1 Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our assembling to meet him, we beg you, brethren, 2 not to be quickly shaken in mind or excited, either by spirit or by word, or by letter purporting to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. 3 Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. 5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you this? 6 And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by his appearing and his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one by the activity of Satan will be with all power and with pretended signs and wonders, 10 and with all wicked deception for those who are to perish, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 Therefore God sends upon them a strong delusion, to make them believe what is false, 12 so that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 2Th. 2:1-12
Perdition
The Greek word apoleia to destroy, or cause destruction of persons, objects, or institutions, is the English word perdition. All those of whom the Bible applies this term are doomed to be destroyed.
While I was with them, I kept them in thy name, which thou hast given me; I have guarded them, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled. John 17:12
Judas was the first son of perdition and as such is a type for the greater Son of Perdition. As a type he betrayed our Lord physically. So the antitype must betray him spiritually.
Judas was a thief and a traitor [Mat 16:6, 12; John 12:6, 17:12]. We do not read that Judas was evil, power hungry, or lived a scandalous life. It is a mistake to expect the anti-christ to be malevolent or heinous. No! The prophecy predicts that the sin of the little horn, the son of perdition, the beast from the earth, or the anti-christ is a spiritual one. It is blasphemy as defined in the Bible, as that which discredits God’s name by usurping God’s attributes and functions or opposing and counterfeiting the Holy Spirit. This is the unforgivable sin [Mt 12:31; Mk 3:29; Lk 12:10]. He is the one that claims for himself the powers of God.
The Order of Events
This little passage presents us with a chronology of events. So we know what to look for in the history of the church.
John in 1 & 2 told us that anti-christ is already at work, but not yet revealed. So before the coming of the Lord all these things must take place.
1. The falling away
2. The lawless one revealed
4. He takes his seat in the temple
5. The restrainer will be taken away
The Falling Away
First there must come the falling away. The Greek word translated falling away or rebellion is apostasia which means a defection from the truth. We must look at history for the beginning of the apostasy.
Apostasy does not refer to a falling away from religion into irreligion or atheism. It refers to a departure from, corruption of, or a going into error, regarding Christian doctrine.
This was not to take place in the pagan world. It is not Humanism, Hinduism, The One World Order, or any revolution in the secular world. It was it developed right in the professing Christian church and the corruption was already happening in the first century. [Acts 20:28-30, II Pet 2:1 and I John 4:3]
So the question is: when did the apostasy move from being just a few heretics here and there, to an overwhelming departure from truth? The answer is when the church stopped being persecuted and became the preferred religion of the Roman Empire. This is when fair-weather Christians began to flood the into the churches.
That happened when Constantine who took power in 313AD. He embraced Christianity and chose to discontinue the persecution of the believers. He also made it plain to the movers and shakers of power, that they would now have to be Christian if they expected to be accepted into the inner circles of power. After 313 if one wanted power they must just be a Christian. The result was that the church was flooded with those that were not true believers. With them came all sorts of pagan ideas and influences. [See Also: The History of the Christian Church Vol 3 Nicene and Post-Nicene Christianity AD 311-600 by Phillip Schaff, § 2. Constantine The Great. A.D. 306–337]
Lawless One Revealed
Next, would come the revealing of the Lawless One. Many teach that this will be a departure from civil law. However the Greek word anomos often translated as iniquity or evildoers, is always used of diverging or departing from Torah, never the civil law.
FYI: The Torah is the first five books of the Bible the books of Moses the Lawgiver. Also called the Pentateuch.
The Lawless One is one who is without Torah, a Torah breaker. So, the lawless one is one who is a religionist, but who teaches that the Law of God has passed away. [Matt. 7:23; 13:41; 23:28; 24:12; Rom. 4:7; 6:19; 2Cor. 6:14; Titus 2:14; Heb. 1:9 ; 10:17 ]
Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law. Rom. 3:31
Every one who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 1John 3:4
How can a future political anti-christ break the Torah? The Futurists have wrongly taught that the Torah has passed away and as such are themselves Torah breakers. The Bible clearly states that the Torah will never pass away and Jesus himself said He had not come to destroy the Torah [Matt 5:17; 24:35; Luke 16:16-17]
“Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them.” Matt. 5:17
This particular deceit has jeopardized our relationship with the Lord and fostered many other misconceptions concerning obedience to God’s word.
The Lawlessone’s power will be shown by his taking power and making himself to be God sitting in the temple of God.
The Lawless One takes his Seat
…and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, that he takes his seat in the temple of God, so proclaiming himself to be God.” II Thess 2:3-4
The word Paul uses for temple here is naos, meaning the holy place or dwelling of God. The word for the temple building, hieron, is only used for the literal building in Jerusalem [Mat 24:1]. It is not linguistically appropriate to consider that this is about a literal temple.
This word, naos, is used symbolically throughout the New Testament. [II Cor 6:16; I Cor. 3:16-17; Eph 2:21] In this case it refers to that group of people who believe in God both Jewish and Gentile. Therefore, the son of perdition takes his place among God’s people. In the temple of their hearts not in a building.
This cannot be a literal man sitting in the Holy of Holies within a Temple, rebuilt in Jerusalem. Think about it, where would such a man actually sit? How about on the wings of the cherubim or maybe on the altar of incense? Of course he could always bring in his own folding chair! “Sitting in a seat“ symbolically means, that the one ruling takes the position of authority and judgment. [Mat 23:2]
God sits on a throne and has absolute spiritual and/or temporal authority. He establishes proper authorities through His anointed kings, prophets, and appointed apostles. God’s system of hierarchy never appoints just one man over an entire congregation, with the exception of Jesus who alone is head of the Church. [Mat 23:2; 27:19; Acts 25:6,17; Rom 14:10; Rev 2:13; 13:2]
“Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord God: ‘Because your heart is proud, and you have said, ‘I am a god I sit in the seat of gods, in the heart of the seas,’ yet you are but a man, and no god, though you consider yourself as wise as a god–” Ezek 28:2
The son of perdition however comes in setting himself above all, even above God. [2Thess 2:4]
Figuratively, the lawless one can be “seen” sitting in the seat of authority. A temple is not necessary. The Roman Empire’s religion became The Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church states about the seat of authority is—
“The Pope, bishop of Rome and Peter’s successor, ‘is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful.’ 402 ‘For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered.” 403 Catechism of the Catholic Church no. 882
So figuratively it is the Pope who sits in the hearts and minds of all who claim to be Roman Catholic. The son of perdition can only be one that opposes God, exalts himself above all that is called God and shows himself as God sitting within the church of God.
The Restrainer
5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you this? 6 And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 2 Thess 2:6-7
Paul had told the Thessalonians what was restraining the lawless one. However it was something he did not want to write down. Because stating that the Roman Empire was to cease, opposed all that the Empire claimed. The leaders of the Roman Empire made great proclamations that the Empire would be eternal. Anyone saying otherwise was and enemy of the state. So Paul did not write that the Empire was the restraining power. The primary reason for such an omission could only be fear of greater persecution. The Roman Empire would have reacted in its own best interest, with an increase in the arrests, trials and executions.
The Futurists teach that the Holy Spirit is the restrainer. If this was the case why didn’t Paul say so? There had already been many mentions of the Holy Spirit in his letters. But the restrainer is not the Holy Spirit. For Paul to write, in a public letter, that Rome Eternal would fall from power, would have brought the early Christians into immediate conflict with the state, and persecution would have increased.
However the church fathers wrote a great deal on the subject:
Tertullian (160-240 A. D.) On the Resurrection of the Flesh,” chapter 24
For the mystery of iniquity doth already work; only he who now hinders must hinder, until he be taken out of the way.” What obstacle is there but the Roman state, the falling away of which, by being scattered into ten kingdoms, shall introduce Antichrist upon (its own ruins)? “And then shall be revealed the wicked one,
And also in his Apology, chapter 32
For we know that a mighty shock impending over the whole earth–in fact, the very end of all things threatening dreadful woes—is only retarded by the continued existence of the Roman empire. We have no desire, then, to be overtaken by these dire events; and in praying that their coming may be delayed, we are lending our aid to Rome’s duration.
Irenaeus (?- c202) Against Heresies, book 5 chapter 30 section 3
Then also Lateinos (Lateinos) has the number six hundred and sixty-six; and it is a very probable [solution], this being the name of the last kingdom [of the four seen by Daniel].
Lactantius (c240-c320) The Divine Institutes, book 7, chapter 25
The subject itself declares that the fall and ruin of the world will shortly take place; except that while the city of Rome remains, it appears that nothing of this kind is to be feared. But when that capital of the world shall have fallen, and shall have begun to be a street, which the Sibyls say shall come to pass, who can doubt that the end has now arrived to the affairs of men and the whole world? It is that city, that only, which still sustains all things.
Cyril of Jerusalem (318-386) Catechetical Lectures, section 15, on II Thessalonians 2:4
12. But this aforesaid Antichrist is to come when the times of the Roman empire shall have been fulfilled, and the end of the world is now drawing near. There shall rise up together ten kings of the Romans, reigning in different parts perhaps, but all about the same time; and after these an eleventh, the Antichrist, who by his magical craft shall seize upon the Roman power; and of the kings who reigned before him, three he shall humble , and the remaining seven he shall keep in subjection to himself.
Chrysostom (?- 407) Homily IV on 2 Thessalonians 2:6-9
So indeed he also says here. “Only there is one that restraineth now, until he be taken out of the way,” that is, when the Roman empire is taken out of the way, then he shall come. And naturally. For as long as the fear of this empire lasts, no one will willingly exalt himself, but when that is dissolved, he will attack the anarchy, and endeavor to seize upon the government both of man and of God.
Jerome (?- 420) The Principal Works of St Jerome
He that letteth is taken out of the way, and yet we do not realize that Antichrist is near.
Cyprian (c.200-258) Anti Nicene Fathers
For you ought to know and to believe, and hold it for certain, that the day of affliction has begun to hang over our heads, and the end of the world and the time of Antichrist to draw near, so that we must all stand prepared for the battle; nor consider anything but the glory of life eternal, and the crown of the confession of the Lord; and not regard those things which are coming as being such as were those which have passed away. page 846
This restraining heathen imperial power was swayed by and centered in a series of single persons, the Caesars who would be later known as emperors. One would follow another in succession. When Emperor Constantine, removed the seat of power from the seven-hilled city of Rome to Constantinople, then the restraint began to be removed.
When the last Western Roman Emperor was forced to abdicate in 476AD, Rome ceased to be the seat of imperial secular power, and the Bishops of Rome began to put forward claims that exactly correspond with the predictions of Daniel, Paul and John. The restraint was now ek mesou – out of the way – of the one who would be king of the seven-hilled city.
The legs of iron (Rome) gave way to the feet of iron and clay. Roman civil and religious authority passed from the Emperors to the Bishop of Rome. The Western Roman Empire disintegrated into the ten Kingdoms under the rule of the anti-christ, or the Papacy.
Irenaeus who was a disciple of Polycarp, the contemporary of John, said that the Empire must cease before the prophecies can be fulfilled.
“John and Daniel have predicted the dissolution and desolation of the Roman Empire, which shall precede the end of the world and the eternal kingdom of Christ. ” Against Heresies book 5, chapter 26.
All the early church fathers are unanimous in this assertion. Why would Irenaeus and the early fathers make this up? It only brought them further persecution. Would they not have been better off making the Roman Empire the anti-christ, rather than the obstacle to the anti-christ?
The Office
Only one person at a time could fill the office of Caesar. Yet, there were many over the course of history who held that office. So it is with anti-christ, over time many have held the position, yet there is only one office of anti-christ, the papacy.
- He (the man of sin) was to reign at Rome. Why else would the Roman Empire be a hindrance?
- It wasn’t until after the fall of Imperial Rome that the wicked was to be revealed
- He was to come from Satan, by the activity of Satan [II Thess 2:9]
- He was to wield ecclesiastical power over the temple of God; we are the temple of the Holy Spirit [I Cor 6:19]
- He will come to his end with the coming of the Lord. [Dan 7:7-12, 25-27 regarding the beast and the little horn]
The Evidence
The son of perdition is he that opposes God and exalts himself above all that is called God. He shows himself as God. The following is an excerpt from the famous Unum Sanctum written by the Roman Catholic Church. In it the Pope claims to be the ONE head of the church, this making him Christ on earth.
We are compelled to believe with urgent faith and to hold one holy catholic and apostolic Church. Therefore, the one and only Church has one body and one head, not two heads like a monster, viz., Christ and the vicar of Christ, Peter and Peter’s successor. We are instructed by the Gospels that there are in his power two swords, viz., the spiritual and the temporal. For when the apostles said ‘Behold here are two swords’ (Luke 22:38), viz., in the Church; when the apostles said so, the Lord did not respond, ‘There are too many’ but ‘Enough.’ Certainly, he who denies that there is in the power of Peter a temporal sword has paid poor attention to the word of the Lord, who said ‘Put up the sword into the sheath’ (John 18:11). Therefore, both are in the power of the Church, both the spiritual and the material sword. But this is to be wielded for the church, that by the church; that by the hand of the priest, this not by the hand of kings and soldiers, but at the nod and patience of the priest. Moreover, sword should be under sword, and the temporal authority should be subject to the spiritual; for when the apostle says, ‘There is no power except from God; the power which are ordained of God’ (Rom. 13:1); they are not ordained except sword be under sword. For on the testimony of truth, the spiritual power has to institute the earthly, and to judge it, if it is not good. Thus, the prophecy of Jeremiah concerning the Church and the ecclesiastical power is verified, ‘Behold, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms,’ etc. (Jer 1:10). Therefore, if the earthly power deviates from the way, it shall be judged by the spiritual power; if the inferior spiritual power deviates, by its superior spiritual; but if the supreme by God alone, since it cannot be judged by man, on the testimony of the apostle, ‘The spiritual man judgeth all things, but is himself judged of no man’ (I Cor 2:15). Whoever, therefore, resists this power, thus ordained by God, resists the ordination of God; unless he feigns that there are two principle, like Manichaeus, which we judge false and heretical, because, on the testimony of Moses, God did not create the heavens and the earth in several principles but in one principle (Gen. 1:1). Then, to be subject to the Roman Pontiff, we declare, say, define, and pronounce to be absolutely necessary to every human creature to salvation. Excerpts from the Bull of Boniface VIII “UNAM SANCTAM“
When we first published this a few Romanists complained that this was not an accurate translation of the Encyclical. That the sources were, as they called it, “anti-catholic.” So go read the whole thing from one of their own sites, it you don’t like our translation. Unam Sanctam.
“The Pope enjoys, by divine institution, ‘supreme, full, immediate, and universal power in the care of souls’” Catechism of the Catholic Church number 937 on page 246
FIRST VATICAN COUNCIL (1869-1870) claimed the primacy of the popes over all the Church of God. And further, that the Roman Pontiff in the exercise of his office speaks EX CATHEDRA and is infallible.
Deceptions
In his second letter to the Thessalonians, Paul writes concerning a rumor that had been circulated, as if coming from the apostles, that the day of the Lord Jesus Christ had come. So that they would not be shaken, upset, or troubled over this rumor, he endeavors to put their minds at rest.
Paul admonished the believers to let no one deceive you in any way for the day of the Lord had not yet come. Who could deceive them? Certainly not a political figure from the secular world; the 1st century church would not have believed anything from them. No, it could only have been someone from within the professing church, only a so-called Christians who could upset and deceive the followers of Christ.
The Church Universal is full of pagan influences. The Reformers only started the cleaning out of the church. There is still much Babylonian darkness before our hearts and minds. As one sweeps one kind of filth out the front door, another deceiver or foolishly deceived person drags some Babylonian idea in the back door. Where these ideas are carefully watered and nurtured by well-meaning although ignorant Christians. Many pagan/papal traditions have been allowed to grow and fester in the post-modern church.
Some of these pagan influences are:
Christ’s Mass or Christmas
Nowhere does the Bible tell us to celebrate this holiday. We are never given any information as to the date of Christ birth. Much has been written as to when this date may have been, but it is sufficient to say that it was not Dec. 25th. In all probability no later than the end of October during the Feast of Tabernacles. (See Also: One What Day was Jesus Born?)
The early Christian Church knew no such festival as Christmas. However, as the Church of Rome gained power over all other churches, she began introducing pagan holidays.
Tertullian (160 – 230AD) De Idolatria
“By us who are strangers to Sabbaths, and new moons, and festivals, once acceptable to God, the Saturnalia, the feasts of January, the Brumalia, and Matronalia, are now frequented; gifts are carried to and fro,, new year’s day presents are made with din, and sports and banquets are celebrated with uproar; oh, how much more faithful are the heathen to their religion, who take special care to adopt no solemnity from the Christians.”
Christmas is not mentioned until the third century and not until the forth century was it observed very much. So where does this festival come from? Where else, THE BABYLONIAN MYSTERY RELIGION! The pagans celebrated on December 25 the birthday of the son of the Babylonian queen of heaven.
Astarte, Ishtar or Easter
The very name Easter sounds Chaldean and is nothing more than “Astarte”, the Queen of Heaven. What do eggs and rabbits have to do with Christianity? Are they not just fertility symbols? What are fertility symbols doing in the church?
“Such is the history of Easter. The Popular observances that still attend the period of its celebration amply confirm the testimony of history as to its Babylonian character. The hot cross buns of Good Friday, and dyed eggs of Pasch or Easter Sunday, figured in the Chaldean rites just as they do now. The ‘buns,’ known too by that identical name, were used in the worship of the queen of heaven, the goddess Easter, as early as the days of Cecrops, the founder of Athens – that is, 1500 years before the Christian era. ‘one species of sacred bread,’ say Byrant, ‘which used to be offered to the gods, was of great antiquity, and called Boun.’ Diogenes Laertius, speaking of this offering being made by Empedocles, describes the chief ingredients of which it was composed, saying, ‘He offered one of the sacred cakes called Boun, which was made of fine flour and honey.’ The prophet Jeremiah takes notice of this kind of offering when he says, ‘The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven.’ The hot cross buns are not now offered, but eaten, on the festival of Astarte; but this leaves no doubt as to whence they have been derived. The origin of the Pasch eggs is just as clear. The ancient Druids bore an egg, as the sacred emblem of their order. In the Dionysiaca, or mysteries of Bacchus, as celebrated in Athens, one part of the nocturnal ceremony consisted in the consecration of an egg. The Hindu fables celebrate their mundane egg as of a golden colour. The people of Japan make their sacred egg to have been brazen. In China, at this hour, dyed or painted eggs are used on sacred festivals, even as in this country. In ancient times eggs were used in the religious rites of the Egyptians and the Greeks, and were hung up for mystic purposes in their temples.
From Egypt these sacred eggs can be distinctly traced to the banks of the Euphrates. The classic poets are full of the fable of the mystic egg of the Babylonians; and thus its tale is told by Hyginus, the Egyptian, the learned keeper of the Palatine library at Rome, in the time of Augustus, who was skilled in all wisdom of his native country: ‘An egg of wondrous size is said to have fallen from heaven into the river Euphrates. The fishes rolled it to the bank, where the doves having settled upon it, and hatched it, out came Venus, who afterwards was called the Syrian Goddess’ – That is, Astarte. Hence the egg became one of the symbols of Astarte or Easter.”
The Two Babylons OR The Papal Worship Proved to be the Worship of Nimrod and His Wife By Rev Alexander Hislop pg 109
Many a Christian teacher, with a straight face, have said that the church took the pagan holidays and Christianized them; that is, somehow replacing the pagan ideas with Christian ones throughout Europe.
This being the case why do missionaries teach these Christianized pagan holidays to the natives of other continents? Why don’t they simply Christianize the native’s own pagan holidays instead of teaching them European ones?
Sunday Worship
In 1 Cor 16:2 Paul clearly wants the money collected on the first day of the week because he does not want them collecting money while he is teaching. It may then be assumed that he was teaching on the Sabbath and not the first day of the week.
At any rate, why did the church switch from Sabbath keeping to Sunday? In the Roman Empire work was ceased in order to worship the sun on Sun-day. That tradition continued when the Christianity became the state religion.
Are we to believe there are really only nine commandments with one suggestion?
Graven Images
The Church of Rome is full of images of various Saints, the Virgin Mother, and Mary. This tradition started in the third century when statues of the Roman gods in the pagan temples were Christianized, by making the temples churches and changing their names of the idols. One of the most famous of these is the bronze statue of St. Peter in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome; this statue was previously known as Jupiter.
The Roman Catholic Church says; “Sacred images in our churches and homes are intended to awaken and nourish our faith in the mystery of Christ. Through the icon of Christ and his works of salvation, it is he whom we adore. Through sacred images of the holy Mother of God, of the angels and of the saints, we venerate the persons represented.” Catechism of the Catholic Church no 1192 page 307
However Bible says:
4 “You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. Ex 20:4-6
And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had burned incense to it; it was called Nehushtan II Kings 18:4
Hezekiah did not hesitate to destroy this national treasure when the people were found to be burning incense to it. In light of this and of the commandment set forth by God, should we not wonder and diligently scrutinize our own practices? What is an image in God’s eyes? Are any of our icons or Christian symbols a graven image? Are they an offense in the eyes of God? No matter how precious they are, they need to be destroyed.
Mary Worship
We could not possibly tell of all the supposed miracles that the Church of Rome claims. The stories of weeping images, winking Madonna’s, and miracle healings are endless. They work to enslave the ignorant and justify the most heinous of crimes.
Over the centuries one of the more popular claims is to see apparitions of Mary. In some places a large crowd will look at the sun until they claim to have visions of the sun moving and great sparks breaking off from the sun. Actually they are slowly going blind as the sun burns their retina. The sparks they see are pieces of their retina breaking off inside their own eyes.
“This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she loyally gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation … Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix.”510 Catechism of the Catholic Church no. 969 page 252
“One noted Roman Catholic writer, Alphonsus Liguori, wrote at length telling how much more effectual prayers are that are addressed to Mary rather than to Christ (Liguori, incidentally, was canonized as a ‘saint’ by Pope Gregory XIV in 1839 and was declared a ‘doctor’ of the Catholic Church by Pope Pius IX.) In one portion of his writings, he described an imaginary scene in which a sinful man saw two ladders hanging from heaven. Mary was at the top of one, Jesus at the top of the other. When the sinner tried to climb the one ladder, he saw the angry face of Christ and fell defeated, but when he climbed Mary’s ladder, he ascended easily and was openly welcomed by Mary who brought him into heaven and presented him to Christ! Then all was well. The story was supposed to show how much easier and more effective it is to go to Christ through Mary.” The Glories of Mary page 83
Liguori does not present the reader with the Mary of Scripture, but rather the Queen of Heaven as she has been received in the visions and dreams of saints and nuns down through the ages.
Celibacy
In 385 Syricius, Bishop of Rome, enacted the celibacy of the clergy. It should be noted that in the Mystery Religion it was only the celibate who could offer the mass during religious ceremonies.
“The earliest law enforcing celibacy was passed by the Council of Elvira (Canon 33) in Spain about the year 300. Bishops, priest and deacons were to be deposed, if they lived with their wives and begot children after their ordination. A similar decree was enacted by a Roman Council under Council of Elvira (384-399), who wrote letters to Spain and Africa insisting upon its observance. A few years later Pope Innocent I (402-417) wrote similar letters to Bishops Victricius of Rouen and Exuperius of Toulouse. By the time Leo the Great (440-461) the law of clerical celibacy was obligatory throughout the West. Ins and Outs of Romanism by Zacchello, page 42
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrine of demons, through the pretension of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and enjoin abstinence from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving; for then it is consecrated by the Word of God and prayer.” I Tim 4:1-5
Finally
Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; Rev. 18:4
For your interest here are all the verses where Perdition was in the Greek.
“Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. Matt. 7:13
But when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? Matt. 26:8
But there were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment thus wasted? Mark 14:4
While I was with them, I kept them in thy name, which thou hast given me; I have guarded them, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled. John 17:12
But Peter said to him, “Your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! Acts 8:20
What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the vessels of wrath made for destruction, Rom. 9:22
. . . and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear omen to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. Phil. 1:28
Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. Phil. 3:19
Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition, 2Th. 2:3
But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and hurtful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 1Tim. 6:9
But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and keep their souls. Heb. 10:39
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2Pet. 2:1
And in their greed they will exploit you with false words; from of old their condemnation has not been idle, and their destruction has not been asleep. 2Pet. 2:3
But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist have been stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. 2Pet. 3:7
. . . speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures. 2Pet. 3:16
The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is to ascend from the bottomless pit and go to perdition; and the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will marvel to behold the beast, because it was and is not and is to come. Rev. 17:8
As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to perdition. Rev. 17:11