Rome is the Babylon of Revelation

In the previous chapters we saw how the Church of Rome became the true heir to the Babylonian Mysteries. Not only did the Bishop of Rome take the office of Pontifex Maximus from the pagan Roman Emperors, but the Church of Rome incorporated the worship and rites of the Mysteries into professed Christianity. This fulfilled the vision to the Apostle John of the woman riding on a scarlet colored beast. "And upon her forehead…(Rev 17:5)

Concerning the beast with the seven heads which she rode, the scripture says,

The great city is none other than Rome, known through the ages for its seven hills.

The Dark Ages

It was a period of great falling away from the pattern of learning and civilization set by the Greeks and Romans. It is no coincidence that the growth of darkness and superstition matched the growing influence of the Church of Rome. The Bible was forbidden to common people and was locked away in Latin, which soon became a dead language. This darkness was only finally dispelled by the Reformation, when the Reformers brought the truths of the Gospel to the people and translated the Bible into modern languages, and there was a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Word of God. From the spiritual blessing stemmed the temporal blessings of education, industry and freedom of conscience.

As the power of the papacy once more grows in Britain today, we see these national institutions being removed and a spiritual darkness coming over the nation. Let us then begin to look at the origin of the current troubles that threaten both the very existence of Britain as a nation and the freedom of those who fear God's name.

The Rise of the Little Horn

The decline and fall of the Roman Empire was accompanied by the rise of apostasy in the Church of Rome. Then, ten kingdoms rose out of the ruins of the Roman Empire - which Daniel prophesied.

Of the four beasts in Dan 7, the 4th and most terrible represented the Roman Empire.

The significance of the ten horns and the little horn, is explained thus:

Therefore, in the midst of these ten kingdoms, arose another kingdom, the "little horn" that was "diverse" from the other ten. The papacy in the 5th century fits this description, for it was an ecclesiastical authority, which was "diverse" from the temporal authority of the other kingdoms. From being just pastor of the Church at Rome, the Bishop of Rome rose to an authority and dignity above any that which was known before in the Church.

The Claim to Apostolic Succession

It was at this time that the Church of Rome established the doctrine of Apostolic Succession, in which it was claimed that the Bishops of Rome were the successors to Peter and that they had divine authority for their supremacy over other bishops. Thus a form of ecclesiastical kingdom was set up, in which the Popes were monarchs. They primarily based their claim on the words of Jesus to Peter:

However, the name Peter (Petros in Greek) means "a stone." This is distinct from the "rock" (petra in Greek). This rock on which the Church is built, is none other than Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Furthermore, scriptural accounts of Peter show that he was quite unlike any Pope.

The Pope becomes Universal Bishop

Progressively from the end of the 4th century, the Bishop of Rome extended his ecclesiastical powers beyond the city of Rome, as the Western Roman Empire decayed and finally fell in 476 AD. In 445 AD the Emperor Valentinian officially recognized the Bishop of Rome as supreme  head over the Western Church. In 533 AD the eastern Emperor Justinian decreed that the Bishop of Rome (by this stage known as the Pope) was the head of all churches. This then culminated in 606 AD with the edict of Phocas, the Eastern Emperor in Constantinople. Phocas decreed that the Bishop of Rome was the "universal Bishop" and supreme ruler of the whole Church. Thus the Church of Rome calls itself the "Catholic Church," as the word "catholic" means "universal" or "all-embracing."

In effect, therefore, the Church of Rome claimed to have become the one true Church of Christ, outside of which there was no salvation. Despite all the outward impressions given by its involvement in the modern Ecumenical Movement, the "Catholic Truth Society" catechism states this universality as follows, "The Church is Catholic or universal because she subsists in all ages, teaches all nations, and is the one Ark of salvation for all." Viz. the Pope is the spiritual Father of all Christians. Therefore, the current policy of the Church of Rome in the modern Ecumenical Movement, is of all churches uniting under the Pope and the Mass on Rome's terms.

Temporal Power

During the Dark Ages the Church of Rome sent out missionaries to the new nations of Europe; one of them was Augustine, who brought Romanism to England in 597 AD. However, the first great conversion to the Church of Rome was Clovis, king of the Franks, in 496 AD. The Pope styled him "the eldest son of the Church," which was the title thereafter adopted by the kings of France. During the 6th and 7th centuries the influence of the Church of Rome spread throughout the nations of Western Europe. The Pope encouraged rulers of these nations to refer disputes to him.

However, a period of supreme danger came upon the Bishop of Rome in the 8th century, when the very existence of the Church of Rome was threatened. On the one hand, the Muslim Saracens had invaded Spain and Portugal, and were now moving into France. On the other hand, the Lombards in central Italy were threatening the very city of Rome. Having broken from the Eastern Emperor in Constantinople, the Pope could expect no help from there. Thus he turned to the Franks for help.

In 732 AD Charles Martel [they can't stand "brandy," being Muslims - Zionsake] defeated the Saracens and drove them from France. Subsequently, Pepin, Martel's son, seized the Frankish throne. He went to the Pope's aid and defeated the Lombards in 754 AD and gave the Pope the surrounding land around Rome. Thereby the foundation was laid for the Pope's temporal sovereignty. In return for all this, the Pope recognized Pepin as king of France, despite his unlawful seizure of the throne.

Charlemagne, Pepin's son, again came to the aid of the Bishop of Rome in 774 AD and defeated the Lombards, and gave the Pope the crown of the Lombardy. This was not simply generosity on the part of Charlemagne, for the Church of Rome had devised forged documents, which claimed that the Roman Emperor Constantine had given the Bishop of Rome over 400 years before "all the dignity, all the glory, all the authority of the imperial power … the city of Rome, and all the western cities of Italy." Pepin, Charlemagne and many other European monarchs were prevailed upon by such falsehoods to give temporal power to the Pope and pre-eminence over the affairs of Europe.

The Triple Crown

" And another shall rise after them," is fulfilled by the papacy, for the Pope received from Pepin and Charlemagne three of the ten kingdoms; namely Rome, Ravenna and Lombardy, which came to be known as "the Papal States." In verse 25 we see also the Pope's persecution of true Christians, his claim to infallibility and his claim to be in the place of God.

Another remarkable fulfillment of this prophecy is the headdress worn by the Pope, called the Tiara, which is a symbol of his authority. The Tiara was originally a kind of a white Phrygian cap; first mentioned about 700 AD. Subsequently, a crown was added around its lower rim in the 11th century. Later Popes added two more crowns and altered its shape into that resembling a beehive. Thus the Tiara became known as the "Triple Crown." This is in line with the three kings subdued by the "little horn" in Daniel's vision.

Remembering that in the Mysteries the bee symbolized Nimrod as the "word," the wearing of a beehive headdress identifies the Pope as the "word." This is consistent with the papal claim to speak infallibly the words of God; in doing so the Pope attempts to take the place of Jesus Christ who is the true "Word of God."

This Tiara is identical in shape to those worn by the gods or angels shown on ancient pagan Assyrian tablets. It is also the headdress worn by Dagon; the other form of Dagon's headdress is the bishop's miter!

By assuming temporal as well as ecclesiastical sovereignty, the Pope attained the full dignity of the title "Pontifex Maximus." He was now as the Babylon monarchs, who were both king and supreme high priest or pontiff. The concept is embodied in the two great pillars upon which the papacy is built, namely, apostolic succession and temporal power. Therefore, the Church of Rome can pursue its ends by either religious or political means, appearing like the two-faced god Janus, whose high priest the Pope really is. It is therefore a fundamental mistake for Protestants to think that political events today have no bearing on the Church of Christ [or Israel]. Likewise, politicians err when they think the religious actions of the Church of Rome have no bearing on the future of nations and democracies. The Church of Rome follows what its enemies least suspect. This was clearly reflected by its battle with the Church of England.

Holy Roman Empire

After Charlemagne's first visit to Rome in 774 AD, he conquered both France and Germany, thereby becoming the master of Western Europe. In 800 AD he again visited the Pope, who this time, gave him a crown. On 25th December 800 AD he was crowned "Emperor of the Romans" by Pope Leo III at Rome. Charlemagne thereby became Europe's "Christian" Caesar - a Roman Emperor born of a Germanic race. The West once again had an Emperor, and his coronation was to become the central event of the Middle Ages. He was proclaimed "Rex Pater Europae" (King Father of Europe) and espoused the ideal of a unified Christian Empire - albeit Christianized at sword-point, in close alliance with the Pope. The populace saw the fact that Charlemagne received his crown from the Pope as equal to divine bestowal. It confirmed the perception that the imperial crown was a papal gift, and that the kingdoms of the earth belonged to the Bishop of Rome; they were his to give, and his to take away. By this there had been a formal linking of the Pope's spiritual power with the Emperor's temporal power, making them joint sovereigns on earth; a Holy Roman Empire which was the political foundation of the Middle Ages. The future of the continent was bound up in this coronation, and the alliance between the Papacy and Germany has been of great significance ever since.

The Holy Roman Empire saw successive cycles of unity under a powerful Emperor or Pope, followed by disintegration and terrible wars. Attempts were made throughout to remold Europe into a single empire. However, Daniel warned of the futility of trying to rebuild the Roman Empire from Nebuchadnezzar's vision:

The characteristic of being "partly strong and partly fragile" is typical of the Roman Empire it symbolizes. No attempt has ever been successful to unite Europe, since "… iron does not mix with clay!"

First Reich

In 962 Otto the Great revived Charlemagne's Empire as the First German Reich and was crowned Holy Roman Empire by Pope John XII. Germany became the power center of the Empire. Throughout the Middle Ages it was to be German kings, crowned by the Pope, who were Holy Roman Emperors.

After the death of Otto the Great there were for centuries, successive struggles for power between the Pope and the Emperor. This ultimately led to the demise of Germany as a nation.

Eventually the Empire was revived by the Austrian Hapsburg family holding the crown. The greatest of these Emperors was Charles V, who was also king of Spain. He had immense power and wealth, with an empire that stretched across Europe and included the newly conquered territories of South America. When the young Charles became Emperor in 1519, his power was unrivalled, and a new era seemed to have dawned. However, in 1556 he went into ignominious exile in a monastery; his great Empire had disintegrated. A seemingly insignificant monk from Wittenberg, called Martin Luther, had been raised by God to set Europe ablaze with the preaching of the Gospel. The Church of Rome and the Holy Roman Empire were shaken to the core.

Papal Immorality and Persecution

Having gained so much power, as so often happens with those who are not graciously restrained and delivered by the Holy Spirit, the Popes fell prey to immoral lusts and temptations. Viz. Sergius III who became Pope by murder in 904 AD and ruled in such a way that he was called a "monster" and a "terrorizing criminal." There then began what is known as the "rule of harlots," on account of the great influence of the Popes' concubines over the papacy for a period of 60 years.

Nor were matters any better in the 14th & 15th centuries. The Popes' crimes, indecency, wickedness and violence surpassed least acceptable norms. Yet, one of these Popes, Boniface VII had the audacity to proclaim: "We, therefore, assert, define and pronounce that it is necessary to salvation to believe that every human being is subject to the Pontiff of Rome." Boniface VIII went even further to declare, "That which was spoken of Christ…'Thou hast subdued all things under His feet,'" may well seem verified in me. I have the authority of the King of kings. I am all in all and above all, so that God, himself and I, the Vicar of God, have but one consistory, and I am able to do almost all God can do. What therefore, can you make me but God?" Is it then surprising that the Popes of this period bitterly persecuted massacred true Christians, who sought salvation by faith in Jesus Christ and who worshiped God in truth? Untold numbers of believers [and Jews] died terrible and cruel deaths in the Inquisition, which was started by Pope Innocent III (1198 - 1216).

Paul's warnings are clearly seen in the papacy:

Furthermore, the words of Daniel about the "little horn" exactly fit the papacy;

Truly, the words of the Apostle John testify of the Church of Rome.