The Anti-beatitudes

“Then spoke Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses‘ seat: All therefore whatever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not you after their works: for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But be not you called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all you are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be you called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.” (Matthew 23:1-12)

Jesus uses interesting and unique language in this passage. He said the scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses‘ seat, but Moses did not have a seat. He was not a king nor a priest. He was a prophet who conveyed God’s messages from the mercy seat in the sanctuary. Jesus is using a symbol to warn us about antichrist.

Antichrist loves to be called Rabbi and Father and Master. Antichrist is not content with pointing the people to Moses‘ writings and the Old and New Testaments. Antichrist wants people to depend on him as the source of truth. Antichrist wants the king’s seat of power and the priest’s seat of judgment.

Antichrist first showed himself in the very beginning. Lucifer said, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north.” (Isaiah 14:13) Now there are many.

“Little children, it is the last time: and as you have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.” (1 John 2:18) Satan’s desire to usurp God’s position is imitated by the “man of sin… the son of perdition; who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4)

In heaven, Lucifer sought to be called Rabbi and Master and Father. In the church, popes and priests and presidents and pastors have sought that same status of authority and power. Not content to point people to the writings of Moses and the prophets and apostles, frail humans have endeavored to become the sage source of truth for the masses. But there can be only One between the soul and the heavenly Father, “for there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:5)

“Anti” comes from the Greek and not only means opposite or against, but also “instead of” or “in the room of.” Antichrist opposes Christ by removing Him from the room and taking His place. Antichrist appears as the substitute for the Substitute, the mediator for the Mediator. Antichrist seeks to be the oracle, the sole channel of communication, between God and humans. Once dependency upon this false christ is established, then the words of God are replaced by the words of man. What at first appeared helpful is now tyrannical, for heavy burdens that are grievous to be borne are placed on people already weakened and defiled with guilt.

There are many antichrists “out there” in the world that deny God and Jesus, but that is well known. The real danger to souls is the antichrist in the church “that denies Jesus is the Christ” by elevating themselves to Rabbi or Master or Father. (1 John 2:22) Where ever there is a lack of faith in the power and Spirit of God there is a tendency for the human to replace the divine, under the guise of helping. Like Uzzah “steadying” the ark or Korah “sharing power” with Moses, feeble humans think God needs help. In both the Old and New Testaments, many have arisen in the church to master God’s church. Because God’s people look “out there” for the antichrist, they have unwittingly followed wolves in sheep’s clothing—antichrists clothed in Christian language but living unbiblical lives.

If we want to make sense of all the confusing, contradictory developments in church history, then we need to stop looking for monsters outside the church and instead look for substitute messiahs and replacement christs and human authorities inside God’s church. How do we identify these antichrists, of which there are many? By their fruit. By their principles. By their behavior. Antichrist has his anti-beatitudes, and these normal-sounding, but anti-Christian teachings are more pervasive than one might think. We find them throughout history. You might even find them in your own church.

“But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer you them that are entering to go in.” (23:13)

We look back with pity on the poor church members in the Dark Ages who paid their last coins and pilgrimaged long distances and flogged themselves with whips in order to feel forgiven and find atonement for their sins. They performed all these painful penances to find righteousness and worthiness to one day enter eternal life. And present day Christianity is not fundamentally different.

We think we have come a long way by taking the pain out of the process, but our reliance on a human process is still there. We have merely replaced works with words, replaced rituals with emotional experiences. Instead of magical ceremonies, we have magical words and songs and charismatic/mystical encounters. The formality and the pain has been reduced, but the superficial measures remain. Most Christians are no more converted, no more transformed in Christ, than their counterparts in the Dark Ages.

Rather than surrender the life to be led by the Spirit like the early apostles, millions join mega churches or engage in social activism or follow self-help, “heal thyself” authors and preachers. In our high-tech, commercialized religions we have found a way to feel comfortable professing Christianity without ever truly entering through the gate called, Poor in Spirit.

“Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for” most church members “is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes.” (Romans 10:1-4)

For centuries the pulpits have preached that obeying God’s law will not bestow righteousness. Therefore, the common Christian culture is to repeatedly sin and “repent”—like the abusive, alcoholic husband continually apologizing and continually returning to his habit.

Therefore, like the Dark Age Christian, we do something measurably good in one area of our life to “make up” for the evil areas. After all, the thinking goes, no one can actually be righteous so we will try not to be extremely wicked. This is where the philosophy comes from that we are merely to be good citizens in the church and society.

But, Jesus said, “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20) The scribes and Pharisees thought they were good enough. They thought they were reasonably doing what God reasonably expected of them. Should they love their enemies and give their shirts off their backs? No. God did not mean that literally. He just meant, Try. Should they do good to those who hate you and love everyone everywhere every time? No. Human nature is incapable of that and so God does not actually expect that. Jesus condemned this religion, because it was based on “good enough."

And that which feels good enough, sufficient enough, does not feel a need of supernatural power from Christ. The total, open ended commitment of the early church to give the gospel to the world at any and all cost to themselves, now degenerates into a human-based try-your-best behavior. Words like God and grace and Savior and faith have not disappeared, but the real-life expectation and understanding is that they are goals we are “striving for,” rather than experiences we presently possess or goals we can actually achieve.

The popular philosophy is this: Have you had a week of failures? Go to church and have a mystical, emotional experience to reassure yourself that you are spiritual. Have you sinned? Say you are sorry, but understand that you are only human and the cycle will repeat itself. Do you feel guilty? Listen to the Laodicean sermon (and give an offering!) and wrap yourself in the warm blanket of grace, but realize you will remain cold. Do you lack eternal assurance? Just believe!

Christianity is no longer a movement turning the world upside down by living the better way of the cross that starts with poverty of spirit. Rather, it has turned into the largest business ever of selling psychological platitudes, self-help tricks, and ready-made-rules-to-follow wrapped in Christian words.

The kingdom of heaven remains a mystery, because to enter it all the crutches and get-by methods must be left outside the gate. And since we are surviving as normal as can be expected, then we are good enough and God is pleased enough. Why ruin a good thing? Why rock a boat that does not feel like it is sinking? Grace, like duct tape, is holding us all together just fine! (Just don’t talk to our victims.)

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you devour widows‘ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore you shall receive the greater damnation.” (23:14)

The cathedrals of Europe, with their lofty spires, ornate decorations, and painted ceilings, were built on the backs of peasant labor and paid for by the guilt money of the masses. They bought indulgences for their sins and were exhorted to give sacrificially. The church was enriched by impoverishing the worshipers.

“A great agitation prevailed at [the time before the Reformation] among the German people. The Church had opened a vast market upon earth. From the crowds of purchasers, and the shouts and jokes of the sellers, it might have been called a fair, but a fair conducted by monks. The merchandise that they were extolling, and which they offered at a reduced price, was, said they, the salvation of souls!

“These dealers traversed the country in a handsome carriage, accompanied by three horsemen, living in great state, and spending freely… One person in particular attracted the attention of the spectators at these sales… This man, the son of a Leipsic goldsmith name Diez, was known as John Diezel, or Tetzel… Numerous honors had been heaped upon his head. Bachelor of divinity, prior of the Dominicans, apostolic commissary, inquisitor (haereticae pravitatis inquisitor), he had from the year 1502 uninterruptedly filled the office of dealer in indulgences. The skill that he had acquired as subordinate had soon procured him the nomination as chief commissary.

“He received eighty florins a month; all his expenses were paid; a carriage and three horses were at his disposal; but his subsidiary profits, as may be easily imagined, far exceeded his stipend. In 1507 he gained at Friburg two thousand florins in two days. If he had the office of a [flamboyant deceiver], he possessed the manners also. Convicted at Inspruck of adultery and infamous conduct, his vices had nearly caused his death. The Emperor Maximilian had ordered him to be put into a sack and thrown into the river. The Elector Frederick of Saxony interfered and obtained his pardon…

“Shouted Tetzel, ‘Come and I will give you letters, all properly sealed, by which even the sins that you intend to commit may be pardoned… I would not change my privileges for those of St. Peter in heaven; for I have saved more souls by my indulgences than the apostle by his sermons.’

“Then seeking to make use of other arms besides, he added: ‘Do you know why our most Holy Lord distributes so rich a grace? It is to restore the ruined Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, so that it may not have its equal in the world. This Church contains the bodies of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and those of a multitude of martyrs. These saintly bodies, through the present state of the building, are now, alas! beaten upon, inundated, polluted, dishonored, reduced to rottenness, by the rain and the hail Alas! shall these sacred ashes remain longer in the mire and in degradation?’

“When his speech was ended, he left the pulpit, ran towards the money-box, and in sight of all the people flung into it a piece of money, taking care that it should rattle loudly.” (D’Aubigne. History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century. Book 3, Ch. 1)

If only the Dark Ages had TV, Youtube, and Twitter, then we would see they were not so different than modern prosperity preachers who live in million dollar homes as evidence that God has blessed them, and if their middle to lower class congregations will only give a little more in faith then they too will receive financial blessings! One preacher with a net worth approaching ten million dollars begged his church for $50,000 for new rotors on his helicopter. It was for the kingdom!

One can argue how rich is too rich, but the problem remains that the rich and powerful, in the church and in the world, shape public opinion, theology, and priorities. They mourn, not for spiritual comfort, but for wealth, power, and prestige.

They cannot live the gospel preached by Him who said, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has not where to lay his head.” They cannot avoid the ultimate end of “the hypocrites: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.” (Matthew 8:20, 6:5)

We may not drive our luxury cars to our mega churches and ascend the pulpit to plead for more money, but do we value the decorations of the church more than feeding the homeless? Do we add all sorts of extra niceties to the local church budget rather than giving to third world missions? Are we supportive–to the point of giving all we have–of the ministries that preach the gospel to the poor and liberty to the captives? Long prayers and daily devotionals cannot atone for neglected duties and comfortable inequities. It is more blessed to give than to receive. It is more comforting to suffer the loss of worldly wealth than to lose Christ.

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you search sea and land to make one convert, and when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.” (23:15)

Both sides in the war of good versus evil have their evangelists, but it is the side against God and His word that trains converts to use force and violence in their work. Saul of Tarsus, who later became Paul the Apostle is a clear example. He was the opposite of meek.

“I truly thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. And I punished them often in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities… I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests.” (Acts 26:9-12)

Centuries later, in the time of Luther, another conversion took place, but Ignatius Loyola’s was one of the common theology of the day that worshiped at the altar of visions and miracles.

“One day he [Ignatius] awakened as from a dream. Now I know, said he to himself, that all these torments are from the assaults of Satan. I am tossed between the promptings of the good Spirit, who would have me be at peace, and the dark suggestions of the evil one, who seeks continually to terrify me. I will have done with this warfare. I will forget my past life; I will open these wounds not again. Luther in the midst of tempests as terrible had come to a similar resolution. Awaking as from a frightful dream, he lifted up his eyes and saw One who had borne his sins upon His cross: and like the mariner who clings amid the surging billows to the rock, Luther was at peace because he had anchored his soul on an Almighty foundation. But says Ranke, speaking of Loyola and the course he had now resolved to pursue, ‘this was not so much the restoration of his peace as a resolution, it was an engagement entered into by the will rather than a conviction to which the submission of the will is inevitable. It required no aid from Scripture, it was based on the belief he entertained of an immediate connection between himself and the world of spirits. This would never have satisfied Luther. No inspirations, no visions would Luther admit; all were in his opinion alike injurious. He would have the simple, written, indubitable Word of God alone.’” (Wylie. History of Protestantism. Vol. 2, Book 15, Ch. 1)

Loyola dedicated his new life to the pope and founded the Jesuit order to combat the Reformation. Many have heard their dictum that the ends justify the means, but no less demoralizing was their doctrine of probabilism that let them excuse almost any decision.

“We are neither indulging in satire nor incurring the charge of false-witness-bearing in this picture of Jesuit theology. ‘A person may do what he considers allowable,’ says Emmanuel Sa, of the Society of Jesus, ‘according to a probable opinion, although the contrary may be the more probable one. The opinion of a single grave doctor is all that is requisite.’ A yet greater doctor, Filiutius, of Rome, confirms him in this. ‘It is allowable,’ says he, ‘to follow the less probable opinion, even though it be the less safe one. That is the common judgment of modern authors.’ ‘Of two contrary opinions,’ says Paul Laymann, ‘touching the legality or illegality of any human action, every one may follow in practice or in action that which he should prefer, although it may appear to the agent himself less probable in theory.’ he adds: ‘A learned person may give contrary advice to different persons according to contrary probable opinions, whilst he still preserves discretion and prudence.’ We may say with Pascal, ‘These Jesuit casuists give us elbow-room at all events!’” (Ibid. Chap. 4)

When society takes the Jesuit principles to their logical conclusion, any vice can be justified, and any measure to make the public conform can be supported, including the restoration of an inquisition.

What happened in the Middle Ages is happening in our day. Popular theologies declare, and personal principles imply, that God’s law is no longer binding and human nature is unable to obey. We are taught that the best we can do is try, but even that is cast aside after a while as a useless burden. Therefore, church and society sink lower and lower because they are separated from heaven, from the powerful grace of the Savior.

No Christian pulpit advocates extreme vice, but when we tear down God’s law, or change His law, or teach it is impossible to keep it, the effect is always the same: sin. Then when sin is indulged, it becomes addictive. Its influence spreads. Trends and fads descend lower than previous ones. Step by step, sometimes in leaps, popular belief and practice degenerates until good is called evil and evil is called good. The children of hell can longer tolerate those who live righteously.

“Woe unto you, you blind guides, which say, whoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! You fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And, whoevershall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. You fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Whoever therefore shall swear by the altar, swears by it, and by all things on it. And whoever shall swear by the temple, swears by it, and by him that dwells in it. And he that shall swear by heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by him that sits on it.” (23:16-22)

What good is the gold or the temple if God is not in it? What good is the gift or the altar if God has not prompted it? To hunger and thirst for righteousness is to hunger and thirst for right doing and right being, not for a mere symbol of those things. Too often we mistake the symbol for possessing the meaning behind it.

Many clutch rosaries and wear crucifix jewelry. Some genuflect before statues, while others display the Ten Commandments in the courthouse lobby. Yet, we still wait for a church to live the Word with power. The church of today is technologically more sophisticated, but spiritually not much different than the Dark Age church that gilded Bibles in gold while banning them.

The Index of Prohibited Books, which for centuries listed “non-approved Bibles,” existed as recently as 1966. One hundred years earlier, Pope Pius IX, in his encyclical Quanta Cura, issued a syllabus of eighty errors under ten different headings. Under Heading IV was: “communism, clandestine societies, bible societies… Pests of this sort must be destroyed by all possible means."

“As it has been clearly shown by experience that, if the Holy Bible in the vernacular is generally permitted without any distinction, more harm than utility is thereby caused… all versions in the vernacular, even by Catholics, are altogether prohibited, unless approved by the Holy See, or published, under the vigilant care of the bishops, with annotations taken from the Fathers of the Church and learned Catholic writers.

“All versions of the Holy Bible, in any vernacular language, made by non-Catholics are prohibited; and especially those published by the Bible societies, which have been more than once condemned by the Roman Pontiffs, because in them the wise laws of the Church concerning the publication of the sacred books are entirely disregarded.” (The Great Encyclical Letters Of Pope Leo XIII.)

This gives us a hint of why there was a ban on plain Bibles. Its words, but not meaning, could be published.

Yet we are supposed to be assured by this: “In our course of Humanities we listened every day to the reading of the Bible. When we were advanced to the higher branches of Philosophy and Theology the study of the Sacred Scriptures formed an important part of our education. We read, besides, every day a chapter of the New Testament, not standing or sitting, but on our knees, and then reverently kissed the inspired page. We listened at our meals each day to selections from the Bible, and we always carried about with us a copy of the New Testament.” (Gibbons. The Faith of Our Fathers. p. 94)

However, symbolic kneeling cannot erase centuries of censoring. During the Reformation, “The Archbishop of Paris had compiled a list of works which the faithful could not read but at the risk of deadly injury. With this list in his hand the officer entered every suspected house, and whenever he found a forbidden book he instantly destroyed it. These visits were repeated so often that many books of rare value, known to have then existed, are now extinct, not one copy having escaped. The records of Synods, and the private papers and books of pastors, were the first to be destroyed. Wherever a Bible was found it was straightway given to the flames.” (Wylie. History of Protestantism. Vol. 3, Book 22, Ch. 6)

“We prohibit laymen possessing copies of the old and new testament… We forbid them most severely to have the above books in the popular vernacular.” (Council of Toulouse. 1229ad)

If the church was so supportive of the Bible, then why did it not invest in education and copies for the masses, rather than gold plated cathedrals? Why were parts of the Bible found in dozens, even hundreds of languages in the early centuries, but as the Dark Ages progressed, the only language allowed was Latin?

The answer is found in today’s catechism: “The task of interpreting the Word of God authentically has been entrusted solely to the Magisterium of the Church, that is, to the Pope and to the bishops in communion with him.” (Catechism Of The Catholic Church. para. 100)

As with Catholic pope and priest, so with Protestant pastor and scholar–“Let the common person have a Bible (the symbol looks good), but they must believe and obey our meaning.”

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought you to have done, and not to leave the other undone. You blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.” (23:23-24)

It is not only the right, but the sacred duty of a church to maintain its doctrinal purity. The Christian church is about Christ. When a member disrupts that purpose and culture Scripture calls for discipline.

“If your brother shall trespass against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone: if he shall hear you you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear you then take with you one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto you as a heathen man and a publican.” (Matthew 18:15-17)

How is the church to treat the heathen and publicans? “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” (Matt. 5:44)

“And it came to pass, when the time was come that [Jesus] should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, will you that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elijah did? But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, You know not what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” (Luke 9:51-56)

When the apostle Paul dealt with unruly influences, he put them out of the church. “Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck: Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.” (1 Timothy 1:19-20)

Having established these facts, we now turn our attention to the crusades. I am not referring to those horrors of warfare against the Muslims in Jerusalem, Constantinople, and other places in the middle ages. How are you as a missionary supposed to win the confidence of one whose people are under attack by your church? No, I am referring to those crusades launched against innocent, well-reputed citizens in Europe itself. One of those people were the Waldenses. They were the gnat in the political-religious empire that was mistreated with a sledge hammer.

“The Waldenses stand apart and alone in the Christian world. Their place on the surface of Europe is unique; their position in history is not less unique; and the end appointed them to fulfill is one which has been assigned to them alone, no other people being permitted to share it with them. The Waldenses bear a twofold testimony. Like the snow-clad peaks amid which their dwelling is placed, which look down upon the plains of Italy on the one side, and the provinces of France on the other, this people stand equally related to primitive ages and modern times, and give by no means equivocal testimony respecting both Rome and the Reformation. If they are old, then Rome is new; if they are pure, then Rome is corrupt; and if they have retained the faith of the apostles, it follows incontestably that Rome has departed from it. That the Waldensian faith and worship existed many centuries before Protestantism arose is undeniable; the proofs and monuments of this fact lie scattered over all the histories and all the lands of mediaeval Europe; but the antiquity of the Waldenses is the antiquity of Protestantism. The Church of the Reformation was in the loins of the Waldensian Church ages before the birth of Luther; her first cradle was placed amid those terrors and sublimities, those ice-clad peaks and great bulwarks of rock. In their dispersions over so many lands–-over France, the Low Countries, Germany, Poland, Bohemia, Moravia, England, Calabria, Naples-–the Waldenses sowed the seeds of that great spiritual revival which, beginning in the days of Wycliffe, and advancing in the times of Luther and Calvin, awaits its full consummation in the ages to come...

“The Persecutions of this remarkable people form one of the most heroic pages of the Church’s history. These persecutions, protracted through many centuries, were endured with a patience, a constancy, a bravery honorable to the Gospel, as well as to those simple people, whom the Gospel converted into heroes and martyrs. Their resplendent virtues illumined the darkness of their age; and we turn with no little relief from a Christendom sunk in barbarism and superstition to this remnant of an ancient people, who here in their mountain-engirdled territory practiced the simplicity, the piety, and the heroism of a better age...

“It was the year 1487. A great blow was meditated. The process of purging the Valleys languished. Pope Innocent VIII, who then filled the Papal chair, remembered how his renowned namesake, Innocent III, by an act of summary vengeance, had swept the Albigensian heresy from the south of France. Imitating the rigor of his predecessor, he would purge the Valleys as effectually and as speedily as Innocent III had done the plains of Dauphine and Provence.

“The first step of the Pope was to issue a bull, denouncing as heretical those whom he delivered over to slaughter. This bull, after the manner of all such documents, was expressed in terms as sanctimonious as its spirit was inexorably cruel. It brings no charge against these men, as lawless, idle, dishonest, or disorderly; their fault was that they did not worship as Innocent worshipped, and that they practiced a “simulated sanctity,” which had the effect of seducing the sheep of the true fold, therefore he orders “that malicious and abominable sect of malignants,” if they “refuse to abjure, to be crushed like venomous snakes.”...

“The joint army numbered about 18,000 regular soldiers. This force was swelled by the thousands of ruffians, already mentioned, drawn together by the spiritual and temporal rewards to be earned in this work of combined piety and pillage...

“This portion of the crusaders was led by a daring and cruel man, skilled in such adventures, the Lord of La Palu. He ascended the mountains with his fanatics, and entered the Vale of Loyse, a deep gorge overhung by towering mountains. The inhabitants, seeing an armed force, twenty times their own number, enter their valley, despaired of being able to resist them, and prepared for flight. They placed their old people and children in rustic carts, together with their domestic utensils, and such store of victuals as the urgency of the occasion permitted them to collect, and driving their herds before them, they began to climb the rugged slopes of Mount Pelvoux, which rises some six thousand feet over the level of the valley. They sang canticles as they climbed the steeps, which served at once to smooth their rugged path, and to dispel their terrors. Not a few were overtaken and slaughtered, and theirs was, perhaps, the happier lot.

About halfway up there is an immense cavern, called Aigue-Froid, from the cold springs that gush out from its rocky walls. In front of the cavern is a platform of rock, where the spectator sees beneath him only fearful precipices, which must be clambered over before one can reach the entrance of the grotto. The roof of the cave forms a magnificent arch, which gradually subsides and contracts into a narrow passage, or throat, and then widens once more, and forms a roomy hall of irregular form. Into this grotto, as into an impregnable castle, did the Vaudois enter. Their women, infants, and old men they placed in the inner hall; their cattle and sheep they distributed along the lateral cavities of the grotto. The able-bodied men posted themselves at the entrance. Having barricaded with huge stones both the doorway of the cave and the path that led to it, they deemed themselves secure. They had provisions to last, Cataneo says in his “Memoirs”, “two years;” and it would cost them little effort to hurl headlong down the precipices, any one who should attempt to scale them in order to reach the entrance of the cavern.

But a device of their pursuer rendered all these precautions and defenses vain. La Palu ascended the mountain on the other side, and approaching the cave from above, let down his soldiers by ropes from the precipice that overhangs the entrance of the grotto. The platform in front was thus secured by his soldiers. The Vaudois might have cut the ropes, and dispatched their foes as they were being lowered one by one, but the boldness of the maneuver would seem to have paralyzed them. They retreated into the cavern to find in it their grave. La Palu saw the danger of permitting his men to follow them into the depths of their hiding-place. He adopted the easier and safer method of piling up at its entrance all the wood he could collect and setting fire to it. A huge volume of black smoke began to roll into the cave, leaving to the unhappy inmates the miserable alternative of rushing out and falling by the sword that waited for them, or of remaining in the interior to be stifled by the murky vapor. Some rushed out, and were massacred; but the greater part remained till death slowly approached them by suffocation. “When the cavern was afterwards examined,” says Muston, “there were found in it 400 infants, suffocated in their cradles, or in the arms of their dead mothers. Altogether there perished in this cavern more than 3,000 Vaudois, including the entire population of Val Loyse. Cataneo distributed the property of these unfortunates among the vagabonds who accompanied him, and never again did the Vaudois Church raise its head in these bloodstained valleys.”” (Wylie, The History of the Waldenses, ch. 1, 2)

This was no isolated incident, no accidental mistake of the times. These crusades continued for hundreds of years, not only against the Waldenses, but against any other sect deemed heretical to the establishment. Blind guides indeed!

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. You blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.” (23:25-26)

Woe after woe, the audience probably felt that Jesus was harshly tearing into the church leadership. As He increased the pointed condemnations the people may have thought He was tearing down the whole Jewish nation, but the Savior knew that Nicodemus was among the Pharisees. He knew that soon a “great company of the priests” would be “obedient to the faith.” Yet, Jesus wanted the people to not rely on leadership for truth. They must understand that any religious leader can look good on the outside while denying God on the inside. As we have seen, this can happen in the Dark Ages, but it can also take place in this age of light.

“In 1986, evangelist Jimmy Swaggart began on-screen attacks against fellow televangelists Marvin Gorman and Jim Bakker. He uncovered Gorman’s affair with a member of Gorman’s congregation, and also helped expose Bakker’s infidelity (which was arranged by a colleague while on an out-of-state trip). These exposures received widespread media coverage. Gorman retaliated in kind by hiring a private investigator to uncover Swaggart’s own adulterous indiscretions with a prostitute. Swaggart was subsequently forced to step down from his pulpit for a year and made a tearful televised apology in February 1988 to his congregation, saying, ‘I have sinned against you, my Lord, and I would ask that your precious blood would wash and cleanse every stain until it is in the seas of God's forgiveness.’

“Swaggart was caught again by California police three years later in 1991 with another prostitute, Rosemary Garcia, who was riding with him in his car when he was stopped for driving on the wrong side of the road. When asked why she was with Swaggart, she replied, ‘He asked me for sex. I mean, that’s why he stopped me. That’s what I do. I’m a prostitute.’…

“Robert Tilton is an American televangelist who achieved notoriety in the 1980s and early 1990s through his paid television program Success-N-Life. At its peak it aired in all 235 American TV markets. In 1991, Diane Sawyer and ABC News conducted an investigation of Tilton. The investigation, broadcast on ABC’s Primetime Live on November 21, 1991, found that Tilton’s ministry threw away prayer requests without reading them, keeping only the money or valuables sent to them by viewers, garnering his ministry an estimated $80 million USD a year. In the original investigation, one of Tilton’s former prayer hotline operators claimed that the ministry cared little for desperate followers who called for prayer, saying that Tilton had a computer installed in July 1989 to make sure that the phone operators were off the line in seven minutes. Tilton sued ABC for libel in 1992, but the case was dismissed in 1993, and Tilton’s show was off the air by October 30, 1993…

“A self-proclaimed prophet and faith healer in the 1980s, Peter Popoff’s ministry went bankrupt in 1987 after magician and skeptic James Randi and Steve Shaw debunked his methods by showing that instead of receiving information about audience members from supernatural sources, he received it through an in-ear receiver.” (Thefullwiki.org/List_of_Christian_ evangelist_scandals)

The scandals of these religious leaders was made public suddenly, but their falls did not occur over night. They gradually acquired new habits and new perspectives. The heart was turned away more and more from God to the pleasures of the world. A front was maintained for their audiences, but God saw through that. During that time they had strong influence socially and doctrinally. Regularly, there are leaders now molesting children, committing adultery with other men’s wives, and embezzling money. God promises that there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed. While wolves in sheep’s clothing rob from the coffers and degrade the sensibilities of the church, we are to be vigilant and compare actions and teachings to the Word.

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.” (23:27-28)

Space does not permit to tell all the sordid details of scandals of popular televangelists and popes, and of ordinary pastors and priests. It would be nice to write these off as small exceptions, but, sadly, there is a pattern throughout history of hypocrites affecting the good people and theology of the church. I will share just one example here.

You may have read the story of Jon Huss in The Great Controversy. Some people accuse Ellen White of bigotry and harshness (I thought the same thing when I first read her history), but research shows that she presents a very sanitized version of church history. Here is her description of Pope John XXIII.

“To cure the evils that were distracting Europe, a general council was summoned to meet at Constance. The council was called at the desire of the emperor Sigismund, by one of the three rival popes, John XXIII. The demand for a council had been far from welcome to Pope John, whose character and policy could ill bear investigation, even by prelates as lax in morals as were the churchmen of those times.” (GC 104)

“He had been proved before the council to be guilty of the basest crimes, besides murder, simony, and adultery, ‘sins not fit to be named.’ So the council itself declared, and he was finally deprived of the tiara and thrown into prison…

“Though the pope himself had been guilty of greater crimes than Huss had ever charged upon the priests, and for which he had demanded a reformation, yet the same council which degraded the pontiff proceeded to crush the Reformer.” (GC 107)

After reading those paragraphs one might think that a council of holy men were combating a heretic on one hand and a singular depraved leader on the other, but the council itself was depraved.

“The Constantine council was characterized by Baptiza, one of its own members. His portrait is frightful. The clergy, he declared, ‘were nearly all under the power of the devil, and mocked all religion by external devotion and Pharisean hypocrisy. The [clergy], actuated only by malice, iniquity, pride, vanity, ignorance, lasciviousness, avarice, pomp, simony, and dissimulation, had exterminated Catholicism and extinguished piety.'

“The character of the holy bishops, indeed, appear from their company. More than seven hundred PUBLIC WOMEN, according to Dachery’s account, attended the sacred synod. The Vienna manuscript reckons the number of these female attendants, whom it calls vagrant prostitutes, at 1500. This was a fair supply for the thousand holy fathers who constituted the Constantian assembly. These courtesans, says Brays, were, in appearance, intended to exercise the chastity of the clergy. Their company, no doubt, contributed to the entertainment of the learned divines and introduced great variety into their amusements.

“The council of Basil taught the theory of filthiness, as that of Constance had exhibited the practice. Carlerius, the champion of Catholicism in the Basilian assembly against Nicholas the Bohemian heretic, advocated the propriety of tolerating [brothels] in a city. This hopeful and holy thesis the hero of the faith supported by the authority of the sainted Augustine and Aquinas. Remove prostitutes, says Augustine as cited by Carlerius, ‘and you will disturb all things with licentiousness.’ Human government, says Aquinas, quoted by the same orator, ‘should imitate the divine. But God, according to the saint, permits some evils in the universe, and therefore, so should man.’ His saintship’s logic is nearly as good as his morality. Simple fornication, therefore, concludes Carlerius, is to be permitted to avoid a greater evil. This severe moralist, however, would exclude these courtesans from the interior of the city, and confine them to the suburbs, to serve as sewers to carry away the filth.” (The Variations of Popery. Samuel Edgar. 1855. Vol. 1, p. 199)

In short, the theory of Basil applied at Constance was that priests should use prostitutes so that wives and children and other innocents would not be harmed. Centuries of hypocrisy developed a philosophy of hypocrisy which developed a degenerate culture. The 30 foot statue of Imperia the prostitute remains to this day in Constance as a memorial to that council.

“John was deposed by the council, and upon his return he was tried for heresy, simony, schism and immorality, and found guilty on all counts.” [over 200!] (Wikipedia, Antipope John XXIII) The pope took hypocrisy “too far” and was imprisoned. Huss called for its elimination and was burned. Thus, the harlot-infused council approved of hypocrisy in moderation.

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous, And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore you be witnesses unto yourselves, that you are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill you up then the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them you shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall you scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom you slew between the temple and the altar. Truly I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.” (23:29-36)

In 2004, Pope John Paul II apologized.

“The institution of the Inquisition has been abolished...the children of the Church cannot but return with a spirit of repentance to ‘the acquiescence given, especially in certain centuries, to intolerance and even the use of violence in the service of the truth.’

“This spirit of repentance, it is clear, entails a firm determination to seek in the future ways to bear witness to the truth that are in keeping with the Gospel.“ (JOHN PAUL II, From the Vatican, 15 June 2004)

After quoting the above, a modern Catholic apologist said, “The Inquisition tortures and deaths were wrong, dead wrong!” Thus, they admit today’s church is the descendant “of them which killed the prophets.”

Yet the lesson does not seem to be fully learned. The writer goes on to equate teaching heresy with shooting people.

“If someone went out into your street and started shooting people, including your kids, you wouldn’t say, “let him go ahead and do it, people can protect themselves...it’s their own fault if they are shot to death.” The Church was very worried that people who were influenced by these heresies were going to spend eternity in hell. Common people of the middle ages had no intellectual defense with which they could make a reasonable judgment about the Truth. They were almost as vulnerable to the heresies that were sweeping through communities as a person standing in front of a gun is today. Except a lot more than their lives was at stake, their eternal lives were in jeopardy.

“During the Inquisition, no one was punished for simply believing a heresy. The crime was teaching it, and leading others astray. The Church felt it was their job to protect the souls of the innocent. In hindsight, the Church understands that it would have done better by not using force, which is why Pope John Paul II made his apology.” (Catholicbridge.com/catholic/ inquisition.php)

Wrong. People were tortured and killed for just believing, for just listening, for just having books. New ideas were dangerous because “people thought differently in those days. Human rights, freedom of conscience, religious freedom and pluralism were concepts that grew out of experience and maturity of society and through doctrinal maturity… Christianity of the time was a political religious system.” That is why applying the basic Biblical principle of do unto others as you would have them do unto you was so difficult.

And now I will let the Catholics accurately summarize the Protestants. It will show just how low and how far from Scripture the general thinking was.

“Luther and Calvin both endorsed the right of the state to protect society by purging false religion. In fact, Calvin not only banished from Geneva those who did not share his views, he permitted and in some cases ordered others to be executed for “heresy” (e.g. Jacques Gouet, tortured and beheaded in 1547; and Michael Servetus, burned at the stake in 1553). In England and Ireland, Reformers engaged in their own ruthless inquisitions and executions. Conservative estimates indicate that thousands of English and Irish Catholics were put to death—many by being hanged, drawn, and quartered—for practicing the Catholic faith and refusing to become Protestant. An even greater number were forced to flee to the Continent for their safety. We point this out to show that the situation was a two-way street; and both sides easily understood the Bible to require the use of penal sanctions to root out false religion from Christian society.” (catholic.com/tract/the-inquisition)

This was the spirit of the Catholic and Protestant church fathers—the fathers who made the theology that shapes the churches today. This does not mean everything they taught was wrong, but it proves they are unworthy of being considered authorities. Which means no human has authority to persecute another human for what they believe, teach, or practice.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets, and stone them which are sent unto you; how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, You shall not see me from now on until you shall say, Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord.” (23:37-39)

God has repeatedly shown His reluctant willingness to bring to pass “His act, His strange act,” even against His own people. Sometimes things get so bad, that a reset is needed. Adam and Eve were exiled from Eden. The whole antediluvian world was wiped out. The tower of Babel was destroyed and its people scattered. Israel was enslaved in Egypt, banished to the wilderness for 40 years, and sent into Babylonian captivity. The Hebrew nation was replaced by the Christian church. Catholicism was reformed by Protestantism. The Protestant churches are warned and encouraged by the remnant of 144,000 who preach the three angels’ messages.

God has indebted Himself to an onlooking universe and world to take all necessary steps to complete His mission of redemption. At infinite cost to Himself, the Father raises up a people, and then, if need be, He raises up another generation to advance the work one step further. Until He comes, why should we expect this pattern to stop? Who dares to consider themselves irreplaceable? Only the deceitfulness of sin props us up in a false sense of self-importance.

One of the most piercing passages I have ever read applies the destruction of Jerusalem in 70a.d. to the church and the world at the end of time. Unsalty salt must be trashed. Light turned dark must be ended.

“Looking down the ages, He saw the covenant people scattered in every land, “like wrecks on a desert shore.” In the temporal retribution about to fall upon her children, He saw but the first draft from that cup of wrath which at the final judgment she must drain to its dregs. Divine pity, yearning love, found utterance in the mournful words: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” O that thou, a nation favored above every other, hadst known the time of thy visitation, and the things that belong unto thy peace! I have stayed the angel of justice, I have called thee to repentance, but in vain. It is not merely servants, delegates, and prophets, whom thou hast refused and rejected, but the Holy One of Israel, thy Redeemer. If thou art destroyed, thou alone art responsible. “Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life." Matthew 23:37; John 5:40.

“Christ saw in Jerusalem a symbol of the world hardened in unbelief and rebellion, and hastening on to meet the retributive judgments of God. The woes of a fallen race, pressing upon His soul, forced from His lips that exceeding bitter cry. He saw the record of sin traced in human misery, tears, and blood; His heart was moved with infinite pity for the afflicted and suffering ones of earth; He yearned to relieve them all. But even His hand might not turn back the tide of human woe; few would seek their only Source of help. He was willing to pour out His soul unto death, to bring salvation within their reach; but few would come to Him that they might have life.

“The Majesty of heaven in tears! the Son of the infinite God troubled in spirit, bowed down with anguish! The scene filled all heaven with wonder. That scene reveals to us the exceeding sinfulness of sin; it shows how hard a task it is, even for Infinite Power, to save the guilty from the consequences of transgressing the law of God. Jesus, looking down to the last generation, saw the world involved in a deception similar to that which caused the destruction of Jerusalem. The great sin of the Jews was their rejection of Christ; the great sin of the Christian world would be their rejection of the law of God, the foundation of His government in heaven and earth. The precepts of Jehovah would be despised and set at nought. Millions in bondage to sin, slaves of Satan, doomed to suffer the second death, would refuse to listen to the words of truth in their day of visitation. Terrible blindness! strange infatuation!“ (White, Great Controversy, p.22)

In Jeremiah’s day, the stubborn people of God trusted “in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD are these.” They trusted in the temple of the Lord, but they did not trust and obey the Lord of the temple. False religion is the most dangerous spiritual influence because it has the outer cloak of what is true. Just as antichrist has the word “christ” in it, so the sheep’s clothing has a wolf in it. Just as antichrist has no meaning outside the Christian church, so we must look for antichrist in the church. The patterns in prophecy and the Beatitudes both point us there.

But let us not end on a negative note. The prophetic and Beatitude patterns also point us to Christ, the Son of God, the Infinite One, the Savior who started, maintains, and will end this quarantine at great cost to Himself. When we reads the Bible through the lense of these patterns, a whole new consistently good life opens before our eyes. Light shines in the darkness. Hope springs forth bright and beautiful. Truth paints a picture of eternal glory and goodness.

Faith, hope, and love have led us on a fantastic journey to an Infinite Good Person who speaks to us through Scripture and shows us what is behind the scenes. Antichrist will be revealed in due time. What is absolutely essential now is to become one with the Father, Son, and Spirit that we may live as peaceful children in their presence. May you find that eternal joy is the prayer of this author.