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Rome			Papal Persecutions			Papal Inquisition				Roman Inquisition			Ecumenism
Roman Persecutions			Europe		France	Albigenses	Waldensians	Hussites	Huguenot	Reformation			Revival
			Byzantine		Crusades		Spanish Inquisition					French Revolution
Paganism			Sabbath		Idols	Rosary	Indulgences						Infallability

Popes	Martyrs	Torture Methods	Persecution Methods	These Times
Astronomical Signs	Lisbon Earthquake	The Dark Day	The Falling Stars (1833 Leonid Meteor Shower)
Time lines	Maps and Territories	Mary	Disasters List	Inventions
Babylon	Medo-Persia	Greece	Rome - Caesars	Rome - Papal
French Revolution	Europe	European Union	United States	Adventist History

Prayer "Ask and you shall receive"

Oh, that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory and that your hand would be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain. The prayer of Jabez (I Chronicles 4:10)

This section deals with the secular history of those people, nations, organizations and empires that appear in the prophecies from Daniel's time to the end of time. As such, it does not deal with the prophecies, but merely the facts and relations around those key people and kingdoms that will give a background on the prophecies examined in another section.

History from Creation to the Exodus
Several chronologies have been proposed in order to estimate how many years have gone by since creation. To a large extent, most chronologies agree to the exact year up to the time of the Exodus, thereafter discrepancies amounting to a maximum of 300+ years creep into the chronology because the history of families was not as well catalogued. This is in part due to the break up of the continuity of the lineages because of Israel's captivity by a series of nations. Indeed, it is at this point that we see God giving visions of the domination of his people by these nations that is the focus of this study.

World Empires in Prophecy
It is important to note that when the prophecies speak about empires, it is only concerned with empires that challenge God's people by their power. Although Egypt and Assyria captured the people of God, the symbolic prophecies begin with the invasion of Babylon.

		Empires in Prophecy		Other Civilizations
		Babylon	The first Empire was the head of gold.	Zhou dynasty in China. They and the rest of the world were tribal
		Medo-Persia	The second Empire (Medes and then Persians under Cyrus the Great) was the chest of silver.
		Greece	The third Empire under Alexander the Great was the belly and thighs of brass.	Qin Dynasty. Vikings invade Russia
		Rome (Pagan)	Under the caesars - The fourth empire was the legs of Iron. They killed the Messiah	Han Dynasty. Maya, Nazca and Hopewell civilizations begin
		Rome (papal)	One phase of the Roman Empire with domination of the state by the church for 1260 years.	Sui, Tang, Xia and Jin dynasties. Sassanians, Umayaads, Abbasida. Gupta in India. Maya and Pueblo
		Europe	The fifth power was the divided European nations which will exist until the end of time. They will not be united as one nation.
		France	The sixth power was short lived during the French Revolution, but its secular ideas would last till the end and challenge faith in God.	British, French, Spanish, Portuguese empires See a Map
		United States	The final power will be a worldwide movement at the end, dominated by the United States of America, the churches and Europe.	Modern nations
		Kingdom of God	The last empire will be the kingdom of God - The stone that shatters the image.

History of the Church
The history of the church included many significant events:

1. State Persecution. Ten organized Roman persecutions ended with the conversion of Constantine and the rise of the Christian church to political power.
2. Popularity. Conversion of Emperor Constantine results in the end of persecution.
3. Rise to Political power. The church conquers the pagan world.
4. Apostasy. Eventually, the church would disobey God and cause a great apostasy.
5. Church Persecution. Christians, pagans, heathens, Jews and Muslims.
6. Schisms and Breakups. The church separates over issues of control, doctrine and politics. The most notable was the Reformation.
7. Ecumenism. The church attempts to unite its separated brethren
8. Global Political Power. The church again seeks to influence governments and politics and to be taken as a legitimate, political leader in the affairs of governments and nations.

The Conversion of Emperor Constantine
The organized Roman persecution of the Christian church ended with the conversion of the Roman Emperor Constantine.
Constantine became the western emperor after the death of his father, and after Diocletian and Maximian retired. During a battle outside rome in 312 A.D. , he had a dream in which he saw the sign of the cross in the sky, with the words In hoc signo vinces which means by this sign conquer. The next day he added this sign to the standards of his army, and won the battle. He entered Rome and became unchallenged as western Emperor.

Although he did not convert immediately, from this time forward he began to favor Christianity by his legislation. He and his mother, Helena, who had also converted to Christianity, spent large sums of money building new churches and visiting the Holy Land. He was baptized close to the end of his life and died on May 22, 337 A.D.

Legislation of Christianity by the State of Rome
Following are some of the legislation that favored Christianity:

1. Establishment of Christianity as the State Religion
   • Edict of Milan (313). It granted liberty of worship to all Romans, and restored Christian church property confiscated during Diocletian's and Galerius' persecutions.
   • Protection of Clergy (313). Christian clergy exempted from government duty.
   • Economic Laws (321). Bequests to churches legalized.
   • Council of Nicaea (325). Emperor Constantine summons council of Nicaea and helps to write some of the creed.
   • Religious Liberty (361-363). Julian the Apostate tries to reinstate paganism, but mostly allows religious liberty to the Christians.
2. Persecution of the Heathen and Other Religion
   • Protection Removed (375-383). Emperor Gratian confiscates temples, abolishes privileges for heathen priests.
   • Prohibition of Worship (379-395). Emperor Theodosius 1 prohibits heathen religious observances.
   • Enforced Religion (435). Theodosius II commands that temples be destroyed or turned into churches.
   • Death (527-567). Emperor Justinian prohibits heathenism upon pain of death.
   • Education (529). Justinian abolishes the 900 years old Pagan school at Athens.

History Of Pagan Influences On Christianity

History of Changes
Year	History
585	Strict Sunday worship (second Synod of Macon)
593	Purgatory
600	Prayers to saints and Mary
750	Pope speaks for God
788	Worship of images, relics, cross
995	Canonization of dead saints
1050	Mass
1090	Rosary
1190	Indulgences
1215	Transubstantiation
1215	Priest confession
1229	Bible forbidden
1545	Tradition above the Bible
1546	Apocrypha added to the Bible
1870	Papal infallibility
1997?	An emerging doctrine. Mary as coredeemer, mediator and advocate

Many practices, including Sunday worship, were derived from pagan religions in an attempt to make the followers convert to Christianity by making the religion seem more like their own. Certain of these practices survive today. John Henry Newman's Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine states that all these are of pagan origin:

"The use of temples, and these dedicated to particular saints, and ornamented on occasions with branches of trees; incense, lamps, and candles; votive offerings on recovery from illness; holy water; asylums; holydays and seasons, use of calendars, processions, blessings on the fields; sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure, the ring in marriage, turning to the East, images at a later date, perhaps the ecclesiastical chant, and the Kyrie Eleison, are all of pagan origin, and sanctified by their adoption into the Church."

When the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take care to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them ... do not enquire after their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.' You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way ... Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it. (Deuteronomy 12: 29-32)

Do not learn the way of the Gentiles ... For the customs of the people are futile [vain]; for one cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with an axe. They decorate it with silver and gold, they fasten it with nails and hammers so that it will not topple (Jeremiah 10: 2-4)

Change	Modern Practice	Pagan Origin
Sabbath	Sunday Worship	Pagan day of sun worship
Passover	Easter (First Sunday after first full moon of spring)	Originated with the Passover but it became merged with Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring: "Eostre", in her honor sacrifices were offered at the vernal equinox or spring. The Babylonians knew her as Ishtar or Astarte. By the 8th century church leaders applied "Eostre" to Christ's resurrection. Later Passover began to be translated as Easter in some Bibles.
State of the Dead	Halloween (October 31)	Literally means Holy Evening. The dead were believed to visit their homes on October 31. Old pagan customs were combined with Catholic tradition to create Halloween Autumn festival called, "Sanhain" marked the end of summer It marked the new year for ancient Celtics and Anglo Saxons
	All Saints Day (November 1)	Prayers offered for all souls in Purgatory. It is preceded by "Holy Evening" or Halloween (October 31) when the pagans believed that the dead visited their homes
Pure Paganism	Christmas (December 25)	Adopted in 354 AD by Liberius, Bishop of Rome. December 25 was birthday of Mithra, Iranian "God of Light". It is also the birthday of the sun
	Mistletoe	The Druids considered it sacred
	Christmas tree	Scandinavians worshipped trees. When they became Christians, they introduced the practice to Christmas.
	Yule log	The Norse burned a huge log once year to Thor, god of thunder. When they became Christians they burned it to Christ
	Santa Claus	The legend of Saint Nicolas, Bishop of Myra in Lycia, 300 A.D. The belief that he enters a house through the chimney originated with Norse legend who believed the goddess, Hertha appeared in the fireplace and brought good luck to the house.

History Of The Sabbath
The history of the change of the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday began in the church of Rome and Alexandria in the second century. By the fourth century both days were observed and Saturday fell out of favor because it was negatively connected with Jews and because it was made a day of fasting while Sunday was a festive day. Finally the state and the church regulated rest on Sunday.

The Sabbath Before Christ. The Sabbath existed from creation and was reconfirmed at Sinai.

• Creation. At creation God instituted the Sabbath when he made the weekly cycle and told the creation to rest on the seventh day.
• Moses. After the exodus, the Sabbath was written on the Ten commandments by God and given to Moses. The fourth commandment said "Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy" because God is the creator. So we find this commandment pointing back to the time of creation, not to the experience of the Jewish nation. The Sabbath existed over 2000 years before there was ever a Jewish nation.
• Jewish Tradition. In order to ensure that the Sabbath was kept - Jews added 39 minor regulations to the Sabbath in their Oral Tradition. These rules were eventually written down in the Mishnah about 188 A.D. In the section of the Mishnah entitled "Shabbath" the 39 regulations are listed as:

  The main classes of work are forty save one: sowing, ploughing, reaping, binding sheaves, threshing, winnowing, cleansing crops, grinding, sifting, kneading, baking, shearing wool, washing or beating or dyeing it, spinning, weaving, making two loops, weaving two threads, separating two threads, tying [a knot], loosening [a knot], sewing two stitches, tearing in order to sew two stitches, hunting a gazelle, slaughtering or flaying or salting it or curing its skin, scraping it or cutting it up, writing two letters, erasing in order to write two letters, building, pulling down, putting out a fire, lighting a fire, striking with a hammer, and taking out aught from one domain into another. These are the main classes of work: forty save one.

The Sabbath and the Early Church. The Sabbath was kept by the early church for over 200 years until the church of Rome started a new trend in 150 AD.

• The Disciples and Apostles. Jesus and the disciples always worshipped on the Sabbath. The evidence in the book of Acts shows Sabbath observance for both Jews and Greeks. The term the Lord's Day is used only once in the Bible in Revelation 1: 10. And it does not refer to that day as being Sunday. It is more likely that it is the Sabbath day.
  On their travels to Antioch, Philippi, Thessalonica and Corinth where Paul lived for a year they always met to worship on a weekly basis on the Saturday Sabbath. (Acts 13: 14, 44), (Acts 16: 13), (Acts 17: 2), (Acts 18: 1,4) There is evidence that they met during the week also to collect money.
• The Early Church: Anti-Semitic Jewish Sentiments. Sentiments against the Jews may have risen in Rome because of persecution. Due to several Jewish revolts culminating in the revolt of Bar Kokaba in A.D. 132-135, Jews were expelled from Palestine by emperor Hadrian who had outlawed Jewish practices as circumcision and Sabbath keeping. There was also a large population of Jews in Alexandria. The Romans considered Christianity as a Jewish sect, so to distance themselves from Jews the church at Rome and Alexandria began to observe Sunday only.
• The Early Church: Second Century. The church at Alexandria and Rome began Sunday worship by the middle of the second century. They mention Sunday observance and also show a negative attitude towards the Sabbath. It is these same two cities, Alexandria and Rome, that are mentioned by two fifth-century historians, as being exceptions to the general rule that worship services were still held on Saturday throughout the Christian world as late as the fifth century.
  About A.D. 130 Barnabas of Alexandria, refers to the seventh-day Sabbath as representing the seventh millennium of earth's history. He then says that the present Sabbaths were unacceptable to God, who would make

  a beginning of the eighth day [Sunday], that is, a beginning of another world. Wherefore, also, we keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead.

  About A.D. 150, Justin Martyr in Rome wrote:

  And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things." Next follow prayer, communion, and an offering for the poor.

The Sabbath Changed by Law. By the fifth century there was a social change as both days were observed. This continued until the state legalized Sunday as the day of rest.

• The Early Church: Fifth Century. By the fifth century both days were being observed by Christians, except in Rome and Alexandria. Socrates Scholasticus, a church historian of the fifth century A.D. , wrote,

  "For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries [the Lord's Supper] on the Sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this".

  Sozomen, a contemporary of Socrates, wrote:

  "The people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week, which custom is never observed at Rome or at Alexandria."

  Other writings of the period state the following: For example, the Apostolic Constitutions, compiled in the fourth century, furnished instruction to

  keep the Sabbath [Saturday], and the Lord's day [Sunday] festival; because the former is the memorial of the creation, and the latter of the resurrection. The Apostolic Constitutions

  Let the slaves work five days; but on the Sabbath-day [Saturday] and the Lord's day [Sunday] let them have leisure to go to church for instruction in piety.

  Other references refer to both days as sisters and a team of two days.
• Sunday Legislation. Emperor Constantine the Great in the early fourth century elevated the status of the Christian church from one of persecution to honor. Possibly for political and social reasons, he also made laws to honor Sunday - binding a Pagan tradition to Christianity by focusing on a common practice. In his civil legislation, he made Sunday a rest day. His famous Sunday law of March 7, 321, reads:

  On the venerable Day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country, however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits; because it often happens that another day is not so suitable for grain-sowing or for vine-planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost.

  Other Christian emperors, popes and kings added legislation:

  • In A.D. 386, Theodosius 1 and Gratian Valentinian extended Sunday restrictions so that litigation should entirely cease on that day and there would be no public or private payment of debt.
  • Laws forbidding circus, theater, and horse racing also followed.
  • In 364, the Council of Laodicea stipulated in Canon 29:

    Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, but shall work on that day; but the Lord's day they shall especially honor, and, as being Christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day. If, however, they are found Judaizing, they shall be shut out from Christ.

    In effect, they reversed the fourth commandment by saying that Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday but shall work on that day. It is important to note that they were not content with merely changing the day of worship and forcing people to honor this new day. They made steps to dishonor the true Sabbath and to ensure that people broke the Sabbath.
  • In 538, the Third Synod of Orleans deplored Jewish Sabbatarianism, but forbid "field labours" so that "people may be able to come to church and worship.
  • In 585 , the Second Synod of Macon and the Council of Narbonne in 589 stipulated strict Sunday observance. This was published by King Guntram in a decree of November 10, 585, in which he enforced careful observance of the Sunday.
  • (590-604), Gregory 1 forbid men "to yoke oxen or to perform any other work, except for approved reasons'
  • (715-731), Pope Gregory II said: We decree that all Sundays be observed from vespers to vespers and that all unlawful work be abstained from. . ."
  • In 788, Charlemagne decreed that all ordinary labor on the Lord's Day be forbidden, since it was against the Fourth Commandment, especially labor in the field or vineyard which Constantine had exempted
  The change from Saturday to Sunday was not based on any scriptural doctrine. The early church kept the Jewish Sabbath.
  
  In a master stroke of marketing, the church started referring to Sunday as the "Lord's day", urging believers to honor the resurrection. At the same time, they distanced themselves from the Sabbath by actively encouraging prejudice towards Jews and all Jewish customs.
  
  But other groups such as Christians in Ethiopia and the Waldenses never forgot the true Sabbath observance.

The Sabbath Changed by the Church. Ultimately it was the church in league with the state that prompted these changes.

• Changed by the Church. The church has admitted to this change in doctrine, because it claims that it has the right to make such changes.
  The Cathecism of the Council of Trent 1829 edition says the following

  But the church of God has in her wisdom ordained that the celebration of the Sabbath day should be transferred to the Lord's day

  The fourth century Christian historian Eusebius writes:

  All things whatsoever it was duty to do on the Sabbath, these we have transferred to the Lord's day, as more appropriately belonging to it, because it has a precedence and is first in rank, and more honorable than the Jewish Sabbath.

• Sabbath Keepers have no Salvation. According to a papal bull from Pope Eugene IV, February 4, 1442 this is the fate of those who insist on keeping the Sabbath:

  It [the Roman Church] firmly believes, professes and teaches that the matter pertaining to the law of the Old Testament, of the Mosaic law, which are divided into ceremonies, sacred rites, sacrifices, and sacraments, because they were established to signify something in the future, although they were suited to the divine worship at that time, after our Lord's coming had been signified by them, ceased, and the sacraments of the New Testament began; and that whoever, even after the passion, placed hope in these matters of the law and submitted himself to them as necessary for salvation, as if faith in Christ could not save without them, sinned mortally.
  Yet it does not deny that after the passion of Christ up to the promulgation of the Gospel they could have been observed without the loss of salvation.
  
  All, therefore, who after that time observe circumcision and the Sabbath and other requirements of the law, it declares alien to the Christian faith and not in the least fit to participate in eternal salvation, unless someday they recover from these errors.

• Sunday as a Mark of its Power to Change God's Law. The church points to this historical act as a proof that it has the power to change divine law. In The Convert's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine (1951) page 60 by Peter Geierman the following is written:

  Question: What is the Third Commandment?
  Answer: The Third Commandment is: Remember that you keep holy the Sabbath Day.
  
  Question: Which is the Sabbath day?
  Answer: Saturday is the Sabbath day.
  
  Question: Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
  Answer: We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.

  Other church publications like An Abridgment of the Christian Doctrines, 1833, page 58 by Henry Tuberville states the following after commenting on the inconsistency of Protestants who refuse to accept all the other feasts and traditions commanded by the church, yet keep Sunday holy.

  Question: How prove you that the Church has power to command feasts and holy days?
  
  Answer: By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday which Protestants allow of; and therefore they fondly contradict themselves, by keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other feast commanded by the same church.

• A Mark of its Authority. In other public statements (Catholic Record, September 1, 1923), the church states:

  Sunday is our mark of authority ... the church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath observance is proof of that fact.

• The World Bows to its Authority. Father Enright, a former president of Redemptorist college boldly stated:

  The Bible says, remember you keep holy the Sabbath day.
  The Catholic church says, No! By divine power I abolish the Sabbath day, and command you to keep holy the first day of the week. And, lo! The entire civilized world bows down in reverent obedience to the command of the holy Catholic church.

• A Final Insult. Now Saturdays have been consecrated to Mary by the Church.
  Prophecy states that the little horn will "sit in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God, change laws and removes the daily ministry from God".
  So, the church has taken all four commandments related to the proper respect for God and have given all these honors to Mary.

  #	Commandment	Daniel's Prophecy	Blasphemy
  1	Only One God	Magnified itself to be equal to God (Verse 8: 11)	Pray to Mary and saints. Pope is as god on earth.
  2	Idolatry	Show no regard for any God (11: 37)	Idols, scapulars, icons, paintings, beads, relics
  3	Respect for God's name	Removed the daily sacrifice from God (7: 25; 8: 11; 11: 36)	Call on Mary, she is the Mediator. Do not talk to God, He does not want to hear us.
  4	Remember the Sabbath	Changes times and laws (7: 25)	Saturday devoted to Mary. Sunday is the new Sabbath.

Sabbath Lesson Study. For a study on the authenticity of the Sabbath please go to this study. We examine issues such as what was nailed at the cross and the significance of the Sabbath established at creation.

Martyrs and Persecutions
The history of the church is filled with events of tragedy. From the crucifixion of our Lord, through the persecution by the Roman government to the persecution of fellow Christians for differences in faith - many men, women and children have given their lives for the love of God and the willingness to do what they believe is right no matter what the physical cost in loss of property, job, income, children and even their very lives.

The Death of the Disciples and Apostles of Christ

Name	Death	Place
Jesus Christ	Crucified	Jerusalem (31 A.D.)
Andrew	Crucified	Greece
Bartholomew	Tortured and beheaded	Armenia
James, son of Alphaeus	Stoned to death or crucified	Persia
James, son of Zebedee	Beheaded	Rome
John, son of Zebedee (The Beloved)	* Exiled for his faith. Died of natural causes	Isle of Patmos
Judas (not Iscariot)	Crucified in Turkey or Stoned to death in Persia	Turkey or Persia
Judas Iscariot	Suicide by hanging	Jerusalem
Matthew	Speared	Ethiopia
Peter	Crucified upside down	Rome
Philip	Tortured	Turkey
Simon	Crucified	Britain
Thomas	Speared	India
Matthias	Stoned	Jerusalem
Stephen	Stoned	Jerusalem (34 A.D.)
Paul	Beheaded	Rome under Nero

Legend states that all the disciples except John were martyred. John was boiled in oil but could not be killed so he was exiled on the Isle of Patmos where he wrote the book of Revelation. Most of this information is from tradition and may be not be correct.

Roman Persecutions - Persecution by the State

1. The First Persecution, Under Nero, A.D. 67. The first persecution of the Church took place in the year 67, under Nero, the sixth emperor of Rome. He ordered that the city of Rome should be set on fire and while the imperial city was in flames, he went up to the tower of Macaenas, played his harp, sung the song of the burning of Troy. This continued nine days until Nero, discovered that he was criticized and held responsible. Determined to lay the blame upon the Christians, he designed the most cruel punishments. He had some sewed up in skins of wild beasts, and then attacked by dogs until they died; and others dressed in shirts made of wax, and set on fire in his gardens, to provide light for his gardens. Peter and Paul were martyred under this persecution.
2. The Second Persecution, Under Domitian, A.D. 81. The emperor Domitian, first killed his brother, and then started the second persecution against the Christians. He also killed some of the Roman senators, through malice or to confiscate their property. He then ordered that the Jews be put to death. Among the martyrs was John, who was boiled in oil, and then banished to Patmos. All famine, pestilence, or earthquakes was blamed on the Christians and caused more persecution. Through bribery and rewards, many Christians were put to death with lies. Christians had to renounce their religion to be exempted from punishment.
3. The Third Persecution, Under Trajan, A.D. 108. This persecution was started by Trajan and then continued by his successor Adrian. Christians were thrown to wild beasts, crucified, crowned with thorns and had spears run through their sides.
4. The Fourth Persecution, Under Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, A.D. 162. Christians were beheaded, clubbed to death, thrown from precipices, brains crushed, red hot metal plates were placed on the most sensitive parts of their bodies, burnt at the stake, pressed to death with weights, attacked by wild animals, severely beaten until their bines showed. Some were made to walk, with their already wounded feet, over thorns, nails, sharp shells, and other sharp objects upon their points,
5. The Fifth Persecution, Commencing with Severus, A.D. 192. The progress of Christianity alarmed the pagans and this brought about this round of persecutions. Once again Christians were beheaded, had tar poured on their bodies, burnt alive, gored by wild bulls, forced to run the gauntlet, exposed to wild beasts in the amphitheaters and placed in baths of scalding water.
6. The Sixth Persecution, Under Maximus, A.D. 235. During this persecution, many Christians were killed without trial, and buried in heaps others were dragged behind wild horses until they were killed.
7. The Seventh Persecution, Under Decius, A.D. 249. This was caused partly by the hatred he had for his predecessor Philip, who was a Christian, and was partly by his jealousy concerning the amazing increase of Christianity. The heathen temples were being forsaken, and the Christian churches thrived. Unfortunately for the Gospel, many errors had creeped in around this time. Christians were at variance with each other, self-interest and pride divided them into many factions.
   
   Christians were decapitated, stretched upon a wheel, until the bones were broken, one was even put into a leather bag, together with a number of serpents and scorpions, and then thrown into the sea. Others were stoned to death, stretched on a rack, torn with hooks, burnt alive, starved to death, forced to work in brothels, imprisoned, tortured, hanged all for their faith.
8. The Eighth Persecution, Under Valerian, A.D. 257. Began under Valerian, in April 257, and continued for three years and six months. The martyrs that fell in this persecution were many, and they suffered various painful tortures. Neither rank, sex, nor age were regarded. One martyr was tied to the tail of a bull who was driven down the steps of a temple. His brains were smashed in the process. Three hundred Christians were burned at once in a pit for not sacrificing to the god Jupiter.
9. The Ninth Persecution Under Aurelian, A.D. 274. Tortured, beheaded, 666 Christian soldiers were cut to pieced by the sword, some were broiled upon a gridiron. A Christian named Quintin was stretched with pulleys until his joints were dislocated; his body was then torn with wire scourges, and boiling oil and pitch poured on his naked flesh; lighted torches were applied to his sides and armpits; and after he had been thus tortured, he was remanded back to prison, and died of the barbarities he had suffered, October 31, A.D. 287. His body was sunk in the Somme.
10. The Tenth Persecution, Under Diocletian, A.D. 303 - 313 A.D.. This persecution, which lasted for 10 years, started with the destruction of all Christian churches and books and an order to declare Christians as outlaws. All the Christians were apprehended and imprisoned; and Galerius (the step son of Diocletian) privately ordered the imperial palace to be set on fire, so that the Christians might be blamed. This would give a reason for carrying on the persecution. Many houses were set on fire, and whole Christian families perished in the flames; and others had stones fastened about their necks, tied together were thrown into the sea. Racks, scourges, swords, daggers, crosses, poison, and famine, were used to kill the Christians. A city of Phrygia, consisting entirely of Christians, was burnt, and all the inhabitants perished in the flames. Tired with slaughter, the Romans devised ways to make their lives miserable. Their ears cut off, noses slit, right eyes put out, limbs made useless by dreadful dislocations, and their flesh seared in tender places with red-hot irons. Crushed to death in a mill, dragged through the streets, tortured, strangled, broiled slowly on a gridiron, eyes goughed out with red hot irons, starved to death, The persecutions ended when Constantine became ruler and there were no general persecutions for the next 1000 years until the time of John Wycliffe.

Papal Persecutions - Persecution by the Church
It is estimated that between 50 - 100 million people died cruel deaths during the reign of the church.

Why does the church persecute? And why such cruelty? I could quote many popes from the past, but you might say that the church has changed. So let me quote from the present, to show why this method of control will always be an option for the church.

• Pope Innocent III's (1198-1216 AD) Deliberatio claimed the right to dispose kings. He ordered the extermination of heretics, the massacre of Albigensians, condemned the Magna Charta, and forbade Bible reading in the common language.
• The Inquisition of heretics established (1229) under Gregory IX. (1227-1241)
• Pope Innocent IV, in his instruction for the guidance of the Inquisition in Tuscany and Lombardy, ordered the civil magistrates to force a confession of guilt from all heretics by torture, and a betrayal of all their accomplices, in the Papal Bull Ad Extirpanda de Medio Populi Christiani Pravitatis Zizania, dated May 15, 1252.
• Pope Clement V (1305-1314) rebukes England's King Edward II for not torturing heretics and orders him to do so.

Papal Persecutions - The Crusades

	Meet the Pope
	Saint Urban II
He created the "sex tax" (Cullagium) which allowed priests to keep a mistress as long as they paid an annual fee. The crusades might have killed up to 26,000,000 people as they killed Christians, Jews and Muslims. He was canonized by Leo XIII.

The crusades was a series of expeditions, sanctioned by the pope, against heathens and heretics. They were generally called by the church, headed by Holy Roman Emperors and were used to get back the Holy Land from the Muslims and later to persecute heretics in Europe. Most crusades were against the Turks, Muslims who occupied the Holy Land. Other crusades were against Christians who opposed the papacy, threatened Catholic unity and had their own doctrine.
Except for the first crusade, the campaign against the Muslims was largely a failure.

1. The First Crusade (November 27, 1095). In 1095 Pope Urban II declared a holy war, a Crusade, against the Muslims to make the Holy Land Christian again. He also ordered all heretics to be tortured and killed. With Urban's call and the Church's support, thousands of towns people found a direction for their frustration and hate, and they raped and murdered their way to Jerusalem.
   
   The First Holocaust - Jews of the Rhineland. Godfrey of Bouillon, a respected knight, determined not to leave his country for the Holy Land until he had avenged the crucifixion by spilling a Jew's blood with his own hands. Mobs formed intending to march to the Holy Land and kill the enemies of Christ, but before they went to the Holy land they turned against the Jews of the Rhineland, tried to force them to convert to Christianity and eventually killing a total of 12,000 in 1096. In one month alone, between May and June, 10,000 lives were taken.
   
   The Conquest of the Holy Land. In 1099 they had arrived by boat in Lebanon they captured Jerusalem by July 15, 1099 and killed 20,000 men, women and children in the process.
   
   In June 1099, the crusaders laid siege to Jerusalem, by July 15 they broke through the Northern Wall slaughtering men, women and children all day and night. 6,000 Jews had fled to the synagogue for refuge - it was torched and they were burned alive. Surviving Muslims fled to the mosque of al Aqsa, 30,000 were killed when the crusaders broke down the door.
   They did not stop until there was no one else around to be killed. They took some of the men and the prettier women captive, and then they headed off to systematically conquer each city in the country. They conquered many towns and built more than 250 full Crusader fortresses over 50 years in Caesarea, Jaffa, Akko, Montfort, Yehi Am, Tiberius, Nimrod, Belvoir. They also conquered Haifa, Beirut, Sidon, Jericho, Bethlehem, Ashkelon, Eilat and Ramleh.
   They also built large shrines at:
   • Church of the Holy Sepulchre (the official site where Jesus was killed, anointed, and buried)
   • Church of the Cross (the official site of the tree which provided Jesus' cross)
   • King David's tomb
   • Jesus' official birth site in Bethlehem. They built huge Templar Halls in Akko, Ramleh, and Jerusalem.
   By 1146, the Muslims, led by a brilliant young general named Saladin, began a successful reconquering of the land in 1146. This led to the Second Crusade.
2. The Second Crusade (1147-49). A Second Crusade was proclaimed by Pope Eugene III when the news reached Europe in 1146 that a Muslim Saracen named Saladin had begun to reconquer the Holy Land from the Crusaders and that Edessa had fallen to the Turks.
   
   The mobs, once again turned toward the Jewish quarters to start another blood bath. But fewer than 200 were killed after the Jews paid large bribes to the bishops and noblemen and a Christian, Bernard of Clairvaux, wrote letters to the Christian communities appealing to them not to harm Jews. These efforts avoided another bloodbath.
   
   The crusade was led by Holy Roman Emperor Conrad III, King Louis VII of France. They took Ashkelon, Tiberius and various other coastal towns. However, they lost the war due to the unique military tactics of Saladin and by 1187 they were soundly defeated in a decisive battle just west of the Sea of Kinneret at a place called Hattin.
   The Second Crusade thus ended in total defeat; the Muslims controlled the entire country.
   
   When the European Christians heard of the defeat of the Crusaders, they once again tried to slaughter the Jews in their frustration, but the intervention of Frederick 1 of Prussia saved them.
3. The Third Crusade (1189-1192). The Third Crusade was called by Pope Gregory VIII following the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin in 1187 and the defeat of Guy of Lusignan, Reginald of Châtillon, and Raymond of Tripoli at Hattin. The leaders were Richard 1 of England, Philip II of France, and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I.
   Frederick died (1190) in Cilicia, and only part of his forces went on to the Holy Land. Richard and Philip, arrived at Acre in 1191. Philip left by July of that year. In 1192 Richard made a three year truce with Saladin and left. The Christians retained Jaffa with a narrow strip of coast with the right of free access to the Holy Sepulcher, but their main objective to capture Jerusalem failed, but Antioch and Tripoli were still in the hands of Christians.
4. The Fourth Crusade (1202-1204). Pope Innocent III launched the Fourth Crusade but the crusaders never made it to Palestine. Instead it was totally diverted from its original course.
   The Crusaders, led mostly by French and Flemish nobles, attacked Constantinople and drove out the Byzantine Emperor Alexius III and set up the Latin empire of Constantinople. Alexius (later Alexius IV), son of the deposed Byzantine emperor Isaac II and brother-in-law of Philip of Swabia, a sponsor of the crusade, joined the army at Zara and persuaded the leaders to help him depose his uncle, Alexius III. In exchange, he promised large sums of money, aid to the Crusaders in conquering Egypt, and the union of the Roman and the Eastern churches.
   » The Children's Crusade (1212). The Children's Crusade, 1212 was led by a visionary French peasant boy, Stephen of Cloyes. Children embarked at Marseilles, hoping they would succeed in the cause that their elders had betrayed. Most of them perished of hunger and disease or were sold into slavery.
5. The Fifth Crusade (1217-1221). Soon afterward, Innocent III and his successor Honorius III, began to preach the Fifth Crusade. King Andrew II of Hungary, Duke Leopold VI of Austria, John of Brienne, and the papal legate Pelasius were among the leaders of the expedition, which was aimed at Egypt, the center of Muslim strength. Damietta (Dumyat) was taken in 1219 but had to be evacuated again after the defeat (1221) of an expedition against Cairo.
6. The Sixth Crusade (1228-29). The Sixth Crusade, was undertaken by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II he made a truce with the Muslims, securing the partial surrender of Jerusalem and other holy places and crowned himself king of Jerusalem. The Muslims later reoccupied the city.
   Thibaut IV of Navarre and Champagne, started the war again in 1239 and the struggle was continued by Richard, Earl of Cornwall. They were unable to compose the quarrels between the Knights Hospitalers and Knights Templars. In 1244 the Templars, made a treaty and an alliance with the sultan of Damascus rather than with Egypt. A treaty (1244) with Damascus restored Palestine to the Christians.
7. The Seventh Crusade (1248-1254). The Seventh Crusade was due to Louis IX of France. It was called after the Egyptian Muslims and their Turkish allies took Jerusalem and utterly defeated the Christians at Gaza. Again, Egypt was the object of attack. Damietta fell again in 1249 but in 1250 Louis was captured on an expedition to Cairo. After his release from captivity, he spent four years improving the fortifications left to the Christians in the Holy Land.
8. The Eighth Crusade (1270). The fall of Jaffa and Antioch to the Muslims in 1268 caused Louis IX to undertake the Eighth Crusade in 1270, which was cut short by his death in Tunisia.
9. The Ninth Crusade (1271 - 1272). The Ninth Crusade, was led by Prince Edward (later Edward 1 of England). He landed at Acre but retired after concluding a truce. In 1289, Tripoli fell to the Muslims, and in 1291 the last Christian stronghold in Acre also fell.

Papal Persecutions - Hussites

Map of Protestant Distribution

The Hussites in Bohemia and Moravia were followers of Jan Huss who was burned at the stake in 1415 for heresy. This was a complex religious, political and social struggle that aligned these forces:

• Roman Catholic Church against the Protestants.
• Germans against the Czechs.
• Civil war between Upper class and the peasants.

After the death of Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia in 1419, the Hussites took up arms to prevent Emperor Sigismund from succeeding to the throne. They were without a king between 1429 and 1436. While this War of Succession was going on, the crusades against the Hussites began. The crusades against the Czech Hussites were mostly a failure until the Council of Basil in 1433. At this time, moderate Hussites recanted their heresy and went back to the Catholic Church. This caused disagreement and the civil war broke out between the Utraquists and the Taborites (lower class).
In Bohemia, a country with a population of four million by the year 1600, 3.2 million of which were Protestants, only the population of 800,000 Catholics were left alive by the time the Hapsburgs and Jesuits were through. 2,400,000 Protestants were cruelly murdered.

Papal Persecutions - Waldensians (1147-1658)

	Meet the Popes of this Era
	All sinners
Boniface VIII	Adultery and homosexual activity
Clement V	Loved prostitutes
Paul II	Homosexual, who liked bondage and lust. Died of a heart attack while being sodomized
Alexander VI	Incest, adultery, illegitimate children, Orgies in the papal palace

The Waldenses or Vaudois were French Protestants in the Piedmont Valley region of southern France and northern Italy. By the middle ages, the church was filled with darkness and superstition. Around the year 1000, some people, notably Berengarius, boldly preached the primitive gospel truths and separated themselves from the Roman church. He was succeeded by Peer Bruis who wrote a book called Antichrist.

By the year 1140, there was a large number in the reformed movement, and their popularity alarmed the pope, prompting him to gather scholars to write against their doctrines and to ask several princes to banish them from their dominions.

By 1147 Peter Waldo of Lyons became a popular preacher among the reformed and they came to be known as Waldensians. Pope Alexander III excommunicated Waldo and his followers and asked the Bishop of Lyons to exterminate them from the face of the earth. So the persecution of the Waldensians began. This was the first time that the system of the Inquisition was used. Any open or anonymous accusation was sufficient evidence of guilt. The Dominician Order was formed from a monk named Dominic who was tasked with debating the Waldensians out of their beliefs. The Dominicans had been principally responsible for being the inquisitors in all future inquisitions.

Property Stolen. No one of any race, gender, wealth or rank was spared from the inquisition. To be rich was automatically a proof of being a heretic. People's property was confiscated. Their heirs were robbed of their inheritance. Some were sent to the Holy land and the Dominicans took possession of their property and pretended not to know them when they returned. Others could not visit their loved ones in jail, give them fresh straw to sleep on or give them a cup of water, nor could any lawyer plead for their cause because they would be prosecuted for favoring a heretic.
Their malice went so deep that even after death, anyone accused of heresy had their bones dug up and publicly burned.

So the church not only used this inquisition to accuse people of heresy, they also used it as an opportunity to rob the rich of their property.

Papal Persecutions - Albigensians
The Albigenses or Carthari were French Protestants in southern France, northern Italy and northern Spain, a people of the reformed religion, who inhabited the country of Albi. The Albigensian heretics were also known as Cathari or Cathars. Pope Alexander III condemned the religion in the Council of Lateran, but their numbers still increased. The Albigenses were members of the reformed church who believed in dualism, they believe God created Christ and the Holy Spirit. They did not believe in purgatory, resurrection, the priesthood, veneration of images, sacraments or the Nicene Trinity.

In 1208, Pope Innocent II asked King Philip II to eradicate the heresy and called the crusade to combat the heresies. In the crusading Bull, the pope promised paradise and the land of the defeated was promised to the victors. So a land rush began. An inquisition was also called against the people - those who did not recant were burned, those who did were forced to wear yellow crosses.

This struggle against the Christians of Southern France lasted 20 years. In one battle alone, an estimated 60,000 were slaughtered by Pope Innocent II in the siege of the city of Beziers, France in 1209.

King Luis VIII again lead the crusade to exterminate the Albigenses in 1226.
Many were beaten, racked, scourged, and burnt to death. At the height of the crusade a hundred were burned at the stake at a time.

Papal Persecutions - Huguenots (1562 -1598)
"Une foi, un loi, un roi," (one faith, one law, one king) was the motto of the French. The French wars of religion was caused by growth of Calvinism, noble factionalism, and weak royal government. From 1550's Calvinist or Huguenot numbers increased, fostered by missionary activities in Geneva. Noble factions of Bourbons, Guise, and Montmorency were split by religion as well as by family interests. Civil wars were encouraged by Philip II's support of Catholic Guise faction and by Elizabeth I's aid to Huguenots (French Protestants). The wars of religion started with the Massacre at Vassy in 1592 when servants of the Duc de Guise fired on the unarmed Huguenot and set the church on fire.
The most notable incidents of these wars were the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre and the slaughter of the Protestants under Louis XIV. Pope Pius V decreed the extermination of Huguenots and asked all loyal Catholics to help hunt them down.

Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre of Huguenots in France (August 24, 1572)
Catherine de Medici, the mother of the King of France arranged a fake wedding between her daughter, Margot de Valois, and Henri de Navarre who was a Protestant leader. The marriage was publicly conducted on August 17 and was attended by the Cardinal of Bourbon.
Four days later with a prearranged signal at midnight the homes of Protestants were entered. Admiral de Coligny, the chief military leader of the Huguenots, was stabbed by an assassin, in the chest with a sword in his own bedroom. Then they threw him out of a window into the street, cut off his head and sent it to the pope. Then they cut off his arms and private members, dragged him through the streets for three days, and hung him by the heels outside the city.

For many days they killed as many Protestants as they could, starting with the upper class. In the first 3 days 10,000 were killed and their bodies thrown into the river. The bloodbath spread from Paris to other parts of the country and in a week over 100,000 Protestants were killed across the kingdom. Some priests, holding up a crucifix in one hand, and a dagger in the other, ran to the chiefs of the murderers, and strongly exhorted them to spare neither relatives nor friends

Many who gave great sums of money for their ransom were immediately slain; and several towns, which were under the king's promise of protection and safety, were cut off as soon as they delivered themselves up, on those promises, to his generals or captains.

Rome Celebrates the Massacre

Front	GREGORIVS • XIII • PONT • MAX • AN • 1. Gregory XIII Great Pontiff Year 1
Back	UGONOTTORUM STRAGES 1572 Huguenots Slaughtered 1572

• Pope Gregory XIII had a medal created to celebrate the bloody event. A Catholic web site states that the medal was not created to celebrate the massacre. It was created to celebrate the fact that the king was not killed. I would believe that except for these outstanding facts which show that the medal which was supposed to honor the king, did not even mention his name or France.
  1. The king was never in danger. There was no war that endangered the life of the king. In fact the plot was designed to make the Protestants feel secure. The Protestants were ambushed without the possibility of defending themselves.
     Therefore, the medal could only be designed to celebrate the success of this plot - the massacre of the people represented on the back of the medal.
  2. The design on the back of the medal clearly shows the angel of the Christian church with a sword and a cross, slaughtering people.
     And it says: UGONOTTORUM STRAGES 1572. Huguenots Slaughtered 1572
  3. If I remember my Latin correctly, the front of the medal honors Pope Gregory XIII. Both sides of the medal do not mention the king. It mentions the slaughter and has a picture of the slaughter.
• The massacres on St. Bartholomew's Day are painted in the royal saloon of the Vatican at Rome, with the following Latin inscription:
  Pontifex, Coligny necem probat which means - The pope approves of Coligny's death.
• At Rome the horrid joy was so great, that they appointed a day of high festival, and a jubilee, with great indulgence to all who kept it and showed any expression of gladness they could devise! and the man who first carried the news received 1000 crowns from the cardinal of Lorraine for his ungodly message.

In France, the king also commanded the day to be kept with every demonstration of joy, believing that the whole race of Huguenots was now extinct.

The Edict of Nantes (1598)
The Edict of Nantes was made by Henry the Great of France in 1598. It gave the same civil and religious liberty rights to the Protestants that it gave other citizens. Pope Clement VIII called it a "cursed thing". It was in opposition to the Council of Trent which issued over 100 anathemas against the Protestants. Henry IV was a Protestant who converted to Catholicism because the Catholics would not tolerate a Protestant king. He was assassinated by being stabbed in the chest.

Dragonnades (1681)
In 1681, after Louis XIV failed to eliminate the Huguenots, he forced them to allow soldiers to stay in their homes. The soldiers orders were to force them to give up their faith. Day and night these soldiers tortured, beat and terrorized the Protestants. Tens of thousands "converted" in weeks.

Slaughter of French Huguenots under King Louis XIV (1685)

The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes October 18, 1685 The demolition of all Protestant Temples in France The ban of the Protestant religion The ban on private worship under penalty of confiscation of body and property The banishment of all Protestant pastors from France within fifteen days The closing of all Protestant schools The prohibition of parents to instruct their children in the Protestant faith Children baptized by the parish priest Children brought up in the Roman Catholic religion The confiscation of the property and goods of all Protestant refugees who failed to return to France within four months The penalty of the galleys for life to all men, and of imprisonment for life to all women, detected in the act of attempting to escape from France. The law even punished those who escaped.

Louis XIV would not revoke the edict. However, he had confessed to his Jesuit priest, Pere La Chaise, about an affair with his daughter-in-law. The priest used this fact as a weapon to blackmail him into exterminating the Protestants. Cusack writes in "The Black Pope" on page 403:

It cost me many threats and promises, before I could bring it thus far, our King being a long time very unwilling. But at last I got him on the hip, for he had lain with his daughter-in-law, for which I would by no means give him absolution, till he had given me an instrument under his own hand and seal, to sacrifice all the heretics in one day. Now, as soon as I had my desired commission, I appointed the day when this should be done; and in the meantime made ready some thousands of letters to be sent into all parts of France in one post night.

On page 149 of "The Two Babylons" by Hislop it also quotes the priest:

Many a time since, when I have had him at confession, I have shook hell about his ears, and made him sigh, fear and tremble, before I would give him absolution. Nay, more than that, I have made him beg for it on his knees before I would consent to absolve him. By this I saw that he had still an inclination to me, and was willing to be under my government; so I set the baseness of the action before him by telling the whole story, and how wicked it was, and that it could not be forgiven till he had done some good action to balance that, and expiate the crime. Whereupon he at last asked me what he must do. I told him that he must root out all heretics from his kingdom. This was the "good action" to be cast into the scale of St. Michael the Archangel, to "balance" his crime. The king, wicked as he was - sore against his will - consented; the "good action" was cast in, the "heretics" were extirpated; and the king was absolved.

This slaughter began with the revocation of the Edict of Nantes October 18, 1685 by Louis XIV although it was the Protestants who helped him to ascend the throne following years of bloody civil wars. He even confirmed the Edict of Nantes with his own edict of Nismes.

The Edict Against the Vaudois January 31, 1686 The Vaudois shall henceforth and for ever cease and discontinue all the exercises of their religion. They are forbidden to have religious meetings, under pain of death, and penalty of confiscation of all their goods. All their ancient privileges are abolished. All the churches, prayer-houses, and other edifices consecrated to their worship shall be razed to the ground. All the pastors and schoolmasters of the Valleys are required either to embrace Romanism or to quit the country within fifteen days, under pain of death and confiscation of goods. All the children born, or to be born, of Protestant parents, shall be compulsorily trained up as Roman Catholics. Every such child yet unborn shall, within a week after its birth, be brought to the cure of its parish, and admitted of the Roman Catholic Church, under pain, on the part of the mother, of being publicly whipped with rods, and on the part of the father of laboring five years in the galleys. The Vaudois pastors shall abjure the doctrine they have hitherto publicly preached; shall receive a salary, greater by one-third than that which they previously enjoyed; and one-half thereof shall go in reversion to their widows. All Protestant foreigners settled in Piedmont are ordered either to become Roman Catholics, or to quit the country within fifteen days. By a special act of his great and paternal clemency, the sovereign will permit persons to sell, in this interval, the property they may have acquired in Piedmont, provided the sale be made to Roman Catholic purchasers. History of Protestantism. by James A. Wylie

Before that date, the Protestants slowly lost their rights. Protestants were prevented from suing Catholics in any court. Soon an order was made to inquire into all activities of the Protestants over the past 20 years. As a result, many innocent victims were placed in prison, some were banished and others were sent to the galleys as slaves. Eventually, Protestants were expelled from all offices, trades, privileges, and employment; depriving them of the means of financial support. Children were taken to be raised by Catholics, private worship was outlawed, they could not help their own poor or sick and a priest had to be present at all divine services. All ports of entry were guarded so that these people could not escape, only 150,000 did.
When the edict was pronounced the king stated that he would not longer tolerate Huguenots in the kingdom and the Protestants were immediately surrounded. This action took place quickly because the Catholics were appointed as rulers over the Protestants and they knew of the edict before it was publicly announced so they were able to trap their victims.

They demolished their churches and homes and ordered their ministers to leave the kingdom within 24 hours. They then proceeded to delay them until the 24 hours had expired so that they could be condemned for life in the galleys.
With a cry of "Die or be Catholic", the Protestants were ordered to convert to Catholicism by choice or by force.

The Protestants replied, that they were ready to sacrifice their lives and estates to the king, but their consciences being God's they could not so dispose of them.

They suffered constant torture. They were hung by the hair or feet and smoked with hay, or burned until they died or converted. They were stuck with pins from head to foot, cut with knives all over their bodies, dragged by the nose, women were raped in front of their husbands or fathers. The galley slaves suffered the worst long term deliberate suffering and torture and punishment of all. Many ministers were given this punishment. They were given thin cotton clothes to wear in the cold seas. Beaten, overworked, underfed, sleepless. Many eventually died of exposure.
One source reports that 500,000 died.

The Persecution of the Vaudois (1686).
Next, Louis XIV forced the Duke of Savoy, Victor Amadeus, to murder the Waldenses (Vaudois) in the Piedmont Valleys. He sent an ambassador to tell the duke that he should deal with the Vaudois in the same way that he was dealing with the Huguenot. The Duke was unwilling to do this because they were such loyal subjects who had recently helped him in battle. He had just sent them a letter of gratitude.
Louis made this request three times before he threatened to send an army of 14,000 men to do the job. So, on January 31, 1686 the edict was pronounced. It had the same terms as the Edict of Nantes and it removed all their rights. And it lead to their slaughter.

The Inquisitions
The word inquisition means "to inquire into". By the middle ages when the church heretics came to be regarded as enemies of the state and persecution of the heretics was still mostly unorganized. The inquisition was an attempt to organize and bring order and legality to the process. By this time the state and the church were unified and people felt that heresy threatened the order of society. So heresy was both a crime against church and civil law.

The church sought out those accused of the crime and first tried to instruct them in the Catholic doctrine. If the person insisted in their belief, then they were handed over to the state for punishment - usually burning at the stake. By the end of all three official inquisitions over 68,000,000 Protestants, Pagans and heretics were murdered.

• The Papal Inquisition (1231)
  This Inquisition was called to combat the heresies of the Albigensians and Waldenses. It was later extended to include witches, blasphemers, diviners and other unorthodox practices. Over 900,000 Protestants were killed as a result of the inquisition against the Waldenses alone. Many more were tortured and imprisoned.
• The Spanish Inquisition (1480-1834)
  

  	Meet the Pope
  	Sixtus IV
  Incest, bisexual activity, a benefactor to prostitutes. Gave his family wealth and position in the church.

  Organized by Pope Sextus IV, King Ferdinand V and Queen Isabella against Jews and Muslims. 95% of its victims were Jews. The LaGuardia trial unleashed the Inquisition in its complete fury, culminating in the expulsion of all Jews from Spain in 1492, the same year that Granada was taken from the Moors completing the Christian Reconquest. After the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile , the larger part of Christian Spain was united under a strong Spanish monarchy. Eventually, Spanish nationalism and Catholicism became intimately interwoven and Catholic orthodoxy and patriotism were viewed by Spaniards as being essentially the same and there came a call for pure white Christian blood. It started in earnest with a famous show trial - the LaGuardia trial - in 1490. Eight Jews and Conversos were accused of crucifying a Christian child. They confessed after being tortured and were burned at the stake - despite the fact that no victim was identified and no body was found. It subsided with the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 and the capture of Granads from the Muslim Moors in the south. It did not officially end until 1834. At that time, Spain had the largest population of Jews in Europe, many were Conversos, they had converted to Christianity to avoid earlier persecution.

  The Inquisition started with the goal of eliminating heresy and enforcing church law. Inquisitorial methods included: Use of tortured informants, torture driven confessions, confiscation of property, lengthy secret imprisonment, secret trials, and death by burning.
  
  The Spanish Inquisition Persecution Tests. Tests were devised to detect secret Jews. An acceptable evidence of guilt included the following:

  Religious Test
  • The slightest deviation from strict Catholic practice
  • Refusal to eat pork
  • Not affirming that the Virgin herself can cause cures
  • Not affirming that the image of the Virgin can also cause cures
    
    Sabbath Test. One set of guidelines for detecting Jews listed the following:
  • If you see that your neighbors are wearing clean and fancy clothes on Saturdays.
  • If they clean their houses on Fridays and light candles earlier than usual on that night.
  • If they eat unleavened bread and begin their meal with celery and lettuce during Holy Week.
  • If they say prayers facing a wall, bowing back and forth.
    
    Legal and Social Tactics
  • The Inquisition acted on the presumption that the accused was guilty until he could establish his innocence.
  • People were encouraged to inform on one another.
  • Secrecy was a primary feature of inquisitorial procedure.
  • After imprisonment the accused was deprived of all visitation.
  • Papers bearing upon his case were kept from him.
  • He was not even informed of the names of his accusers or those who gave testimony against him.
  • Torture of the accused was permissible in order to extract confessions and information on accomplices and to provide a deterrent to others who might be inclined to heresy.
    
    The modes of torture mostly in use were:
  • The water ordeal
  • The garruche
  Various penalties were given to those convicted by the Inquisition. These included confiscation of goods and property, imprisonment, public scourging, the galleys, exile, and death. The accused received their sentence at a public ceremony known as "auto de fe" ("act of faith"). These spectacles were treated as public holidays. On that day the prisoners were led in a procession by priests and Inquisitorial officials to a public square. There a sermon was preached, an oath was taken of the people and rulers to support the Inquisition, and sentences were pronounced. Because Inquisitorial officials were forbidden to pass the death sentence, prisoners were turned over to the civil officers for punishment. Church officials even asked the civil officers to exercise mercy and spill no blood. However, this was an empty formality, for everyone knew the serious offenders were to be burned at the stake. They were still killed whether or not they accepted Christianity in full. If the accused recanted, they were burned with a quick-burning seasoned wood. If not, they were burned with slow-burning green wood.
  
  It is estimated that in the years 1480-1524, 14,344 were burnt alive, 1,368 were burnt in effigy, and 195,937 condemned to other penalties or released as penitents.
• The Roman Inquisition (1559)
  Pope Paul II organized this inquisition to combat the spread of Protestantism and largely focused on the writings of theologians. So in 1559, an Index of Forbidden Books was created - these were said to offend faith and morals. Oh yes, and many reformers and leaders and converts were burned with their offensive books. By the way, one of these offensive books was the Bible in the language of the people.
  The Modern Office of Inquisition
  The office of Inquisition was a system to remove heresy, it has had three name changes:
  1. 1542-1908. Sacred Congregation of the Universal Inquisition.
  2. 1908-1988. Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office.
  3. 1988-Present. Sacred Congregation for the doctrine of the faith.
  Damasus I (366-83) issued the first heresy bull. Anyone convicted of disagreeing with the teachings of the Council of Nicea (325) could be executed as an enemy of the faith. Most of the torturing ordered by Innocent IV was performed by members of the Dominican order, whose monks were called the "black friars".
  Heresy laws had the following provisions that allowed you to be accused without knowing the charges or who made these accusations.
  • The accused never learned the names of those who brought the charges
  • The accused was not informed of the nature of the charges brought against him or her.
  • The testimonies of two witnesses was needed to bring a charge against an accused.
  The office of Inquisition still exists in the Vatican. Due to protests, it has been renamed as the office of sacred congregation for the doctrine of the faith since 1988.

The Reformation: Martin Luther
In 1517, Johann Tetzel appeared in Germany selling a special indulgence issued by the Pope. This was the straw that broke the camel's back.
The Protestant religious revolution was initiated in Germany by Luther in 1517, when he published his 95 theses challenging the theory and practice of selling indulgences. He advocated that religion rests on individual faith based on the guidance contained in the Bible. The reformation ended the supremacy of the Pope and gave birth to the Protestant churches.

The reformation eventually led to the Renaissance (or the rebirth of learning) and culminated in the French Revolution. The French revolution ended the political power of the pope and started the era of secular, modern history.

Pressure was brought on Luther by both the church and state.
Ordered to recant and to submit to church authority, he defied the church by publicly burning a copy of the canon law and the papal bull which ordered his excommunication.
In 1521, Charles V, Holy Roman emperor, and the German princes assembled at the Diet of Worms and ordered Luther to recant. He refused and was declared an outlaw. For almost a year he remained in hiding, writing pamphlets expounding his principles and translating the New Testament into German. Although his writings were prohibited by imperial edict, they were openly sold and were powerful instruments in turning the great German cities into centers of Lutheranism.

The spirit of reformation started in many countries and were headed by many who were later martyred.

National Movements and Leaders
Year	Reformer	Country	Church	Comments
1324-1384	John Wycliffe	England	Lollards	Preached against the doctrine of transubstantiation and the auricular confession, and translated the Bible into English. Forty one years after his natural death, his body was dug up and burned as a heretic and the ashes were thrown into the Swift river.
1415-1416	Huss	Europe	Waldenses	They criticized the Roman view of the sacraments, rejected prayers to the saints, indulgences, purgatory, worldly pomp for the church, prayers for the dead. He was burned at the stake in 1415 and their ashes thrown into the Rhine river.
1517	Luther	Germany	Lutheran	95 Theses
1518	Zwingli	Switzerland	Reformed	Denounced the sale of indulgences. Religious relics were burned, removed icons, ceremonial processions and adoration of saints were abolished, priests and monks were released from their vows of celibacy, and the Mass was replaced by a simpler communion service. Executed in 1529 and his body burned and scattered.
1525	Zwingli	Switzerland	Anabaptists Mennonites	Characterized generally by believers' baptism, refusal of infant baptism, an emphasis on piety and good works, an aversion to the state-run churches
1536	Calvin	Geneva	Reformed	:.
1559	Calvin	France	Huguenots	A belief in justification by individual faith alone; he also denied the doctrine of transubstantiation.
1560	John Knox	Scotland	Reformed, Presbyterian	Calvinism
1534	King Henry VIII	England	Anglican	The king wanted the church to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragón because no male heirs were produced. But the church would not.

Anabaptist sects include Mennonites, Amish, Brethren and Hutterites.
Puritanism and congregationalism: Baptists

The Counter-Reformation
The church reacted to the reformation and Protestantism by forming many organizations and organized persecutions. The Inquisition officially started in 1231. The vast majority of the murders of 50-100 million Christians occurred during the Inquisitions and especially during the period after the Reformation movement of 1517.

Several religious orders were formed to crush the Reformation by force, lies and by scholarly rebuttal. With their scholarly knowledge and with their legal powers as inquisitors, they went on to exterminate hundreds of millions of Christians.

• The Dominicans. The Dominicans were an order of friars much like the Franciscans that was originally set up in 1216 to preach against the beliefs of the Albigenses and bring them back to the church. They served as officers in the Spanish Inquisition.
  The order started when Our Lady of the Rosary appeared in Prouille, France in 1208 to Domingo de Guzman. He was a Spanish preacher who went to southern France to oppose the Albigensian heresy which was spreading rapidly. In 1208, while he was praying at a chapel in Prouille, Mary appeared to him and gave him the Rosary and urged him to preach the Rosary to all people as a remedy against heresy and sin.
• The Franciscans. The order arose in the fourteenth century to fight against heretics in the Inquisition. The office of inquisitor was entrusted almost exclusively to the Franciscans and, especially, the Dominicans, because of their superior training in theology.
• The Jesuits (Society of Jesus). In 1540, in response to the reformation, Loyola formed this order. Their purpose was to resist all innovation in doctrine and to fight against the reformation by preaching as the Protestant did and by forming theories that contradicted the Protestants.
  Eventually, their schools came to be known as well-respected places of higher learning, possibly because they had the wealth and the influence to create these schools while the Protestants did not. Also, during those times it was customary to discriminate on the basis of religion and education.
  
  They were influential in forming and spreading the doctrine of futurism and preterism which pointed suspicion away from the papacy as the condemned whore of Revelation to a fulfillment in the past or the future. Through the Jesuits Ribera of Salamanca Spain, and Bellarmine of Rome, the Papacy put forth her futurist interpretation. Almost simultaneously Alcazar, Spanish Jesuit of Seville, advanced the conflicting preterist interpretation.

The Jesuit Extreme Oath of Induction
This is supposed to be the Jesuit Extreme Oath of Induction as recorded in the Congressional Record of the U.S.A. (House Bill 1523, February 15, 1913, pages 3215-3216):

I ______, now in the presence of Almighty God, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Blessed Michael the Archangel, the Blessed St. John the Baptist, the Holy Apostles, Peter and Paul, and all the Saints, sacred hosts of Heaven, and to you, my ghostly Father, the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, founded by St. Ignatius Loyola, in the Pontification of Paul the Third, and continued to the present, do by the womb of the virgin, the matrix of God, and the rod of Jesus Christ, declare and swear that his holiness, the Pope, is Christ's Vice-regent, and is the true and only head of the Catholic or Universal Church throughout the earth; and that by the virtue of the keys of binding and loosing, given to his Holiness by my Savior, Jesus Christ, he has power to depose heretical kings, princes, states, commonwealths and governments, all being illegal without his sacred confirmation, and that they may be safely destroyed.

I do further promise and declare, that I will have no opinion or will of my own, or any mental reservation whatever, even as a corpse or cadaver but unhesitatingly obey each and every command that I may receive from my superiors in the Militia of the Pope and Jesus Christ.

...I do further promise and declare, that I will, when opportunity presents, make and wage relentless war, secretly or openly, against all heretics, Protestants and Liberals, as I am directed to do to extirpate and exterminate them from the face of the whole earth, and that I will spare neither sex, age nor condition, and that I will hang, waste, boil, flay, strangle and bury alive these infamous heretics; rip up the stomachs and wombs of their women and crush their infants heads against the wall, in order to annihilate forever their execrable race.

That when the same cannot be done openly, I will secretly use the poison cup, the strangulation cord, the steel of the poniard, or the leaden bullet, regardless of the honor, rank, dignity or authority of the person or persons whatsoever may be their condition in life, either public or private, as I at any time may be directed so to do by any agent of the Pope or superior of the Brotherhood of the Holy Faith of the Society of Jesus.

Summary of the Methods and Tactics of Persecution
Since the church technically has no army, it uses the faithful and the armies of the nations it controls. Soldiers are recruited by many tactics.

Recruiting an Army

• A call to the faithful to destroy heresy.
• Penance - or a way to atone for past sins.
• Leaders promise to fight for church in future wars as penance, using their national armies. Therefore, the penance of one ruler can recruit an entire army and slaughter a million innocents.
• Leaders are threatened with an internal civil uprising if the church is not obeyed.
• Leaders are asked to use civil means to accomplish the aims of the church.
• An indulgence is issued promising direct passage to heaven on death, instead of purgatory. (Normally, most people go to purgatory. Only the perfect go straight to heaven.)
• Promise of financial and other economic gain by robbing or confiscating the property of the persecuted.

Methods of Persecution
The persecuted are tormented by various methods:

• Property is destroyed or confiscated and placed in the treasury of the popes.
• Loss of jobs and other means of financial support.
• Inability to enter certain professions by law.
• Civil Laws against the group.
• Social pressure. Loss of support systems.
• Fear of false accusations.
• Fear of guilt by association. Friends and loved ones cannot assist the persecuted without fear of being accused themselves.
• Planned single attack in one night - Usually the attack is well planned with the cooperation of the state. Secret laws are passed, local leaders or spies are set in place and civil resources are used to block escape.
• Torture
• Death, cruel and slow.

Methods Of Torture
Even the Muslims have come to refer to this as Christian barbarism. One cruel fact about these evil acts were the fact they found ways to prolong the torture so that the victim would be conscious for as long as possible. Here are some of the methods:

• Using green wood instead of dry when burning at the stakes.
• Hang victims upside down so that the blood could reach the brain when you are being cut into two. This prolonged their consciousness so that they could suffer more pain.

Top to Bottom Judas Cradle, Iron Maiden Cat's Paw, Heretic's Fork, Pear The Judas Cradle The victim is hoisted up and lowered onto the point of the pyramid in such a way that his weight rests on the point positioned in the anus, in the vagina, under the scrotum or under the coccyx (the last two or three vertebrae). The executioner, according to the pleasure of the interrogators, could vary the pressure from zero to that of total body weight. The victim can be rocked, or made to fall repeatedly onto the point. This method is still used by few governments in Latin America and elsewhere, some with improvements like electrified waist rings. According to the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, this persecuting power will last for 1260 years and it shall "wear out the saints of the Most High" while he "speaks boastful words" and "sits in the temple of God, showing himself as god".

• Deprivation. Starvation and sleeping on hard wood or stone in an 18 inch space with no toilet facilities.
• Exposure. Galley slaves suffered this the most. They are forced to work hours with little food and thin cotton clothes in cold weather.
• Running the gauntlet. The victim runs between two rows of soldiers, often barefoot on top of sharp objects and broken glass while they are beaten and stabbed by the people on the line.
• Burning alive at the stake. People are tied alive to a wooden stake, surrounded with hay or other fuel and burned alive. For quicker death. older, fast burning wood is used. For a slower death and torture - young green wood is used.
  The church officially sanctioned this method of punishing heretics at one of their ecumenical councils.
• Raping. Even this too, from the representatives of God in the name of God.
• Pinning. Pins were attached all over the body.
• Pulling. Pulled and dragged by the ears and nose.
• Piercing. Piercing the body in sensitive areas, using devices such as the Iron maiden, Virgin Mary, Chair of spikes, and the Judas Cradle. The iron maiden brought slow death. It is a coffin that was manufactured in Germany and used in the Spanish Inquisition. It had long spikes on the bottom and the lid. When the coffin is closed the victim is pierced to death. But the spikes are arranged so that they avoid the vital organs. This prolongs the suffering before death.
  The "Virgin Mary" was a standing statue with moveable arms. The heretic walked into the arms of the statue and was impaled with three inch spikes as the arms were tightened around the body.
  "The Interrogation Chair". It was made of metal, had spikes and could be heated.
  "Chambre chaufee". Until 1816 this was the approved method for the torture of homosexuals was to be lowered on to a red hot spike.
• Ripping. Ripping the flesh with spiked instruments such as the pear, Cat's paw, Heretic's fork and the Breast ripper. They were either cold or red hot when used.
• The Pear. Used to shatter the jaw bones or the pubic bones. A pear shaped object was inserted into a body cavity and opened until it shattered the bones. It was inserted into the mouth, anus or vagina then opened until it tore the organ and cracked the bone.
• Stabbing. Victims were stabbed or cut all over the body with knives.
• Scourging. Beaten often with a whip that had sharp spikes or nails at the end.
• Amputation. Cutting off tongues, hands, ears and noses.
• Smoking. Victims stood in a pile of smoking hay and periodically removed to see if they had recanted or told the church whatever they wanted to hear - true or false.
• Hanging. Hanging by the feet or the hair or neck.
• Explosion. Gunpowder was placed in their mouths and then ignited.
• Beheading. With an axe or blade.

  Modern Torture To our disgrace, modern nation are also engaged in torture. In addition to ancient methods they have devices modern horrors. » Electric Immobilization Device. Stun guns and stun belts that deliver 80000 to 720000 volts of electricity. The device is applied to nails, fingers, genitals, head and the body. It can rupture blood vessels, tear muscles and ligaments. » Beating the Soles of the Feet. This is extremely painful and the pain can persist for years. » Suffocation, Bagging. Suffocating with a plastic bag. » Mock Drowning. Suffocating by mock drowning. » Severe Beatings. Fists, feet, bats and other objects. » Sexual Torture. Inserting objects into the anus or vagina. Rape by humans or animals Raping of children to force parents to talk.

• Buried Alive. This was apparently a suitable punishment for Anabaptist women who recanted. The men who recanted were killed by the sword. Those who did not were burned alive. Lutherans suffered the same fate in 1535.
• Rack. Stretching the body. Ropes tied to the arms and legs then pulled by turning a pulley.
• Drawn and quartered. The arms and legs were tied to horses facing four directions, the animals were then made to run in each direction until the poor victim was torn apart.
• Eaten by Animals. In the new world babies and young children were baptized and then thrown to hungry wild dogs. In the Roman persecutions, Christians were thrown to hungry lions while the citizens watched and cheered. They attended these events as if they were a game of sport!
• Water ordeal. The victim, tightly bound, was stretched upon a rack or bed, with the body in an inclined position, the head slanted down. The jaws were distended, a linen cloth was forced down the victim's throat and water from a quart jar allowed to trickle through it into his inward parts. On occasion, seven or eight such jars were slowly emptied. This possibly simulates slow drowning.
• The garrucha or the strappade. Weights (180 then 250 pounds) were attached to the feet and the body suspended so that only the toes alone touched the ground. The body was then raised and lowered leisurely to increase the pain. A sudden drop would dislocate the shoulders.
• Degredation. Forced to eat feces and urine.
• Thumb and Finger Screws. These were screwed tightly until it shattered the thumb or the fingers.
• Greeks: The Brazen Bull. Invented by the Greeks. It was an oven shaped like a bull. The victim was enclosed inside and slowly roasted to death. The muffled groans and screams sounded like a bull.
• Romans: Flagellum. A whip with metal balls or tiny hooks or sharp bones on the end.
• Romans: Crucifixion. Nailed to a four point cross.

I know that persecutions will occur again. So while we all believe that this could never happen again, I urge you to think. Would Christ have done any of the atrocities listed above?

Meet Some Martyrs For Christ

Guiness "Romanism and the Reformation" pages 258-260 You shrink from it, do you? I accept it. Conscience constrains me. History compels me. The past, the awful past rises before me. I see the Great Apostasy, I see the desolation of Christendom, I see the smoking ruins, I see the reign of monsters; I see those vicegods, that Gregory VII., that Innocent III., that Boniface VIII, that Alexander VI, that Gregory XIII, that Pius IX; I see their long succession, I hear their insufferable blasphemies, I see their abominable lives, I see them worshipped by blind generations, bestowing hollow benedictions, bartering lying indulgences, creating paganized Christianity; I see their liveried slaves, their slaven priests, their celibate confessors; I see the infamous confessional, the ruined women, the murdered innocents; I hear the lying absolutions, the dying groans; I hear the cries of the victims; I hear the anathemas, the curses, the thunders of the interdicts; I see the racks, the dungeons, the stakes; I see that inhuman Inquisition, those fires of Smithfield, those butcheries of St. Bartholomew, that Spanish Armada, those unspeakable dragonades, that endless train of wars, that dreadful multitude of massacres. I see it all, in the name of the ruin that it has wrought in the church and in the world, in the name of the truth it has denied, the temple it has defiled, the God it has blasphemed, the souls it has destroyed; in the name of the millions it has deluded, the millions it has slaughtered, the millions it has damned; with holy confessors, with noble reformers, with innumerable martyrs, with the saints of ages, I denounce it as the masterpiece of Satan, as the body and soul and essence of Antichrist.

I am often amazed at these stories. How the persecuted met death and slow torture singing and praising God until the very end. It is estimated that there were over 200 million of these brave men, women and children punished for being heretics. For having a belief in God that was different. For selling the Bible. Let us pay tribute to some of them.

• Almericus, Martyr for Christ: In the third century a learned man, named Almericus, and six of his disciples, were ordered to be burnt at the stake in Paris for asserting that God was no more present in the sacramental bread than in any other bread; that it was idolatry to build altars or shrines to saints and that it was ridiculous to offer incense to them.
• Jean Vallière, Martyr for Christ
  The first Protestant martyr in France, was burned at the stake in August of 1523 in Paris.
• John Clark, Martyr for Christ
  In 1524, in Melden France, John Clark set up a bill on the church door, in which he called the pope the AntiChrist. For this he was repeatedly whipped, and then branded on the forehead. Later he went to Mentz, where he demolished some images, for which he had his right hand and nose cut off, and his arms and breast torn with pincers. He sustained these cruelties with amazing fortitude, and was even sufficiently bold to sing the One hundredth and fifteenth Psalm, which expressly forbids idolatry. After this he was thrown into the fire, and burnt to ashes.
• A Baby (One minute old), Martyr for Christ: A baby was stabbed to death right after it was born. The mother was a Protestant killed in childbirth during the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. This baby was born alive and immediately stabbed to death.
  
  As they entered the new world, the church would baptize the babies before throwing them to wild dogs.
• Romanus, Martyr for Christ: Romanus, a native of Palestine, was a deacon of the church of Caesarea at the time of the commencement of Diocletian's persecution. He was condemned for his faith at Antioch. As punishment, he was scourged, put to the rack, his body torn with hooks, flesh cut with knives, face scarred, teeth beaten from their sockets, and his hair plucked up by the roots. Soon after, he was ordered to be strangled, November 17, A.D. 303.
• 300 Christians at Utica, Martyrs for Christ: At Utica, three hundred Christians were placed around a burning kiln. They were commanded either to sacrifice to Jupiter, or to be thrown into the kiln. Unanimously refusing, they bravely jumped into the pit, and were immediately suffocated.
• 4 Palestinian Christians, Martyrs for Christ: Alexander, Malchus, and Priscus, three Christians of Palestine, and a woman of the same place, voluntarily admitted to being Christians. They were sentenced to be devoured by tigers.
• 7 Roman Soldiers, Martyrs for Christ: In 251, the emperor Decius erected a pagan temple at Ephesus and commanded all who were in that city to sacrifice to the idols. This order was nobly refused by seven of his own soldiers, Maximanus, Martianus, Joannes, Malchus, Dionysius, Seraion, and Constantinus. The emperor gave them time to change their decision and during his absence they escaped, and hid themselves in a cavern. On his return he ordered the mouth of the cave to be closed up, and they all died of hunger.
• Other Martyrs for Christ:
  • A native of Malda was burnt by a slow fire, for saying that the Mass was a plain denial of the death and passion of Christ.
  • In 1545, Francis Bribard, for speaking in favor of the reformed, had his tongue cut out, and was then burnt.
  • In 1545, James Cobard, a schoolmaster in the city of St. Michael, was burnt for saying that the Mass was useless and absurd. I say that it is still useless and absurd.
  • In 1546, Peter Chapot - executed for selling the Holy Bible in France.
  • In 1554, two men of the reformed religion, and the son and daughter of one of them, were apprehended and committed to the castle of Niverne. On examination, they confessed their faith, and were ordered to be executed. They were smeared with grease, brimstone, and gunpowder, their tongues were then cut out, and they were burned alive.
  • Burned at the stake : John Huss (1415) Jerome of Prague (1416), Sir John Oldcastle (1418), Thomas Granter (1478), Jerome Savanarola (1498), Thomas Norris (1507), William Tyndale (1536 two years after he translated the New Testament in English),
  • The Fires of Smithfield : Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London and Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester (1555), Archbishop Thomas Cranmer (1556 he said that the pope is the antichrist)
  • In 1635, Pedro Ginesta of Barcelona, for eating bacon on a Friday, was sentenced to death. His excuse that he was 80 with fading memory was rejected.
  • In about 1530, Alonca de Vargas, was burned at the stake for smiling at a mention of the Blessed Virgin.

Estimates of the Number of Martyrs
The estimates seem to range from fifty million to over one hundred million killed and this does not seem to include the Catholics killed, or the Protestant persecutions of other minorities. Therefore, the total killed during the organized campaign to enforce religion on the population could be over 200,000,000.

In addition, the total number who were banished, tortured or imprisoned could be a magnitude of ten times the number killed. So the total cost in misery cannot be estimated.
In the case of the slaughter of the Huguenots under King Louis XIV, the ministers were trapped so that they were forced into a life of torture as galley slaves. Therefore, death might have been better. So the number tortured is just as important as the number killed.

Persecuted	Campaign	Year	Total Deaths		High Estimate Source
Total Estimates			Low	High
Crusades (Holy land)		1095-1272	7,000,000	20,000,000	Wollschläger
Crusades (Spain) and the conquest of Spain		1095-1272	5,000,000	5,000,000	Middleton
Crusades (Albigenses)		1208	900,000	1,000,000	Wollschläger
Saracen slaughter		-	7,000,000	7,000,000	Middleton
Inquisition		1518-	a50,000,000	a68,000,000	Brownlee
Witches		1400-1800	9,000,000	20,000,000	Voltaire
Saxons and Scandinavians		-	2,000,000	2,000,000	M. D. Aletheia
Thirty years war		1618-1648	7,500,000	11,500,000	Rummel c
Conquistadores and colonial period		-	b15,000,000	49,500,000	Rummel c
New world after the colonial period		-	8,763,000	8,763,000	Rummel c
Other religious wars		-	-	-	-
Other forced conversions		-	-	-	-
Total			112,163,000	192,763,000	-
Individual Estimates
Heretics	All Crusades	1095-	d26,000,000		d Calculated
Muslims	Crusades	1095-1272	7,000,000		Middleton
Jews	Crusades	1095	12,000		-
Albigensians	Crusades (Total)	1208-1249	1,000,000		Ellerbe
Albigensians	Crusades (Beziers)	1208-	60,000		-
Saracens	Saracen slaughters in Spain	-	7,000,000		Aletheia
Heretics	All Inquisitions	1231-1834	68,000,000		-
Protestants	Inquisition	1231-1834	50,000,000		Brownlee
Jews	Spanish Inquisition	1478-1834	32,000		A History of the Jews
Waldenses	Inquisition	1540-1570	900,000		Halley's Bible Handbook
Huguenots	Huguenot wars	1562-1598	200,000		-
Huguenots	St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre	1572	100,000		Fox's Book of Martyrs
Jews	Blamed for the Black Death	1348	14,000		Davies
Netherlands	Dutch revolt	1566-1609	100,000		Gibbon
Hussites	Wars: Bohemia and Moravia	1600-	2,400,000		-
Thirty years war	Make Germany Catholic	1618-1648	7,500,000		Dunn, Wedgwood
Huguenots	Edict of Nantes revoked	1685	500,000		-
Irish	Irish massacres	1651	200,000		Sorokin
Irish	Irish uprising	1790	50,000		Dan Smith
Colonna family	Massacre at Palestrina	130?	6,000		-
Lollards	Burning followers of Wycliffe	1401-	-		-
French Vaudois	Ordered by Innocent VIII	1487-	-		-
Fires of Smithfield	Bloody Mary of England	1553-1558	283		Burnet
Moors	All	-	3,000,000		Brownlee
Jews	All	-	1,500,000		Brownlee
Modern Events
Jews	Nazi Germany	1943	6,000,000		-
Serbs	Croatian dictator Ante Pavelic	1943	e544,000		-
Protestants	Colombia	1949-1953	60,000		Raywood Frazier
Christians	Soviet Union Communists	1921-1980	20,000,000		Barrett
Christians, animist	Arab Muslims in the Sudan	1983-2001	2,000,000		Newsroom
Black Muslims	Arab Muslims in the Sudan	1983-2004	1,000,000		-
Rwanda Tutsi	Hutu majority. 100 days	1994	800,000		Frontline
Muslims	Serbs, Srebrenica maccacre	1995	7,000		News reports
Muslims	Sudan	Occurring	400,000		News reports
The number 68,000,000 might include 50,000,000 Protestants and 15,000,000 native Americans. If so the final total should be reduced by 15,000,000. It is unclear if this includes the millions of witches or the Jews of the Spanish Inquisition. 15,000,000 attributed to only 40 years under the conquistadores in Mexico, South America, Cuba and Santo Domingo only. 49.5 million includes all the colonial period Some of Rummel's values were his best guesses. 26,000,000 counted by adding individual groups. However, larger numbers are quoted for the "crusades" but it appears that the word might include both the crusade and the inquisition. In the total counts above I did not use those numbers. I chose the individual counts for the major victims. 544,000 includes 487,000 Serbs, 30,000 Jews and 27,000 Gypsies.
I also calculated the expected population using very conservative growth rates and I found that by the time of the middle ages, the population was hundreds of millions less than it should be. Instead of an estimated population of 2.6 billion there was only 745 million. After accounting for deaths by plague and war there were still about two hundred million missing people.

In looking at other massacres and modern events it becomes very obvious that without the deadly power of a government, the massive extinction of life does not occur. But when the two forces are combined to favor one group over another, it results in genocide.

Population Calculations³. At first a number of 50 million seems to be excessive. But if you consider the number of years of persecution and the population, the estimates appear to be very low.

• Calculations based on a sample population.
  • 600 - 1600 A.D. World population increased from 200 million to 545 million.
    • Christian Population Estimates. The church was one third of the world population. It would have increased from 70 - 200,000,000. Assume an average of 100,000,000.
    • Martyr Estimates. Two martyrs each year for every 4,000 people would be 0.05% of the population. This would be 50,000 martyrs each year and 50,000,000 martyrs over 1,000 years.
  • 1100-1600. During this period, the average world population was 350 million. The Catholic population would have been 100 million. If the number of heretics was 4% and the number killed each year was 10%, it would be a value of 100,000 people each year or a total of 200,000,000 in 500 years.
  • Other Effects.
    • Intense Persecution. This estimation is so low that it does not account for wars or intense periods of persecutions.
    • Effect of the Plague. Some speculate that the plague was so devastating, that the population could not have survived a loss of this magnitude due to persecution. But this can be explained by the very low population growth in that period.
• Expected world population estimates.

  Year	Population		Growth		Events
  	World	Europe	World	Europe
  1000-1100	320	44	20.8%	22.0%	-
  1100-1200	360	58	12.5%	31.0%	Crusades
  1200-1300	360	79	0%	36.0%	Inquisition
  1300-1400	350	60	-2.8%	-24.0%	Plagues
  1400-1500	425	81	21.4%	35.0%	-
  1500-1600	545	100	28.2%	23.0%	Reformation
  1600-1700	610	120	12.0%	20.0%	Reformation
  1700-1800	915	180	50.0%	50.0%	Revolution

  • Low Population Growth (1200-1500). The average population growth was estimated at 19.75% during low persecution. But there was a 0% population growth during the years 1200-1300 and -2.8% from 1300-1400. 146.5 million excess deaths were calculated for this period. If the plague caused 40 million deaths and the Mongol conquests in China during the thirteenth century were responsible for 55 million deaths, then there are 45,000,000 unexplained excess deaths during this time. These were probably due to religious persecutions.
    These estimates do not include the effects of persecution between 1100-1200 and 1500-1600.
  • Low Population Growth (1100-1500). If we extend this to cover the persecution from 1100-1200. we get the following estimates.
    In the absence of persecution, the average population growth would be 22.2%. The growth during 1100-1200 was 12.5%. The resulting deficit in population equals 203.7 million excess deaths.
• Population Since the Creation. The information above was supplied by someone doing population studies in the Middle Ages. Years after, for an unrelated reason I tried to prove that the global population was too low for the years of evolution. I consistently had too high numbers until I remembered the Middle Ages.
  Using very low birth rates, I calculated the possible estimated population of the world to show the number of people that would be expected after 6000 years. I used very low birth rates and discovered the calculated population was too high. So I recalculated based on only eight people after the flood and 4400 years of population growth and the estimated population was still hundreds of millions too much. It was only when I made great cuts in population around the middle ages that I was able to get the current level of population. I had to eliminate almost two billion people. Therefore, to say that religious persecution was responsible for 100 to 200 million is only saying that they were responsible for five to ten percent of the missing number of people.

Catholic Sources. Catholic historian Vergerius admits that during the Pontificate of Pope Paul IV (1555-1559)

" the Inquisition alone, by tortures, starvation, or the fire, murdered more than 150,000 Protestants."

The Catholic church does not agree with these numbers. In some writings that I have found, the charge is made that these death totals are based on Protestant revisionist history. They claim that there was not enough people to kill and the plagues were to blame for most deaths. They estimate that the total deaths due to the inquisition were closer to 3,000 or 4,000. - The Myth of the Spanish Inquisition - 1994 BBC / A&E production

Significant Developments in These Times

Modern Persecutions by the Church
The church is marketing Protestant evangelism as evil for families and disruptive of the common good. Whenever the church has the opportunity it tries to stamp out all traces of Protestants. When it is in the majority it openly and unashamedly persecutes viciously. Let other nations be warned.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, religion entered these countries again. The church quickly moved to regain the property it lost as a result of the takeover of communism but it encouraged the new lawmakers to deny Protestant churches this same right by keeping their property. In addition, Protestant churches were forced to register. After a while, the rules were tightened to allow only people who had a presence for over twenty years. This excluded any new religions and old groups who had not been in the Soviet Union before communism.

Mexico
Mexico is over 90% Catholic and the Roman Catholic intends to make it 100%. While in the majority it makes no pretence about ecumenism and 'separated brethren'. They are generally hostile toward evangelicals and encourage violence to discourage Protestant evangelism. In the 1980s a Seventh-Day Adventist minister had his arms chopped off by a Catholic mob urged on by the priest. The church looks on evangelicals as trouble makers who are destroying families. A large Pentecostal denomination was notified in March of 1991 that all churches not registered with the government would be closed within three months. In one Pentecostal group, over 30 churches were closed due to threats of violence by radically-minded Catholics. Two evangelicals were also stoned to death by Catholics.

Nicaragua
The Roman Catholic hierarchy is pressuring Nicaragua's public schools to use text books which promote Catholicism and which blame racial tension and other societal problems on Protestants. The textbooks are produced by the Catholic archdiocese of Managua. A textbook for fourth grade of secondary schools has the picture of Pope John Paul II on the cover and warns Protestants not to criticize Catholic devotion to the Virgin Mary: According to the textbook, 'To scorn Mary is an absurdity, something only the devil can incite'.

Be careful, Protestant brothers. You're playing with fire. If you want to increase your numbers by misleading unprepared Catholics, don't mess with Mary, the Mother of Jesus and our mother. It's something serious for which you'll pay heavily. (Ecumenical News International, April 28, 1997).

Colombia
Between 1949 and 1953, there was intense persecution of those who were not Catholics in Colombia. There is evidence of at least 60,000 deaths. Pope Pius XII awarded the President of Columbia with one of the highest awards from the Church, and praised Columbia for its example of the Catholic faith.

The response to this is that other churches are not founded by God and should be wiped out with fire. The defense of Roman Catholics to this presentation is as follows:

"Communists destroy churches because they are God's enemies; Catholic's destroy churches because they are God's friends ... Against such men - founded churches ... Catholics in Latin America should arise and wipe them out with fire." John J. Oberlander, in The Voice of Freedom, 1954, page 20.

Summary of the Popes and their Activities
The Catholic Church claims a line of succession from the Apostle Peter (designated the first pope) down to the current pope. I will just list the popes that had significant historical events during their rule.

Number	Pope	Year	Significant Event
45	Leo I, the Great	440-461	Suppressed Manichaeanism, a Christian sect
59	Vigilius	537-555	The Church gained full political control
64	Gregory I, the Great	590-604	Ban on literacy, sold relics
97	Saint Leo III	795-816	Council of Aix-la-Chapelle (836) claimed that after his rule, convents became brothels and monasteries became filled with homosexuals
114	Stephen VII	896-897	Exhumed the corpse of the previous pope and tried it for perjury and for coveting the papacy.
131	John XII	955-963	Rape, vandalism and theft. Convicted of incest, adultery and murder in 962 by Otto I. Made the Lateran a brothel
146	Benedict IX	1032-1048	"A disgrace to the Chair of St Peter", according to the Catholic Encyclopedia. Murder, bestiality, bisexual, homosexual orgies, witchcraft and Satanism.
153	Saint Leo IX	1049-1054	The separation of the Greek church
158	Saint Gregory VII	1073-1085	Celibacy in the clergy. Right to depose emperors.
160	§ Blessed Urban II	1088-1099	The First Crusade. Canonised in 1881. 12,000 Jews murdered in the Rhineland
161	Paschal II	1099-1118	Continues the crusades of Urban II
168	§ Blessed Eugene III	1145-1153	The Second Crusade
171	Alexander III	1159-1181	Waldensian persecution
174	Gregory VIII	1187	The Third Crusade - issues bull
175	Clement III	1187-1191	The Third Crusade
177	Innocent III	1198-1216	The Fourth Crusade. 1212 - The Children's Crusade
178	Honorius III	1216-1227	The Fifth Crusade
179	Gregory IX	1227-1241	The Sixth Crusade. 1231 - Papal Inquisition
181	Innocent IV	1243-1254	The Seventh Crusade with Louis IX of France. First to officially sanction torture in the Inquisition.
184	Clement IV	1265-1268	The Eighth Crusade
185	§ Blessed Gregory IX	1271-1276	The Ninth Crusade
193	Celestine V	1294	He was known as a good man
194	Boniface VIII	1294-1303	Palestrina Massacre . Evil, immoral, thief, murderer, rape, simony, fornicator, adulterer. Organised pilgrimages to St Peter, for the full pardoning of sins - after paying a tribute.
196	Clement V	1305-1314	Rebukes England's King Edward II for not torturing heretics and orders him to do so
199	Clement VI	1342-1352	350 separate massacres of Jews by Christians during three years of the Black Death after 1348
207	Martin V	1417-1431	Orders extermination of the Hussites (1429)
213	Sextus IV	1471-1484	The Spanish Inquisition
214	Innocent VIII	1484-1492	Waldensians, French Vaudois (1487) and witches persecutions
215	Alexander VI	1492-1503	Hosted orgies, incest, adultery, prostitution
217	Julius II	1503-1513	Created the system of indulgences
218	Leo X	1513-1521	The Reformation The Diet of Worms, ordered the sale of indulgences
221	Paul III	1534-1549	Established the Holy Office (Roman Inquisition)
224	Paul IV	1555-1559	The Roman Inquisition especially in Italy, Netherlands and the orient. Forced Jews to wear yellow hats. In 1557, he created the "Index of Forbidden Books"
226	Pius V	1566-1572	Orders the extermination of Huguenots and asks all loyal Catholics to help hunt them down
227	Gregory XIII	1572-1585	1572 Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre
236	Urban VIII	1623-1644	The Thirty Years War. Forced Galileo to recant his scientific theories.
241	§ Blessed Innocent XI	1676-1689	The revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Huguenot and Waldenses persecuted.
251	Pius VI	1775-1799	Taken prisoner by General Berthier of France
256	Pius IX	1846-1878	Papal infallibility, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception
261	Pius XII	1939-1958	Hitler's Pope. Remained silent about the murder of Jews and Serbs
265	John Paul II, the Great	1978-2005	Brought the church back from its prophetic wounds. (Karol Wojtyla of Poland)
266	Benedict XVI	2005-	Will he be the last Pope? (Joseph Ratzinger of Germany)
§ The title "Blessed" means that they are on the path to becoming a saint

Papal Bulls and Encyclicals. Here are a few of the most famous laws issued by the popes.

Infamous Bulls or Laws Passed
Law	Year	Pope	Contents
Christmas	340	Julius I	Made December 25 the official Christmas day - the birth of the Persian savior Mithra
Heresy	3??	Damasus I	Defined heresy as not obeying the doctrines of the church
Cullagium	10??	Urban II	Allowed a priest to keep a mistress as long as he paid an annual fee
Deliberato	1???	Innocent III	Claimed the right to depose kings, condemned the magna charta, forbids Bible reading in the common language. He ordered the extermination of heretics and the massacre of Albigensians
Ad extirpanda	1252	Innocent IV	Ad extirpanda means "to be exterminated" ordered all secular rulers to arrest and execute non-Catholic Christians. Ordered the civil magistrates to force a confession of guilt from all heretics by torture
Unam Sanctum	1302	Boniface VIII	Salvation required submission to the pope. He was one of the most immoral popes. "We, moreover, proclaim, declare and pronounce that it is altogether necessary to salvation for every human being to be subject to the Roman Pontiff."
Vox in excelsis	1312	Clement V	Found no reason for the condemnation of the order of the Knights Templars. He declared them innocent. They were still persecuted.
Cum inter nonnullos	132?	John XXII	It was heresy to suggest Jesus and his apostles owned no property
Spanish Inquisition	1479	Sixtus IV	Allowed the Spanish Inquisition
Summis desiderantes affectibus	1484	Innocent VIII	Allowed the persecution of witches
Cum nimis absurdum	155?	Paul IV	Created the first Jewish ghetto in Rome. He suspected them of helping Protestants and forced them to sell their property and wear yellow hats. He restricted their commercial activity to selling second hand clothes, thus guaranteeing their poverty.
Sacratissimo uti culmine	????	John XXII	If you are wearing the Carmelite scapular at death, Mary will personally escort you to heaven the first Saturday after you die. "I, the Mother of grace, shall descend on the Saturday after their death and whomsoever I shall find in Purgatory, I shall free, so that I may lead them to the holy mountain of life everlasting."
Dies Dominii	1998	John Paul II	Encyclical written May 31. "Christians will naturally strive to ensure that civil legislation respects their duty to keep Sunday holy."

The Office of the Papacy
Here is an example of how the popes view themselves:
Innocent III, who ordered the murder or millions, described himself as
"set between God and man, lower than God but higher than man, who judges all and is judged by no one. . ." He declared that, "the priesthood was as superior to the kingship as the soul to the body," and he informed the nobles of Tuscany that, "just as the moon derives its light from the sun ... so too the royal power derives the splendor of its dignity from the pontifical authority."

The pope is of so great dignity and so exalted that he is not a mere man, but as it were god, and the vicar of God ...

The pope is crowned with a triple crown, as king of heaven and earth and the lower regions ...

The pope is of so great authority and power that he can modify, explain or interpret even divine laws ...

The pope can modify divine law, since his power is not of man but of God, and he acts as vicegerent of God upon earth with most ample power of binding and loosing sheep

The pope is as it were god on earth, sole sovereign of the faithful of Christ, chief of kings, having plenitude of power, to whom has been entrusted by the omnipotent God direction not only of earthly but also of the heavenly kingdom ...

Just in case you think that the church has changed and that was a relic from the past - here is the current world view as seen by the present pope. It is described in a 700 page book called The Keys of this Blood by Malachi Martin (1990) All groups are categorized and accessed by their globalist ideals and their threat to the pope as the new geopolitical world leader.

The Millennial End Game
This is their view of the world as taken from the book The Keys of this Blood by Malachi Martin (1990 Simon and Schuster).

The newest game in the city of Man is the building of a geopolitical structure. Everyone who is anyone in terms of sociopolitical and economic power is engaging in it, some deliberately, some willy-nilly; and ultimately it is conceded that all nations, great and small, will be involved. It is the millennial end game.

In the 1980's the pope saw only three viable contenders for this global leadership position. The Soviet Union, the Western Democratic Alliance headed by the United States of America and the Catholic Church.

He intends to be the victor in this competition for world dominance.

Leader of the World by Divine Right.

No one, individual or corporate body, has formally conceded him the right to act and speak as religious authority and moral monitor of the society of nations. He has assumed this mantle, and no one of consequence really disputes his assumption of it. (Page 492)

Only such a man as the holy father and only his official representatives, have the Heavenly Father's mind and love for all mankind; for only they serve all mankind as one family, and have the capacity to tend it as one family. (Page 131).

... in those sectors of human life where he claims to have a unique and absolute mandate from heaven. In all phases of education, in all aspects of moral behavior, and in all questions about ultimate truths undergirding the life and death of every human being, this man claims for his papal persona the right, the privilege, the duty and the due authority to stand as judge. (Page 345)

Prepared to assume leadership.

What captures the unwavering attention of the secular leaders of the world in this remarkable network of the Roman Catholic Church is precisely the fact that it places at the personal disposal of the pope a supranatural, supracontinental, supratrade-bloc structure that is so built and oriented that if tomorrow or next week, by a sudden miracle, a one - world government were established, the Church would not have to undergo any essential structural change in order to retain its dominant position and to further its global aims. (Page 142-143)

Roman Catholicism - the Only Solution.

At his vaguest ... he insists that just as no system of politics is viable unless it is based on the spirituality of genuine religious belief in God and in Christ, so no religious belief is viable unless it is deeply involved in political systems.
At his most specific, however, he insists that men have no reliable hope of creating a viable geopolitical system unless it is on the basis of Roman Catholic Christianity. (Page 492)

Civil Rights (No one has the right to be wrong). Democratic principles cannot take precedence over divine revelation (Page 287).
Speaking about the beliefs of the minimalist group he says:

In their eyes, their regard and respect for democratic principles impose upon them the obligation - the religious as well as the civil and political obligation - to defend every person's right to be wrong. Every person must have the right not only to believe in Hell of the damned and Heaven of the Saved, every person must literally be assured the right to choose Hell or Heaven.
That obligation carried to the extreme not only sets the Minimalists apart from John Paul; it sets them against him as well. It sets them apart from the holy father because democratic principles cannot take precedence over divine revelation. No one can be forced to believe in heaven or hell or to choose one over the other. Nevertheless, it is axiomatic for John Paul that no one has the right - democratic or otherwise - to a moral wrong; and no religion based on divine revelation has a moral right to teach such a moral wrong or abide by it. (Page 287)

I agree, no one has the absolute right to kill, steal or do other terrible crimes against each other. But the church broadly defines "moral rights" as any belief of which they do not approve. This includes your freedom to believe as you interpret it from the Bible.

You do have the absolute right to believe and worship God as you understand. This right was given to Adam and Eve. Using these rights, they sinned and God did not forcibly stop them.

His Protestant Opponents .

They all arose within the context of rebellion against the authority and privileged teaching power of the Roman Church (Page 286).

On the Offensive .

From his vantage point at the hub of the Vatican - the world's greatest listening post - Pope John Paul is so acutely aware of the daily moves and the long range plans of each major globalist group, that it is as though each of these groups maintained a 'Situation Room' ...[and] the pope himself can enter these imaginary situation rooms. (Page 282)

Heresy and Civil Rights
Using the definition of heresy as stated in canon law 751, and considering the wide scope of the pope's stated authority in canon law 1401, 1404 and number 1405. He has the right to judge even heads of state.

The laws are not limited to those of the faith. They apply to all.

As the guardian of the souls of men, with the keys to heaven, hell and purgatory he has the right and the duty to make sure that no one corrupts another with heresy and that you are not mislead by false teachings. To root out these false beliefs (which will condemn you to eternal punishment and torment) the notion of chastisement through persecution and torture is insignificant - compared to the condemnation you will meet in the end.

So, torture at the flames is kinder. Therefore, the following attitude becomes clearer and more frightening:

The church may by divine right confiscate the property of heretics, imprison their persons and condemn them to the flames ... In our age the right to inflict the severest penalties, even death, belongs to the church ... There is no graver offense than heresy ... therefore it must be rooted out. Public Ecclesiastical Law, Volume 2, page 142.

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.

These are not past attitudes of the church. Aware of the public relations problems, it is now tolerant of beliefs until it can gain control.

According to 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." " Ibid., 564, 565.

The Right to Punish Heretics. A Catholic textbook (Public Ecclesiastical Law, Volume 2, page 142) states

The church may by divine right confiscate the property of heretics, imprison their persons and condemn them to the flames ...
In our age the right to inflict the severest penalties, even death, belongs to the church... There is no graver offense that heresy ... therefore it must be rooted out.

Marketing the Papacy
Pope John Paul II has been very active in marketing himself and his church around the world. With a series of unprecedented visions, meeting with all kind of religious leaders as brothers, reassuring us that there are 'many paths to God' - he is in the process of legitimizing his role as world spiritual leader and increasing his sphere of influence and contacts.

During his visits, every effort is made to attract the young. T-Shirts with Mary, the use of popular rock groups such as NSync and Britney Spears are all part of the glitz and hype used to attract the world.

At a Catholic University in Washington D.C. there is a pope museum dedicated to him. On the internet site that serves this institution, John Paul and his church are declared as 'defenders of human rights'.

This strategy to change the image of the Roman Catholic Church has touched every major mass marketing outlet and has used every technique possible. Most are aimed at children. This is a long term strategy, that has been proven to change a generation in about 10 or 15 years. When combined with education, the time will be less.

• Education. The church is trying to get public assistance for private education.
• Television. Many new television show includes a character with the Catholic belief or a priest performing their duties. Except for the token Rabbi, what is very obvious is that the Protestant view is not represented. I will be looking at the trend, to find the producers and writers because there is a clear, unmistakable message being sent. After the long period of dishonoring Christianity, why has Hollywood embraced us? And Why, only the Catholic church.
  Soap operas are now heavily involved in the occult. Popular shows such as "Law and Order" and its clones, "The Practice", "The District", "American Dreams", "Everwood" and others, are Catholic in character and message. Even the three witches on the show "Charmed" are Catholic.
  In these shows there is at least one devout Catholic character and one who was raised Catholic. We are inundated with Catholic evangelism to their lost sheep of all colors and backgrounds.
  Less that ten years ago it was not so.
  I applaud the effort to represent some Christian point of view. But the budding conspiracy theorist in me is wondering why it is so pro-Catholic to the embarrassing exclusion of anything Protestant.
  Reliable studies have shown that the power of television can revolutionize a country in a short time. We are being attacked on all fronts.
• News. Some 'news' shows have popped up, apparently to present religious news. But an analysis of the programs over a period of three months shows that it is basically promoting Catholicism. At least 25% to 50% seems dedicated to featuring this religion.
  
  Catholic events seem to get favorable national news coverage, while mostly scandalous Protestant events do.
  This is just an observation.
• Popular Music. Music stars are promoting the church and Mary.

It makes you wonder, who owns the networks and the press? One way of controlling propaganda is to own the press.

Education - a Battleground
Catholic Policy. There is currently a law before the political houses of the United States to provide funding for religious education. The Republican marketing and advertising campaign has been targeting African Americans by showing the benefits to poor families. I laugh at this, because the truly good private schools are unaffordable. My sister claims to spend $20,000 per year on her 5 year old! So even school voucher assistance cannot help poor families to afford the good schools. In less expensive private schools, the education is no better than a well funded public school. What is better (in some schools) is the religious atmosphere and training and the sense of security.

So, who wants this law?

In an incident with an open microphone, president Bush was meeting with a group of Roman Catholic bishops, priests and nuns and he was heard saying the following according to an Associated Press story dated January 31, 2001:

Its a battle. It's a problem politically. There are a lot of Republicans who don't like vouchers. They come from wealthy suburban districts who are scared to death of irritating the public school movement and their schools are good.

There is serious, serious heat on Capitol Hill, and its not only from Democrats. The Republicans won't yell, but they'll whisper it. The Democrats will yell it.

So, who wants this law? It is apparently not the politicians. It is not the rich Republicans. The marketing campaigns are trying to convince the poor that they need it (even though they truly cannot afford the out of pocket expenses). It is apparently the church who wants it.
But look at education in Nicaragua. As soon as it was safe, school books started having pictures of the pope on it, and they started openly threatening Protestants and they are teaching only Catholicism.

The church will not stop until it gets public funds to teach Catholic beliefs and Catholic beliefs taught in every school. Catholic Canon Law on Education (793, 794, 797, 798, 799) teaches that:

1. Civil society must provide a Catholic education to children, and parents must have the right to choose Catholic education at public expense.
2. The church has the duty and the right of making sure that a Catholic education is provided for everyone
3. The church has the divine mission of educating all to come to a Christian life - a Catholic Christian life.

As I hear the political arguments and the television advertisements, I realize that they both are quoting Catholic Canon law.
Religious training belongs at home. Religion should be a choice. But the church already believes that you have no right to be wrong, therefore, you should not have a choice.

Humanist Philosophy on Education. The classroom must and will become the area of combat between ... the rotting corpse of Christianity ... and the new faith of humanism. Humanist Magazine (January - February 1983).

Paganism in the Classroom. Paganism has taken a seat in the classroom. It comes in with books like Harry Potter and under veiled humanist philosophy. Because it is not overtly religious it can exist. Well none of it belongs in the schools either.

The Catholic Church and the Bible

Scriptural Authority
The Bible was once banned in the church. Even now its use and interpretation by ordinary people is not encouraged. In the thirteenth century, the Council of Toulouse ruled:

We prohibit laymen possessing copies of the Old and New Testament ... We forbid them most severely to have the above books in the popular venacular. . . . The lords of the districts shall carefully seek out the heretics in dwellings, hovels, and forests, and even their underground retreats shall be entirely wiped out. Concil. Tolosanum, Pope Gregory IX, Anno. Chr. 1229

The Council of Tarragona, A.D. 1234, ruled that:

No one may possess the books of the Old and New Testaments in the Romance language, and if anyone possesses them he must turn them over to the local bishop within eight days after promulgation of this decree, so that they may be burned lest, be he a cleric or a layman, he is suspected until he is cleared of all suspicion. D. Lortsh, Histoire de la Bible en France, 1910, page 14

The church accepts all the following as authoritative for defining church doctrine:

• Pope - through the doctrine of infallibility (ruling with perfection and without possibility of error when speaking about doctrines of faith.
• Tradition.
• The infallible teaching of the church.
• 66 books of the Protestant Bible.
• Apocryphal books added by the Council of Trent in 1546. See the history of the biblical canon.

Sacred Tradition and sacred Scripture, then, are bound closely together, and communicate one with the other. For both of them , flowing out from the same divine well-spring, move towards the same goal. Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit. And Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It transmits it to the successors of the apostles [the pope and bishops of the Roman Catholic Church] so that, enlightened by the Spirit of truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound and spread it abroad by their preaching. Thus it comes about that the Church does not draw her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Hence, both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal feelings of devotion and reverence...

But the task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ. Yet this Magesterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant. It teaches only what has been handed on to it. At the divine command and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it listens to this devotedly, guards it with dedication and expounds it faithfully. All that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed is drawn from this single deposit of faith.

It is clear, therefore, that, in the supremely wise arrangement of God, sacred Tradition, sacred Scripture and the Magesterium of the Church are so connected and associated that one of them cannot stand without the others. Working together, each in its own way under the action of the one Holy Spirit, they all contribute effectively to the salvation of souls" (Vatican Council II , Pages 755-756). (Emphasis ours.)

But when Christians separated from us affirm the divine authority of the sacred books, they think differently from us -- different ones in different ways -- about the relationship between the scriptures and the Church. For the Church according to Catholic belief, its authentic teaching office has a special place in expounding and preaching the written Word of God (Vatican Council II, page 468).

Scriptures are not sufficient

"We must, therefore, conclude that the Scriptures alone cannot be a sufficient guide and rule of faith...because they are not of themselves clear and intelligible even in matters of the highest importance..." (The Faith of Our Fathers, page 73). (2)

Catholic Church is God's Official Interpreter

How can you get the true meaning of the Bible? You can get it only from God's official interpreter, the Catholic Church. 'This, then, you must understand first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is made by private interpretation' (2 Peter 1:20). (A Catechism for Adults, page 10). (2)

"The simple fact is that the Bible, like all dead letters, calls for a living interpreter." (The Faith of Millions, page 155). (2)

Scriptures are not Safe to find the will of God

"The very nature of the Bible ought to prove to any thinking man the impossibility of its being the one safe method to find out what the Savior taught." (Question Box, page 67). (2)

Scriptures are Dead

"... A dead and speechless book." (Question Box, page 67). (2)

Scriptures Forbidden to common people

"In early times the Bible was read freely by the lay people ... New dangers came in during the Middle Ages...To meet those evils, the Council of Toulouse (1229) and Terragona (1234) forbade the laity to read the vernacular translations of the Bible. Pius IV required bishops to refuse lay persons leave to read even Catholic versions of Scripture unless their confessors or parish priests judged that such reading was likely to prove beneficial." (Catholic Dictionary, page 82).

"Of all the advice that we can offer your holiness we must open your eyes well and use all possible force in the matter, namely to permit the reading of the gospel as little as possible in all the countries under your jurisdiction. Let the very little part of the gospel suffice which is usually read in mass, and let no one be permitted to read more. So long as people will be content with the small amount, your interest will prosper; but as soon as the people want to read more, your interest will fail.

The Bible is a book, which more than any other, has raised against us the tumults and tempests by which we have almost perished. In fact, if one compares the teaching of the Bible with what takes place in our churches, he will soon find discord, and will realize that our teachings are often different from the Bible, and oftener still, contrary to it.
From a speech given by the Cardinals to Pope Pius III National Library in Paris, Folio Number 1068, Volume 2, pages. 650-651

The Eucharist and the Sacrifice of the Mass
The mass started in 394 A.D. It is defined as an unbloody sacrifice of Christ. The bread and wine are the actual, literal (not symbolic) presence of God - therefore this bread must be worshipped as God.

There should be no doubt in anyone's mind that all the faithful ought to show to this most holy sacrament the worship which is due to the true God, as has always been the custom of the Catholic Church. Nor is it to be adored by any the less because it was instituted by Christ to be eaten (Vatican Council II, page 104).

If any one shall deny that the body and blood together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore entire Christ, are truly, really, and substantially contained in the sacrament of the most holy Eucharist; and shall say that He is only in it as a sign, or in a figure, or virtually -- let him be accursed (Canon 1, Council of Trent).
If any one shall say that the substance of the bread and wine remains in the sacrament of the most holy Eucharist, together with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and shall deny that wonderful and singular conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the body, and of the whole substance of the wine into the blood, the outward forms of the bread and wine still remaining, which conversion the Catholic Church most aptly calls transubstantiation -- let him be accursed (Canon 2, Council of Trent).
If any man shall say that Christ, the only begotten Son of God, is not to be adored in the holy sacrament of the Eucharist, even with the open worship of latria, and therefore not to be venerated with any peculiar festal celebrity, nor to be solemnly carried about in processions according to the praiseworthy, and universal rites and customs of the holy Church, and that he is not to be publicly set before the people to be adored, and that his adorers are idolaters -- let him be accursed (Canon 6, Council of Trent).

Salvation by Works

If anyone shall say that the ungodly man is justified by faith only so as to understand that nothing else is required that may cooperate to obtain the grace of justification, and that it is in no wise necessary for him to be prepared and disposed by the motion of his own will ... let him be accursed (Canon 9, Council of Trent).
If anyone shall say that justifying faith is nothing else than confidence in the divine mercy pardoning sins for Christ's sake, or that it is that confidence alone by which we are justified ... let him be accursed (Canon 12).

The belief that Christ's sacrifice paid only for the guilt of sin and not for the penalty of sin has created several doctrines all based on works or acts of the worshipper. Because man must pay for his sins all people (except a special few) must go to purgatory. To get out of purgatory earlier than your sins allow, can be accomplished by the living before they die and on your behalf by the living through the following means.

1. Indulgences. A decrease in the number of days spent in purgatory. This can be done by saying the rosary a prescribed number of times daily or by doing other acts as announced by the pope. It could also be received at a price.
2. Penance. Good deeds, money.
3. Supererogation. Excess supply of good works by some souls can be applied to others.

The pope holds the triple crown and the keys because he can unlock the gates of purgatory by granting indulgences. Protestants have called indulgences a license to sin. This is technically not true because the Catholic church does want the faithful to be faithful. But in reality, people can treat them as get out of purgatory free cards. When the pope granted all crusaders immediate passage to heaven (bypassing purgatory). the murdering hordes went stealing, raping, torturing and murdering at will.

Indulgences

John Tetzel said, "Indulgences are the most precious and sublime of God's gifts. This cross [pointing to the red cross] has as much efficacy as the cross of Jesus Christ. Draw near and I will give you letters duly sealed, by which even the sins you shall hereafter desire to commit shall be all forgiven you. I would not exchange my privileges for those of St. Peter in heaven, for I have saved more souls with my indulgences than he with his sermons. There is no sin so great that the indulgence cannot remit it, and even if any one should (which is doubtless impossible) ravish the Holy Virgin Mother of God, let him pay-let him only pay largely, and it shall be forgiven him. Even repentance is not indispensable. But more than all this: indulgences save not the living alone, they also save the dead. Ye priests, ye nobles, ye tradesmen, ye wives, ye maidens, and ye young men, hearken to your departed parents and friends, who cry to you from the bottomless abyss, ‘We are enduring horrible torment! a small alms would deliver us; you can give it, and you will not.' . . . The very moment that the money chinks against the bottom of the chest, the soul escapes from purgatory and flies free to heaven." History of the Reformation, by D'AUBIGNE, page 68.

Since all humans (except Mary) go directly to Purgatory to suffer punishment for the penalty of sin, the church teaches several methods by which one can shorten their stay in purgatory. One of these are indulgences. These may be purchased with money or through acts of penitence, acts of charity, or other pious means. The concept of indulgences is based on the idea that one's good works merit God's grace. Since Christ's sacrifice was insufficient for the full payment of the penalty of sin, acts of piety and gifts to the Roman Church may be used as partial payment for one's sins. The efficacy of an indulgence depends upon the merit attributed to it by the church. For example, one may pay to have a mass said for a relative believed to be in purgatory. The mass will then account for a certain number of days deleted from his purgatorial sentence. The use of indulgences spread gradually. It became a very clear element in the history of the Church when the Popes decreed that

certain works which were suitable for promoting the common good of the Church 'could replace all penitential practices' and that the faithful who were 'genuinely sorry for and had confessed their sins' and done such works were granted 'by almighty God's mercy and ... trusting in his Apostles merits and authority' and 'by virtue of the fullness of the apostolic power' 'not only full and abundant forgiveness, but the most complete forgiveness possible for their sins.

For 'God's only begotten Son ... has won a treasure for the militant Church ... he has entrusted it to blessed Peter, the key-bearer of heaven, and to his successors who are Christ's vicars on earth, so that they may distribute it to the faithful for their salvation. They may apply it with mercy for reasonable causes to all who have repented for and have confessed their sins. At times they may remit completely, and at other times only partially, the temporal punishment due to sin in a general as well as in special ways (insofar as they judge to be fitting in the sight of the Lord). The merits of the Blessed Mother of God and of the elect ... are known to add further to this treasure' (Vatican Council II, page 70).

[The Roman Catholic Church] 'teaches and commands that the usage of indulgences -- a usage most beneficial to Christians and approved by the authority of the Sacred Councils -- should be kept in the Church; and it condemns with anathema those who say that indulgences are useless or that the Church does not have the power to grant them. (Vatican Council II, page 71)

The Roman Catholic Church says it alone can grant this essential blessing for full salvation, and then condemns to hell those who disagree.

For God's only-begotten Son ... has won a treasure for the militant Church ... he has entrusted it to blessed Peter, the key-bearer of heaven, and to his successors who are Christ's vicars on earth, so that they may distribute it to the faithful for their salvation. They may apply it with mercy for reasonable causes to all who have repented for and have confessed their sins. At times they may remit completely, and at other times only partially, the temporal punishment due to sin in a general as well as in special ways (insofar as they judge to be fitting in the sight of the Lord). The merits of the Blessed Mother of God and of the elect ... are known to add further to this treasure (Vatican Council II, page 70).

Vatican II established 20 complex rules concerning when and how any indulgence may be obtained, and condemned "with anathema those who say that indulgences are useless or that the Church does not have the power to grant them ... [for] the task of winning salvation.

Penance
The doctrine of purgatory clearly demonstrates that even when the guilt of sin has been taken away, punishment for it or the consequences of it may remain to be expiated or cleansed. They often are. In fact, in purgatory the souls of those 'who died in the charity of God and truly repentant, but who had not made satisfaction with adequate penance for their sins and omissions' are cleansed after death with punishment designed to purge away their debt" (Vatican Council II, page 64).

On the subject of salvation and the expiation of sin, Vatican Council II stated:

Therefore, the Church announces the good tidings of salvation to those who do not believe, so that all men may know the one true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent and may be converted from their ways, doing penance (Vatican Council II, page 6).

The full taking away and, as it is called, reparation of sins requires two things.

1. Friendship with God must be restored. Amends must be made for offending his wisdom and goodness. This is done by a sincere conversion of mind.
2. All the personal and social values, as well as those that are universal, which sin has lessened or destroyed must be fully made good. This is done in two ways. The first is by freely making reparation, which involves punishment. The second is by accepting the punishments God's just and most holy wisdom has appointed. From this the holiness and splendor of his glory shine out through the world. ...

The Rosary

The Mysteries
There are three types of Mysteries which center around the lives of Jesus and Mary.
The Joyful Mysteries
The Annunciation. When Gabriel announced the birth of Christ. The Visitation. When Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth. The Birth. The Birth of Jesus Christ The Presentation. Simeon saw the infant in the temple. The Finding in the Temple. The story of Jesus Christ in the temple as a young boy.
The Sorrowful Mysteries
The Agony in the Garden. Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Scourging at the Pillar. Jesus was beaten. The Crowning of Thorns. Jesus was crowned with a crown of thorns. Carrying the Cross. Jesus carried the cross on the road to Golgotha. The Crucifixion. Jesus was crucified between two thieves.
The Glorious Mysteries
The Resurrection. Jesus rose from the dead. The Ascension. Jesus was taken to heaven. The Holy Ghost at Pentecost. The descent of the Holy Spirit. The Assumption of Mary. The belief that Mary rose bodily to Heaven. The Coronation of Mary, Queen of heaven and Earth. The belief that Mary was crowned as queen.

The devotion to Mary centers around daily prayers recited with a rosary. The string of beads helps to keep track of the prayers and acts required.
The Prayers. 5 decades of the rosary include 1 Creed, 2 Our Father, 153 Hail Marys, 16 Glory be to the Father, (or 1 Glory be and 15 Fatima Decade Prayers), and 1 Hail Holy Queen.

So there are 154 prayers said to Mary and 18 to God, but if you use the Fatima Decade prayers instead of the Glory be prayer then you have 2 prayers to God and 169 to Mary.

1. The Crucifix. While holding the crucifix make the Sign of the Cross and then recite the Apostles Creed.
2. The First 5 Beads
   • Recite the Our Father on the first large bead.
   • On each of the three small beads recite a Hail Mary for an increase of faith, hope and charity.
   • Recite the Glory Be to the Father on the next large bead.
3. The Decade (one large and ten small). Recall the first Rosary mystery and recite the Our Father on the next large bead. For each of the fifteen Mysteries do the following as you reflect on the mystery:
   • On each of the adjacent ten small beads (also referred to as a decade) recite a Hail Mary .
   • On the next large bead, recite the "Glory Be to the Father" or "The Fatima decade prayer" (added in 2000).
4. When the fifth mystery is completed, the Rosary is Customarily concluded with the Hail, Holy Queen.

Relics, Idolatry and Image Worship
To understand the charge of idolatry, one should understand that the Catholic sees several levels of honor or worship. So it would be fair to say that standing side by side, God would receive more honor than an idol. However, the practice of honoring images and the dead in any degree, while giving the impression that God is unapproachable (except through Mary and the saints) does create an environment where the appearance of idolatry has merit.

Images, Scapulars, Amulets, Cloths and String
Length of Indulgences Action * Days Kissing a scapular 500 Venerate the image of divine mercy on divine mercy Sunday (first Sunday after Easter). Eternal life Wearing the carmelite scapular at death Will not go to hell * Number of days reduced in Purgatory
Relics
Gregory 1 introduced the idea of selling relics to those who could afford it. Some people made a profit by being paid for authenticating relics. A cross made from 'filings' from chains worn by St Peter which could unloose you from your sins forever. Keys of St. Peter made from 'filings' from chains worn by St Peter which could unloose you from your sins forever. Fragments of 'the true cross' Bones and body parts. Skull of Saint Lawrence who was roasted to death August 10, 258 Tears shed by Jesus, that are still wet Barbs from the Crown of Thorns Mary's undergarments Hair Clay left over after God made Adam A branch from Moses' burning bush A feather from the wings of the Angel Gabriel. A sack full of Peter's toe nails Six to fifteen sacred foreskins were snipped from Jesus at his circumcision. Christ's navel, tears and fingernails. Two skulls of Peter Six or seven thigh bones of the Virgin Mary.

Whether or not we play with word meanings, the truth of the matter is, that in practice, the lower adoration or honor given to dead saints or plastic statues, such as bowing, kissing the feet or praying in front of these objects and to these dead people appears to be indistinguishable from the heathen adoration of his idol.

The councils of Trent and Nicaea II state the following:

[The holy Synod commands] that images of Christ, the Virgin Mother of God, and other saints are to be held and kept especially in churches, that due honor and reverence (debitum honorem et venerationem) are to be paid to them, not that any divinity or power is thought to be in them for the sake of which they may be worshipped, or that anything can be asked of them, or that any trust may be put in images, as was done by the heathen who put their trust in their idols [Ps. cxxxiv, 15 sqq.], but because the honor shown to them is referred to the prototypes which they represent, so that by kissing, uncovering to, kneeling before images we adore Christ and honor the saints whose likeness they bear (Denzinger, number. 986).

The following is the official Catholic position on the veneration of images.

• It is forbidden to give divine honor or worship to the angels and saints for this belongs to God alone
• We should pay to the angels and saints an inferior honor or worship, for this is due to them as the servants and special friends of God.
• We should give to relics, crucifixes and holy pictures a relative honor, as they relate to Christ and his saints and are memorials of them.
• We do not pray to relics or images, for they can neither see nor hear nor help us.

Although the first point claims to forbid idolatry, the next two allow the practice.

Guess what? If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and talks like a duck - it is a duck. Quack quack!

Evolution
Pope John Paul II, in a October 1996 message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, stated that the theory of evolution is more than a hypothesis and that it must be taken seriously by Christians (Vatican Information Service, October, 23 1996).

The Imperfect Catholic Priest
The crime of blasphemy was made against anyone who claimed the following attributes of God:

1. Equality with God
2. The right to forgive sins

The Catholic Priest pages 78 - 79 says the following:

Seek where you will, through heaven and earth, and you will find but one created being who can forgive the sinner ...
That extraordinary being is the priest, the Catholic Priest.

According to Catholic doctrine, God has to abide by the decision of the priest in matters of granting or withholding forgiveness! In the book Dignity and Duties of the Priest Volume 12, page 2, it states:

God Himself is obliged to abide by the judgment of His priest, and either not to pardon or to pardon, according as they refuse to give absolution...
The sentence of the priest precedes, and God subscribes to it.

It is blasphemy to assign to oneself the power of God, and it is bold to claim that God should subject himself to imperfect men.

The ridiculous nature of these statements is only magnified by the current (2002) scandal of pedophile priests in Massachusetts, and the response of their leaders.
A recent news report states that since the 1980s over 1000 priests have been charged with these crimes - this is only those that have been discovered. Statistics show that most are not.

This carnival of priests and their leaders knew about many of these long-term abusers they also promoted and moved them from one congregation to another. John Geoghan was convicted of molesting 86 boys. In one case, a pedophile priest was placed in a home for troubled boys! Imagine that!. One priest, Paul Shandley, openly advocated sex with children and was a member of a group whose sole mission was to preserve their "right" to have sex with minors. Shandley molested boys as young a 6 years old. When he was arrested, he was making plans to flee to Thailand.
You may ask, why Thailand? Because it is a country that openly supports child kidnapping and prostitution. While you might go to a Caribbean Island on vacation, paedophiles flock to Thailand.

In a recent meeting between the Vatican and a group of United States Cardinals, the church could not and would not state that it has no tolerance for peodophiles.

And this, according to the Catholic Church, is the human whom God must obey!!

Infallible?. Pope Boniface was so evil that Clement V had Boniface's body dug up and burnt as a heretic. He joked just before he died that

... had much chance of going to Heaven as a roasted chicken

Loss of Power
The church once had such power over the European nations, that it could force the leaders of nations to carry out its will by force. The loss of power occurred in several stages:

1. The Reformation
2. The French Revolution (1789 - 1799)
3. Italian unification (1870) - the popes lost the right to rule politically over the papal states.

The Great Religious Revival of the 1840's
A series of religious revivals called the Great Awakening swept over the American colonies beginning in the 1720's. It resulted in missionary work among Native Americans and in the founding of new educational institutions.
In the 1720s, Theodorus Frelinghuysen and Gilbert Tennent started in New Jersey. In 1734 Jonathan Edwards started a movement in New England. During 1739-1741, the movement was spread by a tour of George Whitefield. It reached the South in 1748-1759 with the preaching of Samuel Davies.

By the early 1800's independent of one another, men and women throughout the world began to study the prophecies of Daniel again. At that time the Church had ruled for about 1260 years from 538 A.D. to 1798 A.D. when the pope was imprisoned. At the end of this period, the prophecies of Daniel became the focus of biblical scholarship and personal devotion. Many people, independently studying, came to the same conclusion - Jesus was coming soon.

Popular Belief
The popular belief at the time was that the earth was the sanctuary and that this was the millennium of peace and prosperity. Most Christians believed that there would be a thousand years of peace before Jesus returned and many put off salvation and the things of God.

Scholars from many Religions and all over the World
In the early 1800s, Manuel de Lacunza, a Catholic priest in South America wrote under the pen name of Juan Josafa Ben-Ezra. As this godly man began to study the prophecies pointing to the time of the end, he came to believe that Jesus was coming very soon.

Edward Irving of England came to the conclusion that the prophecies of Daniel pointed to the time of the end.

Johann Bengel, in Germany, almost simultaneously came to the same conclusion and became a preacher of the second coming.

Dr. Joseph Wolf, a Jew converted to Christianity, believed that Christ was coming in the early 1800s. He read Isaiah 53 which told of Christ's coming as a lamb to the slaughter. He later became a missionary to the world and traveled throughout Asia proclaiming the second coming of Jesus.

Child Preachers
In Sweden, Denmark and Norway, the public preaching of the word was outlawed just after 1800.
What did God do? He inspired child preachers by the hundreds to proclaim the soon coming of Jesus.

William Miller
A man in the United States of America named William Miller, studied the prophecies from 1816 to 1831. He was a Baptist who drifted into deism (belief in an impersonal God). He changed his view of God during the war of 1812 in which he saw many miraculous events that protected the United States troops. He studied the Bible for 15 years and began proclaiming that Jesus was coming soon.
It is significant to note that others around the world independently came to the same conclusion. Joseph Wolf, William Davis of South Carolina and Alexander Campbell.

He started a movement called the Millerite movement, about 500,000 people attended the meetings. Many of the converts were forced out of their churches. Many believed that the second coming would take place between the spring of 1843 and 1844. After this period passed a man named Samuel Snow discovered that the cleansing of the sanctuary occurred on the 10th day of the 7th month, and they discovered that this was equivalent to October 22, 1844. Miller eventually came to accept the date.

October 22, 1844 came and went peacefully. Many wept. This was called the Great Disappointment.

Futurism becomes popular
Initially, the whole Protestant church believed in the historicist interpretation. It took over 300 years, but futurism in all its current aspects became popular through the works of several Jesuit scholars and later Protestant leaders:

• Francisco Ribera (Futurism). As a result of the work of a Jesuit monk named Ribera, the futurism method of interpretation was proposed. It removed suspicion away from the papacy as the antiChrist and cast suspicion on a new, future world leader who would be in power for three and one half years. The futurist method is characterized by belief in a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, and this powerful world leader.
• Edward Irving (The Secret Rapture). During the British Advent Awakening, a Scottish born Presbyterian minister named Edward Irving changed his position from historicism to futurism. Through his work he added other doctrines peculiar to futurism as we know it today.
• Margaret MacDonald (Two Stage Coming of Christ ). In 1831, the gift of tongues appeared among his believers. Through these prophetic utterances new revelation were given. Through these new revelations, the idea of the rapture of the church and a two stage coming of Christ was adopted. Margaret MacDonald of Port Glasgow, Scotland while in a prophetic trance in a 1830 vision introduced this 2 stage coming of Christ.
• John Nelson Darby (Futurism). The seven dispensations, secret rapture and the gap theory. John Nelson Darby, Brethren preacher from England, took Irvings theories and popluarized them. He added two other concepts, the secret rapture and the separation of Daniel's seventieth week from the other 69 weeks by introducing a gap between these two periods. In the 1850's and 1860's, this theory was introduced into the United States, when Cyrus Ingerson Scofield incorporated it into the notes of his Scofield Reference Bible which was published in 1909.
• Cyrus Ingerson Scofield (Bible). Popularized these theories by placing them in the Scofield Reference Bible (1909). The Scofield Bible popularized two different gap theories.
  • The Gap Theory of Creation. There were millions of years between one creation that was destroyed and ours.
  • The Gap Theory. The last seven years of the 490 years given to the Jews was split off and put over 2000 years into the future.

Astronomical Signs

May 19, 1780 Dark Day
The dark day of May 19, 1780 was the most mysterious and as yet still unexplained phenomenon of its kind.
It was a most unaccountable darkening of the whole visible heavens and atmosphere in New England. R. M. Devens, Our First Century, page 89.
An eyewitness living in Massachusetts described the event as follows:

In the morning the sun rose clear, but was soon overcast. The clouds became lowery, and from them, black and ominous, as they soon appeared, lightning flashed, thunder rolled, and a little rain fell. Toward nine o'clock, the clouds became thinner, and assumed a brassy or coppery appearance, and earth, rocks, trees, buildings, water, and persons were changed by this strange, unearthly light. A few minutes later, a heavy black cloud spread over the entire sky except a narrow rim at the horizon, and it was as dark as it usually is at nine o'clock on a summer evening. . . . Fear, anxiety, and awe gradually filled the minds of the people. Women stood at the door, looking out upon the dark landscape; men returned from their labor in the fields; the carpenter left his tools, the blacksmith his forge, the tradesman his counter. Schools were dismissed, and tremblingly the children fled homeward.

Travelers put up at the nearest farmhouse. 'What is coming?' queried every lip and heart. It seemed as if a hurricane was about to dash across the land, or as if it was the day of the consummation of all things. Candles were used; and hearth fires shone as brightly as on a moonless evening in autumn. . . . Fowls retired to their roosts and went to sleep, cattle gathered at the pasture bars and lowed, frogs peeped, birds sang their evening songs, and bats flew about. But the human knew that night had not come. . . .

Dr. Nathanael Whittaker, pastor of the Tabernacle church in Salem, held religious services in the meeting-house, and preached a sermon in which he maintained that the darkness was supernatural. Congregations came together in many other places. The texts for the extemporaneous sermons were invariably those that seemed to indicate that the darkness was consonant with Scriptural prophecy. . . . The darkness was most dense shortly after eleven o'clock." The Essex Antiquarian, April, 1899, Volume 3, Number 4, Pages 53, 54. In most parts of the country it was so great in the daytime, that the people could not tell the hour by either watch or clock, nor dine, nor manage their domestic business, without the light of candles. . . .

The extent of this darkness was extraordinary. It was observed as far east as Falmouth. To the westward it reached to the farthest part of Connecticut, and to Albany. To the southward, it was observed along the seacoasts; and to the north as far as the American settlements extend."--William Gordon, History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment of the Independence of the U.S.A., Volume 3, page 57. The intense darkness of the day was succeeded, an hour or two before evening, by a partially clear sky, and the sun appeared, though it was still obscured by the black, heavy mist.

After sundown, the clouds came again overhead, and it grew dark very fast. Nor was the darkness of the night less uncommon and terrifying than that of the day; notwithstanding there was almost a full moon, no object was discernible but by the help of some artificial light, which, when seen from the neighboring houses and other places at a distance, appeared through a kind of Egyptian darkness which seemed almost impervious to the rays. Isaiah Thomas, Massachusetts Spy; or, American Oracle of Liberty, Volume 10, Number 472 (May 25, 1780).

Said an eyewitness of the scene:

I could not help conceiving at the time, that if every luminous body in the universe had been shrouded in impenetrable shades, or struck out of existence, the darkness could not have been more complete. Letter by Dr. Samuel Tenney, of Exeter, New Hampshire, December, 1785 (in Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 1792, 1st series, Volume 1, page. 97). Though at nine o'clock that night the moon rose to the full, it had not the least effect to dispel the deathlike shadows. After midnight the darkness disappeared, and the moon, when first visible, had the appearance of blood.

May 19, 1780, stands in history as "The Dark Day." Since the time of Moses no period of darkness of equal density, extent, and duration, has ever been recorded. The description of this event, as given by eyewitnesses, echoes the prophet Joel, twenty-five hundred years previous to their fulfillment:
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. (Joel 2:31)

1833 Leonid Meteor Shower
The great meteor storm of 1833 is said to have kick-started the modern study of meteors . At the storm's peak, between 2 a.m. and dawn on November 12 and 13, roughly 100,000 meteors per hour rained from the night sky. There was a constant succession of fireballs, resembling rockets, radiating in all directions from a point in the heavens. It led scientists to research past storms and may have been responsible for a wave of religious revivals, started by viewers convinced they had experienced the precursor to Armageddon.

Signs on Earth

The Great Lisbon Earthquake
November 1, 1755 at 9:40 a.m. a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck Lisbon Portugal, leveling the city. It affected an area of approximately four million square miles and was felt as far away as France and North Africa. Fire swept through the city for the next three days. It is estimated that 60,000 people were killed, 10,000 to 20,000 in Lisbon alone. The resulting tsunamis killed approximately 10,000 in Morocco.

Most of Lisbon's population of 250,000 were at church for All Saints' Day when the first shock struck at 9:40 am on November 1. It was followed by an even more powerful tremor which sent buildings toppling down on the terrified populace. Huge waves crashed over the quays, drowning thousands and causing widespread damage. Fire rampaged through the ruins of the city for 3 days. The same earthquake and associated tsunamis also caused much destruction and loss of life further afield - approximately 10,000 died in Morocco.

It extended to the greater part of Europe, Africa, and America. It was felt in Greenland, in the West Indies, in the island of Madeira, in Norway and Sweden, Great Britain and Ireland. It pervaded an extent of not less than four million square miles. In Africa the shock was almost as severe as in Europe. A great part of Algiers was destroyed; and a short distance from Morocco, a village containing eight or ten thousand inhabitants was swallowed up. A vast wave swept over the coast of Spain and Africa engulfing cities and causing great destruction. It was in Spain and Portugal that the shock manifested its extreme violence. At Cadiz the inflowing wave was said to be sixty feet high.

Mountains, "some of the largest in Portugal, were impetuously shaken, as it were, from their very foundations, and some of them opened at their summits, which were split and rent in a wonderful manner, huge masses of them being thrown down into the adjacent valleys. Flames are related to have issued from these mountains." Sir Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology, page 495.

At Lisbon "a sound of thunder was heard underground, and immediately afterwards a violent shock threw down the greater part of that city. In the course of about six minutes sixty thousand persons perished. The sea first retired, and laid the bar dry; it then rolled in, rising fifty feet or more above its ordinary level."

"Among other extraordinary events related to have occurred at Lisbon during the catastrophe, was the subsidence of a new quay, built entirely of marble, at an immense expense. A great concourse of people had collected there for safety, as a spot where they might be beyond the reach of falling ruins; but suddenly the quay sank down with all the people on it, and not one of the dead bodies ever floated to the surface." Sir Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology, page 495.

"The shock" of the earthquake "was instantly followed by the fall of every church and convent, almost all the large public buildings, and more than one fourth of the houses. In about two hours after the shock, fires broke out in different quarters, and raged with such violence for the space of nearly three days, that the city was completely desolated. The earthquake happened on a holyday, when the churches and convents were full of people, very few of whom escaped." Encyclopedia Americana, article "Lisbon," note (1831 edition).

"The terror of the people was beyond description. Nobody wept; it was beyond tears. They ran hither and thither, delirious with horror and astonishment, beating their faces and breasts, crying, 'Misericordia! the world's at an end!' Mothers forgot their children, and ran about loaded with crucifixed images. Unfortunately, many ran to the churches for protection; but in vain was the sacrament exposed; in vain did the poor creatures embrace the altars; images, priests, and people were buried in one common ruin." It has been estimated that ninety thousand persons lost their lives on that fatal day.

Restoration of Power
Despite its problems, the church will survive. The restoration of power is a process. In 1798 it lost the power of church over state. So far, the restoration has been political. It cannot openly call for death to heretics and force national leaders to comply. When this level of power and influence is achieved - then its restoration will be complete.

The Concordat of 1801. Although the French brought about the downfall of the papacy, yet, because the revolution was so out of control, Napoleon thought that restoring relations with the Papacy might bring religious peace to France.

The Society of Jesus (1814). Pope Pius VII restored the Jesuit movement.

The Congress of Vienna (1814-1815). with the exception of the land of France, it restored the former states of the church. These papal states were captured during the revolution as the French Directory tried to wipe out the Catholic church in Rome as it did in France.

The Lateran Treaty (1929). With the capture and imprisonment of Pope Pius IV by general Berthier of France, the papacy saw a loss of property and a decline in influence. By 1871 papal sovereignty was limited to a few buildings in Italy. The papacy objected to the loss of Rome and the Papal States, creating the dilemma called the Roman Question. The 1929 concordat between the Holy See and Italy called the Lateran Treaty created the Vatican City and resolved the question. It also recognized Roman Catholicism as the only state religion of Italy.

The Vatican City is an independent state with a size of 108.7 acres (44 hectares), in Rome, Italy with a population of about 800. It is the seat of the central government of the Roman Catholic Church and the pope is its absolute ruler. It includes the papal palace, Saint Peter's Church, the Sistine Chapel, museums, the Vatican Library, the Vatican Gardens, and Belvedere Park. The state, issues its own currency and postage stamps, has its own citizenship, flag, diplomatic corps, newspaper (L'Osservatore Romano), railroad station, and broadcasting facility. The Swiss Guard is the pope's personal bodyguard. The Vatican palace has been the residence of the pope since the late fourteenth century, when the papal court was restored from Avignon, France, to Rome. The treaty was signed for the pope by Cardinal Pietro Gasparri, and for Italy by Benito Mussolini.

The Fall of the Soviet Union. In the 1980's Pope John Paul II and President Ronald Reagan secretly cooperated to engineer events leading to the fall of the Soviet Union. This demonstrates the political influence that the church has on world leaders.

European Unity - An Opportunity. It has been reported that the original idea of European Unity started in the Vatican. Since then, the church has fostered this movement. This strategy may be linked to their belief that there will be a revived Roman empire in the future. But prophecy states that there will not be any revival of the old Roman Empire under one ruler - however, the church will control the separate nations as it did during the dark ages.
The Sunday Telegraph, London, August 25, 1991 wrote the following:

If European federalism triumphs, the EC will indeed be an empire. It will lack an emperor; but it will have the Pope. It is difficult not to think that Wojtyla realizes this.

On January 1, 2002 the European Union took their biggest step in uniting the 12 nations by converting all national currencies to the Euro dollar.

The United Nations Support of the Pope? Charles Malik, former President of the General Assembly of the United Nations, Lebanese Christian, former Ambassador to the United States, Guest Lecture at Harvard said the following.

The only hope for the western world lies in an alliance between the Roman Catholic Church, which is the most commonly, influential, controlling, unifying element in Europe, and the Eastern Orthodox church. Rome must unite with Eastern Orthodoxy, because the Eastern Orthodox church controls the western middle east, [the east end of the Mediterranean] and if they don't solidify that control, Islam will march across Europe. Islam is political. The only hope of the western world lies then in a united Europe under the control of the Pope. And then all Protestant Christians around the globe must come into submission to the Pope so we will have a unified Christian world.

Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the birthplace of the two major religions (Judaism and Christianity), but the Arab people can place their ancestry through Ishmael - the son of Abraham. Therefore the Muslim religion could be counted as a third. The Pope desperately wants to rule over Jerusalem and he is making his case on two fronts - the United Nations and the Palestinians.

The pope has asked the United Nations to set up Jerusalem as an international city with him as the religious leader. He has also thrown his support with the Palestinian cause since he feels that there is less animosity towards the Christian religion and a greater chance that at the right moment, the Muslims will accept Christianity. Finally, in just numbers alone, there are millions more Muslims than Jews and the pope would instantly have control of a large percentage of the world population. So, mathematically, it makes sense to pursue this alliance.

The Arab Alliance. To strengthen the Arab Alliance, a pact was signed by Yasser Arafat and Pope John Paul II on February 15, 2000. In this pact, he recognized the Palestinian claims to the city but claims Israel has no rights there.

This is all part of the Pope's strategy to gain control of Jerusalem and the allegiance of the Arab world. They represent billions of people, while the poor Jews represent an insignificant number. He wants Jerusalem to be declared an International city under United Nations Resolution 181. Neither Jews nor Arabs want this solution but the Arabs are more willing to accept this solution in cooperation with the papacy. The pope is particularly interested in Part III of the resolution, which defines a special international status for the city of Jerusalem.

America and the Pope
Ronald Reagan and the Pope. It is a well known fact of history, that Ronald Reagan, in cooperation with the Pope from Poland conspired to remove their adversary - the Soviet Union. The power and influence of the Pope could no longer be taken for granted. As of that moment the healing was complete. Having regained its political status in 1929. The church has now formally regained its reputation as a power broker and a major player in world politics.

After the tragic events of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent disintegration of influence in the Arab world as a result of the retaliatory war, America may have to make concessions with the Vatican in order to keep the lid on trouble in the Arab world. With their strategic alliance with Yasser Arafat, the Pope has masterfully placed his cards with the emotional issues of the Muslim people. As a consequence, he represents the only power trustworthy in the West to the Muslim. Therefore, the United States will be forced to look to the Vatican even more.

Other American Leaders. Although most of this cooperation and dealing is behind the scenes, we must look at evidence of cooperation between the President, Supreme Court and Congress to enact church principles and to legitimize the pope as a valuable source to governments. I saw many open indications. Considering the prophecy, it is frightening.

United States Religious Laws - In 2001, 2 new religious laws with strong Catholic language were proposed:

1. Faith Based Initiative. Supporting religious charities with public funds. In a speech, President Bush has already stated that some religions are too hateful to get this money.
   By these words, he has demonstrated the classic reason why government should stay out of religion. He has already demonstrated a preference for one religion over another. If the church wants to do good works, let its members sacrifice. That's the Christian way. If the government is inefficient at rescue and relief, let it train better managers.
   This proposal has passed both legislative houses and is now law.
2. School Voucher. Supporting private, religious education with public funds.

It will not stop there. There will be more to come.

Schisms and Breakup and Ecumenism
The church suffered three major breakups during its history on the basis of politics or faith.

1. Greek Orthodox (1054). The separation of the eastern or Greek Orthodox Church from the Western or Roman Catholic Church
2. Protestant (1517). During the reformation when many churches splintered and formed into separate groups.
3. The Church of England (Anglican or Epispocal) (1529). The Church of England eventually broke away for political reasons. King (Henry VIII) wanted his marriage annulled and the church would not.

The Greek Orthodox Church
The alienation and eventual separation of the Eastern (Constantinople) and Western (Roman) church spanned many centuries from the 800s to the 1054. The rift was due to the changes in culture, the claims of the Western leader for supreme rulership and his refusal to be subordinate to any secular ruler. By 1043 the Western church began to intervene in the affairs of the Western churches in Italy and the Eastern leader patriarch, Michael Cerularius, closed down the Roman churches in his own city.

In 1054, Humbert of Silva Cardinal Candida was sent to Constantinople to address the problems. He ended the visit by excommunicating the leaders of the Byzantine church. This act was later interpreted as an excommunication of the entire church. The Greek church responded by excommunicating the pope and the Roman church. On December 7, 1965, the mutual excommunications were cancelled by Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras 1 as part of an ecumenical effort.

Events such as the sacking of Constantinople in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade confirmed the rift, and efforts to heal it have never been successful.

The History of Ecumenism
The ecumenical movement first started as an attempt to unify the Protestant churches of the world and ultimately of all Christians. By the time of Vatican II, the movement was encouraged by the Catholic church. Several bodies and two Vatican councils were formed with the mission of encouraging this union.
Ecumenism in the Catholic church was largely an attempt to define or clarify doctrine and to react to other viewpoints called heresies. To deal with doctrinal errors, the church convened at least 20 ecumenical councils during the years 325-1870. With the splintering of the church, the new strategy of ecumenism is to reunite its various factions. Doctrinally, this is not only difficult - it is impossible in many cases. But with the abandonment of the Bible as the rule of faith in favor of personal feeling and revelation of the charismatic movement and tradition in the Catholic church anything is possible.
There were two ecumenical councils of the Roman Catholic Church.

1. The first council (1869-70) was convened by Pope Pius IX and ended when Italian troops seized Rome for the new kingdom of Italy.
2. Vatican II (1962-65), was convened by Pope John XXIII and continued by Paul VI. It sought to renew the church spiritually by changing its liturgy and including more lay participation. It also reconsidered its place in the modern world and encouraged the ecumenical movement.

Protestant ecumenical bodies included:

• 1846 the Evangelical Alliance in England
• 1908 the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in the United States
• 1948 the World Council Of Churches headquartered at Geneva, Switzerland is now the chief instrument of ecumenicity and has about 335 member churches. It is an International, interdenominational organization of Protestant and Orthodox churches, begun at Amsterdam in 1948. The council has no power over member churches, but provides an opportunity for cooperation in matters of common concern.

Completed Unions

• Church of South India - 1947, Church of South India - merger of six major Protestant denominations in India (Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, Reformed, Congregational, and Lutheran). The union, especially in its reconciliation of the Anglican view of apostolic succession with the views of the other groups, is cited as a landmark in the Ecumenical Movement.
• United Church of Christ. 1957, United Church of Christ - formed by a merger of the General Council of Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Church.
• Presbyterian Church. 1983, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) formed from Presbyterian Church in the United States and United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.
• Unitarian Universalists. This is a union based on no change in belief. The Unitarian Universalists of America was formed on May 11, 1961 from the merger of the Unitarian and Universalist Churches. This church is unique because it essentially has no doctrines and embraces all forms of beliefs. It basically cares about social issues, not religious doctrine. Consequently, the church embraces atheist to theist who believe in many gods or goddesses. Apparently, though, what happens is that any expression of Christ or fundamental beliefs is discouraged. This prompted a small group to break away in 2001 so that they could practise traditional Christian beliefs in peace.
  
  The church has many affinity groups who are Atheists, theists, Buddhists, Christians, Humanists, followers of Neopaganism. There is also an affinity group called Interweave who promote lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender concerns.
• Lutheran. 1988, Several American Lutheran churches united to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. This group continued to arrange unions with 5 other Christian churches in 1997 and 1999. Under the union there apparently is no name change but they agree to share clergy, joint worship services and accept each other's sacraments. Doctrine makes no difference.

Complete Cooperation

• Lutheran - Presbyterian - United Church of Christ - Reformed Church. 1997, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America agreed on a full communion (an arrangement by which churches fully accept each other's members and sacraments) with the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Church of Christ, and the Reformed Church in America.
• Lutheran - Episcopal - Moravian. 1999, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America reached a similar agreement with the Episcopal Church and the Moravian Church. Under the terms of the full communion, the churches involved can hold joint worship services, exchange clergy members, and collaborate on social service projects.

Attempted Unions

• American. A proposal was made in 1960 to bring together the American Methodist, Episcopal, United Presbyterian, and United Church of Christ denominations. This led to the establishment (1962) of the Consultation on Church Union, whose discussions continued into the 1970s.
• British. A proposed merger between the English Methodists and the Church of England was rejected by the Methodists in 1969. The Anglicans did, however, reach several doctrinal accords with the Roman Catholic Church in the early 1970s.

Evangelical Cooperation
On March 29, 1994, forty representatives of the Catholic and some Evangelical churches signed an informal agreement called Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium. In 1997 another document was signed, Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Gift of Salvation. This document goes on to express an agreement between the two communities about the doctrine of salvation.

This first step towards reconciliation has been made as both sides see their shared interest in pro-life, school choice and the "traditional" family values. This is an attempt to take the culture back from secularism by showing a united front through their agreement on moral and social issues. They specifically target abortion, euthanasia, pornography, homosexuality, the liberal media, and sex education and urged each other to stop aggressive proselytizing of each other's flocks (sheep stealing).

This is a false unity to achieve a political goal. They have decided to find points of agreement in the social struggle and focus solely upon these points in order to be united for the cause of Christ. Doctrinal differences were not addressed in the original document, the focus is what they can affirm together - the points of agreement. And this agreement is not based on Biblical doctrine.
Some signers include Chuck Colson (who initiated the project in 1990), J. I. Packer, Pat Robertson, Bill Bright, Cardinal John O'Connor, and Reverend Richard Neuhaus.

The Head of the Christian Churches
The Pope is recognized as the de facto head of any future unified Christian church. So far, this has been recognized by:

• United Nations. Charles Malik, President of the General Assembly of the United Nations, concludes that the only hope for the Christian church lies in unification under the Roman Pope.
• Anglican Church. In July 1989, a Conference of the Anglican church agreed that the Pope must be the Head of the Church when the other ecumenical Episcopal Churches unite with Rome.
• Pope. Claims this role as his divine right. Therefore, he would not submit to any other ruler under any unified Christian body.

The United Religions Initiative
In 2000, the world saw the meeting of a group which came together to initiate the blue print for a one world government and a one world religion. Both intend to be built under the laws of the United nations. Unfortunately these laws can be interpreted to stop efforts to preach the gospel and to convert people as hate crimes and hate speech.

• One World Government. On March 15, 2000, the Earth Charter was unveiled.

  "In order to build a sustainable global community, the nations of the world must renew their commitment to the United Nations, fulfill their obligations under existing international agreements, and support the implementation of Earth Charter principles with an international legally binding instrument on environment and development."

• One World Religion. On June 26, 2000, the United Religions Initiative was launched. The pope was named the head of this new organization.

  "...to support freedom of religion and spiritual expression, and the rights of all individuals and peoples as set forth in international law."

The Charismatic Movement
This movement has become a powerful force for ecumenism. It is an international, interdenominational Christian revival movement characterized by speaking in unknown tongues and embraced by Episcopalians, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Catholic , Eastern Orthodox, other Protestant denominations, and even non-Christian eastern religions.
It is significant because of the way in which it has penetrated mainline churches. The goal of each charismatic is not to separate from their churches but to stay in them and renew them. Ultimately, all faiths will be joined together under the bond of tongues speaking and religion by experience - not by the written word of God.

Once this level of unification is achieved with the Roman church as the visible head, it won't be long before people will be urged to unify their beliefs and practices under penalty of death.

American Politics: The Moral Majority and the Catholic Coalition
In modern times we see the church actively involved in politics, trying to legislate moral and economic support for its programs.
Organized as powerful voting block, zealous and determined, the church is on a mission to win every political seat or influence our leaders. Organized under the name of the Moral Majority and becoming outwardly politically active in the early 1980's, the larger Protestant church have abandoned support for religious liberty and have united with the Catholic church in seeking political power. The Catholic Coalition is the Roman Catholic Church's attempt to do what the Protestant churches did, organize as an open political voting block so that they can influence elections and be recognized as a power broker in the affairs of nations.

What the Catholic church brings to this table of political control in the United States is its global presence and its unapologetic belief that the church has the moral and God-given right to control the actions of governments.

Even the American Muslims are getting together to form a political block to vote as conservative Republicans. Despite the fact that news personnel seem blind to the facts, the reality is that Democrats will have to adopt the conservative agenda in order to get any votes or they must convince their lethargic supporters to be just as diligent as the conservative Christians. Every vote counts.

Lip service is no longer adequate for these groups. Full support of their agenda is required. The country will not be run by popular opinion polls. We take no prisoners.

Persecution Of The Jews
The Jewish nation has historically been under attack by many nations. Some see the unfortunate declaration by some Jews at the crucifixion that "His blood be upon us and on our Children" as the reason why this occurs. But Jesus himself prayed for their forgiveness on the cross. And God had already declared that He would not punish a generation for the sins of their fathers. To say that God has cursed them forever has no basis in the facts at the cross or the nature of God.

So these excuses have no basis in any true Christian reasoning. If they lost the "most favored nation status" with God because of disobedience, the Christian nation has been even more disobedient to God.

What the Jews did in protecting their religion from the Christian sect pales in comparison to what Christians have done to others and each other. While they were an exclusive religion that did not seek to gain converts, history can find them guilty of none of the mass atrocities of which others are guilty.

Various laws made it illegal or punishable by death to marry a Jew or to convert to Judaism. They were barred from owning land, having certain occupations, holding public office, going to universities or practicing their religion. Their children were confiscated, property confiscated, forced to convert, forced baptisms, civil rights terminated, exiled from their land, scattered among their enemies. Blamed for calamities, forced to undergo public identification and humiliation and murdered in great numbers all because they were Jews. They were also thrown out of their homeland, barred from their homeland, scattered, persecuted and blamed for everything imaginable.

It is a credit to this race, that despite the persecution and the limited opportunities that they were given, that they still managed to be successful. The Jews did not enter certain occupations in order to exploit Christians, they were forced out of certain occupations into what we considered trivial and meaningless.
After confiscating their property and banning them to ghettos, Pope Paul IV confined them to wearing yellow hats and selling second hand clothes to make a living. He did this because he hated Jews and because he suspected them of helping Protestants.
Most of these atrocities were done at the hands of Christians or governments claiming to represent Christians. Justifying such actions because the Jews are "Christ Killers", they refuse to see that Christ had forgiven them. They also refused to see that in the similar situation they would have been just as unfaithful to God and His Messiah, because we are currently even more disobedient. In 1205, Pope Innocent III wrote

The Jews, by their own guilt, are consigned to perpetual servitude because they crucified the Lord ... As slaves rejected by God, in whose death they wickedly conspire, they shall by the effect of this very action, recognize themselves as the slaves of those whom Christ's death set free

If this is the Christian concept of what Jews deserve, and if Jews currently are suspicious of, and despise Christianity, there is a legitimate reason. Enforced religion is never pleasing to God and never produces a worshipper dedicated to God. It creates the opposite.

Following is a summary of some of the hardships experienced by Jews throughout history.

Year	Persecutor	Comments
1100-1500 BC	Pharoah	430 years of slavery in Egypt
70	Roman Army under Titus	Jewish revolt. One million killed and the second temple was destroyed.
132	Rome	Bar Kochba revolt. 500,000 killed others scattered, exiled from Palestine.
315	Constantine	Edict of Milan. Jews lost civil rights and Jerusalem
613	Spain	Jewish Children over 6 were taken from their parents who would not convert to Christianity.
1096-1272	Crusades	12,000 Jews in the Rhineland were killed in the first crusade
1215	Fourth Lateran Council	Jews and Muslims were forced to wear special clothes
1229	Spanish Inquisition	Forced to convert to Christianity. Hundreds of thousands were killed, tortured or forced to flee Spain.
1306	European expulsion	Jews were expelled in England, Spain, Germany and Austria
1347	Europe	Blamed for the plague in 1348. 8 to 14 thousand were killed in various cities
1374	Europe	Blamed for the demonic possession in Christians. Tens of thousands were killed.
1555	Pope Paul IV	Papal bull allowed no tolerance for Jews. They must wear yellow hats and arm bands and live in locked ghettos in Rome and Ancona. Copies of the Talmud are burned. Napolean freed them in 1796
1648	Ukraine	100,000 killed during an uprising against Polish rule and in a campaign to exterminate Jews.
1942	Nazi Germany	Twelve million people killed, including six Million Jews

It is my sincere hope that, for the sake of the promise made to Abraham, that God will convince them that Christ is the Messiah. Thankfully, the apostle Paul in Romans 11 foresees a massive turning to Christ of the Jewish nation. I hope it will be through the prophecies of Daniel, not through what is currently represented as Christianity. But I fear that it will happen because of the issues that will confront us during the final persecution of the church.

Summary
The history of the church is a history of the marriage of church and state. In Medieval Europe, unity came not by politics as in the old Roman empire or intermarriage - but through the unifying force of the church through the uniformity of belief and the use of the state military power to maintain this way.

Once saved from years of Roman persecution through the conversion of Constantine, the church at first benefited by the repeal of laws enacted for their persecution. However, they did not protest as similar laws were used to repress the pagans and the church quickly learned the power and influence it can demand by controlling the state. As soon as the church is comfortable in its position of power - it begins to enact civil laws to pursue its ecclesiastical and political desires.

Having no army, the church calls for armed struggle against its enemies and uses the military power of the state as its weapon and promises of eternal and temporal gain or punishment as a lure.

It is equally clear, that before a deadly blood bath began, the church secretly worked with the state to draft laws. They took over educational institutions and made the state pay for their religious programs. Protestants were identified and watched by leaders appointed over them so that when the call for death was given in the middle of the night no one could escape.

The church used many tactics to lure people into fighting. With promises of indulgences, land, cancellation of debt owed to Jews, as penance - kings and peasants alike participated in these campaigns to promote social order, for fear of reprisal, personal gain or as penance for past sins.

Justinian used these tactics. Sadly, we see this pattern emerging in the United States of America. Where good men and women, tired of the growth and influence of evil have taken to politics to control institutions and laws in an attempt to set up a righteous government. They have targeted education. But history points out that it never stops.

We also see a quiet revolution in the entertainment business. Immorality and violence still rule - but the church is making its presence known. Knowing the venomous hatred that the media has towards religion, I am surprised that the media has started to feature or promote Catholicism. It makes me wonder who owns the press? Who are the decision makers with deep pockets? Who owns the networks? In the 1980's the church realized, that to win the battle they must win every government elected office and that they must control the media. Again, who owns the media? Who is muzzling the press?

Desperate for power, endowed with a sense of moral right and an inability to do wrong, under the banner of public good and social order, eventually laws will be passed and pressure applied for conformity and unity in behavior. The current Muslim countries are modern day proof of what happens when the righteous rule and morality is legislated.

Once Christians are in control, I do not believe that their record will be any better. Their past demonstrates it. Human nature dictates that we are doomed to repeat these mistakes.