Chapter Eleven                                                   He Who Has Ears to Hear                                                                  Part Five "THE TRAIL OF BLOOD" 18. But persecutions did not then cease. The hated Ana-Baptists (called Baptists today), in spite of all prior persecutions, and in spite of the awful fact that fifty million had already died martyr deaths, still existed in great numbers. It was during this period that along one single European highway, thirty miles distance, stakes were set up every few feet along this highway, the tops of the stakes sharpened, and on the top of each stake was placed a gory head of a martyred Ana-Baptist. Human imagination can hardly picture a scene so awful! And yet a thing perpetrated, according to reliable history, by a people calling themselves devout followers of the meek and lowly Jesus Christ.     The works of many men of the Reformation are often quoted for the “good” that they have done, yet the trail of blood against those that held to the Word of God alone, apart from the leaven of the “Pharisees” cries out from the ground that accepted their spilt blood.  Christians killing Christians and following in the steps of the “Mother church” in false doctrines of men marks the history of many of the venerated “reformers.”  Yet this is also warned of in Paul’s second epistle to the Corinthians:     “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.”  II Corinthians 11:13-15     We must remember again the parables of the kingdom of heaven in Matthew that speak of the wheat and the tares.   The Bible warns us that there will be grievous  wolves that will make merchandise of the household of God.  The Bible further warns us to be wary lest any man should spoil us through vain deceit.  Further in the parable of the net that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind, the Scriptures declare that at the end of the world, the Lord will sort the just from the wicked.     “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind:     Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.     So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 13:47-50     So shall it be for the wheat and the tares.  The field is the earth, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom.  But the tares are the children of the wicked one sowed by the devil that grow side by side with the good seed. But, at the time of the end, the Son of man will send forth His angels to gather the tares into bundles for the burning:     “The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;     And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.     Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.  Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." Matthew 13:41-43     The children of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 13: 24)  will be made to shine forth as the sun in the “kingdom of their Father.” (Matthew 13:43)  So likewise will the Son of man gather out of “his kingdom” all things that offend, and them which do iniquity.  Here is a direct linkage of the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of the Son of man and the kingdom of the Father.  These are all one and the same.  So likewise do we see the fruits of the women who leavened the three measures of meal in the need for the Lord to gather out of his kingdom all those that offend and them which do iniquity. Her fruits are wickedness and unrighteousness. 19. Let it be remembered that the Catholics do not regard the Bible as the sole rule and guide of faith and life. The claim that it is indeed unerring, but that there are two other things just as much so, the "Writings of the Fathers" and the decrees of the Church (Catholic Church) or the declarations of the Infallible Pope. Hence, there could never be a satisfactory debate between Catholic and Protestant or between Catholic and Baptist, as there could never possibly be a basis of final agreement. The Bible alone can never settle anything so far as the Catholics are concerned. . .” 23. It is well also for us all to do some serious and special thinking on another vital fact concerning the Bible. It has already been briefly mentioned in the lecture preceding this, but is so very vital that it will probably be wise to refer to it again. It was the action taken by the Catholics at the Council of Toulouse, held in 1229 A. D., when they decided to withhold the Bible, the Word of God from the vast majority of all their own people, the "Laymen." I am simply stating here just what they stated in their great Council. But lately in private a Catholic said to me, "Our purpose in that is to prevent their private interpretation of it." Isn't it marvelous that God should write a book for the people and then should be unwilling for the people to read it. And yet according to that book the people are to stand or fall in the day of judgment on the teachings of that book. No wonder the declaration in the book--"Search the Scriptures (the book) for in them ye think ye have eternal life. And they are they which testify of me." Fearful the responsibility assumed by the Catholics!     Satan is the father of all lies (John 8:44).  Eve was beguiled by the serpent and deceived by his lies (Gen. 3:13, I Tim. 2: 14).  From the time of the garden of Eden until he is cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10), Satan will deceive the world.   The definition of deceive is: to mislead the mind; to cause to err; to cause to believe what is false, or to disbelieve what is true; to impose on; to delude.  This is why our Lord commands us to “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate. . .” (II Cor. 6:17).  We are to have no concord with Belial.  There is no agreement of the temple of the living God with idols (II Cor. 6:15-16).  Idolatry is defined by the Bible as spiritual fornication (Rev. 2:14 & 20).  Webster defines idolatry as: 1) the worship of images, statues, pictures, etc. made by hands.  2) The worship of the heavenly bodies, the sun, the moon and stars, or of demons, angels, men and animals.     As born again believers, we can easily judge the works of those in the Roman Catholic Church who bow down to the images of Mary and the Catholic saints.  Yet many believers in our time have been deceived by the worship of heavenly bodies by Satan’s mystery Babylon religion and the traditions of men (Matthew 15:1-9).  Quite simply, we are commanded to obey only the commandments of God and be separate from all the traditions of men.     The Bible sets in order how we are to worship the Lord in spirit and truth (John 4:23).  There are only a few commandments and only a few ordinances given to us in the New Testament.  Yet, there are many so called “Christian traditions” celebrated throughout the world that have their origins in the worship of the sun, the moon and the stars from pagan idolatry.  All those that partake in these extra-Biblical traditions of men are deceived by Satan himself.  Therefore, it is not only to those in the Roman Catholic Church that are warned to “. . . Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues” (Rev. 18:4).  Satan’s mystery Babylon religion is filled with exuberant music, earthly riches and great works of art.  It is also filled with days and seasons of celebrations that are not commanded by our Lord.  For those that come to church only on Christmas and Easter, they will probably never learn of the only two ordinances of the New Testament church that we are given to remember our Lord until he comes again, Baptism and the Lord’s Table.     Therefore, in this fifth letter to the churches, by the word of the “Faithful Witness,” Jesus Christ Himself, he establishes by two separate witnesses the beginning of the dead church of Sardis.  By the Word of God alone, we see:     1)  The witness against the dead church in Rome that took the Word of God away from the people and persecuted the world through the inquisition.                     2)  The witness of the righteous ministers of Christ who strengthened the things that remained and held fast to the gospel of Christ and did not defile their righteous garments in the sins of “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF ALL HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”     Both of these historical events began at the time of the western or Lateran councils and are best dated by the Council of Toulouse in 1229 AD which took the living Word of God away from the dead church in Rome. The letter ends with a promise to those who overcome and will not be blotted out of the book of life. “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.” But for those that do not watch, the Lord will come as a thief in the night.  This is a prophecy that will soon be fulfilled and shows that this church age continues on unto today, as do they all. Thus, the Lord Himself has given the starting point and the completion point for this church age prophetically predicted by the church of Sardis. Philadelphia - The keeper of the Word - 1611 to 1900 AD:     “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;     I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.     Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.          Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.     Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.     Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem,  which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.     He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” Revelation 3:7-13     The Lord starts this letter to the church of Philadelphia with a quote from Isaiah 22:22.  In this He speaks of the key of David which openeth and none shall shut, and shutteth and none shall open:     “And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah:     And I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.     And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.     And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father’s house.”                                                                                  Isaiah 22:20-23     Jesus Christ is He that is holy and He that is true.  The government shall be upon His shoulders and He shall sit on the throne of David:  “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.  Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.”  (Isaiah 9:6-7)  Jesus is the way the truth and the life and no man cometh unto the Father but through His shed blood.  He is also called the “door” in John 10: 9:  “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”  Jesus is the only name under heaven whereby we must be saved to enter into His kingdom.  Only Jesus can open the door of salvation unto all who call upon His name and only He can shut the door to those who are not obedient unto His calling.  In the parable of the ten virgins, five were wise and five were foolish.  The wise had oil in their lamps and when the bridegroom came, they went in unto the marriage feast, but those that were foolish had no oil in the lamp and their light had gone out.  They asked the wise to give them oil but they could not as they only had enough oil for their own lamps. The wise therefore counseled the foolish to go and buy of those that sell:     “And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.     Afterward came also the other virgins, saying Lord, Lord, open to us.     But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.     Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.”                                                                               Matthew 25:10-13     Therefore, Jesus is the one that is holy and true that can open or close the door of salvation:  “Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the LORD: This gate of the LORD, into which the righteous shall enter.  I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.”  (Psalm 118:19- 21)  There is only one truth and there is only one gospel given unto man.  The Lord promises that He will save anyone who calls upon His name in faith believing:  “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:  For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”  (Matthew 7:7-8) Therefore, any man that opens his heart to the Word of God, and has ears to hear, will be saved.     There is a second application of this verse.  Here, the Lord Himself is declaring the return of temporal power and control over His church that Constantine had stolen in 313 AD.  The government also is upon His shoulders: FIRST PERIOD A.D. 30-500 . . . “15. So under the leadership of Emperor Constantine there comes a truce, a courtship and a proposal of marriage. The Roman Empire through its emperor seeks a marriage with Christianity. Give us your spiritual power and we will give you of our temporal power. (Emphasis added) 16. To effectually bring about and consummate this unholy union, a council was called. In A. D. 313, a call was made for a coming together of the Christian churches or their representatives . Many but not all came. The alliance was consummated. A Hierarchy was formed. In the organization of the Hierarchy, Christ was dethroned as head of the churches and Emperor Constantine enthroned (only temporarily, however) as head of the church.  (Underlining added)     Therefore, the church of Philadelphia marks the end of Satan’s stranglehold over God’s Holy Word and the beginning of the age of the Bible being freely given to all men. To accomplish this, the Lord had to first pull down the stronghold of the governmental authority of the Roman Catholic Church.  This, as we shall see, was accomplished in England, starting initially with the rebellion of King Henry the VIII and culminating by publishing the King James Bible in 1611.  The fruit of this victory was the freedom to publish His pure and undefiled Word throughout the entire world without any hindrance from the pagan church. “I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.”  The church of Philadelphia has an “open door.”  In fact, there are many writers that call this church age the church of the open door.  Paul mentions several times in his epistles and likewise Luke in the Acts mentions the Lord’s hand in opening the gospel to those that they were sent:     “And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles.” Acts 14:27     “And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.” Acts 16:14     “But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost.  For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.” I Corinthians 16:8-9     “Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ’s gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord,” II Corinthians 2:12     In each of these examples, it was the Lord Himself that moved upon the people to hear the Word of the Lord.  It is He alone that can open and no man shut and shut and no man open.  After fifteen hundred years of the false doctrines of those that have the doctrine of Balaam, and the Nicolaitanes, and those that have taken His Word away from the people, the Lord announces in these two verses that the Word of God will triumph openly over the enemies of the gospel.  This is the fulfillment of the earlier prophecy and warning to the church of Pergamos:  “Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.” (Revelation 2: 16)  The Lord did open His Word against the dead church in Rome that is drunken with the blood of the saints.  Thy word is truth.  The church of Philadelphia is the church that witnessed the triumph of the sword of the Lord, which is the Word of God, over the forces of evil that dwell in that great city that reigns over the kings of the earth and where Satan’s seat is.  The church of Philadelphia is the time in the history of the church where the “door of faith” was opened unto all nations.  This door of faith is simply the pure Word of God:  “So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.”     The church of Philadelphia is the church that “kept” the Word of God.  It is the period of church history known by the “open” devotion to the faithfulness of His Word and to the obedience of His Word.  It is a period of time in the history of the church where men openly declared their allegiance to Jesus and did not deny His name:     “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:     “If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.” II Timothy 2:12-13     “But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 10:33     “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.” II Peter 2:1     The church of Philadelphia is the church that overcame the false teaching of the Nicolaitanes and those that brought in damnable heresies throughout the many centuries known as the dark ages.  They are called the dark ages because of the spiritual darkness that covered the earth when Satan tried to keep the light of the gospel from shining forth.  This he was not able to do.  The Roman Catholic Church has shut the door of salvation to millions of lost souls through their false doctrines and the doctrines of men that make the commandments of God of none effect.  This is just as was spoken of about the Pharisees: “But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.” (Matthew 23:13)   FOURTH LECTURE--17th, 18th, 19th Centuries “1. This lecture begins with the beginning of the Seventeenth Century (A.D. 1601). We have passed very hurriedly over much important Christian history, but necessity his compelled this. 2. This three-century period begins with the rise of an entirely new denomination. It is right to state that some historians give the date of the beginning of the Congregational Church (at first called "Independents") as 1602. However, Schaff-Herzogg, in their Encyclopedia, place its beginning far back in the sixteenth century, making it coeval with the Lutheran and Presbyterian. In the great reformation wave many who went out of the Catholic Church were not satisfied with the extent of the reformation led by Luther and Calvin. They decided to repudiate also the preacher rule and government idea of the churches and return to the New Testament democratic idea as had been held through the fifteen preceding centuries by those who had refused to enter Constantine's hierarchy. 3. The determined contention of this new organization for this particular reform brought down upon its head bitter persecution from Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian and Church of England adherents--all the established churches. However, it retained many other of the Catholic made errors, such for instance as infant baptism, pouring or sprinkling for baptism, and later adopted and practiced to an extreme degree the church and state idea. And, after refugeeing to America, themselves, became very bitter persecutors. 4. The name "Independents" or as now called "Congregationalists," is derived from their mode of church government. Some of the distinguishing principles of the English Congregationalists as given in Schaff-Herzogg Encyclopedia are as follows: (1) That Jesus Christ is the only head of the church and that the Word of God is its only statue book. (2) That visible churches are distinct assemblies of Godly men gathered out of the world for purely religious purposes, and not to be confounded with the world. (3) That these separate churches have full power to choose their own officers and to maintain discipline. (4) That in respect to their internal management they are each independent of all other churches and equally independent of state control. 5. How markedly different these principles are from Catholicism, or even Lutheranism, or Presbyterianism or the Episcopacy of the Church of England. How markedly similar to the Baptists of today, and of all past ages, and to the original teachings of Christ and His apostles. (Emphasis added)     The church of Philadelphia is the church that was witness to the head of the dragon in Rome wounded by a deadly wound by the sword of God.  The terror of the Roman Catholic inquisition was abated by the truth of God’s Holy Word ruling in the hearts and minds of men throughout the world.  Winston Churchill so noted the effect of the King James Bible upon the world:     “It won an immediate and lasting triumph. Copies could be bought for as little as five shillings, and even with the inflated prices of today can still be purchased for this sum. It superseded all other versions. No new revision was deemed necessary for nearly three hundred years. In the crowded emigrant ships which sailed to the New World of America there was little room for baggage. If the adventurers took books with them they took the Bible, Shakespeare, and later The Pilgrims Progress, and the Bible they mostly took was the Authorized Version of King James I. About ninety million copies are thought to have been published in the English language alone. It has been translated into more than seven hundred and sixty tongues. The Authorized Version is still the most popular in England and the United States. This may be deemed James greatest achievement, for the impulse was largely his! The Scottish pedant built better than he knew. The scholars who produced this masterpiece are mostly unknown and unremembered. But they forged an enduring link, literary and religious, between the English-speaking peoples of the world.” Winston S. Churchill, The New World, (New York: Dodt, Mead and Company, 1956) pp. 153-154     It was only through the publishing of the King James Bible and distributing it to all nations through translations from the KJV and through the thousands of missionaries sent from England and America that the rule of Rome was silenced for a period of time. 6. In 1611, the King James English Version of the Bible appeared. Never was the Bible extensively given to the people before. From the beginning of the general dissemination of the Word of God began the rapid decline of the Papal power, and the first beginnings for at least many centuries, of the idea of "religious liberty." (Emphasis and underlining added)     “Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.”     The Vatican suffered a deadly wound as promised by the Lord by the “sword of my mouth.”  History records that the British Empire flourished for three hundred years and the influence of the Roman Empire controlled by the Pope diminished.   This lasted until the English turned from the King James Bible and chose the perverted Revised Standard Version.  History records that the Roman Catholics were made to worship at the feet of King James after the failed assassination attempt in 1605 called the “Gun Powder Plot.”     Because of the works that the people of the church of Philadelphia did, the Lord promised that he would make them of the synagogue of Satan come and worship before “thy feet.” To identify who the synagogue of Satan is, we must return to the book of Revelation in chapter twelve where John describes the wonder of the woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. As in our previous discussion on the dragon, (See America and King James in the Revelation chapter three) this woman represents the people of Israel as the nation that brought forth Jesus and by the witness of Joseph’s second dream to his brethren (Gen. 37:9-11). Yet the Roman Catholic Church makes claim that the woman of Revelation chapter twelve symbolizes their church. (Reverend John P. O’Connell, Editor, The Holy Bible, (Chicago, IL: The Catholic Press, Inc., 1951: Imprimatur Samual Cardinal Stritch, Archbishop of Chicago) Catholic Encyclopedia, p. 285)  Thus they say they are “Jews,” and are not, but do lie. Further, we must look again at the prophecy that He would make them of the synagogue of Satan come and worship before “thy” feet. In history, we can also see this fulfillment at only one time and by only one person in the history of the true church.  In fact, the use of the word “thy” is singular.  Therefore, the Bible signifies the prophetic fulfillment by one man only.                                                                           Return to Home Page                                                                     (www.kjv1611revealed.com)