The Inquisition Ain’t What It Used to Be :: By The Gospelist

The purpose of the medieval Inquisition was to force the true church to submit mentally and spiritually to the false doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC). The papacy wanted the church to change from a religious institution that was dedicated to Christ and the spreading of the Gospel to one that was devoted to Rome.

And worldly power.

To accomplish this nefarious task, several alterations needed to be made to sound doctrine to brainwash the people into abandoning the one true faith. This faith could then be replaced with the one that was more conducive to slavish obedience to the RCC clergy.

If the papacy were to change the mission of the church to exercise worldly power, it would have to modify itself into a cult that could maintain absolute physical, psychological, and spiritual control over its congregation. The Church of Rome then moved to accomplish this task by:

>Becoming like the Pharisees and insisting that the teachings and traditions of the church must have authority over Scripture.

>Creating a worship system whereby one must be saved by obedience to the church rather than by faith in Christ.

>Setting up a hierarchy in which one man, a pope, is the only one who can speak for the church, and when he does so, he speaks for God.

>Dealing harshly with those who criticize the church by labeling them as ‘heretics’ and punishing them with imprisonment and death.

>Creating a system of compliance so that every church must be bound to this one church so that ‘unity’ takes precedence over sound doctrine.

>Using false accusations, punishment, torture, and execution when Christians, or anyone else, threaten their worldly power.

>Redirecting our prayer life from our Father to Mary or ‘the saints.’

>Forcing celibacy on the priesthood rather than allowing it to be chosen as Paul counseled.

>Creating myths such as ‘Purgatory’ to undermine the Gospel.

>Attempting to suppress the desire for worldly freedom, especially freedom of inquiry, by opposing the Magna Carta and the U.S. Constitution.

>Prohibiting the owning of a Bible since this led to opposition to the Church of Rome and its man-made teachings.

It is becoming abundantly clear how the coming worldwide persecution of Christians is going to manifest itself.

Jesus told us while sitting on the Mount of Olives that people of faith would be persecuted because of this faith. He further declared that many would turn away from the faith and betray and hate each other.

And that this would be encouraged by the false prophets who would appear at this time. These ‘prophets’ will have a Christian veneer, or a form of godliness, but deny his Gospel.

They will be proclaiming, “I am the Christ,” and will deceive many. That proclamation is only one step away from the declaration that the pope is the ‘Holy Father.’

The Jesuit Pope Francis has begun to ramp up the Inquisition to deal with the disobedience he is experiencing with this new proclamation on ‘gay’ relationships.

He has framed this debate into one that exists between liberals and conservatives to make it political rather than religious. In this way, he can accuse those who oppose him of ‘conservatism’ rather than being faithful to the Bible.

The papacy has moved to replace the Gospel with social justice among the over one billion Catholics who currently populate the world. This is how he has been able to insert the blessing of homosexual unions and other perversions without being immediately removed from office.

And he has a lot more heresy to offer before he is done.

The esteemed Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, an old friend of Francis who serves as grand inquisitor, has taken up the pope’s cause to defend his new interpretation of church doctrine. His stated purpose was to defend Catholic orthodoxy and punish those scholars and clergy who disagreed with the historical teachings of the church.

Now, his job is to ‘correct’ those who disagree with the new theology of the Jesuit pope.

Unsurprisingly, the Jesuit pope has begun to use the power of his office to force the entire church to accept the LGBT agenda. Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez is the hammer the pope will use to bring the rest of his church in line with the new Globalists’ agenda.

The acceptance of this agenda is crucial because this pope is fornicating with the evil Globalists. He must make sure his overlords are sexually satisfied before he can turn the tables and wield control over them.

The Church of Rome has a serious homosexual problem that it needs to alleviate. Many of its priests and cardinals are sexually fluid, and they use their position to create victims in the various countries where they serve.

If they can change the morals of a society to accept the evil of homosexuality, this will save them a lot of money in lawsuits. They can then devote their vast financial resources to suppressing faith in Christ as they achieve worldly power.

As the Vatican is populated primarily by perverts, it should come as no surprise that the venerated Cardinal Fernandez has authored a book on the “spirituality of orgasms.”

Apparently, the Gospel lacks the sex appeal that is favored among Catholic theologians.

Instead, the good Cardinal would like to provide readers with an in-depth reflection on human sexuality and what exactly orgasms mean. (Spoiler alert! An orgasm means that sexual activity will temporarily cease so that cuddling may commence). The book featured graphic paragraphs about the distinction between male and female orgasms.

Sounds like business as usual at the Vatican.

The book Mystical Passion: Spirituality and Sensuality hit the bookshelves in 1998. In this treasured tome, the thirty-six-year-old Fernandez provided detailed and explicit descriptions of what happens during orgasms.

At the time of its writing, he was a theologian and an educator in the Roman Catholic Church. Prior to that time, he was an ordained priest in Argentina. And apparently, the resident voyeur for the Catholic faith.

I wonder who his test subjects were. Attempting to continue the Masters and Johnson research into the human sexual response from the 1960s should probably be done from a venue other than the church.

It also appears that the nunnery has become more progressive over the last few decades.

It is going to take a lot of torture of sound doctrine to justify these types of activities as being necessary to bring Christ to a fallen world. However, if anyone can pull this off, good old Fernandez is the guy to do it.

The pope had a great deal of success selling his ‘blessing for same-sex couples’ nonsense all over the world, except in Africa. The African people understand how evil homosexuality can be when their leaders embrace it. They have no desire to return to that kind of culture.

Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besung of Kinshasa, Congo, was furious when the perverts in Rome made their move on the African church. Besung was forced to go to Rome to take his concerns to the pope directly in hopes that Francis would see the severity of what he was doing.

He made it out alive this time.

The African Cardinal’s objection made the pope very sad. He set him up with his inquisitor so that they could draft a special document for the African church. They would periodically call the pope to get his approval for specific portions.

When all was said and done, the outcome was a historically unprecedented agreement that spared one region of the world from “universal Catholic doctrine.” Amazingly, the ‘one true church’ was forced to submit themselves to a document under the heading “No Blessing for Homosexual Couples in the African Churches.”

With this statement, only in Africa are same-sex relationships “intrinsically corrupt.” For the rest of the world, homosexuality is just A-OK.

The African Cardinal may need to hire a food tester when he eats his next bowl of soup. My suspicion is that he may not be long for this world.

Once Pope Benedict XVI stepped down, Francis saw this as an opportunity to pursue ‘reforms’ that strayed from orthodoxy. I guess the RCC had everything wrong over the last seventeen hundred years, and Francis is finally going to repair the damage.

More likely, however, is that the RCC has always approved of extreme sexual perversion.

During the time of Martin Luther, some cardinals wanted to put out a Bull stating that cardinals should not “keep as many boys in the future.”

Even Pope Leo X had sense enough to make sure that was deleted for fear that the whole world would find out that the Vatican was populated with a bunch of pedophiles.

Today, however, it is time to test the waters to see if the world will now accept their extreme sexual perversion. They have noted the great falling away from the faith worldwide and are ready to take full advantage of it.

Among the ‘reforms’ offered by Francis was to make the church more accepting of remarried divorcees, people in polygamous marriages, and LGBTQ+ people.

One would think that all of Catholicism would be outraged by these ‘reforms.’

To their credit, Fernandez was charged with heresy in Argentina by ‘his detractors’ and for insisting that the church should not interfere with the private lives of homosexuals.

Kind of makes you wonder how close the relationship between Francis and Fernadez was back in Argentina.

Francis decided to take the ‘slippery slope’ approach to introducing his ‘reforms’ to his brethren to avoid too much resistance. He began by avoiding implying that a same-sex relationship was the same as a heterosexual marriage.

In this way, priests might exercise their discretion when bestowing blessings on homosexual couples.

Despite their many victories, ‘progressive’ Catholics did not think that Francis went far enough. They wanted to steamroll the African church and all other conservatives and make them fall in line or withdraw from their cult.

Don’t worry progressives; your wish will be coming true very soon.

In mid-December of 2023, the doctrinal office released instructions for the blessing of couples in “irregular” relationships. These are the relationships that Paul referred to as “shameful lusts” and “unnatural relations.”

Yeah, Paul talked to Christ and all, but Jesus never said anything about homosexuality when he was preaching, so he obviously had no problem with it. What Paul was lacking was the “compassionate approach” to ‘love’ that is “irregular.”

I am certain the priests blessing same-sex couples will have to justify their ‘compassion’ when they stand before the Lord in judgment.

The good news is that there are some ‘conservatives’ who are pushing back against this Godlessness. The Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah called the acceptance of same-sex blessings a heresy that seriously undermines the church, the body of Christ, because it is contrary to the Catholic faith and tradition.

Actually, that was only ‘decent’ news, not good news, since this condemnation was fairly weak.

Cardinal Sarah should have called all these knaves to repent and be forgiven in the name of Jesus. Then he should have demanded that they be ejected from Christ’s church because they do not meet the criteria for being an overseer of the church.

Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive,  for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church (I Timothy 3:2-5)?

Let’s see, above reproach. Nope. The husband of one wife.Nope. Sober-minded. Nope.

I think you get the point.

In response, the inquisitor Fernandez released a long statement in which he emphasized that the blessings in question are not similar to weddings and refused the claims that the pronouncement was heretical or blasphemous.

After all, this blessing only lasts about ten to fifteen seconds, he noted.

I wonder if he can bless those who engage in bestiality if it only lasts ten to fifteen seconds.

Fernandez added further that priests should ask God to release the homosexual couple “from everything that contradicts the Gospel and allow them to live according to his will.”

He apparently did not understand that everything about homosexuality contradicts the Gospel and God’s will.

In conclusion, the pope upheld his sexual proclamations and insisted that “Those who vehemently protest belong to a small ideological group.” “The Africans are a separate case,” he declared because, like all leftists, he likes to falsely accuse others of ‘racism.’

He can’t attack Africans with this false accusation without risking being called a ‘racist’ himself.

For them, Francis moaned, homosexuality is something ‘ugly’ from a cultural point of view; they do not tolerate it,” the pope declared. He asserted that the spirit of the proclamation was “to include, not to divide,” and he expected that ultimately, Catholics everywhere would cool off.

There is no question that all Catholics will eventually ‘cool off.’ Once this perversion takes root in this church, it will become even weaker than it was before and incapable of bearing the next doctrinal assault.

Those who once took their weak and pathetic stand against this evil will be fewer in number and easier to demonize. They will shrink back in silence and grumble privately to themselves.

Archbishop Vigano better start falling in line.

In a few years, Mr. Fernandez will not be so conciliatory. Any Catholic who takes the Bible seriously will have harsher means employed against him.

And since Catholics do not understand the Gospel, they will fall in line rather than risk being punished or ejected from their cult.

We know that the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths (II Timothy 4:3).

The Inquisition (instituted by Pope Gregory IX in 1227) was a kangaroo court in medieval times (not unlike the International Criminal Court (ICC) that is controlled by the evil Globalists). It was a process that the Roman Catholic Church set up for the discovery and punishment of those speaking against the papacy. This court once wielded immense power and brutality to exact confessions of heresy through torture in medieval and early modern times.

And it will again.

The Inquisition’s function was principally assembled to repress all ‘heretics’ and divest them of their rights. To deprive them of their estate and assets, which became subject to the ownership of the Catholic treasury. With each act of injustice, they relentlessly sought to destroy anyone who spoke, or even thought, differently than what was authorized by the papacy.

In other words, like the Godless Democrat Party, they had no respect for civil rights.

Pope Gregory IX declared it was the duty of every Catholic to persecute heretics, which was anyone who did not give complete allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church. The persecution for heresy of Christians from 1227 to 1492 in Europe made the Romans’ persecution of Christians seem mild in comparison.

The Inquisition began because those who argued from Scripture were coming into conflict with Catholic dogma. It was no different than when Jesus attempted to correct the Pharisees on their false doctrine.

Conservative estimates claim that over 50 million ‘heretics’ were murdered through crusades and inquisitions from this time to at least the time of Napoleon.

These ‘heretics,’ who were mostly Bible-believing Christians, were handed over and persecuted and put to death.

The inquisitors called themselves the Dominicans, and they degraded those who disagreed with them by calling them Lollards (mumblers). The RCC has upgraded this false accusation by now accusing their enemies of ‘racism.’

Due to resistance to their pagan ideology, they found it necessary to initiate the Council of Tarragona in which, according to Canon:

We prohibit also that the laity should not be permitted to have the books of the Old and New Testament; we must strictly forbid their having any translation of these books.

And further:

No one may possess the books of the Old and New Testament, and if anyone possesses them, he must turn them over to the local bishop within eight days so they may be burned.

Once these people are successful at completely altering the Roman Catholic Church, they and their minions will issue similar declarations to anyone who opposes them. They have the evil and powerful Globalists behind them to ensure that the rest of us fall in line, go to prison, or are put to death.

They will also have a lot of ‘brownshirts’ in their numerous congregations to execute their will.

See to it that, as this evil grows, your love does not grow cold. Remember that those who stand firm to the end will be saved.

Our job is to ensure that the Gospel is preached to the whole world as a testimony to all nations.

And then the end will come.

www.gospelist.net

 

We’re Not Ignorant of Satan’s Schemes: Pt 12, Final Part :: By Ron Ferguson

This is the closing Part of this study on not being ignorant of Satan’s devices, and it is a difficult article. It might only appeal to those who like poems and like to inquire into things. The poem is fairly difficult; I hope you will take up the challenge. This poem of mine is part of a much larger poem.

I think the contents of this poem line up well in all the Parts of the schemes and devices of Satan that have been posted before this last Part.

This poem is written in a strict form called “terza rima,” used by Dante in his poems. Each stanza is three lines, and the first and third lines rhyme, and the middle line becomes the start of the next stanza. The line metre is 10 throughout.

The poem here called “PART 4 – THE NAMING” is part of a large poem of mine in 7 Parts called “THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY.”

At the end of the poem, THERE ARE FOOTNOTES for the superscripts (such as in the first line – O light-bearer, Assyrian “Ishtar.”2 I hope the formatting allows the superscripts.

“THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY” – PART 4 – THE NAMING – NAMES OF SATAN

LUCIFER1

O light-bearer, Assyrian “Ishtar”2
The radiant Lucifer, apostate,
You light-flood the world from your reservoir.

Your appellations revert and relate
To ancient Babylon’s grey hist’ry’s dawning,3
For in that putrid, occult mix, you conflate

Your beauty and your evil. Yawning
Dark wonders of blackened light, for Satan
Is not the true star, ev’ning or morning,

For Christ’s that Claimant, not a charleton.
For He’s adorned in ascension’s glory,
And owns the true Light, as Custodian.

SATAN, PRINCE OF EVIL

Yes, Satan, “prince of evil,” sorcery –
That warring prince intent on dethroning
The total works of God – debauchery!

ADVERSARY

That great adversary who’s condoning
All hatred, lying, murders and deceit;
The god of this world, who is enthroning

Rebellion, hate, and all that might defeat
The loving God. For Satan’s wickedness
Is perversity distilled, with conceit.

Malignant reality who’ll transgress
Until he’s cast into the lake of fire.
His usurped control, God will dispossess.

DEVIL AND LIAR

So rightly called “the devil,” “the liar”
From ancient times hostile to God and man,
And scheming maliciously, who’ll not tire

In efforts to frustrate God’s ev’ry plan,
As evil works insidiously well
Through every nation, language and clan.

You wicked satyr,4 who tricks men to dwell
With unrewarded toil through years of life,
To pass unsaved, with hardened hearts, to hell.

From ancient times “a hairy one”4 so rife
In the display of leaven’s corruption5
So skilled, perverse, progenitor of strife.

“ha diabolos”6 – moral disruption
Of things that are right and good and honest,
We wait for your prophetic abruption.

Yes, diabolical – name and harvest;
His legacy of harm beyond dispute:
In arrogance the prime rank egoist.

BEELZEBOUL/BEELZEBUB

The “lord of the flies”7 in great disrepute
Baal-zebub, Ekron’s god so filthy –
In stench and pollution he’s dissolute.

Depravity and decadence we see
Where Beelzeboul has placed his influence –
His fly-blown cesspools of impurity.

His sinfulness becomes the effluence
Contaminating human hearts and minds,
That then seeps through men’s lives to influence

All human institutions, and inclines
Decision-making towards uncleanness,
So with time’s passing, what is right, declines.

O cunning Satan, who works unfairness
And pursues it in your glorious form;
Pretends to uphold a false correctness.

SERPENT

You twisted serpent, who is multiform
In deceiving ways of presentation:
From evil to light, yourself can transform.

Yes, serpent rightly set for damnation,
Contorted form to grovel in the dust –
A jewelled eye-stare, the demonstration

Of latent, cunning, dedicated lust.
That one will lie concealed, yet implements
His strategies to gain man’s misplaced trust.

Your beauty external, man compliments,
Yet serpentine, your character within –
Your heart as foul as sewerage sediments.

But that old serpent, in patterned snakeskin
Will one day glide no more in deception.
The lake of fire will show our God’s sovereign!

GREAT RED DRAGON

A great red dragon8 is one description
That’s aptly given for Lucifer’s form;
A jackal, “tannin”8 since sin’s inception.

Great dragon, and crocodile deiform
With powerful tail for harm maximised
To thrash through creation in vengeful storm.

Attacking fire’s snorted to victimise
The saints who love their God, and Him they serve,
Yet, soon this world will Satan idolise.

When evil gains its peak, and will deserve
The wrath of God that then overtakes it,
The saints for joy’s delight, will God preserve.

This dragon’s evil work will God unknit,
And usher in an earth and heavens new,
When Satan is in hell’s eternal pit.

ROARING LION

And now another scene that we may view,
Of foul-breath rant and diabolic fame;
Intimidating roaring does he spew.

Old evil aggressor, our enemy
Who prowls the saints, working for their downfall;
A roaring lion,9 the epitome

Of Lucifer’s greater destructive brawl –
The spiritual warfare that he heads
To wage the bitter war ‘gainst God, and all.

ACCUSER OF THE BRETHREN

Accuser of the brethren10 falsely spreads
Pernicious lies and hurtful accusations too,
To ruin reputations; cut to shreds

The saints of God, their goodness to undo;
To neutralise their work as well,
Attempting to destroy each good virtue

Wherein the Holy Spirit does excel.
Each accusation takes a chosen route.
Discreditation is used to propel

These hurtful, sharpened stabs of disrepute,
The devil uses through the voice of man;
Those crooked sly barbs, so hard to refute.

Accuser of the brethren, his plan –
Before the bar of God, each sin to cite;
The failings of the saints enjoys to scan,

And throw them in the face of God. Highlight
Deficiencies, sin’s awful consequence,
Where day and night, perverse is his delight.

But in another vein, we have this sense
Of accusations at us squarely aimed,
Of guilt reminders; failings so immense,

To cause us sorrow by our guilt reclaimed,
E’en after God has wiped away each sin.
Our conscience, by accusation inflamed,

Becomes unsettled, and disturbed within,
For we lose sight of God’s forgiving grace;
Allow our souls such fear to imagine.

But soon will come the day, when on God’s face
We’ll fasten our attention with great bliss;
All memory erased of sin’s disgrace.

THE DECEIVER

This great deceiver,11 not a chance he’ll miss
To misrepresent God’s good intention;
Deceiving master of the Judas kiss!

For with his ruse of horrid invention,
He captures nations with his lying tongue,
And glistens error, to win attention

From all who seek not God, both old and young,
To live their lives in false neutrality,
With curtains of blindness before them hung.

The devil has mastered the reality
Of sinfulness and sin’s requirement –
His deceptive impartiality,

That circumcises truth for concealment,
Where Satan’s very lie becomes the fact –
His own deception, to slay discernment.

FATHER OF LIES

Great liar he is: from truth will extract
Sufficient, to dress a falsehood’s physique.
The father of lies12 works hard to subtract,

By using his guile and proven technique,
To dilute, distort, and to contradict.
The “greyness of truth” – the devil’s mystique.

Enhance the lie to strengthen the verdict,
That mankind endorses with fervent zeal.
Their judgment, (yet Satan’s), will contradict

The standards of God; His truth won’t appeal,
But atheism, agnosticism –
Beliefs that people will never repeal!

These system beliefs, like scepticism,
The father of lies has infiltrated,
So evolution, and mysticism

And rationalism, incubated
In student minds with lying deceit –
The father of lies is demonstrated!

APOLLYON/ABADDON

Abaddon or Apollyon,13 greatest cheat.
Your subterfuge in heaven caused your end
To propagate your filth, and to excrete

Destruction on the Lord, and to offend
God’s total character and holiness.
You, destroyer, none can comprehend

The horror of your base odiousness,
Working full to wreak destruction’s terror
To obliterate God’s true righteousness.

Master of demolition, sin bearer,
Apollyon, destroyer of creation;
Over demonic locust horde, carer.13

You have no part in God’s new foundation
Which is holy, pure, good and righteous.
You will not succeed in degradation.

You and your throng, in goodness – hideous
But to God, the destroyer will submit,
For his wickedness has been outrageous.

ANGEL OF THE ABYSS

Wicked “angel of the bottomless pit”13
Commander of your demons, dissolute;
King over your locust horses; and sit

Golden crowns on their heads, but substitute
Men’s faces, lions’ teeth and women’s hair,
As Satan’s demons ride on resolute.

Then for one thousand years God will prepare
The abyss where Satan will be confined.14
For that reason, the world he won’t ensnare.

THE ANGEL OF LIGHT

Now the dark shadow is cast on mankind –
Gloomy with hurt, and with goodness withdrawn;
Pretence, with filaments of light, entwined.

What apparition this, in the pre-dawn?
Transformation – darkness in light’s attire15;
Helel, the satanic Venus, has drawn

The curtain of light, so it will transpire
That men see darkness as light, and ascribe
Good to evil, in all their desire.

To their evil deeds, all peoples subscribe,
Because they love darkness rather than light,
So on hearts and minds, dark light they inscribe.

The “angel of light” has blinded the sight
Of people and governments, so any act
Then performed, is in the shadows of night.

One despicable and mutant impact
That’s generated from darkness transformed,
Is that all “religion” has been hijacked –

True Christianity’s becomes deformed;
New Age beliefs, Buddhism, Hinduism,
And many other “isms”; also have swarmed

A multitude of cults and their schisms.
Darkness transformed, is light that’s mutated –
Paganism, Mystics, Atheism.

The angel of light has aggregated
For himself, all manner of distortions.
All that’s light with God, he’s abrogated.

EVIL ONE

Evil one16 (πονηρου), vileness of great proportions;
Great are wicked sins that in you abide;
Great are murders, killing and abortions.

You acquired baseness through lust and pride –
Malignant, corrupt, worthless and vicious –
Expelled from heaven; to goodness, you died.

Your evil aligns with the pernicious
Evil of the fallen, human person,
Two in one, both are surely malicious.

God has informed us that times will worsen
As to the end of the age we progress.17
He has equipped us well, as we hasten

To that end, when the Rapture will redress
What the evil one did to so many;
And never again will he them oppress.

THE ENEMY

Diabolical work – the enemy18
Of our eternal souls, who creeps by night
To grasp the human soul in mutiny –

Removing the gospel seed in despite.
His wicked tares by night also he plants
As part of his vindictive appetite.

Over the power of Satan, God grants
To us to walk with His authority.
Never fear the enemy’s assailants.

THE GOD OF THIS WORLD

It is clear, that for the majority,
The god of this world,19 their minds has blinded,
Of those who have placed in God, no priority;

They are unbelieving and close-minded;
Eyes that refuse to see the gospel light,
For darkness won’t accept being reminded.

Intellectuals are often forthright
In their blinded, anti-Christian contempt,
And just can’t help, with students, to incite

Anti-God sentiment, in an attempt
To spew out their subversive eloquence,
And all things Christian, are not exempt.

The god of this world has scoured adherence
For minds of men and women, to movements
Such as climate change, to force convergence.

His purpose is to compel agreements
To coalesce all people into one,20
For the pleasure of Satan’s engulfments.

PRINCE OF THE POWER OF THE AIR

Satan’s airy domain had not begun
Until from heaven’s glory he was expelled.
Malevolence, and revenge have undone

All creation’s glory that God beheld,
And declared, “It was good”; all its wonder
Has been marred by Lucifer who rebelled.

This relentless grind to break asunder,
By the prince of the power of the air,21
And his demonic army to plunder,

Means a war against souls they will not spare.
They inhabit and rove the atmosphere.
The state of the human heart they impair,

Then defeat through sin, or use a veneer
To gloss over the true state the soul.
Wicked spirits pretend to be sincere.

Christian, look up! Satan’s not in control.
But the full armour of God we must take.
He can’t possess us – not in part, or whole,

But we struggle against that evil snake;
Against powers, dark forces, and rulers,
Against those, who like of evil, to partake;

In heavenly places against numbers –
Spiritual forces of wickedness.
In this battle, God’s saints are the winners!

THE TEMPTER

The foul, crafty one, filled with bitterness
Against his expulsion, sought his revenge.
To collapse Eden’s joy with bitterness,

Was Satan’s desire, so he could avenge
Himself on God, and mar God’s creation.
Among his obscene filth, he would scavenge

Techniques allied to his gross vocation –
Lust of the eyes, and flesh; and of the mind,
And to Eve came with quiet sedation.

The devil’s temptation was more refined,
When to the Lord, he came with subtleness.
His vile temptations were promptly declined.

God’s holy word answered the putridness
Of Satan’s crafted falsifications.
God’s word always preserves the sacredness.

Do not say in your communications,22
“It is by God I am being tempted.”
God tempts no one, but by hesitations

In your life, enticing lust has prompted
You to fall into sin. Flesh is to blame.
However a life that is bankrupted

Can be delivered from failure and shame.
O God, lead us not into temptation.
Let us be faithful to Your holy Name.

Come the day, when the tempter’s location
Will be eternal in the lake of fire,
And holy, will be the new creation.

Ron Ferguson – AD 2000 – 2020.

Metre = 10 throughout

—END OF PART FOUR—

THE FOOTNOTES FOR THE POEM

1. “Morning star.” Isaiah 14 v 12. From the Latin “light bearer.” The word is the translation of the Hebrew “helel” (“heosphoros” in the LXX – Septuagint) meaning “shining one.” The Arabic uses for “bright, shining one,” the word “zuhratun” the name for the planet Venus which is what the word “Lucifer” is in Latin.

Jerome, when translating the Vulgate, had difficulty in rendering the Hebrew “helel” and because it was associated with “light” (luc/lucens Latin) decided on Lucifer, and the name has remained. It has become the name for Satan. A minority of commentators claim Isaiah is referring, not to Satan, but to the king of Babylon. See Footnote 20 in Part 3.

2. (From The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica) – Ishtar, (Akkadian), Sumerian Inanna, in Mesopotamian religion, goddess of war and sexual love. Ishtar is the Akkadian counterpart of the West Semitic goddess, Astarte. She was associated with the storehouse and thus personified as the goddess of dates, wool, meat, and grain. The Akkadian Ishtar is also, to a greater extent, an astral deity, associated with the planet Venus. With Shamash, the sun god, and Sin, the moon god, she forms a secondary astral triad. In this manifestation, her symbol is a star with 6, 8, or 16 rays within a circle.

As goddess of Venus, delighting in bodily love, Ishtar was the protectress of prostitutes and the patroness of the alehouse. Part of her cult worship probably included temple prostitution. Her popularity was universal in the ancient Middle East, and in many centres of worship, she probably subsumed numerous local goddesses. In later myth, she was known as Queen of the Universe.

3. Satan was very much behind Nimrod, this wicked founder of Babel (Babylon). Nimrod. Genesis 10 v 8-10 “Now Cush became the father of Nimrod. He became a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD, therefore it is said, ‘Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the LORD.'” The beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh in the land of Shinar. Nimrod was a hunter, but for men’s souls. He was a wicked man and began the Babylonian system (Babel) that is an abomination before God. (There is more on this in Section 6 of this poem.) His name means “he rebelled.” It is a spurious religious system that God hates.

Nimrod married his own mother (Her name was Semiramis). After declaring himself to be a god, then his mother declared herself to be “the Mother of god.” After Nimrod’s death, she attempted to cover over her incestuous relationship with her son – by declaring that he was both the Father and the Son. The information on Nimrod and Semiramis is varied, and some in speculative, but the best reliable source is “THE TWO BABYLONS” by Alexander Hislop. SBN-13: 978-1549771194 ISBN-10: 1549771191

4. Satyr – hairy one. Mentioned in Greek mythology as a creature composed of a man and a goat, supposed to inhabit wild and desolate regions. The Hebrew word is rendered also “goat” (Leviticus 4:24) and “devil,” i.e., an idol in the form of a goat (17 v 7; 2 Chronicles 11:15). When it is said (Isaiah 13:21; comp 34:14) “the satyrs shall dance there,” (KJV) the meaning is that the place referred to shall become a desolate waste.

Some render the Hebrew word as “baboon,” a species of which is found in Babylonia (Easton’s Bible Dictionary). The word is used once in the NASB – 2 Chronicles 11:15 “and he set up priests of his own for the high places, for the satyrs, and for the calves which he had made.” It was the time when a wicked man called Jereboam set up evil and destroyed the true worship of God.

(Strong’s Concordance) – Usage: “Devil, goat, hairy, kid, rough, satyr.” Satyr may refer to a demon-possessed goat like the swine of Gadara (Matthew 8:30-32).

Isaiah 34:14 (KJV) – “The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest.” (NASB) – “The desert creatures shall meet with the wolves, the hairy goat also shall cry to its kind. Yes, the night monster shall settle there and shall find herself a resting place.”

5. Through the scriptures, without exception, leaven is always a symbol of evil. The most misunderstood aspect of this is the Kingdom Parable in Matthew 13 – Matthew 13:33 “He spoke another parable to them, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three pecks of meal until it was all leavened.'”

This has nothing to do with a good, permeating effect of yeast, for the gospel does not seep through the world until all is righteous. The opposite is true. The leaven is evil, “insidious leaven.” Without exception, “leaven” in the Bible is always evil. It is NEVER good. The Jews search and eliminate every hint of leaven for Passover. God commanded unleavened bread for the Passover in Egypt before the Exodus in Exodus chapter 12.

Jesus warned of the wickedness of Herod – Mark 8:15 “And He was giving orders to them, saying, ‘Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.'” He also warned of the wickedness of the Pharisees – Luke 12:1 “Under these circumstances, after so many thousands of the multitude had gathered together that they were stepping on one another, He began saying to His disciples first of all, ‘Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.'”

Paul warned about the evil working of leaven – 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened, for Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

Paul infers that evil does its work – Galatians 5:7-9 “You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.” One of the most misunderstood parables is one of the Kingdom parables of Matthew 13, the one about the leaven – Matthew 13:33 “He spoke another parable to them, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three pecks of meal, until it was all leavened.'”

It is the incorrect teaching to say that the leaven is the gospel which permeates through the world to make the world righteous. In fact, it is the opposite. Leaven is always evil. In the early days of the church (and we will look at Constantine later), much evil entered the church and permeated through the church and the world. A type in scripture is always uniform. It can’t mean one thing on most occasions but something else another time.

6. The Anglicised form of the Greek – “ὁ διάβολος” meaning “the devil.”

7. Beelzebub or Beelzebul is a name derived from a Philistine god, formerly worshipped in Ekron. The name Beelzebub (more correctly “Beelzeboul”) is associated with the Canaanite god, Baal. The meaning is “lord of the flies,” but it has others as well. The Pharisees accused Jesus of casting out demons through Beelzebub.

8. The dragon represents Satan in the book of Revelation. Dragon is translated from three different Hebrew words; tannin (or its plural form: tanninim), tannim, and tannoth. Tannim and tannoth are the plural forms of the Hebrew word tan, which means “jackal,” so, tannim really should have been rendered “jackals” (as it is in the NASB) rather than “dragons,” mainly in the KJV.

From the biblical context, the Hebrew word “tannin” seems to mean “great reptile” and therefore represents a large category of creatures rather than one specific species. Satan, though, is termed the “great red dragon” (Rev 12:3), and chapter 12 of Revelation is Satan’s attempt to wipe out the Jewish saints of the Tribulation who are fleeing for their lives, as the Lord mentions in Matthew 24:15-22.

9. Roaring lion. 1 Peter 5:8-9 “Be of sober spirit. Be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about LIKE A ROARING LION, seeking someone to devour, but resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.”

10. Accuser of the brethren. Revelation 12:10 “I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for THE ACCUSER OF OUR BRETHREN has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night.'”

11. Deceiver. Satan is the great deceiver, and that trait is passed to all those under his control, as we have in this verse – 2 John 1:7 “Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.”

12. Father of lies. John 8:44-45 “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is NO TRUTH IN HIM. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for HE IS A LIAR AND THE FATHER OF LIES. Because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me.”

13. Apollyon. The key verse here is Rev 9 v 11 “They have as king over them, the angel of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek, he has the name Apollyon. “Abaddon” (Hebrew) means “destruction/destroyer,” and “Apollyon” (Greek) means “destroyer.” The fifth trumpet judgment in the Tribulation is a terrible one, but still men do not repent.

The account is in Revelation 9:1-11 where the bottomless pit is opened and a mass of demons emerge, and John described them as being a bit like demons. Their leader is Apollyon. Revelation 9:3 “And out of the smoke came forth locusts upon the earth, and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power.”

14. Satan chained in the abyss. The relevant passage is this one – Revelation 20:1-3 “And I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand, and he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he should not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed. After these things he must be released for a short time.”

The event is very clear. Straight after the Second Coming of Christ, when the Battle of Armageddon will occur, and Christ returns to Jerusalem, the Antichrist and false prophet are cast into the lake of fire. Satan is seized and chained for 1,000 years in the abyss, during which the Millennial reign of Christ happens. This ensures a time of total peace, as frequently detailed by the Old Testament prophets such as Isaiah chapter 11. Some Bible versions translate as “bottomless pit.”

The great Greek scholar F B Meyer said this, “ἐπὶ τὴν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ. Cf. Revelation 5:1. “In” the hand, [Strongs 4147] the chain could not be held because of its great weight. It lies “on” the hand, and hangs down on both sides.”

15. An angel of light. Satan’s great deception is to confuse light and darkness. He can transform himself. 2 Corinthians 11 v 14 “and no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”

16. The evil one. Ephesians 6:16 “in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one.” 2 Thessalonians 3:3 “but the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.” 1 John 2:13 “I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you know the Father.”

17. 2 Timothy 3:13 “But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. The Bible is clear that things at the end of the age get worse and worse. 2 Timothy 3:1 “But realise this, that in the last days difficult times will come.” Days are darkening quickly now like a fast-developing cataract. It is subjective, but I believe this has become so much worse from the 1980s onwards. In the last 20 years, it has accelerated.

18. The enemy. Matthew 13:39 “and the enemy who sowed them [tares] is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.” 1 Timothy 5:14 “Therefore, I want younger widows to get married, bear children, keep house, and GIVE THE ENEMY NO OCCASION for reproach.”

19. The god of this world. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 “Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case THE GOD OF THIS WORLD has blinded the minds of the unbelieving that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.”

The world is in the devil’s control, but that extends only as far as God’s permissive will is concerned. It could be said that Satan is on a tight leash. The glorious fact is that one day – Revelation 11:15 “The seventh angel sounded and there arose loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever.'”

20. I have my definite views on climate change, but whether hoax, delusion, or real, it is a diversion dismissive of all history. What this movement is doing is attempting to unite the world in a socialist globalism like nothing before it has done. After the Rapture, which ends the Church age, the beast that comes from the sea (the leader of the new Roman Empire/Antichrist [book of Daniel; Revelation 13]) will unite all peoples and bring them into submission with the mark of the beast. It is said the world is global, but it is fast becoming uniform. Climate-change frenzy seems to be one of these uniting aspects.

21. Prince of the power of the air. Ephesians 2:2 “in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” Satan’s domain is the earth and its atmosphere. In a spiritual sense, Satan possesses the atmosphere/air but in no way is threatening to Christians. He is powerless in that regard.

This next verse indicates that the demonic world is in a hierarchy, and that is the place of spiritual struggle. We don’t battle worldly forces and powers for we are not of this world. Ephesians 6:12 “for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

22. See James 1:13-15.

ronaldf@aapt.net.au