Andrea Bocelli in his marvelous “Sacred Arias” DVD, pausing from the outstanding music to talk about Rome, and how it is two cities, one city-- the Vatican--within another city, the city of Rome. While Rome and the Roman Empire, and to a certain extent the Vatican city-state-religion, very unique in the history of mankind, the Vatican striving and succeeding in dominating religiously and social over half the world like the city of Roman also became a city-state-Empire that dominated the world. Listening to the DVD, the classical Italian and Roman Catholic music even as seeing in America their large educational institutions and hospitals, it is hard to separate in our mind the kind of Vatican leadership that allows the raping by priests of women and children and all these contributions for good. {By the way, what you read to follow did not in any way come from Andrea; and I am sure that he like millions of catholics that have appreciated the architecture, education, and music out of Italy whether it was Dean Martin or Caruso, struggle in their own conscience with the raping of American women and children by priests, and the cover ups of the Vatican leadership that continues to allow it to happen.} This Bible Study Session, continuing on “Christian Fables and the Balaam Doctrine”, is dedicated both to all the victims of these rapes, to those priests which struggle with the regulation of the Vatican that denies them marriage and a family, and above all to the lawyers and social workers that fight against these rapes and cover-ups. Special thanks to Jennifer Haselberger who spent five years as Archbishop John Nienstedt's archivist and top adviser on Roman Catholic church law, according to a online news article, "A canon lawyer alleging a widespread cover-up of clergy sex misconduct in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has made her most detailed claims yet, accusing archbishops and their top staff of lying to the public and of ignoring the U.S. bishops' pledge to have no tolerance of priests who abuse"; and you can read it for yourself online. It is not the intent of this Bible study session to imply that the rapes of the most representative of the Vatican, but it is to say that the 1014 A.D apostasy of the Roman Catholic Church is represented honesty, bluntly, and without fear in I Timothy 4:1-5; and since the Bible which is the supreme authority Word of God chooses to talk about it so bluntly in these five verses, we as servants of God and the Word, like Martin Luther, can do not less. As we progress through these 5 very potent and eye-opening verses which should affect and change our concepts of such a city-state- religion as the Vatican, we would also keep in mind the admonition of the Apostle Jude not to bring “railing accusations against dignitaries”, but like the archangel Michael did in contending with Satan, that powerful prince of the world, Michael said, “The LORD rebuke you!”. While being both intellectually honest to the historical facts of the daily news, the total history of the Roman Catholic Church, the respect the Pope and the college of cardinals has in the minds and hearts of millions, even if a symbol, throughout this session the exact words of the Bible are set forth. As the WORD and words from God that are divine in origin, absolute in authority beyond any dignitary on this earth, sufficient in its message without the many denominational additions of religious requirements, commands, and regulations, high fidelity in communication so that it can be read and understood by all humanity without any assistance except first the new birth and then the inward guidance of the Holy Spirit--in fact God expects this of all believers as a way to please God, and the Bible as Word of God is alive, active, and used by God, bringing fruit to the life of the Christian like the gentle rain of heaven, and further and lastly the Word of God, the Bible is self-interpretative {ASPI of II Peter 1:20,21} so that all can read and understand it, something the Vatican has always fought against, in the dark ages more violently than now. However their intent is still the same, to put themselves above the authority of the Bible, to make of themselves the only legitimate interpreters of the Word of God, and to maintain autocratic control of relgion and life. Read again II Peter 1:21 and then recognize how hypocritical the Vatican is, really repeating the follies of what Jesus said about the hypocrisies of Judaism, when they try to identify and take their authority as successors to Peter, yet deny the very basis of personal Christian life sustained in the Bible, and with the very words of “no scripture is of any private interpretation”, yet their own private interpretations would close to the average catholic that very door of reading for themselves the Douay-Rheims catholic addition of the Bible. {You can read an look up verses in it online at http://drbo.org/x/d? b=drb&bk=56&ch=2&l=8-9#x .} Just as the official literal policy of the Prophet of God Balaam, before he want off on his madness to advise Balak against God’s people, that is with the policy of “No More and No Less” than the words from God, we dare not either go ahead or behind what the Bible clearly tells us. In short, like on the Christian Fable of the secret rapture, or Messianic Judaism, or the Pentecostal Problem, or the Gospel of Prosperity, also on the Vatican problem of a city-state-religion we have no right or other choice than to follow the Word of God, like Martin Luther said, “we can do no other”.
15-1: The Vatican of today with its good and bad like Judaism and the Roman city-state-Empire strives to maintain many of the rules, regulations, pomp and circumstances that Jesus came to this earth to do away with in His crucifixion on the cross like the temple, the veil in the temple separating us from God, intercession and sacrifices of a priest, and the legalistic requirements of a mediator between God and man.
“...having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” (Colossians 2:14)
NOTE: Granted that this is a day of lack of respect for government, but keep an open mind as you come to read and understand I Timothy 4:1-5, and you ask yourself could a group of religious leaders claiming to represent God and Peter on earth depart so far from the original faith “once for all delivered to the saints” and recorded in the Bible. When the Prophet of God Balaam, King Balak, and Moab all come together in one city-state-religion organization, the world is in a world of hurt! Government, whether civil or religious or both like the Vatican, will give you the appearance of being human and hope you will overlook everything else, forgetting that legitimate government is “of the people, by the people, and for the people” and UNDER GOD through only the Lord Jesus Christ.
While those marvelous monk and priest missionaries were pioneering Christianity all over the world, the City State (Vatican) back home in Rome was going corrupt just like the city-state of Rome itself which destroyed itself with corruption, though it once ruled the whole world. Even as it is a historical wonder that a city like Rome could become a city state and then rule the whole world, often by allowing the existing cultures to remain like in Palestine and the Greeks; so it is even more amazing that God has allowed such a religious organization that started off like any other local church in the earliest churches of Christianity, then by political and other means {all should remember the persecutions of the monasteries by Roman officials, recall the infamous dark ages}, exerted dominance and control over at least half of the churches of the first century. It reminds one of the Bible Baptists fundamentalists of hundreds of small Bible Baptist churches sat back and watched while Southern Baptists built large local churches, then decided in approximately 1980 to take over control of the SBC, starting at the top and by political means. NOTE: Beware brethren, now that they have political control, you will notice how you see them striving to exert doctrinal control. The first thing they did before 1985 was to place leaders in large SBC churches of other denominations like Bellevue, FBC Atlanta and Dallas, and the Dallas Theological Seminary, then once secure at the top politically in the SBC, you started to hear those weird doctrines of the secret rapture, dispensational ism, and millennium ism--all those of us who grew up in the SBC did very well without, while we our simple fashion were just reading the Bible to see what it says! Before we Protestants, the other half of Christian denominations {yes, I am calling the Roman Catholic church a denomination just like any other religious organization of today}, cast any stones of self-righteousness at the Roman City-State of morphing from something good in a real New Testament local church at Rome to the “Religion of a Seared Conscience” that has allowed and continues to allow priests to rape American women and children.
15-2: And lest you think it too strong to allow a Religion like the Roman city state to be called the Religion of the Seared Conscience, just stop to consider how Rome allows the rape, in the name of relgion, of American children and women.
1. It is the Bible in I Timothy 4:1-5 that identifies them in terms of their orders from Rome: (1) to forbid marriage, that has been a powerful influence in all these rapes; and (2) the command of abstinence of good meats that God has provided for humanity, and that when prayed over and blessed by God profits the consumer.
“...forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.” (I Timothy 4:3)
It is a slap in the face of God to command abstinence from good meats which God has created, to thereby deny the blessings to followers of receiving those same foods with thanksgiving, and “those who believe and know the truth” should not obey those orders and commands. Even the most disciplined of military organizations do not forbid good food to their soldiers, nor do they forbid their soldiers to be married. 2. According to the Bible in I Timothy 3:1-7, any overseer in a church is to be “the husband of one wife”. If in the face of this clear and simple word of God and Word from God, leaders in the Roman city-state-religion strive to countermand God Himself on marriage and meat, what other doctrines of devils have they been seduced into the last 1014 years. “The bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach’ not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous...” (I Timothy 3:2,3)
15-3: Even as II Timothy has been noted and outlined as the apostasy guidelines for the Protestant half of the church, so I Timothy could be considered as the guidelines for the Roman Catholic apostasy of the other half of Christianity.
1. Brutal huh, but you see there is no graceful way for the Falling Away, as predicted in the Word of God to happen without much sin, departure from the original “faith once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3) and as recorded in the Bible, and yes, the help of seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. Notice that the announcement of the Protestant half of the Falling Away comes in II Timothy, while the Catholic half is in I Timothy, which is quite normal since the great apostasy of the Roman city-state religion leadership happened about 1000 years ago, and the Protestant apostasy, led in many ways by the BBF takeover of the SBC happened approximately 34 out of the 40 year Falling Away designated in the Bible (Hebrews 3:9,17, Acts 7:36,42).
“For the time will come {well, it is here now--in fact 34 years into the designated 40 years for a Falling Away}, when they will not endure sound doctrine {what is the standard recognized by God as the criterion for sound doctrine, but the Bible as the Word of God}, but according to their own desires {does that not sound somewhat like seducing spirits of the previously written I Timothy 4:1}, because they have itching ears {the leadership and the members developed itching ears that lead away from original faith once for all delivered to the saints}, they will heap up for themselves teachers {the will of God is ignored, the guidance of Christ and the Spirit in the selection of church and denominational leadership, instead churches and denominations adopting the ways and methods of the world at large}, and they will turn their ears away from the truth {how many, many instances, do you not know now among Protestants and Catholics, where they just plain stop listening and heeding the Bible?}, and be turned aside to fables {yes, Christian fables, that is what this series of Bible sessions is all about!} (II Timothy 4:3,4)
2. Briefly look at what I Timothy is all about for a outline to later use as a guideline for the great and early apostasy of the Roman city-state-religion leadership. We keep saying earlier as it happened about 1000 years before the similar Protestant failing away, and in many ways has provided a bad example that many Protestant churches have followed in their falling away of the last 34 out of 40 years.
15-4: A Roman Catholic City-State-Religion falling away outline from I Timothy.
NOTE: First before the outline of the downfall of Rome, you should note than rather than us bring railing accusations against dignitaries like the Pope, the college of cardinals, numerous bishops and priests, it is that the Bible, the Word of God and as such the ultimate authority, that is allowed to express Itself on these railing accusations. For example, and from Jude, we are reminded that the DEPARTEES ( I Timothy 4:1) from the faith are themselves also the ones who despise the legitimate authority of God--
“But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally {from their education and culture of the world}, like brute beasts {you see this is the end result of those leaders who depart from the faith, and victims of seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, those that develop the religion of the seared conscience which forbids marriage and forbids good meats}, in these things they corrupt themselves.” (Jude 10)
Back to Balaam Again
“Woe to them! {No, they are not getting away with it!} For they have gone in the way of Cain {disobedience to God and the way God wants obedience and service}, have run greedily in the way of Balaam for profit {where is their profits obviously? in the land state of the Roman-city-state, in their army for security, in their stashed away wealth, in their rich garments and houses and cathedrals, etc}, and perished in the rebellion of Korah {the popes of Rome usurped the authority of other pastors of local churches, and misled them away from the Word of God like Korah tried to usurp leadership of God through Moses}. (Jude 11)
1. NO OTHER DOCTRINE than that taught by the Apostles and recorded in the pages of the Bible. Right up front in I Timothy, 1:3,4, Paul and God through the Apostle Paul, plants the seed for the Catholic falling away of 1014 A.D. with “that they teach no other doctrine”. Somehow, someway, Christians on both sides of the fence have developed the habit of thinking that Christianity that is modern is allowed to evolve into something away from the Bible, and better than the Bible, something that “is teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:7-9 and Isaiah 29:13) as Jesus warned. 2. EARLY WARNING AGAINST CHRISTIAN FABLES.
“...nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith.” (I Timothy 1: 4)
NOTE: We see the waste of time of not only the LDSers, which started already in a falling way with their 4 substitute Bibles, and with their endless genealogies whereby they baptize for their dead people, letting the poor innocent children be dunked 50 times for dead relatives; and perhaps you never thought about that ridiculous and endless genealogy of the Popes whereby they attempt to go all the way back to Peter as the first Pope. Number one, there is no Bible or otherwise historical evidence that Peter the fisherman was a Pope, and further there is evidence that the humble fisherman for Jesus would be embarrassed to see in Catholic Popes a repeat of the pomp, circumstances, and worldly robes of today like the Pharisees and Sadducees of his day.
3. “SINNERS OF WHOM I AM CHIEF” (I Timothy 1:15) Do you think you would ever hear a Pope or SBC top leaders saying--
“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief.” (I Timothy 1:15)
4. And how about on where real HONOR and real GORY are going to go?
“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” (I Timothy 1:20)
5. Prayer is to be made for all those in social and political authority, Kings and religious leaders (2:1-3). Some need a lot more prayer than others, and according to the Bible, it is those who less claim the need for prayer that need it most, like the sinner who knows no need for a physician. Those needing prayer for the forgiveness of God for sin, in the Vatican, are those who think that only they can forgive sins; and that within itself is an impossible dilemma. Part of the reason these top leaders in the Vatican refuse to control the rape of American women and children is that they can not afford to destroy the ability, given by them in the first place with their supposed august authority, to forgive their own sins and the sins of others in their abused parish. 6. THERE IS ONLY ONE MEDIATOR BETWEEN GOD AND MAN, and do not allow any one, no matter what the dress and worldly dignity, to cheat you out of direct access to God through Christ.
“For there is one God and One Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus...” (2:5)
7. REQUIREMENS FOR AN OVERSEER OR LEADER IN THE CHURH (I Timothy 3:1-7). 8. SPIRIT SPEAKS EXPRESSLY IN LATTER TIMES. The great apostasy, or falling away, of the Catholic half of Christianity with the gory details. This is probable the most starting revelation of the Bible to those who are Christians, and were it no for the obvious identification of the Vatican as the culprits by those forbidance of marriage and meat, we would never have known. (I Timothy 4:1-5) 9. How to also identify a “good servant of the Lord Jesus Christ”, I Timothy 4:12-16.
15-5: At what time in this downward trend of the increased Falling Away of today, do you stop listening to the “itching ears’ teachings of Christian fables, or wait until you also turn away from truth and are turned aside to fables? Wake up America, and wake up world!
1. Like in the days of Jeremiah, when it was too late for peace in Jerusalem and Judah, false prophets today are also saying “Peace, peace, when there is no peace, and are only slightly healing the hurt of the people.” (Jeremiah 7:11) 2. Turning away from the truth was a malady in the Jerusalem of Jeremiah, turning away from truth was dominant in Judaism after Jesus, and turning away from the truth of what will happen to Jerusalem, Judah and the camp of the saints as a world army comes against Jerusalem to wrap up world history, dominates Christian thought of today. Likewise as in the days of Jeremiah and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, people not only can not see how ISIS and other Muslim terrorist groups that are dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the US, how God will use ungodly nations like ISIS and Babylon and Moab to destroy Gods own people, and then take care of them afterwards {“God knows how to reserve the ungodly for punishment...”}, and further not realizing how God can control making the decision Himself as to who lives and dies during the time of destruction. Although the Jeremiah is clear during those final days in Jerusalem and Judah how God would control the Babylonian swords to the extent that some would be saved and taken in captivity but most killed, we still do not get it! Although God told in Zechariah 13 how only one-third of the Jews after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem would be saved, but by fire, we still do not get it. Although God has told us in Zechariah 14 and 15 how only half of the city of Jerusalem will be saved in the final battle as all the Muslim and other ungodly forces come in an army against Jerusalem, we still find ways and unsound doctrines and Christian fables to ignore and turn away from the truth. 3. How can the majority of the world do this? It is a symbol to the power of the “seared conscience”, Protestant and Catholic, that of Satan the prince of this world who will bring forth many Men of Sin like the current leader of ISIS who is brutal, a preacher, and has no regard for life--like Satan, Men of Sin in many places of the Middle East today have no a seared conscience. It is a symbol of the ultimate in turning away from truth on the real falling away, on the real resurrection of the dead at the END time second coming of Christ, and the many Christian fables that always keep the majority of the world, from Adam to now, from seeing the truth. Beware even if in your large group, clan, or etc it is popular to hold a certain belief, for the way of the majority is within itself a clue to the wrong way to go even as “broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many that follow it, and narrow is the way that leads to life eternal and few find it.” The extent as a Christian and a church member that you have to follow the Leadership of the Seared Conscience is up to you! Even as the explicit teaching of the Bible is that every Christian is a priest of God and has only one Mediator, Christ, between Him and God, so the Bible also teaches that your responsibility is directly to God through Christ; and as no one can take your soul competence and the importance of you as a individual in the sight of God, so no person can also take the place of your stewardship and accountability in the sight of God. There is some justification of some Protestant preachers claim that the Pope is the “Man of sin”. Of course Man of sin is generic in that at the END of time as the armies of the world come against Israel and Jerusalem, there will be among the leadership of those many armies several Men of sin, the generic being that they both are religious and preach and are men of war like the present leader of ISIS. Another way the Bible identifies this generic Man, a Man of sin, is that they will “stand in the temple like God, and claiming to be God. Do you not see that anywhere? Men of sin like the leader of ISIS claim to take the place of God in their utter disregard of human life, putting themselves in the place of God as to who lives and who dies! Those who have made their own conscience, Christian or otherwise, the supreme guide for what is right or wrong, sometimes by the educated and cultured and sometimes by the opposite forget: (1) that God is still greater than our human conscience, where collective in a society, a community, or individual (I John 3:20); and (2) the Bible teaches that some may have a good conscience like Paul and Timothy, others even in leadership, or maybe especially in leadership can have a SEARED CONSCIENCE that has lost the ability to recognize and teach truth; therefore when the Word of the God in the Bible is ignored, their is no anchor or sail for the soul.
For a free PDF of this Bible Study, "Religion of the Seared Conscience", with the extensive footnotes from Adobe FrameMaker, click on this link. You can then view and read it or save it to your computer.