sabbath Day, as having been changed into the Lord’s Day, contrary to the Decalogue, as it seems. Neither is there any example whereof they make more than concerning the changing of Sabbath Day. Great, say they, is the power of the Church, since it has dispensed with one of the Ten Commandments.” Augsburg Confession of Faith art. 28; written by Melanchthon, approved by Martin Luther, 1530; as published in The Book of Concord of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Many people do not understand the significance of the change of day but it is so important to the papacy that in the great hour of her crisis, the change of the Sabbath to Sunday was the deciding factor that determined which way the Catholic church would go. The Augsburg confession makes it clear that no example is held up so high by Catholics, so forcefully pointed to by them, as the change of the Sabbath. This fact has appeared in Roman Catholic publications over and over ever since that time. For example, in 1856, a Roman Catholic publication said, “The command to keep holy the seventh day is one of the Ten Commandments. You believe that the other nine are still binding. Who gave you (the Protestants) the authority to tamper with the fourth?” Library of Christian Doctrine: Why Don’t You Keep Holy the Sabbath-Day? (London: Burns and Oates, Ltd.), pp. 3, 4. Good question!

A Roman Catholic document in 1868 said, “It was the Catholic church which, by the authority of Jesus Christ, has transferred this rest to the Sunday. … Thus the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the [Catholic] church.” Plain Talk About the Protestantism of Today, by Mgr. Louis Segur, 1868, p. 213.

A Roman Catholic spokesperson wrote the following in 1903: “It is well to remind the Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and all other Christians that the Bible does not support them anywhere in their observance of Sunday. Sunday is an institution of the Roman Catholic church and those who observe the day observe a commandment of the Catholic church.” Priest Brady, in an address, reported in the Elizabeth, NJ ‘News’ on March 18, 1903.

The Catholic catechism, which is used for education, said the following in 1876:

Question – “Have you any other way of proving that the church has power to institute festivals of precept?”

Answer – “Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all other religionists agree with her. She could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.” Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism 3rd ed., p. 174.

Around the turn of the 19th century, Cardinal Gibbons, who was head of the Catholic church in the United States, had a chancellor who was responsible for answering letters on his behalf. In a letter sent in 1895, he was asked whether the act of changing the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday was recognized by Rome as a mark of power. On October 28, 1895, this was his reply:

“Of course the Catholic church claims that the change (from Sabbath to Sunday) was her act and is a mark of her ecclesiastical power and authority in religious matters.”

The Bible agrees that this is the mark of her authority. Daniel 7:25 states that this would be the mark of authority of anti-christ. Under the symbol of the little horn it says, “He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and laws. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time.”

Notice it says, “he shall intend.” He tries to change a law that actually cannot be changed. We are not talking about human laws. The papacy has changed human laws so many times that they probably could never be counted, but he intends to change a law that actually cannot be changed. In Revelation 13:15–17 you will see a great crisis is coming upon our world, where there will be an attempt to force everyone alive to accept this mark of authority. To accept it would be a mark of submission to the power that changed the day of worship—the papacy. To force everybody to accept that mark, a law must be made to worship on Sunday.

Revelation 13:16, last part, describes two places where this mark can be received—in the forehead or in the hand. In fulfillment of this prophecy, every nation in the world will pass a Sunday law. The only people who do not receive the mark will be those who receive the seal of God. Revelation 13:8 says that all whose names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life are going to worship this power. Romans 6:16 tells us how people will be submitting to this power: It says, “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” When put into place, the Sunday law is going to divide the whole world into two classes—those who obey God and those who do not. Whom do you obey?

After the law is passed, pressure will be put on the people to obey it. Revelation 13:16, 17 says that unless you submit, you will not be able to buy or sell. During the Second World War when rationing was in force, God’s people thought they understood a little of how the government could prevent a person from buying and selling, but that was nothing compared with what is possible today. Today, many things cannot be purchased without showing a card, whether it is a driver’s license, or a credit card for identification. Cards can be scanned instantly into a central computer and if your name is flagged you will not be able to buy a thing. Many people will fold from their commitment under such a test. They may not believe it at all but will compromise in order to be able to continue buying and selling.

But the Lord states in His word that by accepting this mark, you are living in violation of His Law. And if you do accept this mark, you are also going to accept something from Him. That is written in Revelation 14:9–12 where it says, if you receive this mark, you are going to receive of God’s wrath. People are not yet receiving the mark today because the law has not yet been passed. But the time is coming when religious laws will be made in America. Other countries will follow suit. When there is an attempt made to force people to accept this mark and they understand the truth about the third angel’s message, then all must decide whom they will serve.

Those who accept the third angel’s message are described in Revelation 14:12: “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” The one that you worship is the one to whom you submit and obey. By submitting to the beast power and receiving this mark, you cast a special dishonor upon your Creator.

The whole theme from Revelation 13 to the end of the book of Revelation is the seal of God versus the mark of the beast. What you receive determines your destiny. Will you receive the mark of the beast or the seal of God? This is important enough that it forms the major theme of the last half of the book of Revelation, which describes the end-time scenes of our world’s history. Those that accept the mark of the beast will be in the great majority.

Revelation 12:17 says, “And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the remnant (offspring) of her seed, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (literal translation). It continues in Revelation 13:1 where John saw the dragon, a symbol for the mass of the world’s population rising out of the sea. Those that keep the commandments of God are described as a remnant, or the rest of her offspring. Revelation 15:2, 3 describes the people who receive the seal of God. It says: “… I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb. …” These are the people that are saved. They are protected and secure, acknowledged by all heaven that they do not belong to this world but the heavenly kingdom, part of the kingdom of Christ. When Jesus comes back they will be taken out of this world and be with Him.

In speaking of Abraham in Romans 4:11, it says: “… he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also.” Notice, he received a sign, which is also called a seal. The words are interchangeable.

God also has a seal. The Sabbath is God’s sign or seal. This was told to God’s people clear back when the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt. “Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord Who sanctifies you.’ ” Exodus 31:13. This seal sets you apart and makes you holy.

Verse 17 says, “It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.” The Sabbath is called God’s sign. It identifies His people. Ezekiel 20:12 says, “Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me, that they might know that I am the Lord Who sanctifies them.” Verse 20 says, “Hallow My Sabbaths, and they will be a sign between Me and You, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.”

There is a misunderstanding that God’s seal is the Holy Spirit. The New Testament teaches that you are sealed by the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit is not the seal. God’s seal or sign is the Sabbath. God’s people are those that keep His commandments and have the faith of Jesus (Revelation 14:12). Revelation 12:17 says the same thing. God’s people in the last days are the people that keep His commandments. They could not be thus described if they break one.

James says in James 2:10 that if you keep the whole law and offend in one you are guilty of all. The ten commandments are not ten laws but just one law with ten parts. If you break any one of them you are a commandment breaker. This is spelled out in James 2:10–12. People with a shallow understanding have interpreted James as saying if you keep the Sabbath you will receive the seal of God. Exodus 20:8 starts out by saying, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy …” Can you keep the Sabbath holy while living a wicked life contrary to the other commandments? No. You cannot keep the Sabbath holy unless you are holy.

The ten commandments are God’s definition of holiness and a holy person is one who is in harmony with the commandments.

Many people say it is just a day but it is a day that determines whose side of the great controversy you are on. All must come to a decision. Are you on God’s side?

(Unless appearing in quoted references or otherwise identified, Bible texts are from the New King James Version.)

Pastor John J. Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church of Free Seventh-day Adventists in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by email at: historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

The Dragon Pursues the Woman

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Satanic agencies confederated with evil men in leading the people to believe Christ the chief of sinners, and to make Him the object of detestation. Those who mocked Christ as He hung upon the cross were imbued with the spirit of the first great rebel. He filled them with vile and loathsome speeches. He inspired their taunts. But by all this he gained nothing.

“Could one sin have been found in Christ, had He in one particular yielded to Satan to escape the terrible torture, the enemy of God and man would have triumphed. Christ bowed His head and died, but He held fast His faith and His submission to God. ‘And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night’ (Revelation 12:10).

“Satan saw that his disguise was torn away. His administration was laid open before the unfallen angels and before the heavenly universe. He had revealed himself as a murderer. By shedding the blood of the Son of God, he had uprooted himself from the sympathies of the heavenly beings. Henceforth his work was restricted. Whatever attitude he might assume, he could no longer await the angels as they came from the heavenly courts, and before them accuse Christ’s brethren of being clothed with the garments of blackness and the defilement of sin. The last link of sympathy between Satan and the heavenly world was broken.” The Desire of Ages, 760, 761.

“When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.” “The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days”—“a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach” (Revelation 12:13, 6, 14).

Who was this woman (church) that Satan pursued into the wilderness for 1,260 years? Soon after Jesus opened His public ministry He “went up on a mountainside and called to Him those He wanted, and they came to Him. He appointed twelve”—designating them apostles—“that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach” (Mark 3:13, 14). “The first step was now to be taken in the organization of the church that after Christ’s departure was to be His representative on earth.” Ibid., 291.

At the close of His ministry on earth, Jesus gave His life on the cross. Through His shed blood, He gained authority to “rule all the nations with an iron scepter” (Revelation 12:5). With this authority, Jesus commissioned His disciples saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:18–20).

Soon after He gave them their commission, He “was snatched up to God and to His throne” (Revelation 12:5). While the disciples were watching, “He was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid Him from their sight” (Acts 1:9).

This newly organized apostolic church grew very rapidly baptizing 3,000 in one day, this rapid growth raised the need for more workers to be appointed for the church. So the apostles said to the church members, “Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word (Acts 6:3, 4).

“The appointment of the seven to take the oversight of special lines of work, proved a great blessing to the church. These officers gave careful consideration to individual needs as well as to the general financial interests of the church, and by their prudent management and their godly example they were an important aid to their fellow officers in binding together the various interests of the church into a united whole.

“That this step was in the order of God, is revealed in the immediate results for good that were seen. ‘The word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.’ ” The Acts of the Apostles, 89, 90.

Satan, knowing that Jesus had gained the victory over him by His death on the cross, and seeing the rapid growth of the church, became alarmed that he was losing control over the people of this earth. In desperation, “he pursued the woman [the true church] who had given birth to the male child” (Revelation 12:13).

Very early in the development of the Christian church, Satan began his attack on the purity and character of the woman (this true church) who was standing on the moon, clothed with the sun of righteousness. Jesus Himself warned the disciples to be on the alert, for deceivers and false prophets would enter the church. He said, “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.” “At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:10–13).

The extent and seriousness of the apostasy is witnessed by the fact that all the New Testament writers speak of this problem.

Paul counseled the Thessalonians saying, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition” (2 Thessalonians 2:3, 10). [Emphasis supplied.]

To the Galatians, he writes, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ” (Galatians 1:6, 7).

Paul discusses the subject in both of his letters to Timothy. In his second letter to Timothy, he warns, “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away” (2 Timothy 3:1–5 NKJV)!

Peter indicates that many will become involved in this apostasy. “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words” (2 Peter 2:1–3 NKJV).

Luke, who traveled with Paul much of the time, tells of Paul’s instruction to the Ephesian church. “For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears” (Acts 20:29–31 NKJV).

Jude very graphically describes these apostate leaders. “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 3, 4 NKJV). “They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever” (Jude 12, 13).

The apostle John refers to this great apostasy as the spirit of the Antichrist. “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world” (I John 4:1–3 NKJV). [Emphasis added.]

There are many more texts that could be cited by these writers, which give evidence of Satan’s ruthless attack on that early apostolic church. His pursuit of the woman continued for centuries until only a remnant of faithful believers was left.

There is another very graphic description of Satan’s war against this young Christian church. It is found in Revelation 6.

“I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, ‘Come!’ I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.

“When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, ‘Come!’ Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword.

“When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, ‘Come!’ I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, ‘A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!’

“When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, ‘Come!’ I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth” (Revelation 6:1–8).

Because the first horse is white, there are some who believe that the first seal is a depiction of the Christian church going forth to conquer the world for Christ. There are at least three reasons why this cannot be a correct interpretation of these verses. When the weight of evidence is considered, it will be seen that these four seals reveal Satan’s attack on the apostolic church during which time he turned it into the “synagogue of Satan” (Revelation 2:9; 3:9).

  1. There are two things that are common to the first four seals. They are the riders and the horses. The item that changes in each seal is the color of the horse. It should be noted that the color does not include the rider. There is no evidence to support the view that the rider represents two different beings, such as Christ in the first seal and Satan in other seals. The rider is simply unidentified in the first three seals, but he is finally identified in the fourth seal.
  2. The fact that the rider is unidentified is a second reason that he does not represent Christ. Christ never works in secret. He always identifies Himself. He wants everyone to know Who He is so they can come to Him with their sins and have them washed away with His blood. He says, “I have spoken openly to the world; I always taught in synagogues, and in the temple, where all the Jews come together; and I spoke nothing in secret” (John 18:20 NASB).
  3. A third reason that these riders do not represent Christ is that they are bent on conquest by force. They are all riding horses, which in scripture represent conquest and war. The first rider is carrying a bow, a weapon of war, and is bent on conquest by force. The second rider held a large sword and took peace from the earth and caused men to slay each other. The third rider had a pair of scales (balances) in his hand. The fourth rider named Death, with Hades following him, was given power to kill by sword, famine, and plague.

These four riders have the same objective—to rule by force. To rule by force is foreign to the government of heaven. The government of heaven is ruled by love. God loved the world so much that He gave His Son to redeem it. By self-sacrificing love, Jesus gained the victory over Satan when He gave His life on the cross. These riders are performing just the opposite to the principles of heaven.

In the fourth seal, Death is personified to represent Satan, the originator or cause of death in this world. Hades is personified to represent all the forces of evil; that is, all of the fallen angels. It could also include all the other followers of Satan.

When Satan began his attack on the young Christian church, it had a pure message of truth, represented by the color of the first horse. The central message of the church was Jesus, the Lamb of God, Who gave His life for the sins of the world. They told how He ascended to heaven to open the holy place of the sanctuary to begin His work as our advocate and high priest to receive and remove the confessed sins of His people on earth. Satan was so successful in obliterating this doctrine that by A.D. 1844 no one on the earth knew that there was a sanctuary in heaven. …

The apostolic church did not long remain in this pure state of truth. As we cited above, all the writers of the New Testament were concerned about the false prophets, the deceivers, and the errors that were creeping into the church. This phenomenon is represented by the red color of the second horse, red being a symbol of sin (Isaiah 1:18).

The third horse is colored black. In the Bible, black represents a condition in which there is an absence of light—the light of truth. At the time of the third seal, the church had drifted so far into sin that God could find no light of truth left in it. And like Belshazzar of ancient Babylon, there comes a time when God will weigh our characters in the balances of the sanctuary. If the one weighed is found wanting, God casts him or her aside. That is what happened to the apostolic church.

During the time of the third seal (Revelation 6:5)—the third horse—the light of truth was turned into error, but “the archdeceiver had not completed his work. He was resolved to gather the Christian world under his banner and to exercise his power through his vicegerent, the proud pontiff who claimed to be the representative of Christ. Through half-converted pagans, ambitious prelates, and world-loving churchmen he accomplished his purpose.” The Great Controversy, 53.

In the time of the fourth seal (Revelation 6:7, 8), we see Death (Satan) and Hades (fallen angels) in charge of the church. Professing to be Christian, this once-pure church had come under the leadership of Satan.

They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth (Revelation 6:8).

“In the sixth century the papacy had become firmly established. Its seat of power was fixed in the imperial city, and the bishop of Rome was declared to be the head over the entire church. Paganism had given place to the papacy. The dragon had given to the beast ‘his power, and his seat, and great authority’ (Revelation 13:2). And now began the 1,260 years of papal oppression foretold in the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation. (See Daniel 7:25; Revelation 13:5–7.) … Christians were forced to choose either to yield their integrity and accept the papal ceremonies and worship, or to wear away their lives in dungeons or suffer death by the rack, the fagot, or the headsman’s ax. Now were fulfilled the words of Jesus: ‘Ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for My name’s sake’ (Luke 21:16, 17). Persecution opened upon the faithful with greater fury than ever before, and the world became a vast battlefield. For hundreds of years the church of Christ found refuge in seclusion and obscurity. Thus says the prophet: ‘The woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three-score days’ (Revelation 12:6).” The Great Controversy, 54, 55.

This power is represented as “a little horn” (Daniel 7:8, 25) who thought “to change the set times and the laws.” It was during this time that the papacy changed the day of worship from the seventh day Sabbath to Sunday—the first day of the week—in fulfillment of the prophecy of Daniel 7:25. John was also shown this same power represented as a beast coming up out of the sea. (See Revelation 13:1–10.) The characteristics of this beast are the same as those of the little horn in Daniel 7:8, 25. The 1,260-year period in Daniel 7:25 and Revelation 12:6, 14 is the same as the forty-two months in Revelation 13:5. The papacy is also represented as a stern-faced king in Daniel 8:23. …

High Priest & Coming King, by Maurice Hoppe, 48–56.

(Unless appearing in quoted references or otherwise identified, Bible texts are from the New International Version.)

Maurice Hoppe is Director of the Steps to Life training programs and a member of the Steps to Life Board. The Training Program for Ministers and Church Leaders is a correspondence course that prepares individuals to serve as pastors or Bible workers. Preparing for the Final Conflict is a correspondence course for the laity. Both of these courses teach present truth that will be an anchor for the soul during the storm of opposition and persecution just ahead. He and his wife also have a correspondence course offered through Revelation Ministry. He can be contacted at: mauricehoppe@stepstolife.org.

Is Religious Liberty Really Under Attack?

by

The Spirit of Prophecy provides significant warning against the gradual erosion of religious liberty.

“The people of the United States have been a favored people; but when they restrict religious liberty, surrender Protestantism, and give countenance to popery, the measure of their guilt will be full, and ‘national apostasy’ will be registered in the books of heaven.” The Review and Herald, May 2, 1893

The following is quoted directly from www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/current-threats-to-religious-liberty.cfm, the website maintained by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

During his September 2015 visit to the United States, Pope Francis emphasized the importance of religious freedom, saying in front of the White House that religious “freedom remains one of America’s most precious possessions. And, as my brothers, the United States Bishops, have reminded us, all are called to be vigilant, precisely as good citizens, to preserve and defend that freedom from everything that would threaten or compromise it.”

Although Americans generally do not face the kind of violent persecution endured by many people of faith around the world, Pope Francis has recently spoken of a “polite persecution” that many people face, as “when someone is persecuted not for confessing Christ’s name, but for wanting to demonstrate the values of the Son of God.” Religious freedom continues to be threatened in the U.S.:

  • HHS mandate for sterilization, contraception, and abortion-inducing drugs. The mandate of the Department of Health and Human Services forces religious institutions to facilitate or fund a product contrary to their own moral teaching. Further, the federal government tries to define which religious institutions are “religious enough” to merit protection of their religious liberty.
  • Catholic foster care and adoption services. Boston, San Francisco, the District of Columbia, and the State of Illinois forced local Catholic Charities out of adoption or foster care services—by revoking their licenses, ending government contracts, or both—because they refused to place children with same-sex couples or unmarried opposite-sex couples who cohabit.
  • State immigration laws. Several states have passed laws that forbid what they call “harboring” undocumented immigrants—and what the Church deems Christian charity and pastoral care to immigrants.
  • Discrimination against small church congregations. New York City adopted a policy that barred the Bronx Household of Faith and other churches from renting public schools on weekends for worship services, even though non-religious groups could rent the same schools for other uses.
  • Discrimination against Catholic humanitarian services. After years of excellent performance by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Migration and Refugee Services (MRS) in administering contract services for victims of human trafficking, the federal government changed its contract specifications to require MRS to provide or refer for contraceptive and abortion services in violation of Catholic teaching.
  • Christian students on campus. In its over-100-year history, the University of California Hastings College of Law has denied student organization status to only one group, the Christian Legal Society, because it required its leaders to be Christian and to abstain from sexual activity outside of marriage.

Pope Francis has asked American Catholics to preserve and defend religious freedom, both in the United States and throughout the world.

After reading the above document, one could assume that Rome has changed. One might be inclined to believe that the warnings given in the Spirit of Prophecy are no longer valid, a thing of the past. Indeed, many professed Seventh-day Adventists assert that Rome is no longer the threat to religious liberty that she was during the persecutions of the Dark Ages. However, it is imperative to remember that the great controversy is a battle between Christ and Satan for the souls of men, a battle between principalities and powers.

A review of the admonitions, warnings, counsels, and testimonies given by God to His faithful commandment keepers through His prophet to the remnant should reawaken in us a fearful apprehension of the underlying intent of Romanism.

“And let it be remembered, it is the boast of Rome that she never changes. The principles of Gregory VII and Innocent III are still the principles of the Roman Catholic Church. And had she but the power, she would put them in practice with as much vigor now as in past centuries. Protestants little know what they are doing when they propose to accept the aid of Rome in the work of Sunday exaltation. While they are bent upon the accomplishment of their purpose, Rome is aiming to re-establish her power, to recover her lost supremacy. Let the principle once be established in the United States that the church may employ or control the power of the state; that religious observances may be enforced by secular laws; in short, that the authority of church and state is to dominate the conscience, and the triumph of Rome in this country is assured.” The Great Controversy, 581.

“Had the Reformation, after attaining a degree of success, consented to temporize to secure favor with the world, it would have been untrue to God and to itself, and would thus have ensured its own destruction. The experience of these noble Reformers contains a lesson for all succeeding ages. Satan’s manner of working against God and His word has not changed; he is still as much opposed to the Scriptures being made the guide of life as in the sixteenth century. In our time there is a wide departure from their doctrines and precepts, and there is need of a return to the great Protestant principle—the Bible, and the Bible only, as the rule of faith and duty. Satan is still working through every means which he can control to destroy religious liberty. The antichristian power which the protesters of Spires rejected is now with renewed vigor seeking to re-establish its lost supremacy. The same unswerving adherence to the word of God manifested at that crisis of the Reformation is the only hope of reform today.” Ibid., 204, 205.

“Roger Williams was respected and beloved as a faithful minister, a man of rare gifts, of unbending integrity and true benevolence; yet his steadfast denial of the right of civil magistrates to authority over the church, and his demand for religious liberty, could not be tolerated. The application of this new doctrine, it was urged, would ‘subvert the fundamental state and government of the country.’ He was sentenced to banishment from the colonies, and, finally, to avoid arrest, he was forced to flee, amid the cold and storms of winter, into the unbroken forest.

“ ‘For fourteen weeks,’ he says, ‘I was sorely tossed in a bitter season, not knowing what bread or bed did mean.’ But ‘the ravens fed me in the wilderness,’ and a hollow tree often served him for a shelter. Thus he continued his painful flight through the snow and the trackless forest, until he found refuge with an Indian tribe whose confidence and affection he had won while endeavoring to teach them the truths of the gospel.

“Making his way at last, after months of change and wandering, to the shores of Narragansett Bay, he there laid the foundation of the first state of modern times that in the fullest sense recognized the right of religious freedom. The fundamental principle of Roger Williams’s colony was ‘that every man should have liberty to worship God according to the light of his own conscience.’ His little state, Rhode Island, became the asylum of the oppressed, and it increased and prospered until its foundation principles—civil and religious liberty—became the cornerstones of the American Republic.” Ibid., 294, 295.

“Among the Christian exiles who first fled to America and sought an asylum from royal oppression and priestly intolerance were many who determined to establish a government upon the broad foundation of civil and religious liberty. Their views found place in the Declaration of Independence, which sets forth the great truth that ‘all men are created equal’ and endowed with the inalienable right to ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ And the Constitution guarantees to the people the right of self-government, providing that representatives elected by the popular vote shall enact and administer the laws. Freedom of religious faith was also granted, every man being permitted to worship God according to the dictates of his conscience. Republicanism and Protestantism became the fundamental principles of the nation. These principles are the secret of its power and prosperity. The oppressed and downtrodden throughout Christendom have turned to this land with interest and hope. Millions have sought its shores, and the United States has risen to a place among the most powerful nations of the earth.” Ibid., 441.

“The papal church will never relinquish her claim to infallibility. All that she has done in her persecution of those who reject her dogmas she holds to be right; and would she not repeat the same acts, should the opportunity be presented? Let the restraints now imposed by secular governments be removed and Rome be reinstated in her former power, and there would speedily be a revival of her tyranny and persecution.

“A well-known writer speaks thus of the attitude of the papal hierarchy as regards freedom of conscience, and of the perils which especially threaten the United States from the success of her policy:

“ ‘There are many who are disposed to attribute any fear of Roman Catholicism in the United States to bigotry or childishness. Such see nothing in the character and attitude of Romanism that is hostile to our free institutions, or find nothing portentous in its growth. Let us, then, first compare some of the fundamental principles of our government with those of the Catholic Church.

“ ‘The Constitution of the United States guarantees liberty of conscience. Nothing is dearer or more fundamental. Pope Pius IX, in his Encyclical Letter of August 15, 1854, said: “The absurd and erroneous doctrines or ravings in defense of liberty of conscience are a most pestilential error—a pest, of all others, most to be dreaded in a state.” The same pope, in his Encyclical Letter of December 8, 1864, anathematized “those who assert the liberty of conscience and of religious worship,” also “all such as maintain that the church may not employ force.”

“ ‘The pacific tone of Rome in the United States does not imply a change of heart. She is tolerant where she is helpless. Says Bishop O’Connor: “Religious liberty is merely endured until the opposite can be carried into effect without peril to the Catholic world.” … The archbishop of St. Louis once said: “Heresy and unbelief are crimes; and in Christian countries, as in Italy and Spain, for instance, where all the people are Catholics, and where the Catholic religion is an essential part of the law of the land, they are punished as other crimes.” …

“ ‘Every cardinal, archbishop, and bishop in the Catholic Church takes an oath of allegiance to the pope, in which occur the following words: “Heretics, schismatics, and rebels to our said lord (the pope), or his aforesaid successors, I will to my utmost persecute and oppose.” ’—Josiah Strong, Our Country, ch. 5, pars. 2–4.

“It is true that there are real Christians in the Roman Catholic communion. Thousands in that church are serving God according to the best light they have. They are not allowed access to His word, and therefore they do not discern the truth. They have never seen the contrast between a living heart service and a round of mere forms and ceremonies. God looks with pitying tenderness upon these souls, educated as they are in a faith that is delusive and unsatisfying. He will cause rays of light to penetrate the dense darkness that surrounds them. He will reveal to them the truth as it is in Jesus, and many will yet take their position with His people.

“But Romanism as a system is no more in harmony with the gospel of Christ now than at any former period in her history. The Protestant churches are in great darkness, or they would discern the signs of the times. The Roman Church is far-reaching in her plans and modes of operation. She is employing every device to extend her influence and increase her power in preparation for a fierce and determined conflict to regain control of the world, to re-establish persecution, and to undo all that Protestantism has done. Catholicism is gaining ground upon every side. See the increasing number of her churches and chapels in Protestant countries. Look at the popularity of her colleges and seminaries in America, so widely patronized by Protestants. Look at the growth of ritualism in England and the frequent defections to the ranks of the Catholics. These things should awaken the anxiety of all who prize the pure principles of the gospel.

“Protestants have tampered with and patronized popery; they have made compromises and concessions which papists themselves are surprised to see and fail to understand. Men are closing their eyes to the real character of Romanism and the dangers to be apprehended from her supremacy. The people need to be aroused to resist the advances of this most dangerous foe to civil and religious liberty.” Ibid., 564–566. [Emphasis author’s.]

“Through His servants, God gave the Jewish people a last opportunity to repent. He manifested Himself through His witnesses in their arrest, in their trial, and in their imprisonment. Yet their judges pronounced on them the death sentence. They were men of whom the world was not worthy, and by killing them the Jews crucified afresh the Son of God. So it will be again. The authorities will make laws to restrict religious liberty. They will assume the right that is God’s alone. They will think they can force the conscience, which God alone should control. Even now they are making a beginning; this work they will continue to carry forward till they reach a boundary over which they cannot step. God will interpose in behalf of His loyal, commandment-keeping people.” The Desire of Ages, 630.

The men whom God chose to establish the laws that serve as the very foundation of the government of this country recognized that steps needed to be taken to avoid the sins of the past to the fullest extent possible. That same spirit of caution was instilled in those who fought valiantly for the freedoms from tyranny our forefathers held in such esteem. So adamant were they in their defense of those freedoms that they refused to ratify the Constitution in its original form. They insisted that before they could support a government on which it was based, it must contain assurances of protection of those freedoms.

As a result, what is known as the Bill of Rights was added. They constitute the first ten amendments and begin with these stirring words:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

“… make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …”

“… it is the boast of Rome that she never changes …” The Great Controversy, 581.

“By the decree of enforcing the institution of the papacy in violation of the law of God, our nation will disconnect herself fully from righteousness. When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 451.

John Pearson is the office manager and a board member of Steps to Life. After retiring as chief financial officer for the Grand Canyon Association, Grand Canyon, Arizona, he moved to Wichita, Kansas, to join the Steps to Life team. He may be contacted by email at: johnpearson@stepstolife.org.

Is the Virgin Mary Dead or Alive? Chapter 20

by Danny Vierra

Is the Virgin Mary Dead or Alive booklChapter 20 – Epilogue– The Three Angels’ Messages

Before I conclude this book, I would like to say that I love Catholics. In fact, most of my family are Roman Catholic. My message is not, therefore, an attack on Catholic people, but an unmasking of the Roman Catholic system as antichrist. There are many people connected with this religious denomination that are indeed true Christians. It is not my intention, in any way, to judge the hearts of these individuals, but to expose the system in which they worship, especially at a time in which it seeks to impose its Babylonian system worldwide in a New World Order. At such a time as this, the following Scripture applies: “For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” (Rev. 18: 5).

Many times my own parents have asked me the question: “Why must you write about another person’s beliefs; why knock their church?” Believe me, friends, I take no pleasure in exposing the sins of Babylon, but consider it a mandate from God, since Antichrist has attempted to usurp His throne and authority, and the multitudes that follow it will be lost as a result. Others will say, “This is not love, and you profess to be a Christian!” Always remember the following: “True love seeks first the honor of God and the salvation of souls. Those who have this love will not evade the truth to save themselves from the unpleasant results of plain speaking. When souls are in peril, God’s ministers will not consider self, but will speak the word given to speak, refusing to excuse or palliate evil.” (Prophets and Kings, pp. 141, 142). On the battlefield of Good vs. Evil, Right vs. Wrong, and Truth vs. Error, with eternal destiny at stake, does anyone dare to claim immunity from critical examination of false beliefs simply because they are part of a religion? After all, this is at the very heart of what “the great controversy between Christ and Satan” is all about!

Friends, the war between Christ and Satan is ages old. Revelation 12: 7 says: “There was war in heaven: Michael [Christ— see Jude 9, I Thess. 4: 16, and John 5: 26- 29] and His angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels.” Thus, the great controversy between good and evil, which had its beginning in Heaven when Satan was the beautiful cherub, Lucifer, has continued on this earth since the time of Adam and Eve. Satan will use any medium necessary, not excluding religious or political organizations, or even a false apparition of the Virgin Mary in his efforts to destroy God’s people. Just as the master deceiver used the serpent, he has used Pharaoh of Egypt, Nebucchadnezzer of Babylon, Herod of Rome, certain kings of Israel, and the Scribes and the Pharisees. And today he is using the Roman papacy to further accomplish his purposes, which will reach their climax in the near future. Since Roman Catholicism has intoxicated nearly every religious organization with her false doctrines, as well as the kings and the inhabitants of the earth, Satan is ready to strike at any moment, and for the last time.

According to Bible prophecies and the marshaling of events all about us that are obviously related to the fulfillment of those prophecies, we are now standing but a short distance from the full- blown fulfillment of the “mark of the beast” vs. “the seal of God” issue portrayed so graphically in Revelation 13 and 14. The New World Order and its One World Religion (which will demand the worship of Sunday by every human being on this planet) is ready to be implemented. And is God ready for the crisis? Absolutely! And His answer is contained in Revelation 14: 6- 12— the Three Angels’ Messages! “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven [the urgency with which this vital message must be given], having the everlasting gospel [the one and only gospel of the Holy Scriptures] to preach [the message must be heard] unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice [it is a life- or- death message], fear God [get your lives in harmony with His commandments], and give glory to Him [reflect His character or law in your life]; for the hour of His judgment is [not ‘will’] come [the hour of final accountability is here]; and worship Him [not the beast (Rome) or its image (apostate Protestantism) when Sunday observance is enforced by law] that made [for He is the Creator] heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of water [the words contained in the fourth commandment— the Sabbath ; in other words, “Observe My holy day ”]. And there followed another angel [the message is important enough to command special attention], saying, Babylon [Protestant Churches have begun to reject the 1st Angel’s message for Babylonish traditions], is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations [the whole world] drink of the wine [they have swallowed, among others, her false doctrines of Sunday sacredness and the immortality of the soul] of the wrath of her fornication [spiritual adultery]. And the third angel followed them [backing up the first two angels’ messages with the most terrible warning in the Bible], saying with a loud voice [the message is most urgent], If any man worship the beast or his image, and receive his mark [Sunday— a commandment of man] in his forehead [he believes it], or in his hand [he meekly goes along with it], The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone [Eternal Fire will consume the wicked and is eternal in its effects (see Malachi 4: 1, 3; Jude 7)] in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: [In the Greek, aion, an indefinite period of time. It could be anything from a moment to an extensive period of time, depending on the ingredients of what is being discussed. The wicked are punished according to their works. Obviously, their lengths of punishment will vary. Satan will suffer longest. But, all the wicked will be entirely consumed. (See Rev. 20: 12- 14; II Thess. 1: 8, 9; and again Mal. 4: 1, 3)]… who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God [not Rome], and the faith of Jesus [for it is only by faith in Christ and through His grace that we can obey His commandments].”

The most solemn message in the whole of Scripture is the Three Angels’ Messages, for it is the last warning to the world before probation closes once and for all! It really is not that difficult to understand the prophecies of Revelation when you learn what the signs and symbols mean. I remember the first time I read the Three Angels’ Messages after receiving wisdom and understanding from God. Not only did I fall in love with them, I wanted to share them with the whole world; and I pray you will, too, for it is a message of salvation! Share this book with whomever you can. Send it to your friends and family, maybe to a whole city! But whatever you do, do something now! And God will reward you greatly. The promise is “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.” (Rev 1: 3). May the grace of Almighty God be with you, brothers and sisters, and, remember, you have nothing to fear, for the Lord of hosts and His truth will triumph in the end.

“And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven [a fourth angel joins with the Three Angels of Rev. 14: 6- 12 and gives added power to the message], having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird . For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. [Is God wrong here to speak so negatively of a worldwide ‘religious’ combine which rejects Heaven’s final warning of mercy— the Three Angels’ Messages? Which enforces life- threatening penalties against those who faithfully bear God’s last warning appeals under the mighty power of the Holy Spirit? and which willingly submits itself to ‘the power of darkness’ in the form of spiritualism? Because its work bears the label ‘religion, ’ does it legally merit immunity from exposure of its falsity by the truth of God’s Word? Or are the laws now being stealthily set in place forbidding ‘attacks’ on other religious beliefs actually selfserving devices of the ‘father of lies’ to prevent the disclosure of his artful deceptions and deadly masquerades to lead multitudes to perdition?] And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people , that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. [it is not heartwarming that God´s last endeavor in the ‘heat controversy’ between Christ and Satan before probation ends once and forever for fallen mankind is to rescue Hist true followers from doomed Babylong before the Seven Last PLagues begin! God truly cares for His Own. Not a single honest soul will be lost! Praise God! From first to last, the ‘great controversy’ is primarily a spiritual battle!] For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen [for all the world was her seat, but soon the wicked of this world will turn on her because they have been the victims of her deceptions], and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.” (Revelation 18: 1- 8)!

End

All emphases in this article are mine.
Published by Modern Manna Ministries

Is the Virgin Mary Dead or Alive? Chapter 17

by Danny Vierra

Is the Virgin Mary Dead or Alive booklChapter 17 – The Mark of the Beast and the United States’ Role in Bible Prophecy

Revelation 13 begins with a description of a beast rising out of the sea. The first thing we notice about this beast is that it is a composite beast: it “was like unto a leopard , and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion : and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.” It is referred to as the leopard- bodied beast, which we have already seen to be the Roman Papacy. The four beasts used to make up the composite beast are the same four beasts, —which symbolized Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome —that Daniel saw in vision in Daniel 7 . As a matter of record, papal Rome inherited from each of these pagan empires some of their basic identifying characteristics that we still see being practiced in this contemporary false system of religion— the Roman Catholic Church. From Babylon, the papacy inherited a pagan priesthood; from Medo-Persia, sun worship; from Greece, human philosophies; and from the dragon, Pagan Rome, its power, seat and great authority [Pagan Rome even gave the high priest’s title—“ Pontifex Maximus,” usurped by the Caesars— to the papacy, as well as Latin, formerly the language of pagan Rome and even till this day the official language of the papal seat of power]. It is, then, accurately and appropriately, depicted as “a beast rising out of the sea [or populated areas (See Rev. 17: 15)]” that has borrowed parts, or characteristics, of other beasts or kingdoms. (See Daniel 7: 23). Since it is the first of two beasts to appear in this chapter, the Roman papacy is referred to as the first beast of Revelation, chapter 13.

But, “says the prophet: ‘I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb. ’ Verse 11. Both the appearance of this beast and the manner of its rise indicate that the nation which it represents is unlike those presented under the preceding symbols. The great kingdoms that have ruled the world were presented to the prophet Daniel as beasts of prey, rising when ‘the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. ’ Daniel 7: 2. In Revelation 17 an angel explained that waters represent ‘peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. ’ Revelation 17: 15. Winds are a symbol of strife. The four winds of heaven striving upon the great sea represent the terrible scenes of conquest and revolution by which kingdoms have attained to power.

“But the beast with lamblike horns was seen ‘coming up out of the earth. ’ Instead of overthrowing other powers to establish itself, the nation thus represented must arise in territory previously unoccupied and grow up gradually and peacefully. It could not, then, arise among the crowded and struggling nationalities of the Old World— that turbulent sea of ‘peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. ’ It must be sought in the Western Continent.

“What nation of the New World was in 1798 [the end of the 1260- year prophecy] rising into power, giving promise of strength and greatness, and attracting the attention of the world? The application of the symbol admits of no question. One nation, and only one, meets the specifications of this prophecy; it points unmistakably to the United States of America . Again and again the thought, almost the exact words, of the sacred writer has been unconsciously employed by the orator and the historian in describing the rise and growth of this nation. The beast was seen ‘coming up out of the earth; ’ and, according to the translators, the word here rendered ‘coming up’ literally signifies ‘to grow or spring up as a plant. ’ And, as we have seen, the nation must arise in territory previously unoccupied. A prominent writer, describing the rise of the United States, speaks of ‘the mystery of her coming forth from vacancy, ’ and says: ‘Like a silent seed we grew into empire. ’— G. A. Townsend, The New World Compared With the Old, page 462. A European journal in 1850 spoke of the United States as a wonderful empire, which was ‘emerging, ’ and ‘amid the silence of the earth daily adding to its power and pride. ’— The Dublin Nation….

“‘And he had two horns like a lamb. ’ The lamblike horns indicate youth, innocence, and gentleness, fitly representing the character of the United States when presented to the prophets as ‘coming up’ in 1798. Among the Christian exiles who first fled to America and sought an asylum from royal oppression and priestly intolerance were many who determined to establish a government upon the broad foundation of civil and religious liberty. Their views found place in the Declaration of Independence, which sets forth the great truth that ‘all men are created equal’ and endowed with the inalienable right to ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. ’ And the Constitution guarantees to the people the right of self- government, providing that representatives elected by the popular vote shall enact and administer the laws. Freedom of religious faith was also granted, every man being permitted to worship God according to the dictates of his conscience. Republicanism and Protestantism [the two horns of the lamb] became the fundamental principles of the nation . These principles are the secret of its power and prosperity. The oppressed and downtrodden throughout Christendom have turned to this land with interest and hope. Millions have sought its shores, and the United States has risen to a place among the most powerful nations of the earth.

“But the beast with lamblike horns ‘spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed;… saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. ’ Revelation 13: 11- 14.

“The lamblike horns and dragon voice of the symbol point to a striking contradiction between the professions and the practice of the nation thus represented. The ‘speaking’ of the nation is the action of its legislative and judicial authorities. By such action it will give the lie to those liberal and peaceful principles which it has put forth as the foundation of its policy. The prediction that it will speak ‘as a dragon’ and exercise ‘all the power of the first beast’ plainly foretells a development of the spirit of intolerance and persecution that was manifested by the nations represented by the dragon and the leopardlike beast. And the statement that the beast with two horns ‘causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast’ indicates that the authority of this nation is to be exercised in enforcing some observance which shall be an act of homage to the papacy.

“Such action would be directly contrary to the principles of this government, to the genius of its free institutions, to the direct and solemn avowals of the Declaration of Independence, and to the Constitution. The founders of the nation wisely sought to guard against the employment of secular power on the part of the church, with its inevitable result— intolerance and persecution. The Constitution provides that ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, ’ and that ‘no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office of public trust under the United States. ’ Only in flagrant violation of these safeguards to the nation’s liberty, can any religious observance be enforced by civil authority. But the inconsistency of such action is no greater than is represented in the symbol. It is the beast with lamblike horns— in profession pure, gentle, and harmless— that speaks as a dragon.

“‘Saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast. ’ Here is clearly presented a form of government in which the legislative power rests with the people, a most striking evidence that the United States is the nation denoted in the prophecy.

“But what is the ‘image to the beast’? and how is it to be formed? The image is made by the two- horned beast, and is an image to the beast. It is also called an image of the beast. Then to learn what the image is like and how it is to be formed we must study the characteristics of the beast itself— the papacy.

“When the early church became corrupted by departing from the simplicity of the gospel and accepting heathen rites and customs, she lost the Spirit and power of God; and in order to control the consciences of the people, she sought the support of the secular power. The result was the papacy , a church that controlled the power of the state and employed it to further her own ends, especially for the punishment of ‘heresy. ’ In order for the United States to form an image of the beast, the religious power must so control the civil government that the authority of the state will also be employed by the church to accomplish her own ends.

“Whenever the church has obtained secular power, she has employed it to punish dissent from her doctrines. Protestant churches that have followed in the steps of Rome by forming alliance with worldly powers have manifested a similar desire to restrict liberty of conscience. An example of this is given in the long- continued persecution of dissenters by the Church of England. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, thousands of nonconformist ministers were forced to flee from their churches, and many, both of pastors and people, were subjected to fine, imprisonment, torture, and martyrdom.

“It was apostasy that led the early church to seek the aid of the civil government, and this prepared the way for the development of the papacy— the beast. Said Paul: ‘There’ shall ‘come a falling away,… and that man of sin be revealed. ’ 2 Thessalonians 2: 3. So apostasy in the church will prepare the way for the image to the beast.

“The Bible declares that before the coming of the Lord there will exist a state of religious declension similar to that in the first centuries. ‘In the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high- minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness , but denying the power thereof. ’ 2 Timothy 3: 1- 5. ‘Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils .’ 1 Timothy 4: 1. Satan will work ‘with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness. ’ And all that ‘received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, ’ will be left to accept ‘strong delusion, that they should believe a lie. ’ 2 Thessalonians 2: 9- 11. When this state of ungodliness shall be reached, the same results will follow as in the first centuries.

“The wide diversity of belief in the Protestant churches is regarded by many as decisive proof that no effort to secure a forced uniformity can ever be made. But there has been for years, in churches of the Protestant faith, a strong and growing sentiment in favor of a union based upon common points of doctrine . To secure such a union, the discussion of subjects upon which all were not agreed— however important they might be from a Bible standpoint— must necessarily be waived .

“Charles Beecher, in a sermon in the year 1846, declared that the min- istry of ‘the evangelical Protestant denominations’ is ‘not only formed all the way up under a tremendous pressure of merely human fear, but they live, and move, and breathe in a state of things radically corrupt, and ap- pealing every hour to every baser element of their nature to hush up the truth, and bow the knee to the power of apostasy. Was not this the way things went with Rome? Are we not living her life over again? And what do we see just ahead? Another general council! A world’s convention [New World Order]! Evangelical alliance, and universal creed [One World Religion]! ’— Sermon on ‘The Bible a Sufficient Creed, ’ delivered at Fort Wayne, Indiana, Feb. 22, 1846. When this shall be gained, then, in the effort to secure complete uniformity, it will be only a step to the resort to force.

“When the leading churches of the United States, uniting upon such points of doctrine as are held by them in common [remember Life maga- zine stated that Mary could be the one to unify the churches of America, and her crowning appearance may pull it off], shall influence the state to enforce their decrees and to sustain their institutions, then Protestant America will have formed an image of the Roman hierarchy, and the infliction of civil penalties upon dissenters will inevitably result.

“The beast with two horns ‘causeth [commands] all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. ’ Revelation 13: 16, 17. The third angel’s warning is: ‘If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God. ’ ‘The beast’ mentioned in this message, whose worship is enforced by the twohorned beast, is the first, or leopardlike beast of Revelation 13— the papacy. The ‘image to the beast’ represents that form of apostate Protestantism which will be developed when the Protestant churches shall seek the aid of the civil power for the enforcement of their dogmas. The ‘mark of the beast’ still remains to be defined.

“After the warning against the worship of the beast and his image the prophecy declares: ‘Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. ’ Since those who keep God’s commandments are thus placed in contrast with those that worship the beast and his image and receive his mark, it follows that the keeping of God’s law, on the one hand, and its violation, on the other, will make the distinction between the worshipers of God and the worshipers of the beast.

“The special characteristic of the beast, and therefore of his image, is the breaking of God’s commandments. Says Daniel, of the little horn, the papacy: ‘He shall think to change times and the law. ’ Daniel 7: 25, R. V. And Paul styled the same power the ‘man of sin, ’ who was to exalt himself above God. One prophecy is a complement of the other. Only by changing God’s law could the papacy exalt itself above God; whoever should understandingly keep the law as thus changed would be giving supreme honor to that power by which the change was made. Such an act of obedience to papal laws would be a mark of allegiance to the pope in the place of God.

“The papacy has attempted to change the law of God. The second commandment, forbidding image worship , has been dropped from the law, and the fourth commandment has been so changed as to authorize the observance of the first instead of the seventh day as the Sabbath. But papists urge, as a reason for omitting the second commandment, that it is unnecessary, being included in the first, and that they are giving the law exactly as God designed it to be understood. This cannot be the change foretold by the prophet. An intentional, deliberate change is presented: ‘He shall think to change the times and the law. ’ The change in the fourth commandment exactly fulfills the prophecy. For this the only authority claimed is that of the church. Here the papal power openly sets itself above God. [Remember, according to ‘Papa II, ’ ‘The Pope can modify divine law, since his power is not of man but of God. ’ Pure Blasphemy!]

“While the worshipers of God will be especially distinguished by their regard for the fourth commandment,— since this is the sign of His creative power and the witness to His claim upon man’s reverence and homage,— the worshipers of the beast will be distinguished by their efforts to tear down the Creator’s memorial, to exalt the institution of Rome . It was in behalf of the Sunday that popery first asserted its arrogant claims; and its first resort to the power of the state was to compel the observance of Sunday as ‘the Lord’s day. ’ But the Bible points to the seventh day, and not to the first, as the Lord’s day. Said Christ: ‘The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath. ’ The fourth commandment declares: ‘The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord .’ And by the prophet Isaiah the Lord designates it: ‘My holy day. ’ Mark 2: 28; Isaiah 58.13.

“The claim so often put forth that Christ changed the Sabbath is disproved by His own words. In His Sermon on the Mount He said: ‘Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ’ Matthew 5: 17- 19.

“…. Roman Catholics acknowledge that the change of the Sabbath was made by their church, and declare that Protestants by observing the Sunday are recognizing her power. In the Catholic Catechism of Christian Religion, in answer to a question as to the day to be observed in obedience to the fourth commandment, this statement is made: ‘During the old law, Saturday was the day sanctified; but the church, instructed by Jesus Christ, and directed by the Spirit of God, has substituted Sunday for Saturday; so now we sanctify the first, not the seventh day. Sunday means, and now is, the day of the Lord. ’

“As the sign of the authority of the Catholic Church, papist writers cite ‘the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of;… because by keeping Sunday, they acknowledge the church’s power to ordain feasts, and to command them under sin. ’— Henry Tuberville, An Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine, page 58. What then is the change of the Sabbath, but the sign, or mark, of the authority of the Roman Church—‘ the mark of the beast’ ? [One Catholic authority put it this way: ‘Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change was her act…. And the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical power and authority in religious things. ’ (Letter, written on November 11, 1895, by chancellor to Cardinal Gibbons in reply to the inquiry on whether or not the Catholic Church claims to have changed the Sabbath)].

“The Roman Church has not relinquished her claim to supremacy; and when the world and the Protestant churches accept a sabbath of her creating, while they reject the Bible Sabbath, they virtually admit this assumption. They may claim the authority of tradition and of the Fathers for the change; but in so doing they ignore the very principle which separates them from Rome— that ‘the Bible, and the Bible only, is the religion of Protestants. ’ The papist can see that they are deceiving themselves, willingly closing their eyes to the facts in the case. As the movement for Sunday enforcement [a National Sunday Law to be set up first in the U. S. A.] gains favor, he rejoices, feeling assured that it will eventually bring the whole Protestant world under the banner of Rome.

“Romanists declare that ‘the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the [Catholic] Church. ’— Mgr. Segur, Plain Talk About the Protestantism of Today, page 213. The enforcement of Sundaykeeping on the part of Protestant churches is an enforcement of the worship of the papacy— of the beast. Those who, understanding the claims of the fourth commandment, choose to observe the false instead of the true Sabbath are thereby paying homage to that power by which alone it is commanded. But in the very act of enforcing a religious duty by secular power, the churches would themselves form an image to the beast; hence the enforcement of Sundaykeeping in the United States would be an enforcement of the worship of the beast and his image.

“But Christians of past generations observed the Sunday, supposing that in so doing they were keeping the Bible Sabbath; and there are now true Christians in every church, not excepting the Roman Catholic communion, who honestly believe that Sunday is the Sabbath of divine appointment. God accepts their sincerity of purpose and their integrity before Him. But when Sunday observance shall be enforced by law , and the world shall be enlightened concerning the obligation of the true Sabbath, then whoever shall transgress the command of God, to obey a precept which has no higher authority than that of Rome, will thereby honor popery above God. He is paying homage to Rome and to the power which enforces the institution ordained by Rome. He is worshiping the beast and his image . As men then reject the institution which God has declared to be the sign of His authority, and honor in its stead that which Rome has chosen as the token of her supremacy, they will thereby accept the sign of allegiance to Rome—‘ the mark of the beast.’ And it is not until the issue is thus plainly set before the people, and they are brought to choose between the commandments of God and the commandments of men, that those who continue in transgression will receive ‘the mark of the beast. ’

“The most fearful threatening ever addressed to mortals is contained in the third angel’s message. That must be a terrible sin which calls down the wrath of God unmingled with mercy. Men are not to be left in darkness concerning this important matter; the warning against this sin is to be given to the world before the visitation of God’s judgments, that all may know why they are to be inflicted, and have opportunity to escape them. Prophecy declares that the first angel would make his announcement to ‘every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people. ’ The warning of the third angel, which forms a part of the same threefold message, is to be no less widespread. It is represented in the prophecy as being proclaimed with a loud voice, by an angel flying in the midst of heaven; and it will command the attention of the world.

“In the issue of the contest all Christendom will be divided into two great classes— those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and those who worship the beast and his image and receive his mark. Although church and state will unite their power to compel ‘all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond’ (Revelation 13: 16), to receive ‘the mark of the beast, ’ yet the people of God will not receive it. The prophet of Patmos beholds ‘them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God’ and singing the song of Moses and the Lamb. Revelation 15: 2, 3.” (The Great Controversy, pp. 439- 450).

Beware, dear friends, the prophecies you have just read will shortly come to pass, for the beast is making her move. On July 7, 1998, the Vatican released Pope John Paul II’s 104- page Apostolic Letter entitled Dies Domini— On Keeping the Lord’s Day Holy. The letter is a blatant attack on the Fourth Commandment, the Seventh- day Sabbath, and the Creator Himself! Point 67 of Dies Domini actually states: “Christians will naturally strive to ensure that civil legislation respects their duty to keep Sunday holy… Sunday must be sanctified.” On the same day, The Denver Post quoted Rome as saying: “A violator should be punished as a heretic.” Indeed, the end times are upon us!

Go to Chapter 18 ⇒

All emphases in this article are mine.
Published by Modern Manna Ministries

Is the Virgin Mary Dead or Alive? Chapter 15

by Danny Vierra

Is the Virgin Mary Dead or Alive booklChapter 15 – The Counterfeit Seal of God

In Chapter 11 we learned what the seal of God is— the Sabbath. God’s seal is not a visible sign that can be seen by anyone, but only by the angels of Heaven, for it has to do with the moral character of the person and an evidence of whom he serves. Just as the seal of God is written in the foreheads of His true and faithful people, the name “Mystery, Babylon, the Mother of Harlots” is written upon the forehead of the whore, and fittingly, her followers, who are evidenced by whom they serve and worship and who accordingly will receive the mark of the beast in the forehead or in the hand. I will now quote from The Thunder of Justice, page 329, and show you what they teach is the seal of God: “Then as I listened he shouted, ‘Come here, you scourges of the city, and bring your weapons of destruction…. He called the man in white with a scribe’s ink horn in his belt and said, ‘Go all through the city, all through Jerusalem, and mark a cross on the foreheads of all who deplore and disapprove of all the filth practiced in it. ’ I heard him say to the others, ‘Follow him through the city, and strike. Show neither pity nor mercy; old men, young men, virgins, women, kill and exterminate them all. But do not touch anyone with a cross on his forehead. Begin at my sanctuary. ’ (Ezekiel 9: 1- 6).”

Please notice that the writers just quoted Ezekiel 9: 1- 6. I want you to take your Bible right now and open it to Ezekiel 9 and read verses 1- 6. Do you find the word “cross” in any of the verses? The Bible simply mentions to “set a mark upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry for all the abominations” (verse 4) and “slay utterly old and young… but come not near any man who has the mark” (verse 6). Do you see the word “cross” in the verses of whatever version of the Bible you are using? Well, why not? Because it is not there! How could anyone put any faith in the advocates of the Marian Movement, when they blatantly add words to the Bible that are not in the original?

The only explanation I can find for their conclusion is a footnote commenting on verse 4 in the New Catholic Version of the Douay- Confraternity Bible. The footnote for the verses referred to above says: “Mark Thau, thau or tau, is the last letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and signifies a sign, or a mark: which is the reason why some translators render this place set a mark, or mark a mark, without specifying what this mark was. But St. Jerome and other interpreters, conclude it was the form of the letter Thau, which in the ancient Hebrew character, was the form of a cross.”

This conclusion is absolutely absurd, for if you research the origin of the word Thau or Tau, and the origin of the cross, you may be astonished at what you will discover! Quoting from Alexander Hislop’s book The Two Babylons once again, we find: “The same sign of the cross that Rome now worships was used in the Babylonian Mysteries, was applied by Paganism to the same magic purposes, was honoured with the same honours. That which is now called the Christian cross was originally no Christian emblem at all, but was the mystic Tau of the Chaldeans and Egyptians— the true original form of the letter T— the initial of the name of Tammuz —which, in Hebrew, radically the same as ancient Chaldee, is found on coins. That mystic Tau was marked in baptism on the foreheads of those initiated in the Mysteries [Interestingly, Catholic priests make the sign of the cross on the foreheads of infants at baptism], and was used in every variety of way as a most sacred symbol. To identify Tammuz with the sun it was joined sometimes with a circle of the sun; sometimes it was inserted in the circle. Whether the Maltese cross, which the Romish bishops append to their names as a symbol of their episcopal dignity, is the letter T, may be doubtful; but there seems no reason to doubt that the Maltese cross is an express symbol of the sun; for Layard [author of Ninevah and Babylon] found it as a sacred symbol in Ninevah in such a connection as led him to identify it with the sun. The mystic Tau, as a symbol of great divinity, was called ‘the sign of life; ’ it was used as an amulet over the heart; it was marked on the official garments of the priests of Rome; it was borne by the kings in their hand, as a token of their dignity or divinely- conferred authority. The Vestal virgins of Pagan Rome wore it suspended from their necklaces, as the nuns do now . The Egyptians did the same, and many of the barbarous nations with whom they had intercourse, as the Egyptian monuments bear witness…. It was worshipped in Mexico for ages before the Roman Catholic missionaries set foot there, large stone crosses being erected, probably to the ‘god of rain. ’ The cross, thus widely worshipped, or regarded as a sacred emblem, was the equivocal symbol of Bacchus, the Babylonian Messiah, for he was represented with a head- band covered with crosses. This symbol of the Babylonian god is reverenced at this day in all the wide wastes of Tartary, where Buddhism prevails….‘ The cross, ’ says Colonel Wilford, in Asiatic Researches,….‘ is exactly the cross of the Manicheans, with leaves and flowers (and fruit also, as I am told), is called the divine tree, the tree of the gods, the tree of life and knowledge , and productive of whatever is good and desirable, and is placed in the terrestrial paradise .’ ” (The Two Babylons, pp. 197- 199). Is there any question as to whether God would place the “T” for Tammuz as a mark or sign on the foreheads of his true and faithful people? “It was an essential principle of the Babylonian system, that the Sun or Baal [the god of nature] was the only god. When, therefore, Tammuz was worshipped as God incarnated, that implied also that he was an incarnation of the Sun.” (Ibid., p. 96).

Do you remember the words of Elijah when he faced Ahab and the four hundred “prophets of Baal” during the great contest on Mount Carmel: “And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? [Elijah was a reformation prophet, a voice of one crying in the wilderness to rebuke sin and press back the tide of evil, and who sought to arouse Israel to repentance and to forgo their worship of idols and return unto the law of the Lord]. And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord [by violating the first and second commandments], and have followed Baalim…. And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions ? If the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him . And the people answered him not a word.” (I Kings 18: 17, 18, 21). The story continues with Elijah slaying all the false prophets of Baal, because they refused to repent of their idolatrous practices and continued to worship the god of the sun— the object of creation, rather than the Creator Himself. The cross, or the “T,” is a sign or mark of the god of nature, Tammuz, or Baal, and therefore, of Satan— the false god who had the true God, Jesus Christ, hung on that pagan cross , or “T”, until he died! How many Christians, by their idolatrous practices of worshipping idols, whether in the form of images or statues, or of the “living dead,” such as in the form of the Virgin Mary or the Saints, are but halting between two opinions?— for they say they love the Lord with all their hearts, yet they worship these very idols which He has expressly forbidden in forceful and explicit terms!

Another modern, pagan practice adopted from the Mysteries is the Zodiac, which the Greeks derived from the Chaldees. And is this abominable sign displayed anywhere in the Catholic system? The solar wheel, or the wheel of the sun (for the system is built around astrology— the study of the sun, moon, planets, and stars to foretell the future— and dates back to the Chaldees and the Babylonians, whose very names came to mean astrologer) can be found not only on Buddhist temples and temples in India, but also on the altars and ceilings in the cathedrals of the Roman Catholic Church— at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, and the monastery of St. Ignatius Loyola in Spain. But, “unquestionably, the largest occult solar wheel on earth is located in the court of St. Peter at the Vatican in Rome . From the air, you can see the wheel within a wheel, with eight spokes, a common symbol of cosmic energy in paganism. Protruding from its center is an obelisk , the ancient symbol of Osiris, the solar phallic god of Egypt.” [Information obtained from the book, The (New, Illustrated) Great Controversy]. It should be noted also, that since astrology and the signs of the Zodiac deal with foretelling your future and whether you will have a “lucky” or “unlucky day” by “observing times,” they are, therefore, classified with those that are witches and have a familiar spirit and are, likewise, an abomination to God. (See Deut. 18: 10- 12; Lev. 19: 26). Friends, getting back to the seal of God, we obviously can see that it is not a tattoo of the pagan cross which will be engraved on the foreheads of the saints, but the law of God, His very own character, that will rightfully be written in their minds or foreheads. Specifically, it is the Sabbath, the fourth commandment, that is the sign or seal of God [see Eze. 20: 12 and compare Romans 4: 11 to confirm that “seal” and “sign” are used interchangeably in the Scriptures], because the Sabbath distinguishes them as His true people who worship “Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” (Rev. 14: 7). It is the one commandment that distinguishes God as the Creator, the only Being in all the universe who deserves to be worshipped, and His true people who keep the seventh- day Sabbath holy! Why are billions of people following the traditions of Rome, rather than a “Thus saith the Lord,” anyway? In the book of Deuteronomy we read the following: “That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all… His commandments…. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes .” (Deut. 6: 2, 6- 8).

One point of interest that I must make is that The Thunder of Justice claims that Christ gave the following message to Julka, Zagreb, in the former Yugoslavia: “This will be the Little Flock [those who make it through the ‘Great Tribulation’ of the last days] and I shall hover over it. In those days there will be one Shepherd and one Faith, that of the Roman Catholic Church , which I established when I walked visibly on the earth. After the distresses, which I am now permitting to come upon My obstinate people on the earth, there will arise a fair and pure race and the earth will abound with My gifts. My sons and My daughters will keep My Commandments , thus everything will live and grow with My Blessing for thirty years . Later on My people will again tend to evil and to sin. I shall send my messengers, Elijah and Enoch, from heaven to instruct the people in the true faith.” (The Thunder of Justice, p. 354).

Friends, do you see anything wrong in the paragraph above? First— Did Christ establish the Roman Catholic Church while on earth, or was it the result of apostasy as foretold by the apostle Paul? Second— The commandments here referred to are not the Ten Commandments as given by God, but the commandments of Rome, with the change of the Sabbath, the fourth commandment, to Sunday, as the third commandment. Third— Where in the Bible do we read about a thirty- year period at the end of time? Fourth— This false christ said he will send his messengers, Elijah and Enoch, who, by the way, were two seventh- day Sabbath- keepers , to instruct the people in the Roman Catholic doctr ines! Elijah and Enoch, both noted foes of apostasy, would never support the false doctrines of Rome! And, besides, would they not first need to be enlightened in regard to the Sunday- sabbath—“ the venerable day of the sun”— set up by the papacy as the new day they would worship God? Elijah would be facing the prophets of Baal all over again! How absurd!! But not so, if these “messengers” are, in reality, demons! Never forget what I am about to tell you: Satan will always mingle error with truth, because it is like disguising poison with healthy food. The poison then becomes more dangerous than ever before, because the person takes it unawares !

It should be noted, that those destroyed who have not the “mark,” or seal of God (see Ezek. 9: 4), are those that have been practicing the abominable idolatries recorded in the preceding chapter, Ezekiel 8. In Ezekiel 8, the prophet records some of the most atrocious practices of the “elders of Judah”— the priests that have offended the true God. Ezekiel sees in the entry, at the gate of the altar (in other words, in the church— a place dedicated to the worship of the true God), images of false gods, and one in particular that arouses His wrath—“ the image of jealousy.” (Verse 3). This image, in particular, provokes His high displeasure or “jealousy” because the Babylonian Madonna— the queen of heaven— reveals “the heinous character of that idolatry, to say that the child she holds forth to adoration is called by the name of Jesus.” (The Two Babylons, p. 88). And why is this so? Because the false “Madonna,” in the name of Jesus, God’s Son, is leading multitudes to perdition, when God, at such infinite sacrifice, has ordained that these same misled victims should be won instead to life everlasting through the priceless gift of man’s true Redeemer. What is happening is both sacrilegious and blasphemous! But one only has to notice that it is the idolaters themselves that are the victims of Ezekiel 9— including those of the Marian Movement who have perpetuated this lie that the seal of God is a cross on the forehead! Never forget, dear reader, that it is God’s own image, which man lost in Eden (see Gen 1: 26), that He wants to restore in us (see II Peter 1: 3, 4) through the agency of the Holy Spirit (see II Cor. 3: 18).

Go to Chapter 16 ⇒

All emphases in this article are mine.
Published by Modern Manna Ministries

Is the Virgin Mary Dead or Alive? Chapter 14

by Danny Vierra

Is the Virgin Mary Dead or Alive booklChapter 14 – Mother and Child – the Grand Object of Worship

In further comparing the similarities between ancient Babylon and the “Babylon” of the New Testament, Hislop next refers to the objects of worship by both Babylon and Rome. He writes: “In those countries of Europe where the Papal system is most completely developed…all appearances of worshipping the King Eternal and Invisible is almost extinct, while the Mother and Child are the grand objects of worship. Exactly so, in this latter respect, also was it in ancient Babylon. The Babylonians, in their popular religion, supremely worshipped a Goddess Mother and a Son, who was represented in pictures and images as an infant or child in his mother’s arms. From Babylon, this worship of the Mother and the Child spread to the ends of the earth. In Egypt, the Mother and the Child were worshipped under the names Isis and Osiris [called most frequently Horus]…in Pagan Rome, as Fortuna and Jupiter…the boy; in Greece, as Ceres the Great Mother, with the babe at her breast…and even in Thibet [Tibet], China, and Japan, the Jesuit missionaries were astonished to find the counterpart of Madonna and her child as devoutly worshipped as in Papal Rome itself.

“….That son, though represented as a child in his mother’s arms, was a person of great stature and immense bodily powers, as well as most fascinating manners. In Scripture he is referred to (Ezek. 8:14) under the name of Tammuz…’The Lamented One.’ ” (The Two Babylons, pp. 14, 20, 21). Now let us turn to Ezekiel 8:12-14 and see this information applied to Israel in Scripture: “Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? For they say, The Lord seeth us not…He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do. Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord’s house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.” Friends, Ezekiel’s prophetic words have a dual application, and apply not only to what had taken place in God’s sanctuary during ancient times, but also to what will take place in the church at the end of time when “Babylon the Great” will cause “the inhabitants of the earth” to be “made drunk with the wine of her fornication [false doctrines].” (Rev. 17: 5, 2). Since a woman represents a church, then the church here is “the house of Israel,” weeping for the god of Babylon in shameless apostasy; but this sad 67 course is to be repeated again, worldwide, at the end of time. In other words, such blatant idolatry is in the church today in the form of objects of worship — Saints, Baby Jesus, and the Virgin Mary. Had I been praying to Semiramis and Tammuz all those early years of my life? It sickens me today to think that I had been praying to the dead! And what about the reports of the weeping statues of the Virgin Mary? Is Semiramis still “lamenting” for her son Tammuz?

Hislop tells us that “the lamented one,” who was adored as a child, “seems, in point of fact, to have been the husband of Semiramis, whose name Ninus, by which he is commonly known in classical history, literally signified ‘The Son’….Now, this Ninus, or ‘Son,’ borne in the arms of the Babylonian Madonna, is so described as very clearly to identify him with Nimrod….of whom the Scriptural account is, that he first ‘began to be mighty on the earth,’ and that the ‘beginning of his kingdom was Babylon’ [See Genesis 10.8-10, see margin for verse 10].” (Ibid., p. 23). As to how Nimrod died, Scripture is silent. Hislop continues: “His wife Semiramis, who from an originally humble position, had been raised to share with him the throne of Babylon. What, in this emergency, shall she do? Shall she quietly forego the pomp and pride to which she has been raised? No. Though the death of her husband has given a rude shock to her power, yet her resolution and unbounded ambition were in no wise checked. On the contrary, her ambition took a still higher flight. In life her husband had been honoured as a hero; in death she will have him worshipped as a god, yea, as the woman’s promised seed, ‘Zero-ashta,’ who was destined to bruise the serpent’s head, and who, in doing so, was to have his own heel bruised.” (Ibid., pp. 58, 59). Utterly amazing! The counterfeit of Genesis 3.15 began in Babylon.

Hislop proceeds to show how this blatant idolatry has spread all over the world. Another feature of these “Mysteries” was magic, which Hislop calls the “twin sister of idolatry.” It was through the magical arts, and their “various tricks” and “strange and amazing objects” that Tammuz, the great god, the central object of their worship, was “revealed to them in the way most fitted to soothe their feelings and engage their blind affections…Tammuz, who had been slain, and for whom such lamentations had been made, was still alive, and encompassed with divine and heavenly glory….Thus the whole system of the secret Mysteries of Babylon was intended to glorify a dead man; 68 and when once the worship of one dead man was established, the worship of many more was sure to follow.

“….The scheme, thus skillfully formed, took effect. Semiramis gained glory from her dead and deified husband; and in course of time both of them, under the names Rhea and Nin, or ‘Goddess-Mother and Son,’ were worshipped with an enthusiasm that was incredible, and their images were everywhere set up and adored….This son, thus worshipped in his mother’s arms, was looked upon as invested with all the attributes, and called by almost all the names of the promised Messiah. As Christ, in the Hebrew of the Old Testament, was called Adonai, The Lord, so Tammuz was called Adonis. Under the name of Mithras, he was worshipped as the ‘Mediator.’ As Mediator and head of the covenant of grace, he was styled Baal-berith, Lord of the Covenant (Judges 8:33)….Thus daringly and directly was a mere mortal set up in Babylon [as has been the Virgin Mary in spiritual Babylon] in opposition to the ‘Son of the Blessed.’ ” (Ibid., 67-70, 73, 74).

Friends, can you not plainly see how popery is baptized paganism? Hislop continues: “If the child was to be adored, much more the mother. The mother, in point of fact, became the favorite object of worship. To justify this worship, the mother was raised to divinity as well as her son, and she was looked upon as destined to complete that bruising of the serpent’s head….The Roman church maintains that it was not so much the seed of the woman, as the woman herself, that was to bruise the head of the serpent. In defiance of all grammar, she renders the Divine denunciation against the serpent thus: ‘She shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise her heel.’ The same was held by the ancient Babylonians, and symbolically represented in their temples [and in the book The Thunder of Justice].

“…As time wore away, and the facts of Semiramis’s history became obscured, her son’s birth was boldly declared to be miraculous: and therefore she was called ‘Alma Mater’ [explained in Hislop’s footnote, page 76, from its ancient meanings to have the meaning of ‘the Virgin Mother’].” (Ibid., 75, 76).

Go to Chapter 15 ⇒

All emphases in this article are mine.
Published by Modern Manna Ministries

Is the Virgin Mary Dead or Alive? Chapter 12

by Danny Vierra

Is the Virgin Mary Dead or Alive booklChapter 12 – The Origin of “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots”

In the book of Revelation, chapter 17, we find yet more clues as to who the “great whore” of Bible prophecy is. But in addition to that, there is in this chapter a great parallel involving the word “mystery” that must be considered, because it will explain the origin of Mariology (the body of belief, doctrine, and opinion concerning the Virgin Mary), and how it crept into the Christian church. The first six verses of the chapter read: “And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: 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. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour , and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.” (Rev. 17: 1- 6).

One historian, Alexander Hislop, the author of The Two Babylons, spent years researching the connection between ancient Babylon and the papal system of worship. He wrote: “The gigantic system of moral corruption and idolatry described in this passage under the emblem of a woman with a ‘golden cup in her hand’ (Rev. 17: 4) ‘making all nations drunk with the wine of her fornication’ (Rev. 17: 2; 18: 3), is divinely called ‘MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT’ (Rev. 17: 5). That Paul’s ‘Mystery of Iniquity, ’ as described in II Thess. 2: 7, has its counterpart in the Church of Rome , no man of candid mind, who has carefully examined the subject, can easily doubt…. Now, as the system here described is equally characterized by the name of ‘Mystery ,’ it may be presumed that both passages refer to the same system. But the language applied to the New Testament Babylon, as the reader cannot fail to see, naturally leads us back to the Babylon of the Ancient world. As the Apocalyptic woman has in her hand a cup, wherewith she intoxicates the nations , so was it with the Babylon of old. Of that Babylon, while in all its glory, the Lord thus spake, in denouncing its doom by the prophet Jeremiah: ‘Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord’s hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. ’ (Jer. 51: 7). Why this exact similarity of language in regard to the two systems? The natural inference surely is, that the one stands to the other in the relation of type and antitype . Now, as the Babylon of the Apocalypse [Revelation 17: 5] is characterized by the name of ‘Mystery, ’ so the grand distinguishing feature of the ancient Babylonian system was the Chaldean ‘Mysteries, ’ that formed so essential a part of that [ancient, secret religious] system [that included ceremonies and the worship of certain gods and goddesses]. And to these mysteries, the very language of the Hebrew prophet, symbolical though of course it is, distinctly alludes, when he speaks of Babylon as a ‘golden cup. ’ To drink of ‘mysterious beverages, ’… was indispensable on the part of all who sought initiation in these Mysteries. These ‘mysterious beverages’ were composed of ‘wine, honey, water, and flour. ’” (The Two Babylons, pp. 4, 5). Just as this “mysterious beverage” had an intoxicating nature, so it is with the “Mystery of iniquity,” who spiritually is “making all nations drunk with the wine [her intoxicating and mysterious doctrines] of her fornication.”

“The Chaldean Mysteries can be traced up to the days of Semiramis… that beautiful but abandoned queen of Babylon … the great ‘Mother ’ of the gods … the Mother of all impurity,…[ the one who] raised the very city where she had reigned… as the grand seat… of idolatry and consecrated prostitution. Thus was this Chaldean queen a fit and remarkable prototype of the “Woman” in the Apocalypse, with the golden cup in her hand, and the name on her forehead, ‘Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. ’ The apocalyptic emblem of the Harlot woman with the cup in her hand was even embodied in the symbols of idolatry derived from ancient Babylon, as they were exhibited in Greece… and it is singular that in our own day, and so far as appears for the first time, the Roman Church has actually taken this very symbol as her own chosen emblem. In 1825… Pope Leo XII, struck a medal, bearing on the one side his own image, and on the other, that of the Church of Rome symbolized as a ‘Woman, ’ holding in her left hand a cross, and in her right hand a cup , with the legend around her, ‘Sedet super universum, ’ ‘The whole world is her seat. ’

“…. It was a matter, therefore, of necessity, if idolatry were to be brought in, and especially such foul idolatry as the Babylonian system… that it should be done stealthily and in secret…. The priests were the only depositories of religious knowledge; they only had the true tradition, by which the writs and symbols of the public religion could be interpreted; and without blind and implicit submission to them , what was necessary for salvation could not be known. Now compare this to the history of the Papacy, and with its spirit and modus operandi throughout, and how exact was the coincidence! Was it in a period of patriarchal light that the corrupt system of the Babylonian ‘Mysteries’ began? It was in a period of still greater light that that unholy and unscriptural system commenced, that has found such rank development in the Church of Rome. It began in the very age of the apostles, when the primitive Church was in its flower, when the glorious fruits of Pentecost were everywhere to be seen, when martyrs were sealing their testimony for the truth with their blood. Even then, when the Gospel shone so brightly, the Spirit of God bore this clear and distinct testimony by Paul: ‘The mystery of iniquity doth already work. ’ (II Thess. 2: 7). That system of iniquity… in due time would be awfully ‘revealed, ’ and would continue until it should be destroyed ‘by the breath of the Lord’s mouth, and consumed by the brightness of his coming. ’ (Ibid., v. 8). But at its first introduction into the Church, it came in secretly and by stealth, with ‘all deceivableness of unrighteousness. ’ It wrought ‘mysteriously’ under fair but false pretenses , leading men away from the simplicity of the truth as it is in Jesus. And it did so secretly, for the very same reason that idolatry was secretly introduced in the ancient Mysteries of Babylon; it was not safe, it was not prudent to do otherwise. The zeal of the true Church, though destitute of civil power, would have aroused itself, to put the false system and all its abettors beyond the pale of Christianity, if it had appeared openly and all at once in all its grossness; and this would have arrested its progress. Therefore it was brought in secretly, and by little and little , one corruption being introduced after another , as apostasy proceeded, and the backsliding Church became prepared to tolerate it, till it has reached the gigantic height we now see… the system of the Papacy.

“…. Craftily and gradually did Rome lay the foundation of its system of priestcraft, on which it was afterwards to rear so vast a superstructure. At its commencement, ‘Mystery’ was stamped upon its system…. The clerical power of the Roman priesthood culminated in the erection of the confessional . That confessional was itself borrowed from Babylon…. The dictate of Scripture in regard to confession is, ‘Confess your faults one to another’ (James 5: 16), which implies that the priest should confess to the people, as well as the people to the priest, if either should sin against the other… Rome, leaving the Word of God, has had recourse to the Babylonian system. In that system, secret confession to the priest, according to a prescribed form, was required of all who were admitted to the ‘Mysteries’…. Now, this confession is made by every individual, in secrecy and in solitude, to the priest [on pain of perdition] sitting in the name and clothed with the authority of God, invested with the power to examine the conscience, to judge the life, to absolve or condemn according to his mere arbitrary will and pleasure…. Without such confession, in the Church of Rome, there can be no admission to the Sacraments, any more than in the days of Paganism there could be admission without confession to the benefit of the Mysteries …. This is the grand pivot on which the whole ‘Mystery of Iniquity, ’ as embodied in the Papacy, is made to turn; and wherever it is submitted to, admirably does it serve the design of binding men in abject submission to the priesthood.” (The Two Babylons, pp. 5- 11). [No wonder the counterfeit Virgin Mary told the visionaries who saw her in Medjugorje the following: “One must invite people to go to Confession each month…. Monthly Confession will be a remedy for the Church in the West. One must convey this message to the West!” (The Thunder of Justice, p. 198)].

“In conformity with the principle out of which the confessional grew, the Church, that is, the clergy, claimed to be the sole depositories of the true faith of Christianity. As the Chaldean priests were believed alone to possess the key to the understanding of the Mythology of Babylon, a key handed down to them from primeval antiquity, so the priests of Rome set [themselves] up to be the sole interpreters of Scripture… They, therefore, require implicit faith in their dogmas; all men were bound to believe as the Church believed, while the Church in this way could shape its faith as it pleased…. In every respect, then, we see how justly Rome bears on its forehead the name, ‘Mystery, Babylon the Great. ’” (The Two Babylons, p. 11).

Go to Chapter 13 ⇒

All emphases in this article are mine.
Published by Modern Manna Ministries

Is the Virgin Mary Dead or Alive? Chapter 11

by Danny Vierra

Is the Virgin Mary Dead or Alive booklChapter 11 – The Seal of God

Friends, from our study thus far, you can plainly see that the “beast,” or “little horn,” is the Roman papacy. So, what is the mark of the beast— or the mark of the Roman papacy? Before I answer that question, let me first show you what the seal of God is. A seal can be an embossed emblem, symbol, letter, etc., which is attached to a legal document. It has to do with legal matters. A seal has three parts: The name of the ruler, the ruler’s title, and the extent of the ruler’s territory. The Bible gives us an important clue as to where God’s seal is located, for it says in Isaiah 8: 16: “Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.” In fact, the “new covenant” (Heb. 8: 8) that God made with His people involves His law. In Hebrews 8: 10 we read: “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts : and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.” In Revelation chapter 7, we read in verses 2 and 3: “And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels… Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads .” Therefore, we can conclude that God’s seal has something to do with His law in our foreheads, or in our minds. Behind the forehead is the part of the brain called the frontal lobe, where our moral decisions are made. It is also the part of the brain where the conscience is located.

God’s law is known as the Ten Commandments —His ten principles of love. They are also referred to as the “royal law” or the “law of liberty,” according to the Apostle James, by which all mankind will be judged. (See James 2: 8- 12; Eccl. 12: 13, 14). In fact, the Bible gives the following definition of sin: “Sin is the transgression of the law [the Ten Commandments].” (I John 3: 4). Therefore, it is safe to say that God is looking for an obedient people— a people in whose minds are written His moral law, His law of love , and who would rather die than transgress His commandments. It is interesting to note that in the bosom of God’s Ten Commandments, which, by the way, are impossible to keep without the aid of the Holy Spirit writing these beautiful principles in one’s heart, is the Sabbath— the one commandment that gives the name, the title— or office , and the territory of God Almighty! “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God … For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth , the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” (Ex. 20: 8- 11). This, friends, is the only place in the Bible where you will find God’s seal! The Sabbath contains His name, “the Lord thy God;” His title or office, [the Creator who] “made;” and His territory, “the heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is.” This is why the Prophet Ezekiel said: “And hallow My sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.” (Ezek. 20: 20). Thus, the seal of God, which is to be in the heart of man, is in the heart of God’s law! Notice also that the command is to keep holy the Sabbath Day. “Ye shall be holy; for I am holy.” (Lev. 11: 44). The day itself is already holy, because God at Creation had done three things to make it that way forever to represent His own holiness: He rested on the Sabbath Day with man; He blessed the day; and He sanctified it (or set it apart for a holy use). Thus, the day is and remains holy forever. “Whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever.” (Eccl. 3: 14). But it is impossible to keep the Sabbath holy while breaking any other one of the nine remaining commandments, or principles of holiness. Hence, the keeping of the Sabbath Day holy uniquely embraces all the rest of the Ten Commandments, which are to be sealed in the heart [mind], and is especially suited by its very function to be the “seal of God” under the Holy Spirit, “whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” (Eph. 4: 30).

I remember the first time I read about the Sabbath in the Book of Isaiah. A deep conviction came over me as I learned that the prophet referred to the seventh- day Sabbath as God’s “holy day.” The prophet wrote while under inspiration: “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day ; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth.” (Isaiah 58: 13, 14). In fact, just a few chapters later, Isaiah further tells us that the saved will worship the Lord on the seventhday Sabbath in the Earth Made New! “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.” (Isaiah 66: 22, 23). I remember asking myself the question, “Would God give to man instructions to keep the seventh-day Sabbath holy in the Garden of Eden (see Genesis 2: 1- 3) and to His people throughout the Old Testament, and then change the day in the New Testament from Saturday to Sunday, and then back again to His original Sabbath in the Earth Made New? Of course not! The very idea seems preposterous! Christ kept the Sabbath holy in the New Testament, “as was His custom” (Luke 4: 16), and even identified Himself as the “Lord of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2: 27, 28). The Apostle Paul, “as his manner was,” also kept the seventh- day Sabbath. (See Acts 13: 14; 16: 13; 17: 1, 2; 18: 4)!!!

“Throughout the New Testament, written years after Christ’s ascension, the Holy Spirit, speaking of the seventh day, calls it ‘the Sabbath’ upwards of fifty times…. In the Levitical or sacrificial ordinances of the sanctuary services there were annual sabbaths and feasts, associated with meats and drinks and ceremonial observances. But in appointing these the Lord specifically distinguished between them and the one and only weekly Sabbath, which was from the beginning. ‘These are the feasts of the Lord, ’ He said, ‘beside the Sabbaths of the Lord. ’ Lev. 23: 37, 38.

“The annual festivals and sabbaths, like all the ordinances of the Levitical service, were shadows of things to come, and found their fulfilment in the great sacrifice of Calvary. Col 2: 16, 17. But the Sabbath of the Lord was made blessed and holy by God at the creation , before sin had entered the world, before any sacrificial or shadowy service was instituted to point to a coming Redeemer. It is a fundamental and primary institution, a part of the moral order of God’s government for man , the same as the obligations set forth in each of the other commandments…. Thus we find the seventh- day Sabbath a plant of the heavenly Father’s planting, rooted deep in all Holy Scripture, and abiding eternally in the world to come .” (Our Day in the Light of Prophecy, pp. 163, 164).

Has it occurred to you that most Christians in the world keep only nine commandments? This could be the reason why God began the fourth commandment with the word, “Remember, ” for He must have known we would forget! Besides, would not a change, involving the day God expects us to worship and praise Him, be in the Bible? And why is there not a verse in the Holy Scriptures supporting the observance of Sunday? The Scriptures say: “For I am the Lord, I change not…. Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto Me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts.” (Mal. 3: 6, 7). Before we look at some heavier issues involving the “mark of the beast,” please remember that God is seeking to write His law in our hearts, but only with our consent, of course. A Scripture that has become precious to me which verifies this promise is in II Corinthians 3: 3: “Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart.”

Go to Chapter 12 ⇒

All emphases in this article are mine.
Published by Modern Manna Ministries

Is the Virgin Mary Dead or Alive? Chapter 10

by Danny Vierra

Is the Virgin Mary Dead or Alive booklChapter 10 – Satan’s Gradual Change of the Fourth Commandment

So it was all true. The young minister had spoken the truth that Saturday morning! The “little horn” of Daniel 7 and “the leopard- bodied beast” of Revelation 13 is the Roman papacy, who thought to change “times and laws.” Satan had succeeded through his earthly agent, the pope of Rome, to change the time we are to worship the Creator— from the seventh day to the first day of the week— and, as a consequence, many Christians are keeping, most of them unknowingly, mind you, the “commandments of men.” Did not Christ warn us: “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men”? (Matt. 15: 9). Friends, Satan in his efforts to usurp the throne of God and sit in the sides of the north (Isa. 14: 13, 14) as God Himself, has changed “times” by changing the day the Bible says we are to worship the Creator! By this apparent change, the creature Satan, through his human agents, has claimed the authority of the Creator, and millions and millions of people all over the world are unknowingly paying homage to the “father of lies” by worshipping at his commandment on the first day of the week— the venerable day of the sun— Sunday!

“The detector of error having been removed, Satan worked according to his will. Prophecy had declared that the papacy was to ‘think to change times and laws. ’ Daniel 7: 25. This work it was not slow to attempt. To afford converts from heathenism a substitute for the worship of idols, and thus to promote their nominal acceptance of Christianity, the adoration of images and relics was gradually introduced into the Christian worship . The decree of a general council finally established this system of idolatry. To complete the sacrilegious work, Rome presumed to expunge from the law of God the second commandment, forbidding image worship , and to divide the tenth commandment, in order to preserve the number.

“The spirit of concession to paganism opened the way for a still further disregard of Heaven’s authority. Satan, working through unconsecrated leaders of the church , tampered with the fourth commandment also, and essayed to set aside the ancient Sabbath, the day which God had blessed and sanctified (Genesis 2: 2, 3), and in its stead to exalt the festival observed by the heathen as ‘the venerable day of the sun. ’ This change was not at first attempted openly. In the first centuries the true Sabbath had been kept by all Christians. They were jealous for the honor of God, and, believing that His law is immutable, they zealously guarded the sacredness of its precepts. But with great subtlety Satan worked through his agents to bring about his object. That the attention of the people might be called to the Sunday, it was made a festival in honor of the resurrection of Christ . Religious services were held upon it; yet it was regarded as a day of recreation, the Sabbath being still sacredly observed.

“To prepare the way for the work which he designed to accomplish, Satan had led the Jews, before the advent of Christ, to load down the Sabbath with the most rigorous exactions, making its observance a burden. Now, taking advantage of the false light in which he had thus caused it to be regarded, he cast contempt upon it as a Jewish institution. While Christians generally continued to observe the Sunday as a joyous festival, he led them, in order to show their hatred of Judaism, to make the Sabbath a fast, a day of sadness and gloom.

“In the early part of the fourth century the emperor Constantine issued a decree making Sunday a public festival throughout the Roman Empire. The day of the sun was reverenced by his pagan subjects and was honored by Christians; it was the emperor’s policy to unite the conflicting interests of heathenism and Christianity. He was urged to do this by the bishops of the church, who, inspired by ambition and thirst for power, perceived that if the same day was observed by both Christians and heathen, it would promote the nominal acceptance of Christianity by pagans and thus advance the power and glory of the church. But while many God- fearing Christians were gradually led to regard Sunday as possessing a degree of sacredness, they still held the true Sabbath as the holy of the Lord and observed it in obedience to the fourth commandment.

“The archdeceiver had not completed his work. He was resolved to gather the Christian world under his banner and to exercise his power through his vicegerent, the proud pontiff who claimed to be the representative of Christ. Through half- converted pagans, ambitious prelates, and world- loving churchmen he accomplished his purpose. Vast councils were held from time to time, in which the dignitaries of the church were convened from all the world. In nearly every council the Sabbath which God had instituted was pressed down a little lower, while the Sunday was correspondingly exalted. Thus the pagan festival came finally to be honored as a divine institution, while the Bible Sabbath was pronounced a relic of Judaism, and its observers were declared to be accursed.

“The great apostate had succeeded in exalting himself ‘above all that is called God, or that is worshipped. ’ (2 Thessalonians 2: 4). He had dared to change the only precept of the divine law that unmistakably points all mankind to the true and living God. In the fourth commandment, God is revealed as the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and is thereby distinguished from all false gods . It was as a memorial of the work of creation that the seventh day was sanctified as a rest day for man. It was designed to keep the living God ever before the minds of men as the source of being and the object of reverence and worship. Satan strives to turn men from their allegiance to God, and from rendering obedience to His law; therefore he directs his efforts especially against that commandment which points to God as the Creator.

“Protestants now urge that the resurrection of Christ on Sunday made it the Christian Sabbath. But Scripture evidence is lacking. No such honor was given to the day by Christ or His apostles. The observance of Sunday as a Christian institution had its origin in that ‘mystery of lawlessness’ (2 Thessalonians 2: 7, R. V.) which, even in Paul’s day, had begun its work. Where and when did the Lord adopt this child of the papacy? What valid reason can be given for a change which the Scriptures do not sanction?” (The Great Controversy, pp. 51- 54).

What does the fourth commandment actually say: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day [Saturday] is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” (Exodus 20: 8- 11).

Does the Catholic Church acknowledge that there is no command in the Bible for the sanctification of Sunday? “You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify.” (Faith of Our Fathers, p. 111).

Does Revelation 12: 17 make more sense to you now? “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Revelation 14: 12 also adds: “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God , and the faith of Jesus”; and Revelation 22: 14 concludes: “Blessed are they that do His commandments [not Satan’s], that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city .” The Apostle John also penned the following words while under inspiration: “And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar , and the truth is not in him.” (I John 2: 3, 4). After all, Christ Himself said: “If you love me, keep My commandments…. even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.” (John 14: 15; 15: 10).

Go to Chapter 11 ⇒

All emphases in this article are mine.
Published by Modern Manna Ministries