Revelation: The Bride, the Beast & Babylon Page #3

because he himself believes

"The Christian god

has given me victory."

The Christian god

Is more powerful

than these other deities.

It is clear that Constantine

made the symbol of Christianity

Part of the imperial standards

And that he fought

under that symbol and he won.

Being a good roman emperor,

he would then think,

"Yeah, I got the sign.

I'm on the right path."

So if you're a pagan

Or just somebody

who's confused about religion,

You've had here

this clash of deities

And who's emerged on top?

The Christian god.

You can draw

your own conclusions.

Gradually,

the national sentiment

Against Christianity

began reversing.

During Constantine's reign,

Christians went

from being a persecuted sect

To openly holding

positions of influence

In the courts and palaces

of kings and governors.

So a large part of the elites,

used to running the show,

Automatically then become

also the local bishops, etc.

You know, become Christian.

It wasn't such a big leap

because most of them,

Anyway, believed

in one supreme divine being

Which had

different representations.

If you want

to advance in the army

Or in the imperial civil service,

There's every incentive

to become a Christian

Because all the people

at the top are Christians.

So, if you want

to advance in the hierarchy,

Whether it's military,

civil service, or just at court,

People become Christians.

It becomes very attractive

Because Constantine's edict

of toleration makes it so.

"Constantine can rightfully

claim the title of great,

"For he turned

the history of the world

"Into a new course

and made Christianity,

"Which until then had suffered

bloody persecution,

The religion of the state."

And so as people

from around the roman empire

Entered the Christian church,

They brought with them

Many of their former

pagan beliefs and practices.

Now that Christianity

has been given the status

As a full legal religion,

then it becomes attractive

Subsequently

in the next generations,

For a broad number

of members of this upper elite.

Now the percentage of Christians

in this top 10%, 15%, 25%

Increases and it increases

dramatically in the top 1 % -2%.

That's the real change.

That is when Christianity

Really becomes

the Christianity that it is today,

Because now the people

who have been running the show,

They are now Christian.

Over time, church leaders

began to embrace

The regal robes

and flamboyant ceremony

That was part

of the pagan religions

And in place

of the simple commands of god,

They began to teach superstitions

and man-Made traditions.

Now, instead

of the Christian church

Converting the heathen world,

The pagans

were converting the church.

There is a train coming out

of the first century,

Represented by the documents

we have in the new testament

That demonstrate,

the shape of the church there,

Going into this long dark tunnel

Of this 2nd

through 4th centuries

And then coming out

in the 4th century,

Of this long, dark tunnel,

And the train

of the church that comes out

Is so different than the train

of the church that goes in

That you say,

"what happened?"

In - ad-391, by the order

of emperor Theodosius the first,

Christianity became

the official state religion of Rome.

Worship at pagan temples

was outlawed

And all other

religious practices ceased.

You're trying to

Christianize an empire.

You're trying

to Christianize a pagan culture.

The old basilicas

were basically pagan temples.

Put a cross over it.

Put in paintings

of biblical scenes,

Biblical heroes

and saints and martyrs.

Christians are very

purposeful and intentional

About taking over pagan temples

And there's

a notable church leader

Who actually writes this

in a treatise that survives.

He writes a rebuttal

of pagan attacks on Christianity

And part

of his evidence is he says,

"Your very own places of worship

"Are now Christian

places of worship.

"We have taken them over.

"We have cleansed out

the idolatry.

"We have sanctified them

and we have made them places

"Where the one

true god is worshiped.

"What clearer evidence

could you wish

"That your whole system

of belief is false?

"Where are your gods

if they're allowing this to happen?"

So Christians, actually,

Deliberately at times

and purposefully, as a strategy,

Take pagan, not only places

but rituals or ideas

And, as they think, subvert them

To advance the cause

of spreading Christianity.

What we don't know

Is the extent to which

they think this through

And say, "at what point

is it legitimate to do this

And at what point

Do we perhaps begin

to be taking on other ideas?"

The speed

with which the early church

Tobogganed into apostasy

will take your breath away.

As millions of pagans

hastily joined the church,

They were naturally reluctant

To dispose

of their idol treasures.

The Romans and the Greeks

Were so used to being surrounded

by symbols of their deities,

They began doing

the same thing with Christianity.

So many of these new converts

Just relabeled their idols

with Christian names

Like Paul, Mary and peter.

A statue of Jupiter

became a statue of peter.

And we know that

Because it has a sun disc

right over its head

That indicates

that this is not peter

But it's a pagan statue

that's been renamed.

Instead of Romulus and Remus,

"Hey, why not the martyrs,

The great martyrs

cosmos and Damian, right?"

The representations of Isis,

Which is originally

an Egyptian goddess

But has become very Greek

already becomes, essentially,

The representation

of Mary carrying her child.

You have

a mother and child tradition

All the way down

through history.

You have it in Mithraism,

you have it in Babylon,

You have it

all the way back in Persia.

It appears that Mary acquired

some of the characteristics

That were associated with

some of these other goddesses.

She wears a dark blue coat

and she stands on the half moon.

She is the mother of all gods,

Isis carrying her son Horus,

That is the image

that gets a new name

And now the name

is Mary carrying the child Jesus.

Or a depiction

of the god Hermes,

He is shown as Christ

the good shepherd.

Asclepios

is the iconographic model

For a lot

of the depictions of Jesus, yes.

A young vibrant god

with curly hair

Down to about here

and a little beard.

Soon the statues

of the saints and even Jesus

Began adorning the churches.

Even though god

clearly forbids this practice

In the ten commandments,

People continue to revere

And to pray

to these relabeled idols.

"Thou shalt not make

unto thee any graven image

"Or any likeness of anything

that is in heaven above

"Or that is in the earth beneath

"Or that is in the water

under the earth.

Thou shalt not bow down thyself

to them, nor serve them."

Related to the last point

Is the veneration of Mary

the mother of Jesus.

While it is true Mary

was a faithful woman

And greatly honored

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