Good Reading, Dave Hunt’s A Woman Rides the Beast: The Roman Catholic Church and the Last Days 526-1 - 5 - 8

Revelation 17:3, “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.

“To the nearly I billion Roman Catholics misinformed by their hierarchy; to the 400 million Protestants equally ignorant of the facts; and to the genuine martyrs on both sides, this book is dedicated.” So, opens Dave Hunt’s “A Woman Rides the Beast: The Roman Catholic Church and the Last Days.” The book ends with appendix I: "The Lutheran – Catholic Joint Declaration Justification," subject of another Discussion Question. The joint declaration (JD) was signed on October 31, the same day as in 1517 that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle chapel.

Dr. Hunt’s book is well written and is thoroughly documented. Although I started reading Dave Hunt’s book several years ago I haven’t read it in order, rather I've skipped around and watched Mr. Hunt’s video, The Woman Rides the Beast. I have the "Kingdom of Blood" two MP3 set. The first MP3 is recorded by Dr. Missler and is titled "A History of the Church." The second is recorded by Dr. Hunt and is titled "The Woman Who Rides the Beast." Both are very informative and, again, well documented.

Listening to the MP3s, watching the video, and reading about the woman who rides the beast caused me several years ago to take a closer look at the book of Revelation most notably Chapter 17. I grew up Protestant with Catholic friends and never paid much attention to the differences in doctrine. Were it not for my concern for Catholic friends and family members and exposure to Dr. Missler's teachings I would not have dug as deeply into the subject of the modern-day version of the Church in Thyatira as I have/ as I'm doing.

The RCC promotes a works based salvation basically calling Jesus a liar, John 19:30, “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” Ephesians 2:8-9, “8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

A few of the work based perversions (sacraments) of scripture by the Roman Catholic Church includes the belief in the transubstantiation of the bread and wine during mass, that indulgence can be brought, the existence of purgatory, the Marian worship, and the claim of papal authority.

Vatican II states 'If anyone says that the sacraments of the new law are not necessary for salvation...... And that without them men obtain from God through faith alone the grace of Justification... let him be anathema." Anathema can be something/ someone denounced and/or are cursed.

And in addition to corrupting biblical truths and promoting sacraments the church was also extremely morally corrupt as well. There was great evil committed during the grand Inquisition. Millions were hunted down like animals, and tortured and brutally murdered in these dark days of the Papacy. The grand Inquisition was pretty much an evil alliance between the Spanish government and the Papacy to rob victims of their land and wealth and ultimately their lives.

Dr. Hunt brings out example after example of popes being appointed by Kings, popes appointing kings and purchase of clerical office. In addition to this marriage of the church to the world, the church has a dismal record of sexual improprieties. In just one example a Bishop Rathurio complained that if he excommunicated unchaste priests "there would be none left to administer the sacraments, except boys. If he excluded bastards, as canon law demanded, not even boys would be left."

Truly, the woman who rides the beast in the last days is the Roman Catholic Church as the One World Religion!

Revelation 18:4-5, “4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. 5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.”

Truth is most important to me, even truth than often is PI 540 - 3 - 1

Truth matters most to me. Often what currently passes for truth is really redacted history. With thanks to Wikiquote, “Those who do not read history are doomed to repeat it. Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors are destined to repeat them.” An adherence to truth is often is often considered politically incorrect, however, it is a priority in my life.

Pres. Obama met with a firestorm of criticism due to his comments made at Thursday morning’s National Prayer Breakfast. Partly in response to ISIS brutally burning alive a Jordanian pilot, Obama condemned those who seek to use religion as a rationale for carrying out violence around the world. He was quoted as saying "Unless we get on our high horse and think that this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ," Obama said. "In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ."

Pres. Obama overlooked the fact that most Christians opposed slavery.

While the goals of the Crusades included stopping the onslaught of the Moslems and regaining Jerusalem, many of the crusaders were far from knights in shining armor. Dave Hunt had this to say in his book, A Woman Rides the Beast: The Roman Catholic Church and the Last Days, “It was the popes, aided by the bishops, cardinals, and priests, who inspired and directed the Crusades (both to the Holy Land and against evangelical Christians in Europe) which brought about the slaughter of millions of innocent Christians, Jews, and Muslims-even offering special indulgences to those who would execute this mayhem.” Dave Hunt has written several books that would be considered very politically incorrect, however, they are very well documented.

There was great evil committed during the grand Inquisition. Millions were hunted down like animals, and tortured and brutally murdered in these dark days of the Papacy. The grand Inquisition was pretty much an evil alliance between the Spanish government and the Papacy to rob victims of their land and wealth and ultimately their lives.

While the evils presently being committed by ISIS are beyond my comprehension how far removed is this present day evil from that done centuries ago by the Roman Catholic Church. Both pretty much practice(d) convert or die. Long before the Reformation the Albigenses were virtually eliminated as were the Waldenses. So much for holding to “Sola Scriptura.”

So what does this centuries old history have to do with today? Recently Pope Francis described as "Dangerous the temptation to believe that one can have a personal, direct, immediate relationship with Jesus Christ without communion with and the mediation of the church." Catholic doctrines including the selling of masses and purgatory hold a person’s soul in ransom. Add to that, the heresy of transubstantiation. These doctrines are diametrically opposed to the declaration of Jesus on the cross that “It is finished.” Ephesians 2:8-9, "8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast."

When I witness to unbelievers much of the resistance I meet is due to the evils done by that the church through the ages in the name of Jesus. So Evangelical Christianity is painted with the same brush as the Roman Catholic Church.

Lost in the mist of history are those believers who held to the apostolic truths of first century. In my opinion, we believers will eventually be forced to go underground, however, that the subject for another day.