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So much for the freedom of expression in education and supposed search for truth that these “liberals” claim to espouse. Any attempt to present scientific evidence on the other side is now denied as “religion,” which is not allowed in public schools, while atheists’ brainwashing of our children to believe the lie that fantasy is fact when pronounced in the name of science is acceptable.

Yet another fish fossil has been discovered. This one was found in the Australian desert and was dated by evolutionists to be “15 million years old.”1 Like finding a 100% dinosaur fossil, this is a 100% fish fossil belonging to the smelt family (Osmeridae).

It’s also significant that this fossil, named Ferruaspis brocksi, was found in Lagerstatte—sedimentary rock containing unique, extraordinarily preserved fossils. McCurry et al. described the geological and environmental setting.

The taphonomic [fossilization] processes that led to the formation of the site are currently under investigation, but it is hypothesized that iron precipitated in the waterbody, resulting in the rapid burial of organisms in a geochemical environment that facilitated the rapid conversion of soft tissues into goethite [a dark reddish-brown iron ore].2

The scientists suggest the conditions of preservation were due to an oxygen-free environment with no bacterial decomposition. This certainly fits the biblical interpretation of the Genesis Flood that catastrophically buried this fish about 4,500 years ago.

Dr. Michael Frese of the University of Canberra, Australia, stated, “Using a powerful microscope, we were able to see tiny colour-producing structures known as melanosomes. Fossilised melanosomes have previously enabled palaeontologists to reconstruct the colour of feathers, but melanosomes have never been used to reconstruct the colour pattern of a long extinct fish species.”3

F. brocksi looks like fish of the twenty-first century, eating phantom midge larvae that were remarkably preserved in its stomach. It also had a parasite. Study lead author Dr. Matthew McCurry said, “One of the fossils even shows a parasite attached to the tail of the fish. It’s a juvenile freshwater mussel called a glochidium. These juvenile mussels attach themselves to the gills or tails of fish to hitch rides up and down streams.”3

Did this group of fish evolve? McCurry et al. said in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, “The lack of well-preserved body fossils has made it difficult to interpret the evolutionary history of the group [Osmerifomes].”2 This could be said for all fish groups. Professor Jochen Brocks said regarding F. brocksi, “This discovery opens new avenues for understanding the evolutionary history of Australia’s freshwater fish species and ancient ecosystems.”3 But there is no evolutionary history of this freshwater fish. It is classified as a smelt, is exquisitely preserved right down to the microscopic melanosomes, it had a diet of invertebrates like today’s fish, and was even parasitized by the same type of parasites as today.

Indeed, Dr. McCurry stated, “This fossil is part of the Osmeriforms fish family – a diverse group of fish species within Australia that includes species like the Australian Grayling and the Australian Smelt.”3 There is no real evolution of this smelt.

Fish have always been fish. They were designed by the Lord Jesus to adapt to various conditions. However, many were killed and tightly packed together in great fossil graveyards during the Flood. In the case of F. brocksi, the floodwaters transported and rapidly buried them in what is today the Central Tablelands of New South Wales of Australia.

1. References Amazing 15-million-Year-Old Fish Fossil Found in The Australian Desert. Posted on sciencealert.com March 23, 2025.McCurry, M. et al. 2025. The Paleobiology of a New Osmeriform Fish Species from Australia. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Article e2445684.
2. Scientists Discover 15 Million-Year-Old Australian Fish Fossil. Australian National University. Posted on anu.edu.au/news March 18, 2025.Posted on anu.edu.au/news March 18, 2025.

https://www.icr.org/article/freshwater-fish-fossil-in-australia/

The pro-life movement misuses the Bible to “consolidate white political power,” a Vanderbilt University assistant professor said during a symposium hosted by the University of California Los Angeles on Monday.

Professor Sophie Bjork-James also criticized pro-lifers for denying climate change and focusing solely on the issue of abortion.

The event, titled “Misusing the Bible: White Evangelicalism and Christian Nationalism in America,” featured two other assistant professors.

The trio discussed “how Evangelicalism and Christian Nationalism use and misuse biblical and historical material to bolster their narratives,” according to the event description.

Some pro-lifers point to the Bible to support their argument, “Yet many biblical scholars say abortion is actually not even really referenced in the Bible, and many argue that it is not a central ethical theme,” Bjork-James said.

She quoted Dallas Theological Seminary Professor Bruce Waltke, who wrote, “God does not regard the fetus as a soul, no matter how far gestation has progressed.”

Further, Bjork-James referenced historian Jennifer Holland, who “describes the anti-abortion movement as the civil rights movement for white people.”

For evangelicals, the issue of abortion is “like slavery or the Holocaust … there’s no gray area involved,” Bjork-James said.

https://www.thecollegefix.com/pro-lifers-misuse-bible-to-consolidate-white-political-power-ucla-event/

[TBC: Many “biblical scholars” may read the Bible, but apparently don’t read it for what it says. As Psalm:139:15-16 [15] My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. [16] Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
See All... tells us, “My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. ”As Dave Hunt noted, “I have stated in numerous articles and books that we must follow God and not man. We do not condemn any rescue of babies about to be aborted. In fact, we have an obligation to do all we can to rescue anyone from any harm by which they are being threatened.”]

The pro-life movement misuses the Bible to “consolidate white political power,” a Vanderbilt University assistant professor said during a symposium hosted by the University of California Los Angeles on Monday.

Professor Sophie Bjork-James also criticized pro-lifers for denying climate change and focusing solely on the issue of abortion.

The event, titled “Misusing the Bible: White Evangelicalism and Christian Nationalism in America,” featured two other assistant professors.

The trio discussed “how Evangelicalism and Christian Nationalism use and misuse biblical and historical material to bolster their narratives,” according to the event description.

Some pro-lifers point to the Bible to support their argument, “Yet many biblical scholars say abortion is actually not even really referenced in the Bible, and many argue that it is not a central ethical theme,” Bjork-James said.

She quoted Dallas Theological Seminary Professor Bruce Waltke, who wrote, “God does not regard the fetus as a soul, no matter how far gestation has progressed.”

Further, Bjork-James referenced historian Jennifer Holland, who “describes the anti-abortion movement as the civil rights movement for white people.”

For evangelicals, the issue of abortion is “like slavery or the Holocaust … there’s no gray area involved,” Bjork-James said.

https://www.thecollegefix.com/pro-lifers-misuse-bible-to-consolidate-white-political-power-ucla-event/

[TBC: Many “biblical scholars” may read the Bible, but apparently don’t read it for what it says. As Psalm:139:15-16 [15] My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. [16] Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
See All... tells us, “My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. ”As Dave Hunt noted, “I have stated in numerous articles and books that we must follow God and not man. We do not condemn any rescue of babies about to be aborted. In fact, we have an obligation to do all we can to rescue anyone from any harm by which they are being threatened.”]

The infamous and much misrepresented Scopes trial in 1925 came about because the Bible was being taught in public schools to the exclusion of atheism and evolution. A major underlying purpose of Clarence Darrow, the atheist chief defense attorney, was to force schools to allow the teaching of evolution as an alternate belief alongside the biblical account of creation. Darrow’s main strategy was to discredit the Bible itself. The outcome was far beyond what the evolutionists claimed to be arguing for—an equal forum for both evolution and creation. Evolutionists have taken over the public domain and public opinion so that now the since-discredited theory stands as proven science, and creation may not be taught in public schools, even as an alternative.

I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out.

— John Wesley (28 June 1703 – 2 March 1791, English cleric, theologian, and evangelist, and a principal leader of a revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism.)

I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out.

— John Wesley (28 June 1703 – 2 March 1791, English cleric, theologian, and evangelist, and a principal leader of a revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism.)

I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out.

— John Wesley (28 June 1703 – 2 March 1791, English cleric, theologian, and evangelist, and a principal leader of a revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism.)

The National Academy of Sciences has defined creation science as a pseudoscience. This is nothing new. But, if true, I guess we will have to tell Raymond Damadian, inventor of MRI, that he is not a real scientist. Also, John Sanford, the Ph.D. geneticist who invented the gene gun, sure fooled me. And we will have to let John Hartnett, who co-developed the world’s most precise clock, know that he is, according to the National Academy of Sciences, not a real scientist.

One wonders how a body like the National Academy of Sciences can dictate to us that the men and women who hold Ph.D.s in biology, chemistry, zoology, geology, and more on our creation scientists list are not real scientists, despite the fact that they went to the same universities as ‘real’ scientists, did the same work as ‘real’ scientists, and are otherwise indistinguishable from ‘real’ scientists.

And if being a creationist disqualifies you from being a scientist, I’m afraid we will have to reappraise those who are no longer with us. After all, if the 21st century has taught us anything, it has shown us that living a few centuries ago is no justification for holding inexcusable beliefs! So Newton, Mendel, Bacon, Galileo, Steno, and Pasteur—scientists famous enough to be referred to by one name—are not scientists!

Can we agree that anyone defining ‘science’ to mean ‘adherence to a belief’ is silly and destructive to true science? This is because, historically speaking, scientific orthodoxy has been wrong more often than it has been right. 100 years ago, eugenics was ‘good science’. Not too long before that, humoral theory ruled medicine. 500 years ago, geocentrism. Who knows what we will discover tomorrow

We rightly discount the views of the people who used Aristotelian philosophy to oppose heliocentrism, because, by all accounts, they were wrong. At the same time, we rightly vilify those leaders in the evolution movement who once taught eugenics, because it is a horrific ideology. But both geocentrism and eugenics used to be scientific orthodoxy to the people of the day. People who were willing to challenge that orthodoxy using good scientific methods advanced science. If we freeze science by defining a particular theory as necessary to be a scientist, that idea, by definition, cannot be challenged by scientists. Imagine if that had happened with geocentrism!

Thus, we reject efforts like this. They are counterproductive and contrary to the very nature of science, which is to challenge ‘orthodoxy’. We will continue to defy Darwinism, naturalism, and belief in long ages, and we will seek to find more and better ways to be a goad under the saddle of the gatekeepers and power controllers in high places. We are called to do this through the Bible, and we are motivated to do this because of what science is telling us.?

[TBC: For full article, please go to:]

https://creation.com/not-science

Who are promoted on secular radio and TV? Who are consulted by the media as the spokespersons for science? Not consulted are the many top scientists who are Christians and every bit as competent in every field of science as their atheist colleagues. Instead, it is the atheists, who have seized the exclusive right to represent science today. Who are allowed to evangelize in public schools? Christians have been forced to establish their own schools or turn to home schooling in order to rescue their children from atheism’s evangelists. Atheists are free to preach their “gospel” to children in public schools, while no one is allowed the freedom to refute their lies in that venue. Yet Dawkins complains about the “colonization of the brains of innocent tykes [and] bringing up children to believe manifest falsehoods”! Whose “falsehoods”?

Dave Hunt

Originally published July 1993

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets,...how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! 

—Luke:13:34O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!
See All...

I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore...With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication.... I saw a woman...And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT.... [She was] drunken with the blood of the saints, and...of the martyrs of Jesus.... [She] is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth [and is built on seven hills, i.e., Rome]. 

—Revelation:17:1-9 [1] And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: [2] With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been 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 sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. [4] And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: [5] And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. [6] And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. [7] And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. [8] The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. [9] And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
See All...,18

Jerusalem and Rome! How different and yet how similar are these ancient (and current) rivals for worldwide spiritual leadership! Both figured so largely in Christ's crucifixion and the persecution of the early church. Both are destined by God also to play dominant roles in the final events prophesied in Scripture. Antichrist will rule the world from Rome's fabled throne of the Caesars, revived as the seat of the new world order. This "Wicked [one]" (2 Thessalonians:2:8And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
See All...) will be embraced by Israel as her Messiah (John:5:43I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.
See All...) when he brings peace to the Middle East and allows the temple to be rebuilt. That the stage for these coming events is already set seemed apparent to the participants in [June of 1993’s] videomaking tour of Israel and Rome (see—https://bit.ly/TBCIsraelTourDVD).

The fate of Jerusalem has been inextricably intertwined with that of Rome ever since they joined in unholy alliance to reject and crucify the Lord of glory (Acts:2:23Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
See All...; 1 Corinthians:2:8Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
See All...). That uneasy partnership was shattered with Jerusalem's destruction by Rome's legions in AD 70, foretold both by Daniel (9:26) and Jesus (Matthew:24:2And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
See All...). The Roman Empire must be revived, for one day its armies will belong to Daniel's "prince that shall come"—i.e., Antichrist––and will seek to destroy Jerusalem again.

The woman in Revelation 17 can only be Rome/Vatican City. No other city built on seven hills wields such authority, exchanging ambassadors with nations. Nor does any other city claim to represent Christ, and thus no other could stand accused of spiritual fornication due to unholy alliances with earth's rulers. Neither can any other city rival the blood of both Jews and Christians which pagan Rome and later the Vatican have shed. Thomas Hobbes perceptively said, "The Papacy is...the ghost of the deceased Roman Empire, sitting crowned upon the grave thereof."

"In the midst of the [70th] week [seven-year tribulation]" (Daniel:9:27And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
See All...), Antichrist will forbid further sacrifices, place his image in the temple and demand to be worshiped as God. Israel will object, bringing the armies of the entire world, under Antichrist, against her to effect a "final solution" to the “Jewish problem.” Accompanied by the saints of all ages in their resurrected and/or glorified bodies, Christ will intervene. Destroying Antichrist and his armies, Israel's Messiah, at last recognized and accepted by her, will rule the world from David's throne in Jerusalem.

Such prophecies remain hidden from Israel. The spiritual blindness of the vast majority in that land was both apparent and incomprehensible to those on our recent tour. How true is Christ's sorrowful pronouncement: "this [rebellious (Psalm:78:8And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.
See All...), faithless and perverse (Matthew:17:17Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me.
See All...), evil and adulterous (12:39, 16:4), etc.] generation [of vipers (12:34)] shall not pass, till all these things [i.e., all the prophesied signs] be fulfilled" (24:34). Only after all prophesied events have occurred (which must precede and foreshadow the Second Coming), and Christ comes visibly in power and glory to rescue her in the midst of Armageddon, will Israel at last believe (Zechariah:12:10And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
See All...). Then shall be fulfilled Christ's words: "he that endureth to the end shall be saved" (Matthew:10:22And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
See All...); and Paul's: "all Israel [that have survived to the end] shall be saved" (Romans:11:26And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
See All...).

How astonishing it is that stubborn unbelief should persistently characterize the descendants of Abraham, the father of the faithful (Romans:4:11-16 [11] And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also: [12] And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. [13] For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. [14] For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect: [15] Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. [16] Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
See All...)! "[B]lindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles..." (Romans:11:25For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
See All...). More than 30 percent of Israel's Jews are atheists. Although that figure is high compared with many other countries (10 percent in the USA and Ireland, 20 percent in Italy), it is even higher among kibbutz dwellers. This communal lifestyle of Marxist origins breeds atheism. We were told by our host on a visit to a kibbutz in Galilee that out of 300 kibbutzim throughout Israel, only about 15 were "religious," atheism being the faith of all of the others (including his own).

Politely but pointedly, I asked how Israel could assert any better claim to that land than the Arabs if God did not give it to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for "an everlasting possession" (Genesis:17:8And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
See All...; 48:4; Exodus:6:8And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the LORD.
See All...; Joel:3:2I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
See All...). He had no answer. I then reminded him that Israel's children study their history from the Bible, and asked how that Book could be 100 percent accurate when it comes to ancient names, places, and events and yet be 100 percent wrong about the God who its authors claim inspired their writings. Again, no answer.

Interviews in the streets for the videos we shot revealed that most Israelis (including even some atheists) do expect the Messiah. Yet they have no biblical understanding of who He might be––or that the prophets said Messiah would be "cut off [killed]" (Isaiah:53:8He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
See All...; Daniel:9:26And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
See All..., etc.) and thereafter Jerusalem and the temple destroyed (9:26)! When asked how they would recognize the Messiah, nearly all responded, "He will bring peace." What a setup for Antichrist, of whom it is said, "By peace shall [he] destroy many" (Daniel:8:25And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.
See All...)! Sadly, the worst destruction in Israel's history, "the time of Jacob's trouble" (Jeremiah:30:7Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.
See All...), lies ahead.

Evidence of the conquering Roman presence from Christ's day and from Crusader times is found everywhere. Ancient ruins, neglected and even destroyed when the Arabs were in control, are being expertly restored by the Jews. A Roman presence of another nature continues in Israel to this day: the Catholicized "holy" places where events in Jesus' life and death allegedly took place. Rome's presence is seen and felt also in the throngs of Catholic pilgrims who come for the indulgences and special favors from God which they've been taught are attached to physical places and relics. One has the impression that this land is still theirs. After all, didn't the Crusaders conquer it for Holy Mother Church?

Each holy place is marked (and marred) by the inevitable church constructed upon it. In these shrines, candles (purchase price depending upon size) burn continuously. Robed priests appear periodically at altars to repeat incantations unknown to Christ and the apostles. Reverently, the faithful cross themselves and join in ceremonies believed to convey special grace because they are performed at a sacred site. Israel needs the money the pilgrims bring. Yet one senses an uneasy truce between Jews, who disown their own who believe in Him, and Catholics, who come to see where Jesus was crucified by Jews, forgetting the Vatican's long persecution and slaughter of Jesus's Jewish brethren.

The Christian church, after being granted recognition and freedom by Constantine, soon became the persecutor of all those who did not submit to its doctrines. Like Islam a few centuries later, Christianity was imposed upon the entire populace of Europe under the threat of torture and death. Christ told His disciples that whosoever would be the greatest must be the servant of all. Instead, the popes aspired to be masters of the world. Church and state joined in adulterous partnership to expand the "Holy Roman Empire" by enforcing conversion with the sword.

Persecution of Jews commenced in earnest after the popes, taking advantage of the power vacuum left when the empire fell to the barbarians, began to rule not just as ecclesiastical leaders of the church but as secular kings. Papal armies fought to expand "the Kingdom of God." The Jews' plight––in the name of Jesus the Jew––soon became far more grievous under the alleged Christian church than it had ever been at the hands of pagan rulers. In Vicars of Christ, Jesuit historian Peter de Rosa writes of those early days:

[Catholicism] will become the most persecuting faith the world has ever seen. They will persecute the race from which Peter––and Jesus––sprang...[and] order in Christ's name all those who disagree with them to be tortured, and sometimes crucified over fire. They will make an alliance between throne and altar; they will insist that...the throne (the state) impose the Christian [Roman Catholic] religion on all its subjects.

A major target of conquest became "the Holy Land," which had already been claimed by "Saint" Helena. Constantine was the father of the new Church and Helena was honored as its mother. Even before it was conferred upon Mary, the title "Mother of God" was given to Helena as the Emperor's mother. (Every Roman emperor was worshiped as God.) This "mother of the church" journeyed to the Holy Land to buy relics and to build churches upon alleged sites of key events involving our Lord.

The Roman Catholic Church began to believe it had replaced Israel as God's chosen people. That land, promised by God to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, now belonged, for new and holier reasons, to "Christian" Rome, the new Zion. The pagan empire had become the Holy Roman Empire, the "Kingdom of God" on earth. The hope of its revival was the dream of all Europe during the Middle Ages––a goal which will be accomplished at last by Antichrist. The revived Roman Empire over which he will rule, with enthusiastic Vatican support as in the past, will encompass the entire world.

Without rancor we must face the facts concerning the Holy Roman Empire to understand what its revival will mean. Pagans had blamed every disaster upon Christians. Now the Church blamed all on the Jews. Accused of causing the Black Death, Jews were rounded up and hanged, burned, and drowned by the thousands in revenge. Although now and then a pope sought to ameliorate their condition, there was no place for "Christ crucifiers" in God's Holy Kingdom. More than 100 antisemitic documents were published by the Roman Catholic Church between the sixth and twentieth centuries. Antisemitism had become official Church doctrine. To this day, the Vatican has never conceded Israel's right to exist and wants Jerusalem to be, not in Jewish hands, but under international control.

To raise an army for the First Crusade, Pope Urban II promised instant entrance into heaven without purgatory for all who fell in that great cause. The knights and knaves who responded with enthusiasm to that deceitful promise left a trail of plunder, mayhem, and murder on their way to Jerusalem, where they slaughtered all Arabs and Jews. One of their first acts after their triumphal entry into Jerusalem was to herd the Jews into the synagogue and set it ablaze. On their way to the Holy Land, the Crusaders gave the Jews the choice of baptism or death. De Rosa recounts:

In the year 1096, half of the Jews of Worms were slaughtered as the Crusaders passed through the town. The rest fled to the bishop's residence for protection. He agreed to save them, on condition that they asked to be baptized. The Jews retired to consider their decision. When the doors of the audience chamber were opened, all 800 Jews inside were dead. Some were decapitated; fathers had killed their babes before turning their knives on their wives and themselves; a groom had slain his bride. The first century tragedy of Masada was repeated everywhere in Germany and, later, throughout France.

Sincere followers of Christ, too, were slain by the hundreds of thousands for attempting to follow the Bible instead of Rome. What these victims suffered from Holy Mother Church is a story sad beyond belief for both persecuted and persecutors. The Inquisitors were caught in a web from which there was no escape, for the papacy did indeed "reign over the kings of the earth." No doubt many of the zealots who carried out papal decrees were sincere. The civil authorities, moreover, feared excommunication should they fail to fulfill the Inquisitors' demands. The facts speak volumes.

Heretics (those who felt bound by conscience to follow God's Word) were committed to the flames because the popes believed that the Bible forbade Christians to shed blood. Victims of the Inquisition exceeded by hundreds of thousands the number of Christians (and Jews) who had been martyred under pagan Roman emperors. Catholic apologists try in vain to absolve their Church of responsibility, arguing that the sentence of death was carried out by civil authorities. Yet this transference to the "secular arm" was required by the Church's canon law, and at the tribunal where heretics were condemned the Inquisitor's throne was higher than that of the magistrate. The prisoner was allowed to know neither the charge against him nor the identity of his accusers. No one was ever acquitted. Torture often made the pitiful victims willing to confess to anything. Will Durant reminds us of Pope Clement V's rebuke of King Edward II's leniency:

We hear that you forbid torture as contrary to the laws of your land. But no state law can override [the Church's] canon law, our law. Therefore I command you at once to submit those men to torture.

The medieval Inquisition had flourished for centuries when, in 1542, Pope Paul III gave it permanent status as the first of Rome's Sacred Congregations, the Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Inquisition. Known more recently as the Holy Office, its name was changed in 1967 to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith––quite appropriate, inasmuch as public burnings were known as autos-da-fé, or acts of faith. The Office operates today from the Palace of the Inquisition adjacent to St. Peter's. The Grand Inquisitor is Cardinal Ratzinger, who reports to Pope John Paul II.

Before he became Pope Paul IV in 1555, Inquisitor-General John Peter Carafa had converted a house at his own expense into a fully equipped torture chamber for eliciting confessions from the accused. He denounced any who tolerated heretics and declared, "If my own father were a heretic, I would personally gather the wood to burn him." During his brief pontificate the population of Rome was decimated almost by half, with Jews the main victims. Under Paul IV, marriage between a Christian and a Jew was punishable by death. Hitler claimed only to be carrying out what the popes and Church councils had already decreed.

Paul IV forced Jews to sell their properties, confined them to ghettos, treated them as slaves and reduced them to the status of ragpickers. Pope Gregory XIII declared that the guilt of Jews in rejecting and crucifying Christ "only grows deeper with successive generations, entailing perpetual slavery." Later popes, such as Benedict XIV, Pius VII, Leo XII, Pius VIII, Gregory XVI, Pius IX, et al., continued the persecution of Jews. Pope Pius XII knew very well that the Nazis were systematically exterminating Jews. Yet he never spoke a public word against the Holocaust, because to do so would have condemned his own Church. This silence, historians agree, encouraged Hitler and added to the unspeakable genocide.

Jerusalem has its Yad Vashem (Holocaust Museum) to keep ever before the world's conscience the 6 million Jews killed by Hitler. By contrast, there is no memorial to the untold multitudes of both Jews and Christians murdered by Holy Mother Church and now forgotten. De Rosa reminds us that Pope John Paul II "knows the church was responsible for persecuting Jews, for the Inquisition, for slaughtering heretics by the thousands, for reintroducing torture into Europe as part of the judicial process. But he has to be careful [not to apologize]. The doctrines responsible for those terrible things still underpin his position" (Emphasis added). The Vatican has never repented of these crimes against humanity and God. Of these indisputable facts many of today's evangelical leaders seem willingly ignorant. 

TBC

• Question: What are the Noahide Laws?
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• Dave Hunt Classic/TBC Extra

Question: What can you tell me about the Noahide Laws? I have been confronted with this issue and need more information in order to understand what it is and if it should be a concern of ours.

Response: The Noahide Laws teaching in Judaism is commonly defined as “seven ancient basic laws that determine a moral and civilized society.” The name is given as the “Noahide” laws because they are considered to be God’s word to Noah after the flood.

This group of laws, which are to be given to humanity (who are all the sons [and daughters] of Noah by descent) comes from the Talmud. As other commentators have pointed out, the idea of the Noahide Laws given to all humanity (that is, all the descendants of Noah) is from the Talmud and consequently extra-biblical. Further, according to Judaism, a Gentile does not have to follow the Mosaic Law; nevertheless, all Gentiles have an obligation to follow the Noahide Laws.

The 7 Noahide Laws are that 

1. Idolatry is forbidden, 

2. Blasphemy is forbidden, 

3. Murder is forbidden, 

4. Theft is forbidden, 

5. Sexual immorality is forbidden, 

6. Eating the flesh of living animals is forbidden, and 

7. Justice laws must be established.

During the administration of the first President George Bush in 1991, the United States Congress passed the Education Day Bill and recognized the Noahide Laws, saying: “Whereas Congress recognizes the historical tradition of ethical values and principles which are the basis of civilized society and upon which our great Nation was founded; Whereas these ethical values and principles have been the bedrock of society from the dawn of civilization, when they were known as the Seven Noahide Laws.”

Since the Noahide Laws are not found in the Bible, the question is asked: Are they the same as biblical teaching? They do seem to follow Old Testament principles contained in the Law. But there are complications. The Talmud, which is “the Link Between Scripture and Jewish Practice,” does call for capital punishment of Gentiles who violate the Noahide Laws, and this has prompted concerns as to whether or not Christians (who recognize Jesus Christ as God) are guilty of violating the first Noahide law and should therefore be put to death.

The Noahide laws are basic and provide a framework for civilized living. But they are not the foundation for a person's salvation. There are good works when individuals strive to make the world a better place, are employed in a good and worthy profession, give to charity, volunteer for worthy causes, raise a family with good values, and offer help and wise counsel, among other things. But works do not save.

Indeed, a society adhering to these laws would be a better place to live, but of no comfort to those who haven’t believed in the finished work of Christ. Some Messianic believers have warned that inevitably there will be a return to the full Law. We need to go no further than the Epistle to the Galatians to see the warning Paul gave under the prompting of the Holy Spirit. In Galatians 3, Paul warned, 

“Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal:3:24-26 [24] Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. [25] But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. [26] For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
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