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The Origin of the Roman Catholic Church, No. 3
RV25-02© Berean Memorial Church of Irving, Texas, Inc. (1993)
We are studying the letter to Thyatira in Revelation 2:18-29. Satan's modus operandi in dealing with spiritual truth is to create a counterfeit,
to deceive people. Satan is very good indeed at doing that very thing, as is evidenced by a remark that the Lord Jesus Christ made which is
recorded for us in Mark 13:22. The Lord Jesus says, "For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall show signs and wonders to
seduce, if it were possible, even the elect."
It is not so surprising that Satan should be able to pull off counterfeits that confuse and deceive the people who are uninstructed in the
Word of God. But it is something else to read in Scripture that he is so good at counterfeits that even those of you who are believers can
look at one of these counterfeits and be in doubt in your mind as to whether it is from God or from Satan, and actually to be attributing
that as possibly something that God is doing, when in fact it is not. This, of course, is further reflected for us in Revelation 13:13,
where we read that in the tribulation period, the false prophet will be performing just such deceptive works of Satan: "And he does great
wonders so that he makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceives them that dwell on the earth by the means
of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image
of the beast that had the wound by a sword, and did live." The practice of deception by counterfeiting what God does is going to reach a
maximum degree in the tribulation period.
So you and I should learn a point of doctrine, and that is that we must test the spirits as the Scriptures tell us. We must test what we see
on the basis of doctrine, not on the basis of our experience or someone else's experience to verify that the awesome thing that we see being
done, or the thing that we think God is doing is indeed from God, and that it is not one of these counterfeit deceptions of Satan.
The charismatic movement today is a classic example of just such a counterfeit movement on the part of Satan. It will result in that scene
that you have read so often described in Matthew 7:21-23, where Jesus Christ will be rejecting from heaven people who are claiming to have
been giving Him the glory for miracles and prophecies and the casting out of demons which they have performed. Satan casts out demons. That's
an impressive thing to do. Satan himself does it for this purpose of establishing his modus operandi in dealing with humanity during this
age of counterfeits that look like they come from God, but are nothing but a deception. Satan's goal in all of this is to neutralize the
people of God in the Lord's service, and to keep people from salvation. His principle is to send human beings chasing rabbits.
The Roman Catholic Church
We have seen that the Roman Catholic Church is one such counterfeit of Satan. There are, of course, others in the world such as the cults
like Mormonism, and the religions of the world such as Islam. These again claim to be serving the true and living God. These are claims to
be systems of religious thought which have come from God, but they are nothing of the kind. They are, in fact, again satanic counterfeits
which are contradicted by Scripture. The Roman Catholic Church is Christianity corrupted and dominated by the Babylonian mystery religion
with all of its practices and its doctrines. The Jezebel-like woman in the church of Thyatira, which is referred to in Revelation 2:20,
was championing the practices of pagan religion such as fornication and eating food which was offered to idols, which the early church
leaders specifically forbad Christians to do.
The woman's argument probably was that all religions are seeking to approach the same God, and that God therefore tolerates them all and
accepts them all equally. The culmination of the Thyatira influence was the Roman Catholic Church as a perversion of biblical Christianity
which God Himself looks upon and describes as a harlot in Revelation 17:1-6. Well, of course this system came to its climax in the Middle
Ages in what has come down to us as the Roman Church today.
Taking a look a little further at what the influence of the Jezebel principal meant upon the church of Jesus Christ historically, we want
to look again at the domination of the papacy. The Roman Empire itself broke up in 476 A.D. That was the terminal point of the great and
mighty Roman Empire. It broke up into national entities. This was a godsend because it prevented the complete corruption of mankind by
the rising power of the Roman Catholic Church, because universal political domination was terminated. Consequently, universal enforcement
of the will of the Roman Catholic Church was also restricted. The influence of this harlot system could only be extended now to national
boundaries. If the ruler of that particular national entity was not sympathetic with the papacy, then the papacy could not impose its
corruption. This came to its maximum fruition, indeed, in the Protestant Reformation. For it was the German rulers and the German princes
who rebelled against the papacy, and who refused to subject themselves to the edicts of the pope in Rome that made it possible for Martin
Luther to rally the people of Germany to the Word of God. If all the world were under the domination of a supreme political power such as
Rome had once been, and that power had its authority enforced everywhere in the empire, all they had to do was give instructions as to
what to do to the rulers of Germany, and that would have been the end of the efforts of the Protestant Reformation.
National Entities
So do you see how important national entities are? Do you see why we have the divine institution number four of national groups? It is God's
will that nations abide as individual national entities. God is against internationalism as He well demonstrated at the Tower of Babel,
because that's what it was all about. The Tower of Babel was a rallying point of internationalism to keep people as one group, and not divide
them up into national entities. That is why we as Christians recognize the evil of such organizations as the Council on Foreign Relations and
the Trilateral Commission, which are organizations that have a very small number but very powerful and elite men from around the nations of
the world, all of whom are in positions of great economic leverage and of great economic power, and thus of influencing the events of the
world. Along with that, you can add the Bilderberger organization which again had its recent secret meeting in Holland where they again
secretly laid out their plans for the economic and political and social direction into which they would use their economic power to push the
nations of the world into one-world internationalism.
A One-World Government
At the heart of these organizations, there is one principle, and that is world government. The Bilderbergers, the Council on Foreign Relations,
and the Trilateral Commission (which is a union of the influence of Japan, Western Europe, and the United States) – every one of them
has as their purpose an economic unity of the nations of the world. Eventually, they want everybody to be using the same kind of money.
Eventually, they want a governing body which can pass down rules that all these nations must subscribe to. This is very much like the European
Economic Community has now come to with its ten nations where it now has a parliament. This parliament is increasingly going to be given
political authority so that these nations lose national sovereignty, and they deliver it to a super governmental organization.
Do not make any mistakes, no matter what Mr. Bush, Mr. Carter, or Mr. Anderson say (all of whom are members of the Trilateral Commission).
Do not be deceived by what they say – that these are not subversive organizations, and that these are not conspiratorial organizations.
Whatever you want to describe them as, they are organizations that are raised by Satan, and which are serving the goal of the tribulation
one-world situation. That, of course, is what is behind all of these efforts to get the world functioning on a common ground: whether it's
money; whether it's the entertainment that you look at; or, whether it's the political concepts or economic concepts. It is all designed to
get people to thinking as one united mass of people.
That is the idea behind the metric system. Why does the United States need metrication? Why do we need to go to the metric system of
measurements? We've used it very nicely for years in scientific matters. We don't need it at all. If the country is forced to that, then
it will mean billions of dollars of expense to the taxpayers of this country for one purpose: so that we will be more compatible with
what the rest of the world does, since they use that kind of a system. I hope that in time Americans will rise up in indignation over
finding anything in liters – that you will not buy gas at a station that measures it in liters, and tell them at the gas station,
"I'm not going to buy your gas until you measure in gallons again." Hopefully, you will tell the Coke company what they can do with their
liter bottles of Coke, etc. I'll tell you that they're going to back off in a hurry, and they're going to start spinning wheels in the other
direction.
All of this is the idea of climaxing a world power and a world authority – a domination. When that happens, then the testimony of the
Lord will be greatly restricted. That's why the antichrist has to have this kind of a world: so that the testimony (the enlightenment) of
the Word of God will be restricted. Once the world has been brought under his domination, the only source of information is going to be
those 144,000 Jewish evangelists, who are only going to stay alive because Almighty God is there, supernaturally keeping them from being
able to be killed. That's all.
But then nations will not be able to act independently as we can today. If Russia were ruling the world, do you think the United States
could continue to exercise its role as God's chosen nation in our day for propagating the Word of God, and for propagating doctrine?
Overnight, we would be stopped dead in our tracks from putting out the kind of information of the Word of God that this nation does now
in a vast degree, if Russia and the communists were in charge of the world.
So don't fall for that concept that mankind is better if it can all cooperate as one great world. That is a point of doctrine you should
have learned well. That is a satanic concept, and the Word of God condemns it. This is precisely why God broke up the Roman Empire into
national entities. The Roman Empire still exists today indeed, but it now exists as individual nations. One nation cannot rule and control
all the other nations. Therefore, its will, if it is atheistic, as in the case of communism, cannot be imposed upon everyone.
Nationalism
This nationalism, that was the result of the divine institution number four imposed upon the Roman Empire, neutralized to a large degree
the imperial edict which had been issued in 445 A.D. which directed all Christian bishops in the Roman Empire to obey the decrees of the
bishop of Rome, who had now become the Pope. Nationalism, furthermore, served to delay the dark ages of Roman Catholic domination over
nations, and, in fact, to reduce the destructive effects of that influence. Ultimately, as we said, the Reformation itself came into being
because Germany could act independently of the powers of the papacy.
Paganism and the Roman Catholic Church
So all during these Middle Ages, there were islands of genuine New Testament Christianity where believers were able to continue according
to biblical principles in the midst of Roman Catholic paganism, though they were at the same time under Roman Catholic persecution. In the
fourth century A.D., the Babylonian mystery religion was officially abolished in the Roman Empire, and was officially replaced by
Christianity. Within a period of 50 years from 378, when the bishop of Rome was pronounced the Pontifex Maximus, paganism was (in its
external form) gone from the Roman Empire. Within 50 years, from the time that, by imperial edict, the bishop of Rome was given the pagan
high priest title of Pontifex Maximus, paganism in its basic external forms were gone.
It took time to produce that, but not much. There was no immediate reaction. This edict was declared that Christianity was now the religion
of the Roman Empire. The statue of victory, which was in the Roman Senate and which so epitomized the paganism of the Roman Empire, was removed.
But while the statue of victory was removed from the Roman Senate, there were nevertheless 424 temples and chapels still remaining in the city
of Rome open for the devotions of the pagans. They were doing just what they had always done, and as they had always done it. But within 50
years, this changed. This paganism, in its external form, was transformed into a perverted Christianity. For the pagans, it was business as
usual.
What happened was that paganism disappeared in its outward expressions (outside the church in the Roman Empire), but it reappeared under new
names within the church. To the same proportion as it began disappearing outside the church, it then reappeared within the church. We have
already seen several examples of that.
By the close of the fourth century A.D., the Pope was the only representative on earth of Nimrod's Babylonian paganism. He was recognized by
the pagans as the Pontifex Maximus now, and the Pope made the pagans (who supported him) the bulwark of his power. He recognized that if he
could get the support of the pagans, there was no stopping the aggrandizement and the claims of the bishop of Rome as the supreme authority
of the church, and there was no stopping them in temporal power or in spiritual power. The result was that the pagans rallied to the Pope as
their new Pontifex Maximus, and great material wealth flowed to the Pope and to his pagan supporters from all over the Western world.
Dagon the Fish God
When we get to 606 A.D., Pope Boniface III, bishop of Rome, was the first one to be recognized as the universal bishop of the church;
that is, the first really accepted Pope. It was not Peter in New Testament times. It took until 606 A.D. before all of the church
universally recognized the supremacy claimed by the bishop of Rome. He became the first supreme pontiff who was in the direct line of
Dagon the fish God with his miter in the form of the mouth of the fish, which the Pope, of course, wears to this day.
The Throne of Peter
Once the Pope was established in the authority of the former pagan high priest as Pontifex Maximus, the chief high priest, the papal
hierarchy rapidly developed. First of all, there was the throne of Peter. The Pontifex Maximus of the Babylonian mysteries occupied a
chair, which was called "the chair of Peter of Rome." That was the pagan Peter of Rome that we have already referred to. Peter of Rome
was the interpreter of the will of the gods, and he delivered this interpretation from his chair, or from his throne. The throne (or
the chair) of the pagan Peter was then occupied by each succeeding Pontifex Maximus high priest, and it symbolized supreme religious
authority. The chair of Peter was very important in being recognized as the supreme pontiff (as supreme spiritual authority).
Well, now, when Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire, and the bishop of Rome was pushing his claims to being the supreme
pontiff, and thus the Pope over all the church, the Roman Catholic Pope very quickly recognized that he could consolidate his claim to
supreme spiritual authority by claiming this throne of Peter that the pagans were so used to. So the throne of the pagan Peter, which
means "interpreter," was converted into the throne (or the chair) of Peter the apostle. It was an easy transition for the pagans from the
pagan Peter of Rome to the supposed Christian Peter of Rome: Peter the apostle.
Then the years rolled by while the Roman Catholic Church made a very impressive claim. They claimed that they actually had the very chair
from which Peter the apostle exercised his authority as the first Pope. That went along until the year 1662. In 1662, somebody had the bad
taste to look more carefully at this piece of furniture from which popes had declared decrees which were then infallible, and which were
then authoritatively imposed upon all Catholics for centuries. They claimed that this chair was actually the chair of the first pope. In
1662, someone examining the chair was surprised and shocked to discover that there was an inscription on this chair. When they analyzed it,
they discovered it to be an inscription relative to commemorating the 12 labors of Hercules.
Hercules was one of the pagan gods. The fable
(the myth) about Hercules, you may remember (we won't go into the details of his 12 labors), that he was required to perform 12 monumental
feats of strength of one kind and another. One was to clean up a horse stable that constantly kept getting very dirty. That is a monumental
job to clean up the horse stables to begin with, but it's one where you can't get ahead of yourself. But he managed it. That was one of the
herculean feats he performed. These 12 labors of Hercules had to be performed for King Eurystheus of Argos as an act of expiation on the
part of Hercules for having killed his own children in a fit of madness which had been sent upon him by Hera, who was the wife and sister
of Zeus, the chief god.
Ex Cathedra
The inscriptions commemorating these 12 superhuman feats performed by Hercules proved that the chair that the Roman Catholics were claiming
as the throne of the original Peter was indeed not of Christian origin, but was in fact a pagan throne. Well, wonder of wonders, when they
discovered they could no longer use this throne and claim it to be the original one that Peter had used, they found the real one. All of the
papacy and all of the hierarchy were overjoyed that they did find the real authentic chair from which Peter had ruled. Again, remember that
in the Roman Catholic system, the Pope (like the pagan pope) must speak "Ex Cathedra," which are the Latin words for "from the throne." When
the Pope sits upon this official chair of Peter, and he makes a pronouncement of doctrine, no matter what it is, it is infallibly the truth.
Whatever the pope announces from this throne is the truth of God, and all Catholics must believe it.
Mary as a Co-Mediatrix
A few years ago, the pope declared the assumption of Mary into heaven – that she was taken alive into heaven. One day you could be
a Catholic going to heaven via purgatory, and you didn't have to believe that Mary went to heaven alive without dying – that Mary
never died. That's what it amounted to. But then the Pope sat upon his throne, and he then pronounced Ex Cathedra to all Catholics that
henceforth you must believe that Mary, the mother of Jesus, never died. She went to heaven alive, just like her Son. That is because the
movement of the Roman church is always toward making Mary a Co-Mediatrix, along with Jesus Christ, the one and only mediator. The Roman
Catholic Church makes her a co-provider of salvation for mankind.
The Immaculate Conception of Mary
In another generation, the Immaculate Conception of Mary, for example, was declared: that Mary was born without a sin nature. That's why
Jesus could be born without a sin nature. So the Roman Catholic pope sat upon his throne, and read the official pronouncements to all Catholics
everywhere that henceforth you must believe, as a point of doctrine, that Mary was born without a sin nature. I've never really fully
understood how they explained that if she could be born without a sin nature, what the situation was with her parents. But I'm sure they must
have some explanation, but I'm not up on that. In any case, this business of the chair of Peter was very important, because this was the
anchor point of talking for God. This was the anchor point of full spiritual authority. Well, it was very fortunate then to have found the
real chair.
However, there was a snake in the woodshed again, because in 1795, there came on the scene of history a military man from France who had
gotten fed up with the French Revolution; with its reign of terror; and, with its bloodletting. He decided to bring some law and order to
the nation of France once more, and to bring the bloody revolution of France to an end. So Napoleon Bonaparte put a few well-placed
artillery shots into a few well-placed rebel units, and brought order to France. Napoleon then proceeded to conquer the world. Eventually,
he got to Rome, and he conquered Rome. And one of the things that was of great interest to him and to the Catholics of France was the papal
chair: the chair of Peter. Peter himself had sat on this chair and pronounced the mind of God. The Pope sat on this chair at that time and
pronounced the mind of God. So this chair was a matter of great interest. This was the new chair – the real chair which had been
discovered after they found out that the original chair was a pagan fakery.
But, wonder of wonders, and tragedy of tragedies, they found an inscription on this chair. On this chair, the inscription was written in
Arabic. So they got somebody to translate it. Guess what it said? In Arabic was written on the pope's chair, the chair of Peter: "There
is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet." That was the summary statement of creedal belief of Islam. That blew everything apart.
Now they had another chair which obviously was not the chair of Peter. There wasn't even such a thing as Islam in Peter's day, let alone for
somebody to have perhaps subsequently (maybe the Mohammedans) inscribed this on the chair. But it was obvious to them that here was again
a fraud. It was another pious fraud.
Well, they had to get rid of that one. I don't know what the Roman Catholics claim today about the chair on which the Pope is carried. But
he does have a chair. In religious processions, he is carried upon this chair in order to signify his supreme spiritual authority in just
the same way that the Pontifex Maximus of the Babylonian mystery religions was carried in public processions signifying his supreme spiritual
authority. The pope does have a chair which is called the chair of Peter. When he speaks from Ex Cathedra, he is infallible, just as were the
spokesmen in Babylon of old with Nimrod.
So here was the first basic anchor point of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, which was the result (getting back to the Revelation) of the
influence that Jezebel was bringing into the church in its earliest days of cooperation and compatibility with paganism.
The College of Cardinals
When the Pope had consolidated his power, it became evident that, as the power and the influence was spreading around the world, he could
not control (he could not rule) such a vast empire, and that's what it was becoming. The Roman Catholic Church was becoming an empire. So
there came into being what we call today the College of Cardinals. This is a body of ruling bishops under the Roman Catholic pope. From this
body (from the College of Cardinals), each new pope is in time selected as the old one dies.
The Hinge
Janus (a name that we have come upon before from which we get our month of January named) was another name for the Babylonian messiah, Nimrod.
Nimrod, of scriptural fame, began the Tower of Babel – attempting internationalism on that vast scale at that time. Janus (or Nimrod),
the Babylonian messiah, was called the god of doors and hinges. Thus he was called the opener and the shutter – the one who opens, and
the one who closes. He was therefore worshiped in the capacity of a great mediator. He was a mediator between the gods and humanity. The
ancient system taught that all of the gods had to be approached through Janus, which was just another name for old Nimrod. They all had to
approach the gods through the god Janus. Therefore, Janus became the great mediator. For this reason, he was given the title of the hinge.
He was, in fact, that upon which the door of access to the gods swung open or was closed. He was worshiped as the great mediator, and he could
open the door to heaven or he could close it. He was the hinge. Janus, therefore, as mediator, was viewed as having supreme power over heaven,
earth, and sea.
When the Pope took over the role of Pontifex Maximus, he also took over the role of the hinge that had been associated with Janus. He
created a council of priests to assist him in ruling the Roman Catholic Church. The name given to the priests in this council was the
name "cardinal." This comes from the Latin word "cardo." What does the word "cardo" mean in Latin? It means a hinge. Therefore, the
College of Cardinals is the College of the Hinges. The word "Cardinal" (or "cardo") was exactly the word which was used to describe
the high officials of the Roman Empire who were associated with the ruler (the emperor) who will carried the title of Pontifex Maximus
– supreme ruler over temporal and spiritual things. The people who assisted the Roman emperor (as the hinge) were called Cardinals.
They were part of the hinge. The Roman Catholic College of Cardinals is another consequence of Thyatira of absorbing paganism into
Christianity. The Pontifex Maximus of the Babylonian mysteries was viewed as the divine representative on earth. He was the hinge to
open access to the gods or to close it. The Pope was viewed as the hinge to open the way to God or to close the way to God, and his
decisions in these matters were infallible.
So the Pope claims to be indeed the true successor of the Pontifex Maximus. The Pope, for this reason (that he is viewed as the hinge),
is assisted by these men who reflect his authority as the hinge, and who themselves are called the College of Hinges. They viewed the Pope
indeed in the supreme position as they do today. That's why they venerate the Pope. They express this veneration just as they did in
Babylon – by kissing the pope's slipper, and by addressing him as "Your Holiness." This was precisely what was done in ancient Babylon.
With the fall of the Roman Empire, the papacy moved in to fill a vacuum that existed in the world. Suddenly, the world that had known rule;
that had known law and order; and, that had known prosperity under the excellent system of government of the Roman Empire – everything
was gone. The Roman Church had now developed to a (practically) maximum perverted form. Immediately the papacy recognized that they were the
only ones left in the ancient world with any authority. They had absorbed all the authority of the Babylonian system, and they had absorbed
the prestige of the political system. This is where Roman Catholicism moved strongly into temporal authority. The Roman Catholic Church said,
"Hey, wait a minute. Do you realize what has happened?" And they attributed this to God: "Our Pope, the bishop of Rome, is the supreme bishop
of the church. We have not realized before, but he is, in fact, God's king over God's kingdom on earth. He is assisted by the College of
Cardinals – these hinges through whom the Pope exercises his authority. We have not realized that before. But these are the princes of
God's kingdom upon this earth."
The result was, with the fall of the Roman Empire, the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, which had been patterned upon the Babylonian system,
moved into the vacuum, and they took over as royalty. That is why the pope today, when he speaks, does not say, "I am against war." He says,
"We are against war," just like the queen of England would say, or the king of some country would say. They always speak in these first
person plural majestic titles. When the pope wants a glass of water, he doesn't say, "I'd like a glass of water." He says, "We desire a
glass of water," in order to convey his royalty. This is why, among Roman Catholics, they recognize that the princes of the church are the
Cardinals. They are referred to in terms of their royalty. They are royal personages who have replaced the fallen Roman Empire.
The Jezebel of Thyatira
This is what the influence of the Thyatira woman did. This is the full gross result of the amalgamation of Babylonian mystery religion
into Christianity. The influence of the Jezebel-like female in Thyatira was moving the church in her day toward this kind of paganism
which went into full blossom in the centuries ahead.
What was the attitude of the Lord Jesus Christ toward this woman and toward what she was doing? This is a very important point of doctrine
in Revelation 2:21: "And I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she did not repent." The word "and" is the Greek word "kai."
This is a conjunction indicating continuation. Jesus Christ did something. He said, "He gave her space." "Gave" is the Greek word "didomi."
The word "didomi" means simply to grant. It is in the aorist tense which means that at some point of time, God was granting this opportunity.
It is active. Jesus Christ Himself extended this grace period to this Jezebel woman. It's indicative mood – a statement of fact.
God Gives us Time to Repent
The Greek says, "Her." That is the Greek word "autos," which is a personal pronoun in the third feminine singular, referring to the Thyatira
Jezebel. The Lord says, "I gave her space." "Space" is the word "chronos." The word "chronos" actually means "time," but it is time in the
sense of duration. It is not just time as a point. It is time in terms of a duration. "Chronos" means a quantity of time. God gave for a
quantity of time. That is, God gave her plenty of time.
There is a point of doctrine revealed even here in this situation. When we are guilty of evil, and we are willfully persistent in that evil,
God always (because He is a God of grace) gives time for us to turn around before He brings down the ax and imposes discipline. Before God
brings judgment and discipline upon our evil, He extends to us a period of grace. That's what's important about the word "chronos." It's is
a chunk of time. God isn't saying, "I'm going to give you two minutes to change your mind. Now, get with it." God is patience and persistence,
and he gives us a period of time to turn around. It would be very unlikely that there is anyone among us here today, young and old alike, who
has not experienced a persistent rebellion against what God says is right and wrong in some degree. We have persisted in the evil, and we have
made the mistake of thinking that God is not going to stop you, because you've gotten away (supposedly) with the evil. You've been able to
do once; you've been able to do it again; you've been able to do it several times; and, God hasn't stopped you. That's a very serious mistake.
Remember that what God is giving you is "chronos." He is giving you a duration of time because He always acts in grace. He is giving you a
chance to turn around.
There is another word for time in Scripture. It's the Greek word "kairos." "Kairos" also means time, in terms of a period of time, but this
is time with certain features. It indicates quality. "Chronos" indicates simply a chunk of time (quantity). "Kairos" indicates a quality of
time. This is a period of time that is characterized by certain features. You have an example of this in Acts 1:7. You have the word "times,"
which is the Greek word "chronos" which is indicating a duration of time (a period of time). You also have the word "seasons" which is the
word "kairos" which indicates an epic of time which is characterized by certain events. Acts 1:7 means a great deal more if you recognize
that God says "I'm giving you a chunk of time, and I'm giving you a chunk of time characterized by certain events."
This is even more evident in 1 Thessalonians 5:1 where you have the word "time" which is "chronos" again, meaning a length of time: that is,
an interval of time before the rapture. Then you have the word "seasons" which is "kairos" (a quality of time) which refers to the rapture
as a whole: before; during; and, after, and when certain specific things take place: that is, a period of time where certain characteristics
are in evidence.
The Lord Jesus Christ said, "I'm giving this woman (Jezebel of Thyatira) a period of time that has no strings attached to it. It has no
characteristics. There are no conditions that must be existent. Just turn around. Just repent. There are no special features restricting."
There are periods of God's time which do restrict us. The period of time of the rapture will be a period of time that will have certain
restrictions. The event of the rapture itself will be of a restricted condition, and certain things will have to be met within those
restricted conditions or you cannot go up in the rapture.
Repent
Well, here you have the Lord saying, "I gave this woman some promise. I just gave her time. There are no strings; no restrictions; and,
no demands. I just want you to do something." The Bible has another word. It has the word "hina" which means "in order that." This
indicates the purpose of the period of time which was given to this woman. What was the purpose? To repent ("metanoeo"). This is aorist
tense. This word means "to about-face" – to go from evil to God and to divine good. It means "to change your mind." That's what
repent means. It's aorist – at the point where the Jezebel woman would decide to turn from promoting the evils that she was doing.
It's active. She has to do the about-face. But it's subjunctive which means its potential. Maybe she will, and maybe she won't.
So we would translate verse 21 in this way: "And I gave her time to repent." The rest of verse 21 should read like this: "And she does not
want to repent of her fornication." The word "and" is again the word "kai," indicating continuation. The word "want" is the Greek verb
"thelo." "Thelo" is a word for "desire." It's an expression of volition, and it is modified by the strongest Greek negative "ou." She did
not want to do (absolutely did not want to do) something. It is present tense. This word "thelo" means that she just absolutely, no place
along the line, wanted to do it. It is active. This was her personal volitional choice. It is indicative – a statement of fact.
What did she not want to do? It's the same word "metanoeo" again. She did not want to repent. She did not want to change her mind –
to change her volition. It's aorist. At no point in time was she willing to make the decision to stop promoting the evil in that church
that eventually resulted in the Roman Catholic Church as we know it today. It was an active rejection. She refused to repent. It was her
own negative volitions toward changing her mind. It's in the infinitive mood expressing her purpose. Her purpose was not to change her mind.
It says, "To change her mind of." "Of" is the Greek preposition "ek" which means "out from within." "Her" means this woman's. What she would
not repent of was "porneia" which is her illicit sex. So have learned that this woman was promoting religious evils (and that's what they were
– fornication and eating meat offered to idols). After all that we have learned about her; after all the warning and the grace period
that God gave to this woman to repent; and, all the information of sound doctrine which they must have had in this church to produce the kind
of Christians that we've seen they already have had, she was determined not to change her mind. She refused to repent. That being the case,
grace having been rejected, now the Lord Jesus Christ was ready to execute judgment. We shall look at that next time. Make no mistake about
that. When the period of grace opportunity passes, you can count on judgment.
Dr. John E. Danish, 1977
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