The Seven Churches or The Seven Church Ages
is that men never learn from history.
I had started writing about the several “raptures” in the bible when I realized that understanding church history is paramount to understanding these “raptures.” Therefore this series of bible studies will instead focus on church history. Only then will the student be able to navigate through the morass of convoluted doctrine surrounding the Tribulation, the “Advents,” the “Rapture,” the Marriage, and a dozen other issues confusing the entire doctrine.
Since the trail of the serpent began in the beginning of Adam’s creation and all throughout man’s history thereafter, it will be expected that Satan will still be involved in the history of the Lord’s church. Everything that God has made, Satan has or will counterfeit in his attempt to convince men that he is God. Where God has His Jesus, His Christ, His Holy Ghost, and His Gospel, Satan has his counterfeits.
- But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
- For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
- Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
- And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
- For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
- I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
- Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
- But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
- As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
God has His word which has been assembled into a book that you can hold in your hand and read in the King’s English — the King James Bible — which Satan has corrupted and made into his own books, over 100 all claiming to be from the original Greek and Hebrew that no one has ever seen.
- For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.
- Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?
God had His apostles and ministers, and Satan has also counterfeited them. Even though all the apostles have long since died, Peter, in fact, crucified by Rome who today claims “Apostolic Succession” and calls its ministers “Fathers.” (See https://www.biblestudytools.com/history/foxs-book-of-martyrs/peter.html)
- For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
- And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
- Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
The Lord has His bride, church and city. Satan will also counterfeit these in order to deceive the multitudes that he is God. In Revelation 17 God gives us many clues as to who is the bride, church and city of Satan. Answers will be below.
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Who wears scarlet and purple?
Who is so rich from its victims that it is decked with gold and precious stones?
Who has martyred so many Christians?
Who sits on seven hills?
Who controls so many kings and nations?
In verse 6 the word “admiration” is used where one would think that it is an approval of what is seen. To the contrary, verse 7 tells us that the word “admiration” means to “marvel.” Keep in mind that this is the King’s English, not today’s English which has been polluted through misuse and disuse.
- And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.
- And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
- And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
- With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
- So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
- And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
- And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
- And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
- And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
- The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
- And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
- And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
- And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
- And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
- These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
- These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
- And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
- And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
- For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
- And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
- The colors of Catholic priests.
- Between the selling of Indulgences (paying for the exit of a deceased loved one out of Purgatory) and outright piracy for hundreds of years of hapless victims of the Inquisition, the Catholic Church has amassed a huge unaccounted fortune of the world’s wealth.
- The Catholic Church’s Inquisition extended into many European countries including France, Germany, Spain, Italy, to name a few. While its horrors and many of its victims, mostly true Christians, are recorded, the vast bulk of resulting deaths are unknown due the Church turning over most of its condemned to the secular authorities to be executed. Records were sparse and scattered, with some probably destroyed by accident and age. Estimated deaths range from several hundred thousand to several million.
Never mentioned by Catholic apologists were the ruthless genocides of entire Christian villages by Catholic lynch mobs without regard to age, rank or gender, carried out with military precision and planned with utmost secrecy such as the infamous St. Bartholomew Massacre at Paris in 1572 where over ten thousand Christians were slaughtered in the first three days. “The bodies were thrown into the rivers, and blood ran through the streets with a strong current, and the river appeared presently like a stream of blood. So furious was their hellish rage, that they slew all papists whom they suspected to be not very staunch to their diabolical religion. From Paris the destruction spread to all quarters of the realm.”
(https://www.biblestudytools.com/history/foxs-book-of-martyrs/the-bartholomew-massacre-at-paris-etc.html)
“At Augustobona, on the people hearing of the massacre at Paris, they shut their gates that no Protestants might escape, and searching diligently for every individual of the reformed Church, imprisoned and then barbarously murdered them. The same cruelty they practiced at Avaricum, at Troys, at Toulouse, Rouen and many other places, running from city to city, towns, and villages, through the kingdom.”
- It is Rome, the seat of the Catholic Church, that sits on seven hills.
The seven hills of Rome (Italian: Sette colli di Roma, Latin: Septem colles/montes Romae) east of the river Tiber form the geographical heart of Rome, within the walls of the city.
The seven hills are:
- Aventine Hill (Latin, Aventinus; Italian, Aventino)
- Caelian Hill (Cælius, Celio)
- Capitoline Hill (Capitolinus, Campidoglio)
- Esquiline Hill (Esquilinus, Esquilino)
- Palatine Hill (Palatinus, Palatino)
- Quirinal Hill (Quirinalis, Quirinale)
- Viminal Hill (Viminalis, Viminale)
- The word “Christian” was a term coined by the enemies of the disciples in derision. When that failed to stop the true church, Satan changed his tactics to corrupt the true Christians by using the term among the heathen. Now it has become fashionable to call one’s self a “Christian” even though there’s no relationship whatever to Christ and in many cases, no belief at all in God Himself.
- And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.
One in 50 Anglican clergy in the UK believes God is merely a human construct, according to a new survey today.
Although the results must be considered bearing in mind the small samples in Scotland, Wales and Ireland, clergy in the Scottish Episcopal Church were the most sceptical about God, with just over seven in ten believing in one.
The world identifies Mary worship (Mariology) as “Christian” which includes all 15 of the following state-run churches. When the true church identified Mary worship as idolatry, the Mary worshipers persecuted them with a murderous vengeance as heretics. These are the “kings of the earth have committed fornication” mentioned in Revelation 17:2.