There are many definitions of a cult. One of my favorites is “a false religious ideology that allows its leadership intimate access to a large number of young women or boys.”
One of the most prominent cults mentioned in the Bible can be found in Revelation 17. At the time that Revelation was written, its identity was unknown because it had not yet come into existence. However, the identity of Mystery Babylon in the book of Revelation is not that big of a mystery to those who can look back on history. We have more than sufficient biblical clues that reveal the secret identity of the whore of Babylon.
“Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, ‘Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute [the Lord’s faithless bride – Ezekiel 16] who is seated on many waters [made herself a lofty place in every square (16:24)], with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality [played the whore with the kings of the earth (16:26)], and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk [turned the blood of Christ into lewdness (16:27, 43)].”
“And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman [The ‘Mary’ of Roman Catholicism] sitting on a scarlet beast [the Antichrist] that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns [the ten horns are ten kings]. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet [the colors of Roman royalty], and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality [but you trusted in your beauty and played the whore (16:15)]. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: ‘Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations (16:1;22).’ And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus” (Revelation 17:1-6).
The following points can be gleaned from this passage and should further clarify the identity of this abomination:
- As Mystery Babylon is “the Lord’s faithless bride,” there is no question that it is an apostate church.
- It is seated on many waters as the papacy has many churches all over the world.
- The papacy and its leadership have been fornicating with the kings of the earth since the time of the first ‘Pope’ Damasus in 366 A.D.
- A woman rides the beast, which is manifested by the worship of Mary that has replaced the worship of Jesus in this church (Yes, building shrines to Mary and offering her prayers constitutes worship).
- The colors of Rome are amazingly like the colors worn by various officials in the Catholic hierarchy.
- The woman has great wealth as the church of Rome has great wealth.
- The sexual immorality of the papacy is legendary.
- Hundreds of thousands of servants of Christ have been murdered by the papacy, especially since just prior to the inquisition to the time of Napoleon.
As a side note, Jesus told the crowds and his disciples near the end of his ministry, “And call no man your father on earth [when referring to religious leaders] for you have one Father, who is in heaven (Matthew 23:9). In an astonishing defiance of the words of Christ, the Catholic Church repeatedly refers to its priests as “Father.”
When we look at the spiritual results of where the papacy holds power, we can see that it brings only poverty, crime and despair. We can also easily discern that the Protestant Reformation brought about great prosperity and freedom in the Western Hemisphere over the last 500 years.
In comparison, we can see regions that are dominated by the Catholic Church, such as South America, that are destitute and corrupt. Many of its people long to come to America to escape the poverty and spiritual oppression brought about by the church of Rome and its papacy.
Perhaps the best definition of a cult is “an organization that enslaves the souls of its adherents to false doctrine, thereby denying them entrance into the kingdom of heaven.”
The basic characteristics of a cult are:
- An authority that cannot be questioned
- The refusal to tolerate critical thinking due to the inability to defend its own position (check your coat and your mind at the door)
- Creating psychological dependence on the cult
- The denial that salvation is achieved by Grace through faith in Christ, who is God in human flesh. It is law-oriented, and punishments are often physical if they can get away with it.
- Sexual perversion, such as child molestation, fornication and adultery, is irresistible to it.
In regard to the first point, it did not take long for the papacy to declare that they were infallible in matters of faith. It happened soon after they began ‘fornicating’ with the Roman emperors. The first person to make the move to create Mystery Babylon was “Pope Leo the Great.”
The fact that he called himself ‘the great” should have been a huge red flag to those who were called by the name of Christ at that time.
This Pope posited the doctrine of supreme authority of the bishop of Rome around 450 A.D. The Popes began to proclaim themselves Peter’s successors, who apparently had authority over all the churches when he was teaching, and were ‘called by God’ to rule the ‘universal church.’ The Church of Rome was completely unmoved by the fact that there was no historical or Scriptural basis for this folly.
The inquisition, one of the greatest evils ever perpetrated against humanity, was devised because the papacy could not tolerate critical thinking. Most of the false doctrines that the papacy created were designed, not to bring salvation to anyone, but to spiritually enslave the populace. If the papacy were to allow critical thinking, men like Jan Hus and John Wycliffe tended to spring up. These men, and many others like them, would then throw a monkey wrench into the papacy’s attempt to spiritually enslave the population over which they ruled.
Pope Nicholas I was well aware of the need to demand psychological dependence on the cult he and the other papists were creating. He opined (around 860 A.D.) in a way that would make Jim Jones blush with envy:
“We (the Popes) alone have the power to bind and to loose (Matthew 18:18), to absolve Nero and to condemn him (this is not what Jesus said); and Christians can not, under penalty of excommunication, execute other judgment than ours, which alone is infallible (false doctrine). People are not the judges of their princes (a Bishop is greater than a prince); they should obey without murmuring the most iniquitous orders; they should bow their foreheads under the chastisements (as if we were Christ) which it pleases kings (who themselves are under our authority) to inflict on them, for a sovereign can violate the fundamental laws of the State, and seize upon the wealth of the citizen, by imposts or by confiscations; he can even dispose of their lives, without any of his subjects having the right to address to him simple remonstrances.”
Gee, this sounds an awful lot like you will own nothing and you will be happy (or else).
At the Council of Trent, the papacy reinforced its development into a cult by proclaiming that Paul was in error when he said, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing, it is the gift of God…” (Ephesians 2:8). In their infallible wisdom, the Church of Rome abrogated Paul’s teaching when it proclaimed at the Council of Trent:
“If any one saith, that, after the grace of Justification has been received, to every penitent sinner the guilt is remitted, and the debt of eternal punishment is blotted out in such wise, that there remains not any debt of temporal punishment to be discharged either in this world, or in the next in Purgatory, before the entrance to the kingdom of heaven can be opened (to him); let him be anathema” (CANON XXX).
In regard to sexual perversion, no cult can hold a candle to the abominations committed by the papists. Outrageous sexual perversion has been going on since the time of Damascus and continues to this day. Martin Luther was appalled by this behavior when he wrote:
“More remarkable yet, in the same bull, they decided that a cardinal should not keep as many boys in the future. However, Pope Leo commanded that this be deleted; otherwise, it would have been spread throughout the whole world how openly and shamelessly the pope and the cardinals in Rome practice sodomy. I do not wish to mention the pope, but since the knaves will not repent, but condemn the gospel, blaspheme and revile God’s word, and excuse their vices, they, in turn, will have to take a whiff of their own terrible filth. This vice is so prevalent among them that recently a pope caused his own death by means of this sin and vice. In fact, he died on the spot. All right now, you popes, cardinals, papists, spiritual lords, keep on persecuting God’s word and defending your doctrine and your churches!
“No pope, cardinal, bishop, doctor, priest, monk, or nun will condemn such an obviously disgraceful life; rather they laugh about it, excuse it, and gloss over it. They incite kings, princes, country, and people to defend such knaves with life and property, with land and people, and faithfully to protect them so that such vices might not be repented of and reformed, but rather strengthened, sanctioned, and approved. Now you are to hazard blood, body, and life just for the sake of Saddling your neck and conscience with this. I could easily mention more examples of such abominations, but it is too shameful; I fear that our German soil would have to tremble before it. But if an impudent popish ass should come along and dispute this, he will find me ready to do him battle, and it will be quite a battle!” (Luther’s Works Volume 47, P38).
But this is all in the past, you might be saying to yourselves. Surely, now the Vatican is populated with pious men who are the salt of the earth and zealous to proclaim the Gospel of Christ. They would not dream of subjecting any member of their congregation to their perverted, lustful passions today.
If this is what you are thinking, you are oblivious to the truth and apparently happy in that state.
We currently stand at a point in history when demonic evil is engulfing the earth. The Catholic Church boasts 1.3 billion members throughout the world. That is one-seventh of the world population.
What is the Vatican and the Catholic Church as a whole doing when they should be standing against the evil that is plaguing humanity? Are they testifying to the Gospel of Christ and calling sinners to repent and be forgiven in the name of Jesus?
Well, let’s take a look at an example of the infallible Pope dealing with the sin of homosexuality.
When Pope Francis was asked about the Christian response to homosexuality, he replied, “Who am I to judge?” In other words, his message to the homosexual, who is destined for hell, was ‘Go to it!’ The Pope should have been told by someone at the Vatican that his job was to call homosexuals to repent and be forgiven in the name of Jesus. Unfortunately, there was no one available in the Vatican or the Catholic Church in general to correct this rather egregious error.
This, of course, is not to exonerate the majority of Protestant Churches that have lost interest in the Gospel. Most of them are either dead or have been purchased by the megalomaniacal globalists and now refuse to proclaim the Gospel of Christ. The true churches of Christ, which are found among the Protestant Churches, have little strength and now must patiently endure until Christ returns.
The Church of Rome was one of many churches in Europe that were still doing the will of Christ when it was founded. However, once the papacy began to gain power, the perversion of this system took control of the church in Rome and then attempted to extend its tyranny to all churches.
The papacy itself has always been an enemy of the Gospel, and of liberty, throughout its entire history. Any one of its various churches that proclaimed the Gospel did so in opposition to the will of the papacy. Those Catholic churches that are still attempting to be obedient to Christ will be the first ones dealt with when the Vatican has secured the power it craves through world government.
Since the Gospel is not a priority of the papacy or those Catholic Churches that subject themselves to it, what are its current priorities? The Vatican and the papacy flourish under tyranny. They have never met a despot they did not like. When autocracy reigns, the papacy always seems to become the religious force behind it. In this way, they can keep their hands clean while the corrupt government they support can do the dirty work for them.
We can find the priorities of the papacy in the Pope’s encyclical Laudato Si which has helped to advance the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN as well as Agenda 2030. These goals have nothing to do with improving people’s lives or bringing them to salvation through faith in Christ. Instead, each goal is crafted to empower a demonic world government that will give the papists the power they crave.
In the end, it will be severely judged by God not long after it has been established.
In the next article, we will examine the pagan document of the Pope called Laudato Si to see how the papacy intends to enslave us to their false religion, which, as we are already beginning to see, results in devastating public policy.
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