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JAKARTA – Rasa penasaran terjawab sudah setelah 23 katagori ajang malam penganugerahan insan pertelevisian Indonesia, Panasonic Gobel Award (PGA) 2010 diumumkan, tadi malam. Nama-nama presenter acara maupun berita tampak menghiasi daftar peraih penghargaan. Dari Stasiun Televisi RCTI, terdapat nama Putra Nababan sebagai presenter berita, current affair terfavorit. Seputar Indonesia, acara yang dibawakan pria yang baru saja mewawancarai Presiden Amerika Serikat Barack Obama ini pun, terpilih sebagai program berita terfavorit.
Sementara program musik Dahsyat yang baru berulang tahun kedua beberapa waktu lalu, terpilih sebagai music dan variety show terfavorit. Program ini sekaligus mengangkat Olga Syahputra sebagai presenter music dan variety show terfavorit.
Berikut pemenang dari 23 kategori PGA 2010:
Buku HEALING EPIDEMIC by Dr. Peter Masters & John C. Whitcomb
The TRAGEDY of COMPROMISE: The Origin and Impact of the New Evangelicalism by Ernest D. Pickering
Jakarta - Saat berbelanja di pasar swalayan dan membeli aneka produk makanan, apa yang menarik perhatian Anda? Kemasannya yang cantik atau potongan harganya yang besar? Ada hal penting yang perlu Anda cermati dari kemasan makanan. Karena kemasan tersebut memberi info gizi yang penting!JANJI ALLAH & TIANG PENOPANG KEBENARAN
Sejak manusia jatuh ke dalam dosa, manusia akan binasa karena hukumannya adalah mati dan tersingkir dari Allah. Allah segera menjanjikan jalan keluar bagi manusia agar dosa-dosanya bisa diselesaikan. Segera dijanjikan Juruselamat yang akan meremukkan kepala ular sekalipun tumitnya akan cidera. Janji ini harus diingat dan diteruskan kepada generasi berikut agar mereka percaya pada janji ini, karena keselamatan jiwa manusia tergantung pada iman mereka pada janji ini. Manusia pernah tidak percaya kepada perkataan Allah sehingga jatuh ke dalam dosa. Kita manusia harus percaya kepada perkataan Allah, yaitu janjiNya untuk mengirim Juruselamat bagi manusia.
Kebanyakan orang Kristen di Indonesia pergi ke gereja tanpa peduli doktrin yang diajarkan. Pokoknya saya pergi ke gereja. Urusan pengajarannya benar atau salah, itu bukan urusan saya. Yang penting sikap hati saya kepada Tuhan Yesus. Benarkah Tuhan akan senang dengan orang Kristen yang bersikap demikian?
Hari ini kita tidak bisa bertatap muka dengan Tuhan Yesus. Pengajaran yang alkitabiah sesungguhnya adalah wakil diri Tuhan Yesus. Bisakah kita simpulkan bahwa mengkompromikan kebenaran alkitabiah sama dengan merusak citra diri Tuhan Yesus? Gereja yang alkitabiah adalah tubuhNya. Bisakah kita simpulkan bahwa semua sikap manusia terhadap gereja yang alkitabiah sama dengan terhadap Tuhan Yesus?
Ada orang Kristen yang pergi ke gereja yang membaptiskan bayi sekalipun ia sendiri tidak setuju dengan baptisan bayi. Ada juga yang pergi ke gereja yang berbahasa lidah dan bernubuat namun ia sendiri tidak setuju. Mengapa hal-hal demikian terjadi?
Pisang merupakan buah yang sangat baik untuk anak, selain bertekstur lembut, buah pisang juga kaya akan nutrisi dan energi. Ibu cerdas pasti tahu apa yang terbaik untuk anak-anaknya, maka tak jarang banyak ibu yang memberikan pisang untuk asupan tambahan bahkan untuk bekal sekolah.Pilihan tepat itu, baik dilakukan karena pisang memang merupakan salah satu buah yang bisa menyediakan cukup energi bagi anak-anak agar siap beraktivitas dan belajar. Pisang bisa mengenyangkan dan hal itu tentunya berpengaruh pada konsentrasi anak.
Di dalam satu buah pisang terkandung banyak vitamin, salah satunya vitamin B yang bermanfaat untuk mempertahankan aktivitas kerja sistem syaraf. Hal tersebut akan mambantu mendorong konsentrasi anak lebih lama.
Time magazine reports there have been so many sightings of the "Virgin Mary" around the world that "the late 20th century has become the age of the Marian pilgrimage" to the many shrines established to commemorate these appearances. There are 937 Marian shrines in France alone.4 From 1961 to 1965 there were about 2000 visitations to northwest Spain's village of Garabandal accompanied by occultic phenomena and apocalyptic messages to the world. In 1983 hundreds of Palestinian Arabs "saw the Virgin Mary" near Bethlehem, Israel. She has appeared in every corner of the world:
There is also Dozule ... and Kibeho in Rwanda ... apparitions of Our Lady at Akita in Japan ... apparitions in Chile, in Australia and in Poland ... in Canada ... San Damiano [in Assisi, Italy], Cairo ... Amsterdam,[New York, etc.].5
These apparitions have brought millions of people to faith in Catholicism's Mary. The shrine at Lourdes, France, attracts about 5.5 million pilgrims annually; Poland's Black Madonna draws 5 million; Fatima, Portugal, "draws a steady 4.5 million pilgrims a year from an ever widening array of countries."
We have identified the woman astride the beast as Vatican City and the false World Church which will eventually be headquartered there. But why a woman on the beast and not a man? Why is this false World Church seen as a woman? Again this criterion, like all of the others in Revelation 17, fits the Vatican perfectly. The most prominent figure by far in Roman Catholicism is a woman. She overshadows all else, including even God Himself. More prayers are offered to the Catholic Mary and more attention and honor is given to her than to Christ and God combined. There are thousands of shrines to Mary around the world (and hundreds of shrines to other "saints"), but scarcely more than a handful of minor shrines to Christ himself.
Some Catholic leaders even boast that in this day of burgeoning "goddess consciousness" and "women's liberation" the Catholic Church is right in tune with the times: A woman holds the position of highest honor and power. In Catholicism it is a woman through whom all graces, gifts, blessings, and power flow-a woman, who, as we shall see, has the amazing potential to unite the entire world, including even the Muslims, in one religion. This "perpetual Virgin," however, is a fiction that bears no relationship to the real Mary of the Bible, a woman who was not only Christ's mother but also Joseph's loving wife.
Mary "Ever Virgin"?
The Bible teaches that Mary was a virgin until the time that Jesus was born. Subsequently she had a number of other children by Joseph, her husband.
The statements with which we introduce this and the previous chapter indicate a dramatic change in the thinking of Christian leaders regarding Roman Catholicism from the days of Spurgeon to the present time. For 350 years most Protestant creeds identified the papacy as the system of Antichrist. That identification is now being dropped. The world's foremost evangelist has called Pope John Paul II "the greatest religious leader of the modern world ...." One of America's foremost "experts on the family" considers the pope to be "the most eminent religious leader who names the name of Jesus Christ." One frequently hears of leading evangelicals who have visited the pope and come away convinced that he is "born again." If so, how could he continue in that fraudulent office heading that corrupt religious system with its false gospel of works and ritual that is sending multitudes to condemnation?
Increasing numbers of today's evangelicals are accepting Catholics as Christians and seem to find no problem in joining with them in the evangelization of the world. That fact is made clear by the very title of the historic joint declaration (referred to earlier) by Catholic and evangelical leaders: Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the 3rd Millennium. Evangelicals and Catholics are declared to be full partners in the Christian mission of taking the gospel to the world, and they are not to evangelize one another. "It is neither theologically legitimate nor a prudent use of resources for one Christian community [evangelicals] to proselytize among active adherents of another Christian community [Catholics]." Some of the leading Protestant evangelists are now conducting their crusades in partnership with Catholics. However, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones explains why he could not support such crusades in England:
I remind you that the Protestant Reformers were not just bigoted zealots or fools. Their eyes were opened by the Holy Spirit.... They saw this horrible monstrosity depicted in the Bible and they warned against it. At the risk of even losing their lives they stood up and protested....
A Christianity that merely preaches "Come to Christ" or "Come to Jesus" cannot stand before Rome.
There is a growing trend among today's evangelicals to embrace and promote a benign view of Romanism that contradicts the convictions held by Protestants for more than 400 years. The Reformation, if remembered at all, is being portrayed as an unnecessary separation from a Church which was biblical and evangelical. Statements by various evangelicals today impugn the faith and convictions of the millions of martyrs who died rather than accept transubstantiation, purgatory, indulgences, worship of saints, and the remainder of Rome's false and destructive gospel of ritual and works. If Catholicism stands solidly for "the great fundamental doctrines of Christianity," then what was the Reformation all about?
If the view held by many of today's evangelicals is right, then those millions put to death by Rome throughout the centuries died not for their faith but for a semantic misunderstanding. How tragic! If evangelical and Catholic doctrines are "essentially the same," then the Reformation was based upon an incredible mistake which is only now being recognized after more than four centuries. But if that is not the case, and there were indeed clear and vital differences between Catholic and Protestant views on essential doctrines at the time of the Reformation, why not today? Has Catholicism changed?
We have seen that the dogmas of Roman Catholicism which the martyrs could not embrace have not changed. Nor have evangelicals as a whole opted for a different gospel from salvation by grace through faith alone as it was preached by the Reformers. Certainly men such as Billy Graham and W.A. Criswell have demonstrated through long lives of service to Christ and winning thousands to Him that they would not knowingly compromise the gospel of God's grace through Jesus Christ. This makes it difficult to understand how they and other evangelical leaders profess a commonality of faith with Roman Catholicism which would have been unthinkable to past generations of Protestants.
A major reason for this book is to dispel the gross misunderstandings about Catholicism. Rome adeptly covers her real intentions with sweet words and hides her true character behind beautiful art and moving manifestations of piety. Much of what we have revealed thus far-even the truth behind events so current as the war in Yugoslavia, widespread sexual promiscuity of priests, and marriage annulments by the tens of thousands-has likely shocked, perhaps offended, many readers.
We have come to the very heart of Roman Catholicism, that unique element which separates it from all other religions and especially from evangelical Christianity: the sacrifice of the Mass. In it "the sacrifice of the cross is perpetuated. [It is] the source and the summit of the whole of the Church's worship and of the Christian life." Declared present on the altar through the miracle of transubstantiation (which only the Catholic priest can perform) is the "true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, who is really and substantially present under the appearance of bread and wine in order to offer himself in the sacrifice of the Mass and to be received as spiritual food in Holy Communion."
Christ said from the cross just as He died, "It is finished" (John 19:30). But to the Catholic it isn't finished. Christ's sacrifice continues to this day, being endlessly repeated on Catholic altars: "Each time Mass is offered, the Sacrifice of Christ is repeated. A new sacrifice is not offered, but by divine power, one and the same sacrifice is repeated.... In the Mass Christ continues to offer Himself to the Father as He did on the Cross" but in an "unbloody manner under the appearance of bread and wine."
Calvary was a very bloody scene. How there could be an unbloody repetition thereof is not explained. Furthermore, the remission [of sins]" (Hebrews 9:22).
Sacred Tradition and sacred Scripture make up a single sacred deposit of the Word of God," says Vatican II. When its tradition and the Bible conflict, Rome goes by tradition. Thereby is created the widest difference between Protestants and Catholics: the question of salvation. That vast chasm of division, recognized for 400 years by both Protestants and Catholics, neither of whom has changed basic beliefs, is now denied by leading evangelicals. Charles Colson, for example, in response to questions concerning his embracing Catholics as Christians, says:
We have differences, but on the ancient creeds and the core beliefs of Christianity we stand together.
Not so. Agreement on the creeds, yes, but the creeds say nothing about how one is saved. Salvation is the one most important core belief in Christianity. And on that point the difference between evangelicals and Catholics is as great as the difference between eternal life and eternal judgment.
The "Saved" and the "Unsaved"
The Bible says there are two classes of people: those who are saved and those who are unsaved or lost. Christ Himself declared that His mission was to save a world of lost people: "The son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10); "I came ... to save the world" (John 12:47). God sent Him "that the world through him might be saved" (John 3:17). Paul testifed, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (1 Timothy 1:15).
The well-known axiom that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely is just as true in religion as in politics. In fact, religious power is even more corrupting than political power. Absolutism reaches its ultimate abusive pinnacle when it claims to act for God. Vatican II requires "loyal submission of the will and intellect" to the Roman Pontiff "even when he does not speak ex cathedra. . . . "3 No Catholic can presume to obey God and His Word directly but must give that absolute obedience to the Church, which acts for God and thus stands between the individual and God.
The corruption of power reaches its greatest height in Catholicism's bold claim that its members cannot understand the Bible for themselves but must accept unquestioningly the Church's interpretation: "The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God ... has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone."4 With that edict, God's Word, the one repository of truth and liberty which is capable of destroying despotism, is kept under Church control and shrouded in mystery. This leaves devout Catholics at the mercy of their clergy, a clergy which, as we have seen, is all too readily corrupted.
Blind Acceptance
To escape that destructive enslavement, the Reformers urged submission to God's pure Word as the ultimate authority rather than to the Church or the pope.
With the collapse of German resistance at the end of World War II, the great fear of the peoples living in Eastern Europe was that the advancing Soviet troops would not liberate but enslave them. Whole countries would become part of the spoils of war with which Roosevelt would reward Stalin. Freedom would be lost and citizens once used to traveling freely from country to country would become virtual prisoners of Communist regimes behind closed borders.
The Vatican's backing of Hitler and Mussolini and the Nazi puppet regime in France during the Second World War was consistent with its desire to resurrect the Holy Roman Empire with secular leaders doing Rome's bidding. Such has long been the Vatican dream and still is. France (which Pius XI called "the first-born of the great Catholic Family"), together with Italy and Germany, were Europe's principal Catholic countries where the Church held great power. Their governments were willing to work with the Church and even to establish formal relations through concordats.
Soviet Communism's aggressive atheism and its ruthless destruction of churches made it the foremost enemy which Catholicism had yet encountered in its long existence. Capitalist democracies, too, with their penchant for freedom of conscience, religion, and press, were incompatible with Roman Catholicism. So it was that Fascism in the 1920s and 1930s seemed to offer the best hope of uniting Catholic Europe as a bulwark against the rising red tide of world Communism and the growing threat of democracies.
The Vatican realized it was in a war to the death against Marxism-Leninism. It seemed essential to join in partnership with the emerging forces of Fascism in Western Europe. The 1929 concordat with Mussolini and the 1933 concordat with Hitler were part of this policy. These important alliances reflected the skillful diplomacy of Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli, who was Vatican Secretary of State, on his way to succeeding Pius XI as Pope Pius XII just before World War II would break out in 1939. Both Mussolini and Hitler were Catholics and their leadership would strengthen European Catholicism.
Hitler's intention to exterminate the Jews was known by the Vatican before it signed the concordat, yet the Holocaust never became a factor in the Church's subsequent dealings with the Fuehrer. On April 1, 1933, about four months before the Vatican would sign its concordat with him, Hitler began his systematic program with a boycott against the Jews. He justified it with these words: "I believe that I act today in unison with the Almighty Creator's intention. By fighting the Jews I do battle for the Lord." When the Italian ambassador, speaking for Mussolini, asked Hitler to reconsider his harsh attitude toward the Jews, Hitler "predicted `with absolute certainty' that in five or six hundred years the name of Hitler would be honored in all lands `as the man who once and for all exterminated the Jewish pest from the world."'3
Hitler had the backing of many German psychiatrists who would later declare that Himmler, Hoess, and the other Nazi mass murderers were quite "normal." As for the German psychiatrists' feelings about the Jews, Carl Jung expressed the view of many when, as president of the New German Society of Psychotherapy, he wrote:
The Arian unconscious has a higher potential than the Jewish.... Freud [a Jew] ... knew the German soul as little as his idolators knew it. Did they learn something from the powerful appearance of National Socialism upon which the world looks with amazed eyes ...?4
SS Lieutenant Colonel Adolph Eichmann's role as director of the extermination of Jews from all over Nazi-occupied Europe was just a job and had nothing to do with God or religion. Unlike Catholics, he had no quarrel with Jews.
The approval of Hitler by Catholic prelates and their statements about "freeing the world from the Jews" seem shocking. Yet they only reflect Catholicism's historic treatment of the Jews. Hitler justified his "final solution" by pointing out that the Church had oppressed and killed Jews for centuries. How amazing that those who claimed to be the followers of Christ and successors of Peter could "persecute the race from which Peter-and Jesus-sprang"!3 Yet they did it in the name of Christ and felt justified thereby.
The quotations on the facing page present two opposing viewpoints, both by Catholics. Only one is right. We learn the truth from John's vision and from history. The woman astride the beast is "drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus" (Revelation 17:6). It is a horrible picture, but one which history fully authenticates for Rome alone and no other city.
Every citizen in the empire was required to be a Roman Catholic. Failure to give wholehearted allegiance to the pope was considered treason against the state punishable by death. Here was the basis for slaughtering millions. As Islam would be a few centuries later, a paganized Christianity was imposed upon the entire populace of Europe under the threat of torture and death.
Thus Roman Catholicism became "the most persecuting faith the world has ever seen. .. [commanding] the throne to impose the Christian [Catholic] religion on all its subjects. Innocent III murdered far more Christians in one afternoon ... than any Roman emperor did in his entire reign."4 Will Durant writes candidly:
Compared with the persecution of heresy in Europe from 1227 to 1492, the persecution of Christians by Romans in the first three centuries alter k-nrtst was a mild and humane procedure.
The last identifying characteristic that John was given concerning the woman astride the beast was that she was a city "which reigneth over the kings of the earth" (Revelation 17:18). Could there be a city that actually reigns over the governments of the world? History bears witness that there was indeed such a city, and only one. That city was, of course, Rome after its bishops began to call themselves popes and, claiming to be the successors of the Caesars, took upon themselves the imperial powers of worldwide sovereignty.
Consider, for example, the arrogant imperialism of Pope Alexander III (1159-81). Declaring that "the power of the popes is superior to that of princes," Alexander excommunicated Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Germany and Italy. Attempting to chastise the pope, Frederick's forces were defeated by the pope's army. The chastened emperor came to Venice to beg forgiveness and absolution, promising to "submit always to the Roman Church." Imagine a church ruling the world by military might! Fortunatus Ulmas, a Catholic historian, enthusiastically described the scene:
When the emperor arrived in the presence of the pope, he laid aside his imperial mantle, and knelt on both knees, with his breast on the earth. Alexander advanced and placed his foot on his neck, while the cardinals thundered forth in loud tones, "Thou shalt tread upon the cockatrice, and crush the lion and the dragon
A city built on seven hills is accused of committing fornication with the kings of the earth! We have noted that the term "fornication" is used often in the Bible in a spiritual sense signifying unfaithfulness to God. Ezekiel 16 is devoted entirely to denouncing Jerusalem for her unfaithfulness to God, likening her to "a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband" (verse 32). Jerusalem had violated her spiritual relationship to God through idolatry and alliances with pagan nations. That meaning is clear from many passages in Scripture.
Jerusalem, however, can't be this woman because, as we have seen, she isn't built upon seven hills and doesn't meet any of the other criteria. Obviously, then, the city which this woman represents must claim a faithful relationship to God similar to Jerusalem's. In fact, Rome claims to have replaced Jerusalem in God's affection. And she has violated that relationship by entering into unholy alliances with godless earthly kings. Rome alone meets this and the many other criteria that John sets forth.
History is replete with the record of unholy alliances between the Vatican and secular governments. Much of the evidence remains today in Rome's churches and monuments. For example, the Vatican museum is filled with priceless ancient paintings, sculptures, tapestries, gold, and jewels once worn or treasured by despotic rulers. Most were given to popes by kings, queens, emperors, or governments in token of papal partnerships with these worldly figures-relationships which the Bible condemns and which would be unthinkable for the true bride of Christ.
The Witness of History
Driven from Rome by a popular uprising against his oppressive reign, Pope Leo III fled to the Frankish court of Charlemagne to enlist his help in recovering those territories over which the popes reigned.
That a gorgeously clad woman should be holding the reins astride such a terrifying, world-devouring beast was just cause for astonishment. John appears, however, to have been dumbfounded by more than that fact-indeed, by the woman herself ("when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration [amazement]"). Why? Was it because the woman was a religious figure? Hardly.
That religion should wield great authority was a universal fact of John's day. Church and state were one, with religion playing the dominant role. If the woman merely represented pagan world religion, John would hardly have been surprised. What could there have been about this woman that astonished him? Had he known her before and was shocked by the unbelievable transformation?
Beneath the luxurious attire, the priceless jewelry, the heavy cosmetics, and the shamelessly impudent stare there was a haunting familiarity. It couldn't be possible! How had Christ's chaste bride become this brazen whore? What diabolical mutation had transformed that small, despised flock of humble followers of the Lamb into this notorious prostitute toasting Satan with the blood of the martyrs in a golden chalice! How could the church, hated and persecuted by the world, as Christ had said she would be-how could she have become this powerful worldwide institution that reigned over the kings of the earth?
Look at the fruit of the Reformation, with its many divisions and denominations among the Protestants," is the frequent cry from Catholic apologists. "How can such confusion be of God!" The implication is that only Protestants have doctrinal differences among themselves, while the Roman Catholic Church is a unity of 980 million faithful adherents who all believe and practice the same thing. That is, of course, far from the truth. Catholicism gives a false impression of unity because wide disagreements in doctrine and practice are retained under its broad cloak. As Fidelity editor E. Michael Jones, a leading Catholic writer, puts it, the faithful -
[do not abandon] the Catholic Church ... [because it] is the only barque of Christ ... no matter what waves of heresy buffet its sides, one is never justified in jumping ship, not even during the fiercest storms.3
Serious Divisions
As we have already seen, popes disagreed with and excommunicated one another as heretics (yet those excommunicated remain on the list of popes today); councils disagreed with one another and there were even serious differences of opinion within the same council.
Let there be no misunderstanding: We are not suggesting that Catholic popes, priests, and nuns are inherently more prone to promiscuity than the rest of mankind. Our hearts are all the same. Many of these tragic individuals no doubt began with high moral and spiritual aspirations and in that spirit set out upon what they sincerely intended to be a life of purity and devotion to Christ. It was the system of hierarchical privilege, power, and authority over the laity which perverted and destroyed them.
That system, as we have seen, gathered momentum through the centuries by the lust and greed of popes whose natural propensity for evil (innate in us all) found occasion through the unusual opportunities afforded by their office. To enhance their power they issued a host of false documents which purported to be the writings of early Church Fathers and decrees of early synods. One self-serving theme of these forgeries was the claim that the popes had inherited "innocence and sanctity from Peter" and could not be judged by any man. Von Dollinger writes:
A saying ascribed to Constantine, at the Council of Nice, in a legend recorded by Rufinus, was amplified till it was fashioned into a perfect mine of high-flying pretensions. Constantine, according to this fable, when the written accusations of the bishops against each other were laid before him, burned them, saying ... that the bishops were gods, and no man could dare to judge
them.2
If one is on the level of the gods, what privileges could not one claim? Gods are above the law. No wonder, then, that the popes began to declare openly that they had power over kings and kingdoms and all persons, and power to behave like tyrants.
An infallible pope as Peter's successor who holds the keys to heaven as vicar of Christ? Once the boast was that papal pomp and powers were inherited from Constantine. Today it is claimed that Christ's statement to Peter quoted on the facing page made him the first pope, the rock on which the "one true Church" was built, and that all who have followed in that office, no matter how violent or fraudulent their acquisition thereof nor how evil their deeds, have been his successors. The pope's authority today and the Catholic religion over which he presides stand or fall upon that assertion.
Which of the contradictory statements on the facing page from the two popes are we to believe? Pius IX is only reaffirming the suppression of basic human rights which his predecessors have consistently enforced before him in order to bring all mankind under the absolute authority of the Roman Catholic Church. John Paul II would have us believe that his Church has always championed basic freedoms and does so today. He sounds so sincere. Yet he contradicts the consistent voice of the papacy and the dogmas of his Church down through the centuries, dogmas which are still in force today.
The American form of government, which John Paul II frequently praised during his U.S. tour,2 was repeatedly denounced by previous popes. Has Rome changed? She boasts that she never changes. While lauding freedom, John Paul II also said that to be a good Catholic "it is necessary to follow the teaching of our Lord expressed through the Church" (emphasis added).3 Sincere Catholics cannot learn directly from Christ's own words, but must accept the Church's explanation thereof. It is the same denial of freedom of conscience and individual moral accountability to God which Rome has consistently practiced throughout history.
The great importance of the papacy warrants yet further investigation as to its legitimacy. Vital is the claim that the popes are infallible when they speak on morals and dogma to the entire Church. If they are not infallible, the Roman Catholic Church has lost its unique leadership and apostolic authority. Yet popes themselves (Adrian VI quoted on the facing page and others) have denied that they or any other popes were infallible. Why not believe them?
Pope Adrian VI's declaration goes even further. If many popes have been heretics, then we have another reason why there cannot be an unbroken line of "apostolic succession back to Peter." Besides proving that a person is not infallible, espousing heresy is a mortal sin in Roman Catholic theology. Its immediate consequence, so says the official Roman Catholic Code of Canon Law (a codification of the canons and decrees of the Church councils) is instant and automatic excommunication.2 A heretic has denied the faith and placed himself outside the Church.
A heretical pope is therefore no longer even a member of the Church, much less its head. Consequently, a heretic, though pope, could not possibly provide a channel of apostolic authority to a successor.
The claim that the popes are the successors of the apostle Peter is the cornerstone of Roman Catholicism, without which that Church would lose its uniqueness and could not function. We must therefore spend further time to examine this claim carefully. Is there actually an unbroken line of 262 popes succeeding Peter?
For apostolic succession to occur, each pope must choose his own successor and personally lay hands on him and ordain him. This was the procedure when Paul and Barnabas were sent forth by the church at Antioch on their first missionary journey (Acts 13:3). Timothy's appointment to the ministry was also by the elders laying hands upon him (1 Timothy 4:14), as did Paul when he imparted a special spiritual gift to Timothy (2 Timothy 1:6). This biblical procedure, however, has never been followed with regard to successors of the bishops of Rome or the popes. A pope's successor is chosen not by him, but after his death by others; and it has most often been done in the most ungodly manner, as we shall see.
The Roman Catholic pope has often been the most powerful religious and political figure on earth. This is true today, even though the pope no longer has at his disposal the armies and navies of past Roman pontiffs. The papacy is crucial to Roman Catholicism, which is destined to play a vital role in the last days prior to Christ's second coming. Therefore we must take time to understand the papacy in relation to both the Church and the world. How did the papal office arise? What is its significance today? The Vatican's constituency of 980 million followers is at least three times the number of citizens in any Western democracy and is exceeded only by the population of China. Even more important, these 980 million people are scattered throughout the world, many of them holding high political, military, and commercial positions in non-Catholic countries. Moreover, the pope has thousands of secret agents worldwide. They include Jesuits, the Knights of Columbus, Knights of Malta, Opus Dei, and others. The Vatican's Intelligence Service and its field resources are second to none.
Politically the pope's power is exercised mostly behind the scenes, at times in cooperation with and at other times in opposition to the CIA, British Intelligence, Israeli Mossad, and other intelligence services. Remember, the pope's 980 million subjects are bound to him by religious ties, which are far stronger than any political loyalties could ever be. No secular government can compete with the motivational power of religious belief.
A woman rides the beast, and that woman is a city built on seven hills that reigns over the kings of the earth! Was ever in all of history such a statement made? John immediately equates the readers' acceptance of this revelation with "wisdom." We dare not pass over such a disclosure casually. It merits our careful and prayerful attention.
Here is no mystical or allegorical language but an unambiguous statement in plain words: "The woman ... is that great city." There is no justification for seeking some other hidden meaning. Yet books have been written and sermons preached insisting that "Mystery Babylon" is the United States. That is clearly not the case, for the United States is a country, not a city. One might justifiably refer to the United States as Sodom, considering the honor now given to homosexuals, but it is definitely not the Babylon that John sees in this vision. The woman is a city.
Furthermore, she is a city built on seven hills. That specification eliminates ancient Babylon. Only one city has for more than 2000 years been known as the city on seven hills. That city is Rome. The Catholic Encyclopedia states: "It is within the city of Rome, called the city of seven hills, that the entire area of Vatican State proper is now confined."1
Why "mystery"? That Babylon, an ancient city whose ruins have been covered by the desert sands for at least 2300 years, should be mentioned so prominently in prophecies pertaining to the last days does indeed seem an enigma. It is popularly taught that the woman represents ancient Babylon revived. The fact that Iraq's sadistic ruler, Saddam Hussein, began its reconstruction some years ago is therefore seen as contributing to the fulfillment of this vision.
Ancient Babylon, however, even if it again becomes an inhabited and functioning city, could not possibly be the Babylon to which the writing on the woman's forehead refers. Saddam's rebuilt Babylon simply doesn't meet the criteria John sets forth. Those criteria, which we will be examining in detail, establish the woman's identity-and, as we shall see, she is not ancient Babylon.
Saddam imagines himself to be a modern Nebuchadnezzar, perhaps even the reincarnation of that emperor of ancient Babylon. What Saddam admires most about Nebuchadnezzar is that he destroyed Jerusalem and killed or carried away captive Israel's inhabitants into Babylon, leaving the land of Israel desolate. As the new Nebuchadnezzar, he dreams of wreaking the same destruction upon today's Israelis, whom he sees as his chief enemies. Of course, Babylon itself was then conquered by the Medes and Persians. For that depredation Saddam views Iran (the successor of ancient Persia) as his other great enemy and fought an eight-year war against her.
John's vision in Revelation 17 of the woman riding the beast is not the first time that this ominous creature has been seen. It is in fact the culmination of a series of visions which began 600 years earlier. The first vision was the dream King Nebuchadnezzar had in which he saw an image with "head ... of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay" (Daniel 2:32,33).
The interpretation given to Daniel by God revealed that the image with its four parts of different metals depicted four world empires: Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Grecian, and Roman. The Babylonian empire existed at the time. That it was succeeded by the other three and in that order is a matter of history.
Why are only four empires seen? What of the many others which history records and which have occupied territories at least as great as any of these four? The Bible ignores them all. Why? Time has passed them by. They will not rise again. Only Rome will be revived, its "deadly wound" healed (Revelation 13:3).
For centuries the seat of world power was Egypt. There were great dynasties in China. There was Genghis Khan's far-ranging empire, and the vast Mayan and Aztec kingdoms of Central and South America. At one time the Arabs controlled most of North Africa, the Middle East, and much of Europe. None of these empires, however, will rise again.
The prophecies concerning the second major theme of the Bible, the coming of the Messiah, are even more numerous and detailed than those pertaining to Israel. These prophecies have also been dealt with at some length in my previous books, so we will only summarize a few of them briefly here. Even the most anti-Christian critics who deny categorically that Jesus of Nazareth is the Savior of the world admit that many specific messianic prophecies were fulfilled in His life and crucifixion. In the attempt to explain away the significance of that fact some bizarre theories have been invented.
Typical of such attempts was a book and movie (neither very successful) some years back entitled The Passover Plot. Its thesis was that Jesus, knowing some of the messianic prophecies in the Old Testament, conspired with Judas to fulfill them in order to make it appear that He was the promised Messiah.
Irreconcilable Contradiction?
Obviously it would have been ludicrous for Jesus to get Himself crucified in order to convince a small band of uneducated, inept followers that He was the Christ.
Biblical prophecy is the key to understanding both the past and the future. While to skeptics that may seem a preposterous claim, it is easily proved. Because most prophecy recorded in Scripture has already been fulfilled, it is therefore a simple matter to determine whether or not the prophecies in the Bible are reliable.
Two major themes of prophecy run consistently throughout all of Scripture: 1) Israel; and 2) the Messiah who comes to Israel and through Israel to the world as the Savior of all mankind. Around these two central themes almost all other prophecies revolve and find their meaning, whether it be the rapture of the church, Antichrist, his coming world government and religion, the battle of Armageddon, Christ's second coming, or any other prophesied occurrence. The Bible is absolutely unique in presenting these prophecies, which it records in specific detail, beginning more than 3000 years ago.
About 30 percent of the Bible is devoted to prophecy. That fact validates the importance of what has become a neglected subject. In marked contrast, prophecy is completely absent from the Koran, the Hindu Vedas, the Baghavad Gita, the Ramayana, the sayings of Buddha or Confucius, the Book of Mormon, or any other writings of the world's religions.
