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A reader sent me a link to the following in a Jewish publication:

May 14, 2015

It is since 2012 that the Vatican, under Pope Benedict XVI, spoke of the “State of Palestine” in its official documents. So the decision of the Holy See to recognize this non-existent state should not be a surprise. But the treaty is the first legal and bilateral document in which the Vatican speaks of the “State of Palestine” and no more of the “Organization for the Liberation of Palestine” (PLO): it is, in fact, an official recognition. A symbolic and historic breakthrough. …

For over forty years after the Jewish State won independence in 1948, the Vatican adopted a diplomatic policy copying that of Israel’s enemies: total non-recognition of the Jewish statehood. Despite the acceptance by all Western nations, including, at the beginning, the Communist bloc, theVatican’s recognition of Israel occurred only in 1993.The same Church that didn’t recognize Israel opened diplomatic relations with the PLO, a terror organization whose goal is the “liberation” of the Holy Land from the Jews who live between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. The Church formally recognized Israel’s existence only two decades after Israel’s foe, Egypt, signed a peace treaty with the Jewish State.

And the Vatican had diplomatic relations with over 130 states. It acknowledged their legitimacy even as it disputed, in some cases, their borders.

Why has such a different standard been applied to Israel? Because of anti-Semitism and the aversion they felt upon seeing Israel again among the family of nations. For the Vatican, an independent Jewish State bearing the name “Israel,” with Jerusalem as its capital, and a renewal of life in the land of the Bible, has been the most complex theological Christian problem and a total contradiction to Church dogma.

And now, because of the same anti-Semitism, the Vatican has hurried to recognize the “State of Palestine”, this Trojan horse against the Jewish people, a tool to dismantle the State of Israel and a proto-Nazi entity from which all the Jews are to be cleansed.

We note in shock Pope Francis’ eagerness to recognize the “State of Palestine” before it has even yet arisen and we recall the eagerness of another Pope to recognize the Nazi regime just four months after it was established.  http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/16922#!

Here is something related to certain evangelical Protestants:

The diplomatic recognition of the “state of Palestine” by the Vatican will open the door to a new wave of anti-Semitism and endanger millions of Israeli Jews and Arabs, charge several leading evangelicals who have written about the end times.

And the controversial decision by Pope Francis is even leading to allegations the Roman Catholic Church will be an adversary to Christians and the state of Israel during those times.

New York Times bestselling author and filmmaker Joel Richardson slammed the decision as “an act of profound hatred toward the Jewish people globally.”

In an interview with WND, the author of “When a Jew Rules the World: What the Bible Really Says About Israel in the Plan of God,” observed: “To the uninformed, from the outside, recognizing ‘Palestine’ might seem to be reasonable. Certainly, the God of Heaven loves the Palestinian people as much as the Jew.

“But not to those who have a better grasp of the various political, religious and security related realities on the ground. None who are informed will deny that the establishment of a Palestinian state will compromise the security of the millions of Israeli Jews and Arabs in a profound way.”  …

Talk-show host, pastor and author Carl Gallups agrees that the impact of the Vatican’s decision will be catastrophic. However, the author of “Final Warning: Understanding the Trumpet Days of Revelation” says he isn’t surprised.

Gallups told WND: “This really should come as no huge shock to the world, especially to the Christian world, because this pope has made similar statements supporting the Palestinian cause. As far as I know, this is the first time he’s called for a Palestinian state explicitly, however. And this is disturbing prophetically and geopolitically, because it will fuel the current wave of anti-Semitism that is sweeping the globe.

“It is important to remember there has never been a nation state in that area except Israel. So some kind of ‘Palestinian nation’ is only going to be used to fuel this fire by the leftists and godless who are mobilized by hatred of Israel and Jews. Though I’m an evangelical, I find it so tragic that this statement is coming from the pope, who so many believe should be a bastion of Christianity. But this pope is a leftist theologically speaking and politically speaking,” he said.  …

Tom Horn … says the Vatican has never intended for Jerusalem to belong to one state…Horn alleges: “Rome ostensibly pleads the case of Palestinians and Catholics who want to make pilgrimage, but in truth, there is a wealth of evidence that the Vatican wants to possess Jerusalem as its own. Even more, there are high-level Jewish officials waiting in the wings to hand it over.” http://www.wnd.com/2015/05/israelis-security-compromised-by-vatican-recognizing-palestine/#QCLxf8ATKuKUSL1L.99

While I am not convinced that the official reference to the ‘state of Palestine’ was intended to be anti-semitism by the Vatican, there has long been anti-semitism in the Church of Rome, but not only Rome.

Throughout history, well known Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant leaders have made anti-semitic statements and encouraged hatred against the Jews.

I believe one reason for this is to discourage people from considering that the predominant churches that call themselves Christian do not want their members to consider that the true Christian church had more religious practices in common with the Jews that their churches.

Scholars recognize that the original Church of God in Jerusalem was led by circumcised Jews, who were faithful to Christian teachings, yet had practices that the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and Protestants have condemned.

Some improperly believe that the fourth-century sun-god worshiping Emperor Constantine implemented, and believed in, true religious freedom for Christians in his “Edict of Milan” decree in 313:

When I, Constantine Augustus, as well as I, Licinius Augustus, fortunately met near Mediolanurn (Milan), and were considering everything that pertained to the public welfare and security, we thought, among other things which we saw would be for the good of many, those regulations pertaining to the reverence of the Divinity ought certainly to be made first, so that we might grant to the Christians and others full authority to observe that religion which each preferred; whence any Divinity whatsoever in the seat of the heavens may be propitious and kindly disposed to us and all who are placed under our rule. And thus, by this wholesome counsel and most upright provision we thought to arrange that no one should be denied the opportunity to give his heart for the observance of the Christian religion, of that religion that he should think best for himself, so that the Supreme Deity, to whose worship we freely yield our hearts, may show in all things His usual favor and benevolence. …

Therefore, your Worship should know that it has pleased us to remove all conditions whatsoever, which were in the rescripts formerly given to you officially, concerning the Christians and now any one of these who wishes to observe Christian religion may do so freely and openly, without molestation. We thought it fit to commend these things most fully to your care that you may know that we have given to those Christians free and unrestricted opportunity of religious worship. When you see that this has been granted to them by us, your Worship will know that we have also conceded to other religions the right of open and free observance of their worship for the sake of the peace of our times, that each one may have the free opportunity to worship as he pleases ; this regulation is made we that we may not seem to detract from any dignity or any religion. (Goldstein N. Religion and State. Infobase Publishing, 2010, p. 190)

Instead actually believing that, the Emperor authorized persecution. Around 332, Constantine issued what is known as the Edict Against the Heretics:

Victor Constantinus, Maximus Augustus, to the heretics. “Understand now, by this present statute, ye Novatians, Valentinians, Marcionites, Paulians, ye who are called Cataphrygians, and all ye who devise and support heresies by means of your private assemblies, with what a tissue of falsehood and vanity, with what destructive and venomous errors, your doctrines are inseparably interwoven; so that through you the healthy soul is stricken with disease, and the living becomes the prey of everlasting death. Ye haters and enemies of truth and life, in league with destruction! All your counsels are opposed to the truth, but familiar with deeds of baseness; full of absurdities and fictions: and by these ye frame falsehoods, oppress the innocent, and withhold the light from them that believe. Ever trespassing under the mask of godliness, ye fill all things with defilement: ye pierce the pure and guileless conscience with deadly wounds, while ye withdraw, one may almost say, the very light of day from the eyes of men. But why should I particularize, when to speak of your criminality as it deserves demands more time and leisure than I can give? For so long and unmeasured is the catalogue of your offenses, so hateful and altogether atrocious are they, that a single day would not suffice to recount them all. And, indeed, it is well to turn one’s ears and eyes from such a subject, lest by a description of each particular evil, the pure sincerity and freshness of one’s own faith be impaired. Why then do I still bear with such abounding evil; especially since this protracted clemency is the cause that some who were sound are become tainted with this pestilent disease? Why not at once strike, as it were, at the root of so great a mischief by a public manifestation of displeasure? (Chapter LXIV.—Constantine’s Edict against the Heretics.)

“FORASMUCH, then, as it is no longer possible to bear with your pernicious errors, we give warning by this present statute that none of you henceforth presume to assemble yourselves together. We have directed, accordingly, that you be deprived of all the houses in which you are accustomed to hold your assemblies: and our care in this respect extends so far as to forbid the holding of your superstitious and senseless meetings, not in public merely, but in any private house or place whatsoever. …

And in order that this remedy may be applied with effectual power, we have commanded, as before said, that you be positively deprived of every gathering point for your superstitious meetings, I mean all the houses of prayer, if such be worthy of the name, which belong to heretics, and that these be made over without delay to the catholic Church; that any other places be confiscated to the public service, and no facility whatever be left for any future gathering; in order that from this day forward none of your unlawful assemblies may presume to appear in any public or private place. Let this edict be made public.” (Chapter LXV.—Constantine’s Edict against the Heretics.)

Some of those referred to as Paulians (Paulicians) and Cataphrygians were part of the true Church of God; thus they would have rejected Sunday , kept the Sabbath on Saturday (like the Jews and like what early Christians did; see The Sabbath in the Early Church and Abroad) and would have rejected many other doctrines that Emperor Constantine endorsed. And like some other persecutions, the Edict included those truly in the Church of God and those not in the true church.

According to Eusebius’ Life of Constantine, Book III chapter 18, in the fourth century, the sun-god worshiping Roman emperor Constantine stated concerning the date of Passover:

Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd; for we have received from our Saviour a different way.

Jesus never stated that the Jews were detestable (He was a Jew) nor that He wanted to change the date of Passover. Constantine endorsed changing the date of Passover to a Sunday, whereas the original Christians kept it on the 14th of Nisan, the same date as the Jews.  This was one of the reasons that Constantine initiated persecution against Christians.

And is was not just Emperor Constantine.

Orthodox seers and writers have also taken positions against those with original Judeo-Christian practices.  One example would be a 1249 A.D. vision of “Blessed Hieronymus Agathaghelos” which claimed that “the blasphemies of the Sabbatians have stained and soiled for many centuries” (Cited in Tzima Otto, p. 135; Dr. Otto herself refers to those with Nazarene/Judeo-Christian beliefs as “Christian traitors” on p. 240)–Hieronymus Agathaghelos also predicted their public execution (Tzima Otto, 134,135,240).

There is a long history of Greco-Roman church leaders attempting to eliminate those part of, or sympathetic to, the Church of God.

The Albigneses were condemned by various councils. And one, the Council of Albi (sometimes spelled Alby) in 1254 apparently stated:

They savour of Judaism…they observe the Jewish sabbath, but say that the holy Dominical day is no better than any other day; let them be accursed (Quoted in Davis, Tamar. A General History of the Sabbatarian Churches. 1851; Reprinted 1995 by Commonwealth Publishing, Salt Lake City, p. 64).

Notice what a former Roman Catholic priest reported:

It has been reckoned that in the last and most savage persecution under Emperor Diocletian about two thousand Christians perished, worldwide. In the first incident of Pope Innocent’s Crusade ten times that number of people were slaughtered. Not all were Albigensians. It comes as a shock to discover that, at a stroke, a pope killed far more Christians than Diocletian (De Rosa, Peter. Vicars of Christ. Poolberg Press, Dublin, 2000, pp. 160-161).

(The entire persecution that Roman Emperor Diocletian unleashed lasted from 303-313 A.D; the inquisition-persecution that Innocent III unleashed lasted hundreds of years.)

It perhaps show be pointed out that sometimes those in the true Church of God have been considered to be secretly Jews by some in Greco-Roman faiths:

In the Middle Ages, the Popes and the Councils were successful in destroying the Jewish revolutionary movements which appeared within Christianity in the form of false teaching and which were introduced by those who were Christians in appearance but Jews in secret. The latter then recruited upright and good Christians for the arising heretical movement by persuading the latter in a crafty way.

The secret Jews organised and controlled in secret manner the movements, which were the creative and driving force of wicked false teachings, such as those of the Iconoclasts, the Cathars, the Patarines, the Albigensians, the Hussites, the Alumbrados and others. (Pinay, Maurice. The Plot Against the Church, Part Four Chapter One. Translated from the German and Spanish editions of the same work. 1962)

The above book is still recommended by and for many Catholics (though some others distance themselves from it).  Hence, some of the Greco-Romans have considered some of whom we in the Continuing Church of God include in our tracing of our spiritual ancestors (like some of the Cathars and Albigenses) to have been a secret Jewish group that only professed Christ.

Now, of course, from time to time, some leaders distance themselves from antisemitism.  Notice the following:

May 11, 2015

The Catholic and Protestant churches in Austria have apologized for their anti-Semitism during and prior to the Holocaust.  …

The Catholic Church “must acknowledge its share of responsibility for the creation of a climate of disdain and hatred” for Jews before the Nazi period and the lack of “pity and solidarity with our Jewish fellow citizens” during the Holocaust, said Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, the Associated Press reported.

The Austrian Protestant Council of Churches also expressed “particular shame” for “complicity against Jews and other groups … that were considered ‘unfit to live.'”

As far as being “unfit to live,” that is consistent with an antisemitic teaching of Protestant reformer Martin Luther. Sadly, millions of Jews were killed with Catholic and Protestant complicity during WWII.  The apology, which of itself should have been done, will not bring them back, nor stop some persecutions that the Bible teaches will occur in the future.

By promoting anti-semitism, those associated with the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and Protestants have often feared to have anything in common with the Jews, and have been afraid to practice the original Christian faith, which did have a few practices in common with the Jews.

Furthermore, as I mentioned yesterday, Rome has long wanted Jerusalem and wrest control away from the Jews.  And no one should think that it really wants to give that control to the Muslims.  Recall it was pope who started the Crusades in the Middle Ages to take control of Jerusalem from the Muslims.

The Vatican basically believes that to show that it represents the universal religion of the world that it needs sovereign territory in Jerusalem to better project that image to the world.

The Vatican wants the Church of God on Jerusalem’s Western Hill and it wants a more important role in Jerusalem.

But, perhaps it should again be pointed out that some Catholic writers have indicated that an antipope will be established in Jerusalem:

Priest E. Sylvester Berry (published 1920):  The two horns denote a twofold authority – spiritual and temporal.  As indicated by the resemblance to a lamb, the prophet will probably set himself up in Rome as a sort of anti-pope…Antichrist will establish himself in Jerusalem…with his ‘lying wonders’… (Berry ES.  The Apocalypse of St. John, 1920.  Quoted in Culleton RG.  The Reign of Antichrist.  Reprint 1974, TAN Books, Rockford (IL), pp. 199-200).

Much of the above teaching is consistent with certain scriptures.

The recognition of the state of Palestine is mainly a step to get the Vatican closer to its real goal.

Whether or not anti-semitism was behind the recognition of ‘the state of Palestine’ by the Vatican yesterday,Rome wants Jerusalem.  And the historical reality is that the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and Protestants have long had anti-Semitic practices and have condemned Christians who held to the same practices that Jesus and His early faithful followers have.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 14th, 2015 at 3:00 pm and is filed under Church History, Prophecy, Religious News.

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