The ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, MYSTICISM, and The EMERGENT CONNECTION to a ONE WORLD RELIGION – PART 1 of 2

 ~ by James Fire

Note: It is not my intention to demean or offend Roman Catholics in this or any other article on TTUF. I was once a Roman Catholic myself and much of my extended family still is. I love them all. What this article is about is ascertaining the facts as history and current events have revealed them, and to search the Scriptures, GOD’s Word, to determine truth.

We at TTUF have already treated the religion of Roman Catholicism in a four part series the ROMAN CATHOLIC Church: It's Dogma and Destiny (the latter two articles of that series is essentially what we have here, but this two-part article will have updated information and pertinent revisions), revealing by Scripture that much of their practices and doctrines are unbiblical. In examining this religion I realized that there was too much information to cover in that series.
This article is not an apologetic, but a review of the Roman Catholic Church in light of its past, its current course in our present time and where it’s heading in the future.
We’ll cover a little of the history of this religious institution, some of its beliefs and practices and how it relates to other religions as a leading force in our world today in ecumenical circles and what the Emergent Church has to do with it.

HISTORY of the ROMAN CATHOLIC Church –

This religion (which claims to be not merely one denomination among many other Christian denominations, but ‘the one true church’) is unique in its history because it became not only a religious system, but a political system as well (this union of religious and political power is important and will be discussed a bit later), complete with a huge economy and even a military force. As well as this, for much of the Dark and Middle Ages, it reigned over many European nations and the Popes themselves were self-proclaimed Vicars (from the Latin, vicarious or “one who stands in the place of another) of Christ, and KINGS over all other kings!

Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) “…[he] crowned and deposed sovereigns (rulers), put down nations under interdiction (to forbid or ban something), virtually created the Papal States {states ruled by the Popes) across central Italy and he had never lost a single battle in war. In pursuit of his aims, he shed more blood than any other pontiff.”

Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085) was the first Pope to literally dethrone Kings; “…to me is given power to bind and loose on earth and in heaven”. If he desired property that belonged to others, he declared in the Synod of 1080, “We desire to show the world that we can give or take away at our will, kingdoms, duchies, earldoms in a word, possessions of all men’ for we can bind and loose.”

The Popes brought about the Inquisition where those who abandoned the Roman Catholic Church or refused to submit to it were tortured to death unless they changed their minds and swore allegiance to the Pope and the Holy Mother Church. They were not above slaughtering entire towns and villages that were Christian and any that believed in the Bible and salvation through Jesus Christ alone and faith in His Name:

Pope Martin V (1417-1431) in command of the King of Poland in 1429 to exterminate the Hussites (these were independent Christians and followers of Jan Hus, martyred Christian):
“Know that [it is in] the interests of the Holy See … to exterminate the Hussites. Remember that these impious persons dare to proclaim principles of equality; they maintain that all Christians are brothers, and that GOD has not given to privileged men the right of ruling the nations; they hold that Christ came on earth to abolish slavery; they call the people to liberty, that is to the annihilation of kings and priests. While there is still time then, turn our forces against Bohemia; burn, massacre, make deserts everywhere, for nothing could be more agreeable to GOD or more useful to the cause of kings that the extermination of the Hussites.”

The Hussites and other independent Christian groups believed the Bible and faith in Christ alone; like the Albigenses and the Anabaptists – all of these, numbering in the hundreds of thousands were brutally tortured in Inquisition and killed by order of Popes and the Holy Roman Catholic Church.

The late Dave Hunt, founder of The BEREAN CALL  commented,

“Such was the fate of millions… and many with a faith that could not be broken with torture or fire… The Roman Catholic Church has not repented or apologized, and she dares to pose even today as the supreme teacher and example of morals and truth. Remember also that the doctrines which supported the Inquisitions REMAIN IN FORCE EVEN AT THIS PRESENT TIME (emphasis mine).

The office of Rome’s Sacred Congregations, the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Inquisition is today known simply as the Holy Office of Inquisition or The Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith (1967) still occupies the Palace of the Inquisition adjacent to the Vatican.

In this Palace resides a Book of Records, which historically documents which forms of torture were most and least effective; which sorts enabled the prisoner to endure the most pain and survive it. The keeper of this book is usually a Cardinal appointed to the position of the Grand Inquisitor who reports directly to the Pope.

Typically if the Grand Inquisitor is elected as the new Pope, he leaves this Office and the book to the next Grand Inquisitor. During the time of Pope John Paul II, the Grand Inquisitor was the arch-bishop of Munich, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, or as he later became known as Pope Benedict XVI – what’s interesting is that he according to some reports never relinquished the Book of Inquisitions (Records) to the next Grand Inquisitor, but kept possession of it – one must wonder why? And is the current Pope in possession of this book?

Where in all Scripture does it state that the church of the LORD Jesus Christ should take possession of political power and subjugate nations under her will? Where does this religious Institution find justification in obtaining and securing enormous wealth in the Name of Christ Who owned nothing but the clothes on His back?

The DESTRUCTION of GOD’s WORD – 

Did you know that in the Dark Ages, the Roman Catholic Church sought out all copies of the Scriptures that were translated into the native tongues of dozens of countries in order to destroy them, so that the people could not read the Bible in their own language?

The only language that the Church of Rome allowed was Latin. Because of the fact that only the Catholic clergy could read Latin, this made it impossible for the people to study the Scriptures for themselves and understand that salvation is by faith alone, as well as understand that the Roman Church had no biblical basis for its authority and stranglehold over the populace. IN 500 AD there were nearly 500 languages in which the Bible was duplicated. After only a single century, the Roman Church managed to destroy enough Bibles so that the only language it was written in, was Latin!

Once the Reformation began and the printing press was invented, copies of the Scriptures not based on the Catholic texts were duplicated and people once again began reading the Bible in their own language. Once they discovered that the Roman Church and all of its sacraments and traditions were not necessary for salvation, people began to leave that church by the droves.

In answer to this mass abandonment by the people, the Roman Catholic Church began a Counter-Reformation and the establishment of a Catholic Order by Ignatius of Loyola known euphemistically as the Society of Jesus or the Order of the Jesuits. A bit more about this later…

The Roman Catholic Church supported all governments no matter how oppressive they were so long as those governments pledged allegiance to Rome; such was the case with Mussolini and Hitler as has been documented in Rome’s own archives – the Concordant of 1929 with Mussolini and the Concordant of 1933 with Hitler. 

How is it that Rome, which again, claims to be the one true church, finds itself wielding such political power over the nations, even in today’s world, but in much more subtle ways? How could this union of government and religion be justified?

The practice of forming a union between political power and religious power was realized very early in human history - - at the tower of Babel:

GENESIS 11:1-6
1 Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 3 Then they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth." 5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 And the LORD said, "Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.

One city and one tower; here we have a union of government in the establishment of a city, and also of religion in this iconic ‘tower’ (most likely a ziggurat of sorts) that would “reach to the heavens” that is, a gateway to the gods (read that fallen angels) – a means of achieving a ‘heavenly’ status of some kind (occult knowledge and power).

This was Babel (literally, “gateway or way to the gods”) and Nimrod was the absolute ruler who defied the living GOD Who commanded that the people should go forth and replenish the Earth (GEN 9:1). Instead, they built a city and a tower and consolidated “…so that we would not be scattered abroad upon the face of the Earth (GEN 11:4)".

Nimrod chose for his queen a woman who was likely a prostitute, Semiramis; but he created a legend that she was really a virgin goddess that arose from the sea and was betrothed to him. They ruled together not just as King and Queen, but as gods to the people and priests of their religion. [watch Know Your Enemy on Babylon]

As they ruled the world with both political power (mostly the domain of Nimrod) and religious power (mostly the domain of Semiramis) it wasn’t long before they realized that religious authority was more powerful than political authority and thus was able to lead the way in controlling the people by means of religion.

Eventually, Semiramis gained such power that Nimrod was intent on killing her, but as she became aware of this, she had him assassinated instead, but not before she became pregnant with Nimrod’s child, Tammuz – which she claimed was virgin born and an incarnation of Nimrod. 

Here we have the ancient Babylonian likeness in triad form, of what the Bible speaks about regarding the trinity. In the falseness of Babylon, these were represented by the Father, the Virgin Mother and Divine Child. As Semiramis gained more power, Tammuz came to possess even more, and his mother plotted to assassinate her son just as she had her own husband! Yet, like his mother, Tammuz discovered her secret and had her killed.

Tammuz promoted the iconic representation of the Virgin Mother and Divine Child, a pairing of gods. GOD Almighty, YHWH scattered the people of Babel by confusing their languages. They took their religious beliefs into every culture in every nation, and this is why we see near universal representation of the Mother-child pairing of the gods.

Note: The Jehovah’s Witnesses – among others – believe that the Trinity is not taught in the Scriptures, but that in fact (they say) is a pagan concept. This is not at all the case: the Babylonian gods were believed to make alliances among themselves and formed triad allegiances, with usually one more powerful and dominant over the other two. They had different powers, different characteristics, and different devotees.

The Trinity is not at all like these Babylonian triads: GOD the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are Three Persons, identifiable and distinct from each other, but still represented as One (“echad” a unified one) GOD. They are all co-equal in power, authority, abilities, nature and character – the only difference between them are merely the roles that they fulfill – and nothing more.

For information on this and everything else that involves what’s known as the New World Order – now known more popularly as global governance – may I recommend a series by The FUEL PROJECT called, KNOW YOUR ENEMY – available on DVD as well as on their Youtube channel.

Even though the Babylonian Empire eventually deteriorated and was finally conquered by the Persians, the Mystery Religion that was created there, survived and simply transferred to the Persian Empire (with some modifications by that culture) and later when the Greeks conquered the Persians, and then the Romans conquered the Greeks, each empire received the schools of the “Mystery Religion”. But remember, long before the Babylonian Empire, these ‘mysteries’ were being spread all over the world, stemming from the Tower of Babel.

NEBUCHADNEZZAR’s and DANIEL’s VISIONS – 

In chapter Two and Seven in the book of DANIEL, both Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel received visions from the LORD concerning what would transpire after Nebuchadnezzar’s reign in Babylon.

GOD revealed that four world empires would arise, including the Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome, each of them having Israel subjugated (what the Bible refers to as “the times of the Gentiles” (LUKE 21:24) that began with Nebuchadnezzar and will end during what’s been called ‘the Reformed Roman Empire, over which the Beast will rule: the ultimate persecutor of Israel). Certainly other empires, some even more powerful existed besides these four, such as the Mongolian Empire, Scythian Empire and the many Chinese Dynasties – but none of these were of any consequence to the nation of Israel in any direct sense, thus outside of the purview of Scripture.

When we read about Daniel’s vision there are four beasts, but in Nebuchadnezzar’s vision we see a statue of different metals in five, not four sections:

The gold head represented Babylon; the chest and arms of silver represented Persia; the waist and two thighs of bronze represented Greece and the legs of iron represented Rome. Then we have the two feet which are also composed of iron, but with the added element of ‘miry clay’.

Because of this, Bible scholars see the feet as representative of a rebirth of the Roman Empire in some sense, but “partly strong and partly weak” – not as its former manifestation.

One should understand that each of these empires were conquered by their successors with one exception: Rome, which was never conquered, but rather fell into serious decay and ‘rotted from within’ until it was so weakened that is broke apart. 

In these last days we see the territory of Europe (formerly the Roman Empire) began in the 1950’s after WW II, to recoalesce and was drawn together in a unified political and economic solidarity.
This is known today as the European Union which, for all of its problems with Great Britain and Spain, as well as Greece, is the first ever attempt of a para-national political identity that has been able to hold its cohesion with relative success, and in fact is doing far better economically than the United States!

There are some who believe that this Union (which has been copied by other conglomerates of nations into their own para-national identities) will one day undergo a transformation into a Mediterranean Union which resembles the Roman Empire’s borders even more so than the EU.

Not only Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar had visions of these world empires, but John the apostle did as well, but his (which he sees three times in the book of Revelation) is the same as Daniel’s. Yet the last time he sees a vision of this ‘Beast’ there is another feature added that stuns him with amazement:

REVELATION 17:1-7
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, "Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, 2 "with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication." 3 So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. 5 And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. 6 I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement. 7 ¶ But the angel said to me, "Why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns.

Here we have this Beast, representing the last world political empire before the RETURN of the LORD Jesus Christ in this vision given to John the apostle; he isn’t so amazed by the Beast – he’s seen this already twice before. What amazes him is that there is a woman riding comfortably on this powerful Beast as though it were completely tame, steered effortlessly by her every whim. And she has some interesting titles:

MYSTERY – in reference to the Mystery Religions as established at the tower of Babel, the Ancient Knowledge, the very same dispensed by Satan at the Fall of man from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This knowledge has had various receptacles throughout the ages in the form of esoteric philosophies and secret societies – which have in more recent times, come under the umbrella of the Masonic Order, which itself houses what’s been known as the Illuminati. The ultimate revelation of this secret knowledge will revolve around the adoration of and subservience to Lucifer, deemed as ‘The Architect of the Universe’ by 32nd and 33rd Degree Masons.

BABYLON THE GREAT – This is the very foundation of world empires that were spawned afterwards and whose spirit is kept alive by the kingdom of darkness. In a very real sense, just as Jerusalem is “the city of the Great King” (PSALM 48:2) – the Messiah of Israel, Y’shua or Jesus our LORD, Babylon is representative of the ruler of this present age, Satan (2 COR 4:4). They are thematic opposites and rivals (though truly, Satan can hardly compete with the Almighty!). 

There are those who believe that America all on her own is ‘Babylon’ and yet in most references in REVELATION, Babylon is described as a city. Ancient Babylon was both a nation and a city, but in these four references, it’s never called ‘a nation’ but ‘a city’ (REV 14:8; 16:19; 18:10, 21). To be fair, in REV 17:5 and REV 18:2 is it referred to simply as “Babylon” which may or may not refer to the nation. I believe this could very well indicate a rebuilt city in Iraq, but in a connotative sense, the ‘spirit of Babylon’ has a global identity.

THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH – Babylon was not merely a harlot, but rather the “Mother of Harlots and of the abominations”. Abomination is a very strong word, meaning something utterly detestable and directly offensive to GOD, usually involving idolatry.
In Scripture a harlot is spiritually speaking a false religious system, and anyone who practices such a system. GOD refers to Israel as “playing the harlot” when she forsook the LORD and began to follow the false religions and false gods of the pagan nations that surrounded her.

JEREMIAH 3:7-9
"And I said, after she had done all these things, 'Return to Me.' But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8 "Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear but went and played the harlot also. 9 "So it came to pass, through her casual harlotry, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

The entire book of Hosea addresses backslidden Israel that fell away from the LORD and addresses the Jewish nation as a “mother that has played the harlot”. But the woman that the apostle John sees isn’t Israel, nor is she playing – she is the real deal! She is the originator of all false religion and spirituality, inspired by Satan himself!

She appears to resemble the church of Jesus Christ, but she’s terribly perverted and changed into a powerful religious system, rather than the “little flock” (LUKE 12:32) that the LORD intended. This woman is so vile that John sees her drunk – “with the blood of the saints” the martyrs of Jesus Christ!

The entire description of this Mother of Harlots is given in REVELATION 17 and REVELATION 18; if you compare this description with the Roman Catholic Church, it’s an exact match. This is not to say that this ‘Mother’ is exclusive to the Roman Church, but that it will probably be the leading force with all the other religious systems incorporated in some way, into it.

We don’t have time to get into all of this now, but if you want to examine this idea, just watch this video presentation by Dave Hunt, based on his book, A Woman Rides the Beast. I would highly recommend the book to everyone: it’s one of the best documented treatments I’ve ever seen. The bibliography alone is nearly 100 pages!

We’ll end this article here for now, and pick up with Part 2 by examining some of the global politics that have become entrenched into our world, which includes such one world order organizations as the Council on Foreign Relations, The Trilateral Commission, the Club of Rome and others.
Then we’ll look at this ‘Global Reset’ that’s the latest agenda to follow quickly on the heels of AGENDA 2030 and other matters of the New Spirituality and Emergent sort and how this all ties together.

Until then, keep your eyes – and your hearts! – on the skies, and don’t believe the lies! The LORD Jesus Christ Returns Soon, FROM ON HIGH!

For Part TWO, click here!