As the Roman Empire grew in prominence, Rome soon became the world’s center for the practices and traditions of the Babylonian pagan religion. Pergamum slowly faded from the scene, but the mixed marriage of Christianity and Paganism that originated there has produced four offspring, Roman Catholics (Thyatira), Main Line Protestants (Sardis), Evangelicals (Philadelphia) and the Apostate Church (Laodicea). All are alive on Earth today.
To the Church in Thyatira (Rev. 2:18-29)
“To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
Thyatira means continual sacrifice. (In the Catholic Church, the Lord is still on the cross, and Catholics believe that the communion wafer becomes His actual body and blood as it’s consumed.) It’s the first letter with a future in view, which led me to the conclusion that the earlier three churches are gone. It’s also the first whose members are divided into two categories, the saved and the unsaved.
(Title) These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.
It couldn’t be clearer. While born of the Virgin, the One speaking to them with fire in His eyes is to be addressed as the Son of God, not the son of Mary.
(Commendation) I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.
The Catholic Church is known for its efforts in bringing mercy and compassion, as well as the Gospel, to God’s children.
(Criticism) Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling.
The title “Queen of Heaven” by which many Catholics refer to Mary, was first used of Semeramis, wife of Nimrod the founder of Babylon, and mother of Tammuz. Semeramis declared herself a goddess, claimed that Tammuz was born of a supernatural conception involving the Sun god, and began the first counterfeit religion, a mother-child cult.
According to legend, while out hunting one day Tammuz was killed by a wild animal. Semeramis mourned for 40 days at the end of which Tammuz was raised from the dead. She formed a celibate priesthood to commemorate this and named a chief priest who she declared to be infallible. The 40 day mourning (now called Lent), the Yule log, evergreen tree, mistletoe and hot cross buns were all used in the rituals they instituted, and the mother-child cult was born.
Blessings,
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