Harlot or Hero? - 7

Harlot or Hero? - 7 January 12, 2019 adairsvillesda.org "Jesus immediately ascended to Heaven and presented himself before the throne of God, showing the marks of shame and cruelty upon his brow, his hands and feet. But he refused to receive the coronet of glory, and the royal robe, and he also refused the adoration of the angels "Jesus refused to receive the homage of his people until he knew that his sacrifice had been accepted by the Father, and until he had received the assurance from God himself that his atonement for the sins of his people had been full and ample, that through his blood they might gain eternal life." -Spirit of Prophecy, Volume 3, p. 202 The Father embraces Jesus - Yes it is enough! —————————————— There is John, one of Jesus closest friends, looking off into the sunset of the Mediterranean. He feels the warm rays of the setting sun under the azure blue sky. He’s remembering the past 50 or so years of life. He watches the slowly crashing waves. He hears the birds down by the shore. Jesus is in heaven. The church is on earth. Jesus had promised he would send the Holy Spirit to help the believers and boy did he! John hears the echo of the words of Jesus in his mind - John 14:1-3 - “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. The disciples, John’s friends, his brother James, they had all acted upon Jesus last words - Matthew 28 and Mark 16 - Go into all the world, make disciples, baptize and teach them all that I have taught you. I will be with you and signs will follow you. (Matthew 28:19-20)(Mark 16:15-18) The church as we read in the book of Acts starts off with gusto. Thousands are baptized in a day. Even with the persecution of Saul, the church kept spreading. Then Saul has an encounter with Jesus in a vision !2 of !10 and becomes Paul. The gospel is now turning enemies into evangelists. Finally as Jesus had foretold - Jerusalem once thought to be the eternal city was destroyed by the Romans. How long until He would return? John, on this island, is shown scenes all the way to our day and something is strange. He sees two churches represented by two women:- Scripture uses a woman to describe a religious movement. Jeremiah 6:2 I have likened the daughter of Zion To a lovely and delicate woman. Revelation 19:7,8 Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” 8 And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Revelation 14:4 Church is described as pure and faithful vs. Pure Woman- The Hero in our story - is described as dressed in white, pure, faithful, ready to marry Christ and be with him forever. Revelation 17:1-4 - “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, 2 with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” 3 So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. Mystery - Babylon the Great - The Mother of Harlots Revelation 18 !3 of !10 Babylon the Great is Fallen, is Fallen and has become a dwelling place of demons… 1 Peter 5:13 - Peter calls Rome - Babylon Ellicotts Commentary: St. Peter has just personified the church of the place from which he writes, which seems quite as unprosaic a use of language as to call Rome “Babylon.” And it seems pretty clear that the name was quite intelligible to Jewish readers, for whom it was intended. The Apocalypse (Revelation 17:18) is not the only place where Rome is found spoken of under this title. One of the first of living Hebraists (who will not allow his name to be mentioned) told the present writer that no Hebrew of St. Peter’s day would have had need to think twice what city was meant when “Babylon” was mentioned. And on the mention of the name, all the prophecies of the vengeance to be taken on the city which had desolated the Holy Land would rush with consolation into the mind of the readers, and they would feel that St. Peter, though supporting St. Paul, was still in full sympathy with themselves. The Harlot - identified as dressed in purple and red with lots of gold. Fornication or sleeping around outside of marriage is symbolism used to describe being unfaithful to God and to the Law. The wine is used as a symbol of teaching false doctrine. John saw the most confusing thing - two women, representing truth and error, light and darkness all the way to the end. —————— Last week we read that for the sake of man the controversy was to be continued…but for how long? Daniel had foretold of a time that even he didn’t fully understand - 2,300 years into the future - ‘the time of the end’ (Daniel 8:14/17) Daniel has dreams about the future in Daniel 7 all the way to chapter 12 and then… In Daniel 12:4, we read that Daniel is told to seal the book…until the time of the end. That it wouldn’t make much sense until it was all unfolding around the planet a long time into the future. All of the disciples would eventually lose their lives for the message. They went around the world to tell others this amazing story of love. John they had tried to kill multiple times - but were unsuccessful. So they banished him to the island of Patmos where he was given the scenes of the book of the Revelation. !4 of !10 Daniel and John wrote down a a clear prophetic picture of the gruesome days ahead for the church. There is John on Patmos - He sees Jesus reveal Himself and the future unfolds before him…and he is told to write it down sanctuary in heaven - Revelation 1 Future of the church and the war playing out… Revelation 2-3 Judgment - 4-5 Again the state of the church - Revelation 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, Then John writes something that perhaps he at first like Daniel didn’t fully understand. The church would become the greatest enemy on earth to - the faithful of God? Huh? John had seen Jesus become the greatest ‘threat’ to organized religion. But one day, organized religion would become the greatest threat to Jesus and his followers! Life of the early Church …They were teaching, baptizing, healing, worshipping together. Acts 17:2 continued custom of Sabbath observance "The primitive Christians did keep the Sabbath of the Jews;. therefore the Christians for a long time together, did keep their conventions on the Sabbath, (in which some portion of the Law were read: and this continued till the time of the Laodicean council.)” The Whole Works of Jeremey Taylor, Vol. IX, p416 (R. Heber's Edition, Vol.XII, p.416) "The ancient Christians were very careful in the observation of Saturday, or the seventh day..It is plain that all the Oriental churches, and the greatest part of the world, observed the Sabbath as a festival...Athanasius likewise tells us that they held religious assemblies on the Sabbath, not because they were infected with Judaism, but to worship God, the Lord of the Sabbath, Epiphanius says the same." Antiquities of the Christian Church, Vol. II, Book XX, chap. 3, Sec. 1, 66.1137, 1138 !5 of !10 The Falling Away… Paul warns the church though in - 2 Thessalonians 2:3- Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Daniel, writing nearly 1000 years earlier says in Daniel 7 that a power would arise that would persecute the faithful, would attempt to change the very law of god and would rule for 1260 years Daniel 7:25 He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, Shall persecute[a] the saints of the Most High, And shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand For a time and times and half a time. In Daniel 7, as Daniel writes of the future he says “I saw a Lion, a Bear, a Leopard and then an awful 4th kingdom come on the earth. We further see how that became Babylon, Persia, Greece, and the Iron Monarchy of Rome which would last the longest. John is given a similar vision of the future of the church. In Revelation 13:1-5 John states: And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. 2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. John sees the same animals in vision but in reverse of how Daniel describes them. 3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. !6 of !10 4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? 5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And Just to be clear - the dragon is Lucifer/Satan the fallen angel. He has set up a church on the earth - with the end goal to be worshipped by impersonating Jesus with a false second coming…this is the grand almost overmastering strong delusion that we have been warned about Summary They are both shown a power that would one day come on the world that would: 1-would be guilty of making a change to the ten commandments 2-would persecute the saints - the true church, the real heroine - the bride of Christ 3-would be guilty of blasphemy. 4-rule for 1260 years on the earth, John’s definition of Blasphemy was based on two interactions Jesus had with the Pharisees: John 10:36 - Claiming to be god when you are not God Mark 2:7 - “this fellow claims to forgive sins - who can forgive sins but God? This is blasphemy! Recap: The true church - The one Jesus started was one built on love, not force. Love, not selfishness. Built on the laws of the old testament because Jesus said “I have not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it” Love is the fulfilling of the law. I have not come to change one jot or one tittle from the law”. The ceremonial sacrificial laws of course were done away with but not the moral law. !7 of !10 The Falling Away - The Roman Empire has gone from the glory of the republic before the time of Christ, to the mob ruled democracy for hundreds of years, to finally on the brink of total chaos. Wars have exhausted the treasury, morality has disappeared and finally the pagan emperor - Constantine - sees a vision - and is converted to Christianity. There are some changes that would begin to be implemented: Scripture teaches too much independence of thought and action - therefore: The circulation of the scriptures must be prohibited! So that the people become ignorant. #1 - An attempt to change the law of God - to get the pagan world into the church - to allow for idol worship - of the gods of myth and legend - the heathen gods. The statue of Jupiter would now be called Peter. The images of a woman - the queen of heaven- would not be Juno or Isis but Mary - Mother of god. If you will remember from part 5 in our story - the heathen gods - were the fallen angels of heaven! You can’t just remove a commandment, so the 10th was split into two. The 4th commandment, the only one prefaced by the word “Remember” was moved and now commemorated the first not the Seventh-day of the week. The text of Constantine's Sunday Law of 321 A.D. is: "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 suitable for gainsowing or vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost.” At first the Sunday was a day of celebration and Sabbath was still observed. But over time, Sabbath was made a day of mourning and finally given up altogether. After all - the scriptures were hidden. !8 of !10 #2 - Persecution Then great persecution arose from the Papacy in Rome and true Christians fled the cities and lived in the hills and mountains of the wilderness. The Waldenses, The Albigenses, The Huguenots. Revelation 12:6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. - 1260 years according to the day for a year principle found in bible prophecy. This was the dark ages… because the Light - Jesus was hid from daily life, and also were hidden the truths of scripture #3 Blasphemy The church begins selling indulgences to build a place called - The Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome - Forgiveness of sin was now offered by the church in Rome - what the disciples understood as blasphemy. #4 - Would rule for 1260 years…More on that in a minute Late 1400’s - Columbus is sailing looking for more land - the legend of a new world. Gutenberg has discovered how to print bibles on new technology - the printing press - The Bible is having a resurgence. Around this time, a devout Catholic priest - Martin Luther - takes a journey to Rome - he is about to enter the city and falls to the earth and says “Holy Rome - I salute thee!” And exiting the city he writes “no one can imagine what sins are committed in Rome….If there is a hell, Rome is built over it!” Quite the change of heart. Luther began to study and could not reconcile the sale of the forgiveness of sin with Scripture. The date October 31, 1517 (which since then somehow paganism covered up with a holiday)- Luther has 95 issues that he sees his beloved church must address. This ignites what would be known as The Protestant Reformation - Built on the spirit of protest. !9 of !10 Then a few decades into this ‘Revival’ - The Church of Rome christens - The Society of Jesus - The book -The Great Controversy speaks on this - “At this time the order of the Jesuits was created, the most cruel, unscrupulous, and powerful of all the champions of popery…..To combat these forces, Jesuitism inspired its followers with a fanaticism that enabled them to endure like dangers, and to oppose to the power of truth all the weapons of deception. There was no crime too great for them to commit, no deception too base for them to practice, no disguise too difficult for them to assume. Vowed to perpetual poverty and humility, it was their studied aim to secure wealth and power, to be devoted to the overthrow of Protestantism, and the re-establishment of the papal supremacy. GC 234 It was a fundamental principle of the order that the end justifies the means. By this code, lying, theft, perjury, assassination, were not only pardonable but commendable, when they served the interests of the church. Under various disguises the Jesuits worked their way into offices of state, climbing up to be the counselors of kings, and shaping the policy of nations. They became servants to act as spies upon their masters. They established colleges for the sons of princes and nobles, and schools for the common people; and the children of Protestant parents were drawn into an observance of popish rites. GC 235 ————— “We will never forget that our forefathers, the first inhabitants of the American land, were compelled to leave their native country, to come to bury themselves in unknown and far-distant wildernesses to escape Jesuit tyranny and cruelty. ~Jesuitism Unvailed (Americans Warned About Jesuitism) by Claude Pirat; 1851 AD ~Fifty Years in the Church of Rome by Charles Chiniquy - Abraham Lincoln stated to his friend Chiniquy - “Man must not care where and when he will die, provided he dies at the post of honour and duty.' But I may add, today, that I have a presentiment that God will call me to Him through the hand of an assassin. “Unfortunately, I feel more and more, every day, that it is not against the Americans of the South, alone, I am fighting, it is more against the Pope of Rome, his perfidious Jesuits [and their blind and blood-thirsty slaves,] than against the real American Protestants, that we have to !10 of !10 defend ourselves. Here is the real danger of our position. So long as they will hope to conquer the North, they will spare me; but the day we will rout their armies (and that day will surely come, with the help of God), take their cities, and force them to submit, then, it is my impression that the Jesuits, who are the principal rulers of the South, will do what they have almost invariably done in the past. The dagger, or the pistol of one of their adepts, will do what the strong hands of the warriors could not achieve. This civil war seems to be nothing but a political affair to those who do not see, as I do, the secret springs of that terrible drama. But it is more a religious than a civil war. It is Rome who wants to rule and degrade the North, as she has ruled and degraded the South, from the very day of its discovery. There are only very few of the Southern leaders who are not more or less under the influence of the Jesuits, through their wives, family relations, and their friends. Several members of the family of Jeff Davis belong to the Church of Rome. Even the Protestant ministers are under the influence of the Jesuits without suspecting it. To keep her ascendancy in the North, as she does in the South, Rome is doing here what she has done in Mexico, and in all the South American Republics; she is paralyzing, by a civil war, the arms of the soldiers of Liberty. She divides our nation, in order to weaken, subdue and rule it. So the war continued on earth that had started long ago in heaven - the principle of love and kindness vs. the principle of force and selfishness. ——————— “The War against the Bible, carried forward for so many centuries in France, culminated in the scenes of the French Revolution.” GC 265 The year is 1798 - 1260 years after the Roman Emperor Justinian, issued a decree in 538 AD, proclaiming the Pope to be supreme in religious matters. The moment foretold by Daniel, and John - 1260 years that the Church of Rome would rule the world - had come. Napoleon’s army marches upon Rome - led by General Berthier - , takes the pope captive. This was the death knell to the old world - and everyone knew it. Across the ocean for the last two hundred+ years a nation was springing up, slowly growing in prominence. A place where men and women were fleeing the old world in search of a place where there was no king and no pope. A Protestant Republic… As France is falling, America is rising • Declaration of Independence (1776) • Constitution of the United States (1787) • Bill of Rights (1791) Virgin soil existed in the new world where liberty and freedom of conscience could once again take root. Why this matters now… Revelation 18:4 -