The following is an excerpt from false [note: just because one is false on some teachings doesn't mean they are false on ALL teachings] teacher (teaches “once saved, always saved (OSAS)” and the false pretribulation ”rapture” of the Saints for doctrines) Dave Hunt’s book, “A Woman Rides the Beast”:
“Babylon is a code word for Rome. It is used that way six times in the last book of the Bible [four of the six are in chapters 17 and 18 and in extrabiblical works such as Sibylling Oracles (5, 159f.), the Apocalypse of Baruch (ii, 1), and 4 Esdras (3:1).Eusebius Pamphilius, writing about 303, noted that "it is said that Peter's first epistle... was composed at Rome itself; and that he himself indicates this, referring to the city figuratively as Babylon."
As far as "mystery" is concerned, "mysterium fide" is pronounced at the what they refer to as the transformation of the bread and wine into the literal body and blood of Christ, with Rome's new Catechism explaining that liturgy "aims to initiate souls into the mystery of Christ (called 'mystagogy')," and all of the Church's liturgy being a "mystery."
Now the "whore" which the holy scriptures is talking about is engaged in spiritual fornication, of which the Vatican has been doing for many centuries. The Vatican has claimed since it's beginnings and maintains to this day that she is the worldwide headquarters of Christianity, with her pope claiming to be the one, true and exclusive representative of Elohim, refered to as "the vicar of Christ." Rome has been the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church for fifteen centuries, with the popes having long claimed their dominion over the world and its Peoples.
And according to Dave Hunt's book, Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503) claimed that all undiscovered lands belonged to the pope, with King John II of Portugal convinced that the pope had granted all that Columbus discovered exclusively to him and his country, while Ferdinand and Isabel of Spain thinking the pope had given the same lands to them.
And turning to Hunt's book again, Pope Alexander VI drew a north-south line down the global map of that day and gave everything on the east to Portugal and everything on the west to Spain. Thus "out of the plenitude of apostolic power" Africa went to Portugal and the Americas went to Spain, with the condition "to the intent to bring the inhabitants ... to profess the Catholic Faith."
Thus Roman Catholicism was forced upon Central and South America them by the sword and remain Catholic to this day, while North America (but not Quebec and Louisiana) was settled mostly by Protestants.
Keep in mind that the words "Vatican" and "Rome" are universally used interchangeably, with the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) exercising both religious and civil control over the entire city of Rome and its surroundings for a thousand years . Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) even abolished the Roman Senate, placing the administration of Rome directly under his command. And according to the 'Pocket Catholic Dictionary,' Rome is now the designation of "the whole ensemble of administrative and judicial offices through which the Pope directs the operations of the Catholic Church."
And turning to Hunt's book again, "The most definitive Catholic encyclopedia since Vatican II" declares:
"...hence, one understands the central place of Rome in the life of the Church today and the significance of the title, Roman Catholic Church, the Church that is universal, yet focused upon the ministry of the Bishop of Rome. Since the founding of the Church there by St. Peter, Rome has been the center of all Christendom."
According to the prophecy of the book of Revelation, the woman was dressed "in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication" (Rev. 17:4). Purple and scarlet were the colors of the Roman Caesars, and are the colors of the Catholic clergy. The Catholic Encyclopedia states:
"A cloak with a long train and a hooded shoulder cape ... [it] was purple wool for bishops; for cardinals, it was scarlet watered silk (for Advent, Lent, Good Friday, and the conclave, purple wool); and rose watered silk for Gaudete and Lactate Sundays; and for the pope, it was red velvet for Christmas Matins, red serge at other times.”
Turning again to Revelation, the “golden cup in her hand” also identifies with the RCC, with The Catholic Encyclopedia declaring:
“[It is] the most important of the sacred vessels…. [It] may be of gold or silver, and if the latter, then the inside must be surfaced with gold.” The Roman Catholic Church possesses many thousands of solid gold chalices kept in its churches around the world. Even the bloodstained cross of Christ has been turned to gold and studded with gems in reflection of Rome’s great wealth. The Catholic Encyclopedia says: “The pectoral cross [suspended by a chain around the neck and worn over the breast by abbots, bishops, archbishops, cardinals, and the pope] should be made of gold and…decorated with gems…”
Remember that much of the wealth of the RCC was stolen from the victims of its Inquisitions (which we will cover later), with even the dead exhumed to face trial and their property taken from their heirs by the Church. One historian writes:
“The punishments of the Inquisition did not cease when the victim was burned to ashes, or immured for life in the Inquisition dungeons. His relatives were reduced to beggary by the law that all his possessions were forfeited. The system offered unlimited opportunities for loot….
This source of gain largely accounts for the revolting practice of what has been called ‘corpse-trials.’… That the practice of confiscating the property of condemned heretics was productive of many acts of extortion, rapacity and corruption will be doubted by no one who has any knowledge either of human nature or of the historical documents…. no man was safe whose wealth might arouse cupidity, or whose independence might provoke revenge.”
Also, billions of dollars have been paid to the RCC by individual thinking they were purchasing their place in heaven on the installment plan for themselves or loved ones, with Cardinal Cajetan complaining about the sale of dispensations and indulgences, and Church hierarchy accused him of wanting “to turn Rome into an uninhabited desert, to reduce the Papacy to impotence, to deprive the pope… of the pecuniary resources indispensable for the discharge of his office.”
And Nino Lo Bello, who was a correspondent in Rome for Business Week, wrote that the Vatican is so closely allied with the Mafia in Italy that “many people … believe that Sicily … is nothing more than a Vatican holding.”
Also, don’t forget the value of its many sculptures, paintings and other art treasures and ancient documents of the Vatican and inside its cathedrals around the world.
Now turning to Revelation again, the Great Whore was seen drunken with ”the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Yahusha…”
The Inquisitions (Roman, Medieval, and Spanish) were perpetrated upon the Peoples of Europe, with an estimated 3 million murdered and about 300,000 burned at the stake in Spain alone.
A Catholic historian commenting on the Spanish Inquisition wrote:
“When Napoleon conquered Spain in 1808, a Polish officer in his army, Colonel Lemanouski, reported that the Dominicans [in charge of the Inquisition] blockaded themselves in their monastery…the inquisitors denied the existence of any torture chambers. The soldiers searched the monastery and discovered them under the floors. The chambers were full of prisoners, all naked, many insane. The French troops, used to cruelty and blood, could not stomach the sight. They emptied the torture-chambers, laid gunpowder to the monastery and blew the place up.”
And Church historian Bishop William Shaw Kerr writes:
“The most ghastly abomination of all was the system of torture. The accounts of its cold-blooded operations make one shudder at the capacity of human beings for cruelty. And it was decreed and regulated by the popes who claim to represent Christ on earth…
“Careful notes were taken not only of all that was confessed by the victim, but of his shrieks, cries, lamentations, broken interjections and appeals for mercy. The most moving things in the literature of the Inquisition are not the accounts of their sufferings left by the victims but the sober memoranda kept by the officers of the tribunals…there is no intention to shock us.”
Also, Emelio Martinez writes in a book published in 1909: “To these three million victims [documented by Llorente] should be added the thousands upon thousands of Jews and Moors deported from their homeland…In just one year, 1481, and just in Seville, the Holy Office [of the Inquisition] burned 2000 persons; the bones and effigies of another 2000…and another 16,000 were condemned to varying sentences.”
Even Peter de Rosa acknowledges that the RCC “was responsible for persecuting Jews, for the Inquisition, for slaughtering heretics by the thousand, for reintroducing torture into Europe as part of the judicial process.”
In 1096, Pope Urban II was the impetus of the first crusade to retake Jerusalem from the Muslims, with one of the Crudaders’ first acts upon taking Jerusalem “for Holy Mother Church” was to put the Jews into a synagogue and set it on fire.
In 1936, Bishop Berning of Osnabruch talked with Hitler for over an hour, with Hitler saying, “I am only doing what the church has done for fifteen hundred years, only more effectively.” Being a Catholic himself, Hitler told Berning that he “admired and wanted to promote Christianity.”
Turning to Revelation again, the woman “is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” The First Vatican Council in 1869 saw the Professor of Church History in Munich, J.H. Ignaz von Dollinger, warning that Pope Pius IX would force the Council to make decrees of “that pet theory of the Popes–that they could force kings and magistrates, by excommunication and its consequences, to carry out their sentences of confiscation, imprisonment, and death….”
J.H. Ignaz von Dollinger writes:
“When, for instance, [Pope] Martin IV placed King Pedro of Aragon under excommunication and interdict…then promised indulgences for all their sins to these who fought with him and [tyrant] Charles [I of Naples) against Pedro, and finally declared his kingdom forfeit...which cost the two kings of France and Aragon their life, and the French the loss of an army...Pope Clement IV, in 1265, after selling millions of South Italians to Charles of Anjou for a yearly tribute of eight hundred ounces of gold, declared that he would be excommunicated if the first payment was deferred beyond the appointed term, and that for the second neglect the whole nation would incur interdict..."
Public Eccliastical says this: “The church may by divine right confiscate the property of heretics, imprison their person, and condemn them to 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.”
Rector of the Catholic Institute of Paris, H.M.A. Baudrillart is quoted as saying, “When confronted with heresy, she (Catholic Church) does not content herself with persuasion, arguments of an intellectual and moral order appear to her insufficient, and she has recourse to force, to corporal punishment, to torture.”
Quoting from the 'Directory for the Inquisitors,' “A heretic merits the pains of fire....By the Gospel, the canons, civil law, and custom, heretics must be burned.”
And don't forget that the Vatican is the only city which exchanges ambassadors with nations, doing so with every major country on the planet.
It is said that there were 95 popes who claimed to have divine power to depose kings and emperors, with historian Walter James writing that Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) "held all Europe in his net," and Gregory IX (1227-41) proclaiming that the pope was lord and master of everyone and everything. Historian R.W. Southern declared:
"During the whole medieval period there was in Rome a single spiritual and temporal authority [the papacy] exercising powers which in the end exceeded those that had ever lain within the grasp of a Roman emperor.”
And Pope Nicholas I (858-67) declared: “We [popes] alone have the power to bind and to loose, to absolve Nero and to condemn him; and Christians cannot, under penalty of excommunication, execute other judgment than ours, which alone is infallible.”
Nicholas wrote: “We order you, in the name of religion, to invade his states, burn his cities, and massacre his people…”
Rev. 7:15 states: “And he saith unto me, The waters which you sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.”
It is important to note that when Revelation is talking about ‘Mystery Babylon,’ it is talking about a church, with Revelation speaking of the true body of Christ dressed in white, while the ‘Great Whore’ sits on a beast. In the Old Testament, Israel was referred to as a “Harlot” and a “Whore” when she worshipped other gods and committed spiritual adultery.
Jeremiah 3:1-25 “…If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? …but you have played the HARLOT with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD. 2 …you have polluted the land with your WHOREDOMS and with your wickedness. 3 …you hadst a WHORE’S FOREHEAD, you refusedst to be ashamed… 6 The LORD said also unto me… Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the HARLOT… 8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed ADULTERY I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the HARLOT also… 20 Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD.”
Ezekiel 16:26-32 “You have also committed FORNICATION with the Egyptians your neighbours, great of flesh; and have increased your WHOREDOMS, to provoke me to anger… 28 You have played the WHORE also with the Assyrians, because you were unsatiable; yes, you have played the HARLOT with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied. 30 How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord God, seeing you doest all these things, the work of an imperious WHORISH WOMAN; 31 In that you buildest thine eminent place in the head of every way, and makest thine high place in every street; and have not been as an HARLOT, in that you scornest hire; 32 But as a wife that committeth ADULTERY, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!”
Now turning to Revelation we read about the false church: Rev. 17:1-3 “…Come hither; I will show unto you the judgment of the great WHORE that sitteth upon many waters: 2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed FORNICATION, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her FORNICATION. 3 …I saw a WOMAN sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy… 5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON the great, the MOTHER OF HARLOTS and abominations of the earth.”
Then we read about the true church: Rev. 12:14 “And to the WOMAN were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.”
Christ’s true Church is described in Rev. as a “great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars,” while the false church is described as the “great whore” which is ”arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication.”
Now how about the phrase, ‘Mystery Babylon is the Mother of Harlots?’ Pope Benedict referred to the Catholic Church as being the “MOTHER” Church, calling for all the daughter Churches to come back to HER. This is because the ‘Protestant’ churches came from the Catholic church, with these churches persecuting the true church whom they derided as ‘Anabaptists.’
Doctor Alexander Hislop wrote: “To conciliate the Pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome, pursuing its usual policy, took measures to get the Christian and Pagan festivals [that’s the Sabbath and Sunday] amalgamated, and…to get Paganism and Christianity now far sunk in idolatry in this as in so many other things, to shake hands.” And “A glance at the main pillars of the Papal system will sufficiently prove that its doctrine and discipline in all essential respects have been derived from BABYLON.”
The Story of Catholicism says: “It has often been charged… that Catholicism is overlaid with many pagan incrustations. Catholicism is ready to accept that accusation and even to make it her boast… the great god Pan is not really dead, he is baptized.”
John Henry wrote: “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.”
Did you know that the statue of St Peter in St Peters Cathedral was originally the statue of the pagan god Jupiter, which had its foot kissed away and replaced several times because of the multitudes that bowed down to it and kissed its foot?
Now how about the phrase, “a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy?”
In Luke we read, “And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” But the RCC says that their Priest can forgive sins.
In the Catholic National, July 1895, we find this: “The Pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, but he is Jesus Christ, Himself, hidden under the veil of human flesh.”
Pope Pius V is said to have uttered this: “The Pope and God are the same, so he has all power in Heaven and earth.”
Decretal, de Tranlatic Episcop: “The pope has power to change times, abrogate laws, and dispense with all things, even the precepts of Christ.”
Pope Leo XIII wrote, “We hold upon this earth the place of God almighty.”
Speaking of the Papacy, John Wesley wrote, “He is in an emphatical sense, the Man of Sin, as he increases all manner of sin above measure. And he is, too, properly styled the Son of Perdition, as he has caused the death of numberless multitudes, both of his opposers and followers… He it is…that exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped…claiming the highest power, and highest honour…claiming the prerogatives which belong to God alone.”
Roger Williams spoke of the Pope as “the pretended Vicar of Christ on earth, who sits as God over the Temple of God, exalting himself not only above all that is called God, but over the souls and consciences of all his vassals, yea over the Spirit of Christ, over the Holy Spirit, yea, and God himself…speaking against the God of heaven, thinking to change times and laws…”
St. Catherine of Siena: “Even if the Pope were Satan incarnate, we ought not to raise up our heads against him, but calmly lie down to rest on his bosom. He who rebels against our Father is condemned to death, for that which we do to him we do to Christ: we honor Christ if we honor the Pope; we dishonor Christ if we dishonor the Pope. I know very well that many defend themselves by boasting: ‘They are so corrupt, and work all manner of evil!’ But God has commanded that, even if the priests, the pastors, and Christ-on-earth were incarnate devils, we be obedient and subject to them, not for their sakes, but for the sake of God, and out of obedience to Him.”
Lucius Ferraris: “The Pope is of great authority and power, that he is able to modify, declare, 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…”
Decretales Domini Gregori ix: “We may according to the fullness of our power, dispose of the law and dispense above the law. Those whom the Pope of Rome doth separate, it is not a man that separates them but God. For the Pope holdeth place on earth, not simply of a man but of the true God….dissolves, not by human but rather by divine authority….I am in all and above all, so that God Himself and I, the vicar of God, hath both one consistory, and I am able to do almost all that God can do…Wherefore, no marvel, if it be in my power to dispense with all things, yea with the precepts of Christ.”
Roman Catholic Confessions for Protestants Oath: “We confess that the Pope has power of changing Scripture and of adding to it, and taking from it, according to his will.”
Alphonsus De Liguori: “And 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, provided the penitent is capable of it.”
The following is the timeline of Roman Catholicism beliefs:
- Prayers for the dead – 300 AD
- Making the sign of the cross – 300 AD
- Veneration of angels & dead saints – 375 A.D.
- Use of images in worship – 375 A D.
- The Mass as a daily celebration – 394 AD
- Beginning of the exaltation of Mary; the term, “Mother of God” applied at Council of Ephesus – 431 AD.
- Extreme Unction (Last Rites) – 526 AD
- Doctrine of Purgatory (Gregory I) – 593 AD
- Prayers to Mary & dead saints – 600 AD
- Worship of cross, images & relics – 786 AD
- Canonization of dead saints – 995 AD
- Celibacy of priesthood – 1079 AD
- The Rosary – 1090 AD
- Indulgences – 1190 AD
- Transubstantiation (Innocent III) – 1215 AD
- Auricular Confession of sins to a priest – 1215 AD
- Adoration of the wafer (Host) – 1220 AD
- Cup forbidden to the people at communion – 1414 AD
- Purgatory proclaimed as a dogma – 1439 AD
- The doctrine of the Seven Sacraments confirmed – 1439 AD
- Tradition declared of equal authority with Bible by Council of Trent – 1545 AD
And finally, “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and Elohim hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is Adonai Elohim who judgeth her. And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.” – Revelation 18:4-10
