DRAMA OF THE AGES !
21. GREAT APOSTASYPaul, John and Peter as well as Jesus, tell us that soon after the Gospel of Jesus the Saviour went out to the whole world with purity and power in the first century, that corruption would soon come in. Again Satan was on the scene to get heathen priests interested in joining with the Christians and soon another mongrelized Pagan religion was born, but sadly, this one claimed to be Christian.
It took a while before the churches at Rome and Alexandria had managed to gather enough power and influence but soon, the Papacy was born out of a mix of paganism and a few Christian names. In the 300s, Constantine, a Sun worshipper encouraged the adoption of sun-worship practices into the now apostatizing church, including Sunday, Easter and so on. There was a problem though, three nations that taught a type of Christianity contrary to Catholicism stood in the way of her complete dominance of the religious world.
In 508 AD a wonderful event occurred that turned the tables and led to the uprooting and destroying of the three powers. Clovis, King of France declared himself Catholic and soon most of Europe joined him. They assisted the Papacy in eradicating the three nations, the Ostragoths, the Hueruli and the Vandals. Prophecy foretold this as the 'uprooting of three horns', horns meaning kingdoms. In 538, the Emperor Justinian left Rome for Constantinople and decreed the Bishop of Rome was to have his 'seat' (or see). Now the 1260 years of darkness foretold in seven different prophecies, began. 22. CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS
Now not all by far of the early church went into this apostasy, many of the far flung places such as the far east, the middle east and the isle of Ireland and Briton had the apostolic message AND the true Bible. Also from the area of Rome, many who would not yield their faith, fled into the mountains and there through all the years of darkness maintained their true faith and the true Bible. They were called Waldenses, the people of the valleys. This was foretold by the prophecy that the true church would be given wings like and eagle to flee into the wilderness where God would take care of her for 1260 years. (See Revelation 12) 23. 1260 YEARS OF DARKNESS
Dark was the night that settled over the world during this terrible time of persecution. As soon as the leaders of the impure faith found that if the people had access to the true scriptures, they could stand for truth and expose their errors, then they first produced corrupt scriptures mixed with Greek philosophy and then began a war to destroy all Bibles, even their own, and those who would dare to read them.
Bibles were burned everywhere and their
believers were burned with them. It is only from a pathway stained with
blood that the true scriptures, we know as the Authorized King James Version, come down
to us today! Jesus had said that the time of persecution would be shortened, and so it was. Through an amazing set of prophetic events, the renaissance began as hordes of Eastern peoples pressed westward away from the ravages of the Muslim warriors. With them they brought the true scriptures in Greek. These scriptures had been preserved, far from the encroachments of Rome and they fiercely exposed many of the errors of the Papacy.
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Soon from the pages of the Bible, light shone
out and God raised up people to put it forward. Wycliffe, Huss, Luther,
Zwingli, and so on speeded the light on its way. Some perished at the stake,
others lived hunted lives, but
