Paganism in the Roman Catholic Church
Introduction
Having traced the continued attacks by Satan on God’s Word through Scripture and then ending with a detailed look in the book of Revelation at the prophetic warnings from God, it is now important to conclude the series by doing a study on the evidence of paganism in the Roman Catholic Church. This study will add further compelling evidence to the information already presented, that connects the Roman Church to The Whore of Revelation.
Once again those that covered the Revelation series will experience some degree of repetition, but for this series to be complete it must give a comprehensive explanation for those who have not covered the material in the previous series.
Rome, the City of Seven Hills
“This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven hills on which the woman is seated …” (Rev.17:9).
In Revelation 17 John identifies the location of the Great Whore by explaining that she is seated on seven hills, this disqualifies the ancient city of Babylon from being the future site of this false religion, as it is situated on a plain, not on seven hills. Also, the Old Testament prophets are clear that the city of Babylon will not be rebuilt (Isa. 13:19-22, Jer. 51:24-26; 61-64), and John refers to Rome as Babylon repeatedly in the book of Revelation. There is only one city that can take the title of “The City of Seven Hills,” and that is Rome. The Catholic encyclopedia states “it is within the city of Rome, called the city of seven hills, that the entire area of Vatican State proper is now confined.” The seven hills are the Aventine, Palatine, Capitoline, Caelian, Quirinal, Viminal and the Esquiline. Even in John’s day Rome was called the city of seven hills, so for him there could have been no other interpretation. So, the religious power that is behind the rise of the Antichrist is connected to Roman Catholicism.
Martin Luther himself also witnessed that Rome with its popes was anything but a holy city. He was quoted as saying, “No one can imagine what sins and infamous actions are committed in Rome, they must be seen and heard to be believed. It has been said, ‘If there be a hell, Rome is built over it’.” I would change Luther’s statement to “there is a hell and Rome is the gateway to it,” the deceptions of the Great Prostitute will lead many multitudes to an eternity in the Lake of Fire.
With the Great Whore being seated on Rome, and Rome being prophesied by Daniel (2 & 7) as the last controlling power over the nation of Israel, the Antichrist will therefore initially have his major base of operations at Rome as head of the Mystery Babylon Religion. Once he is accepted by the Jews as their messiah, the Antichrist will move to Jerusalem. The final seat of Satan will therefore be in Jerusalem. Satan is the great counterfeiter, Jerusalem is God’s holy city, and is where the Son of David will rule His Kingdom; Satan by placing His false messiah in Jerusalem, will have replaced Jesus with his counterfeit messiah. It will not be the Lion of Judah ruling the world, bringing in a time of peace, it will be the Man of Sin, who after a short false peace, will be responsible for mankind progressing towards complete annihilation.
The Babylonian Paganism of the Vatican
The worship of Helios (the sun) is rife in Roman Catholicism and connects right back to the Emperor Constantine, the evidence of which was covered in Part 7 of this series. Although claiming to be a Christian, Constantine held on to his pagan beliefs, especially the veneration of Apollo. He was only “baptised” while lying ill on his death bed. Suspicion that his conversion was sincere could be cast onto his very first “testimony”: Constantine supposedly had a vision of a flaming cross in the sky, with the inscription in Greek “by this sign conquer,” however his “cross” turned out to be a chi-rho cross, which is a pagan sun symbol.
There are theologians who state that the Chi-Rho symbol (☧) combines the first two Greek letters of Χριστῷ, which translates to “Christ” in English, with the letter X placed over the stem of the letter P. So according to them the symbol merely represents the name “Christ,” and is therefore not a sun symbol. When interpreting the meaning of the chi-rho symbol we need to remember a number of facts:
- The idea that the Prince of Peace, Jesus, gave a symbol to Constantine that represented “Christ” (anointed one), as a symbol of victory in a battle which proved to be a bloody slaughter, is not credible.
- The evidence that Constantine did not convert to Christianity and remained a pagan sun worshipper throughout his reign is overwhelming.
- Just as Constantine combines Jesus with pagan sun gods such as Apollo and Sol, he also was able to manipulated a pagan sun symbol into having a Christian significance.
- The fact that the chi-rho symbol is displayed in the layout of St Peter’s Plaza, is strong evidence that it is a sun symbol, as it is combining Constantine’s sun symbol with other pagan sun symbols.
The chi-rho cross can be seen in the layout of St Peter’s Plaza in the Vatican (shown below). the layout of the plaza is such that the east/west spokes of the eight-spoke sun wheel are in line with the summer and winter solstices. The layout around the obelisk in the centre is designed according to the shadow the obelisk casts at sunset and sunrise on the winter and summer solstices – a practice common to pagan temples, not Christian churches.
Further evidence of Constantine’s Chi-rho cross being prominent in the Roman Catholic Church may be seen in the pictures below:
St Peter’s Plaza with sun symbols of the Canaanite god Baal (four spoke wheel) and Sumerian god Shamash (eight spoked wheel)
Note in the picture above that around the obelisk at the centre of the huge eight-point sun wheel is a smaller four-pointed sun wheel, the same symbol that is found on the altar stone in the temple of Baal in Hatzor. So, St Peter’s Plaza has three pagan sun images, the chai rho, the common pagan eight spoked sun wheel, and the Hatzor four spoked sun wheel, with the plaza being orientated to the winter and summer solstices.
A fourth sun symbol may be found at the centre of the sun wheel in St Peter’s Plaza, it is an Egyptian obelisk originally from Heliopolis. Emperor Gaius Caligula had the obelisk of Saint Peter bought to Rome in AD 37 from Egypt. The idea to move it to St Peter’s Plaza was that of Pope Sixtus V in 1586. There are three reasons why this was done:
- The first being that the movement of the last remaining obelisk in Rome that had not toppled since Roman times – an extremely technical feat of engineering – would be a testament of the ingenuity of man during the Renaissance period. It was raised as a monument to humanities achievements. The gilt ball on top of the obelisk was believed to contain the ashes of Julius Caesar, the first Roman emperor to be declared a God. A fitting cap to a monument to mankind’s greatness.
- The second reason is the symbolism of the obelisk matches the purpose of St Peter’s Plaza – occultic sun worship. The Egyptian obelisk was originally from the city of sun worship in Egypt – Heliopolis. The obelisk is both a representation of a shaft of sunlight and a phallic symbol (‘shaft of Bel‘). The Roman Catholic Church clearly ignores God’s instructions regarding following pagan practices: “You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt” (Lev. 18:3). The pagan association with obelisks was something well understood by the Roman Church. The Jesuit scholar, Athanasius Kircher in his book Obeliscus Amphilius, published in 1650, gives an account of the ancient views of the obelisks as the digitus solis, or “finger of the sun”.
- The third reason the Pope erected the monument was that it was a counter-Reformation monument. A display of the power and greatness of the Roman Church. The Pope tried to stop people going back to the Bible and find out God’s true plan of redemption for man, by erecting monuments to the sun god!
Students of scripture may recognise that the Tower of Babel was erected in rebellion to God, a monument to astrology and the superiority of man, the Obelisk in St Peter’s Plaza is also a monument to astrology (the sun), and the superiority of man. The obelisk presence in the Vatican is strong evidence that Babylon religion has its home there.
What is God’s feeling towards these pagan sun symbols being connected to the worship of Him?
“I will destroy your high places, cut down your pillars for sun-worship, and throw your carcasses on the carcasses of your idols; and I will detest you” (Leviticus 26:30).
“Your altars shall be made desolate and your sun-pillars shall be broken in pieces, and I will cast down your slain before your idols” (Ezekiel 6:4).
Further evidence of the influence of sun worship is found inside the Vatican; Looking up into the dome of St. Peter’s you will notice the very obvious 16-ray sun wheel. Indeed, the light from the sun streams into the centre hub of the dome, making a genuine sun-lit sunburst image at the centre of the wheel.
The picture above shows a sunburst image on the underside of the canopy of Bernini’s Baldacchino, the large canopy-like monument in St. Peter’s Cathedral, directly over the main altar of St. Peter’s, and the alleged tomb of St. Peter.
“And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD’S house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east. Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here?” (Ezek. 8:16 -17).
These symbols are associated with sun worship, which is strongly condemned in scripture. So why are sun symbols so prevalent in the Roman Catholic Church, if they are associated with paganism and apostasy?
The Eucharist
According to the Roman Catholic Church the Eucharist is not just the body of Jesus, it is the whole of Jesus, body, soul and Spirit. The Roman Catholic mass involves a priest having the power to change a sun disc shaped host (bread) into the “whole body” of Jesus – the eucharist. This occurs when the priest utters the magic words hoc est corpus meus (hocus pocus). The change that takes place is not in the substance of the bread – for it is still bread – but rather in the mind of the Roman Catholic, it has become the flesh of God.
To better understand the Mass and the taking of the eucharist, it is important to define the term transubstantiation, the Roman Catholic explanation is “the word official approved by the Council of Trent to express the changing of the entire substance of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. After the consecration only the appearance or “accidents” (colour, taste, smell, quality, etc.) of bread and wine remain” (1). Thus, the Roman Catholic explanation of the Eucharist is that, “it is God among us, it is the Lord Jesus present in the tabernacle of our Churches with His body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. It is Jesus veiled under the presence of bread, but really and physically present in the consecrated Host, so that He dwells in our midst, works within us and for us, and is at our disposal. The Eucharist Jesus is the true Emmanuel. The ‘God within us’ (Matthew 1:3)” (2).
Joan Cruz in her book Eucharist Miracles further defines transubstantiation by writing: “The Eucharist is a supernatural transformation, in which substantial change occurs without accidental change. Thus, the outward properties of bread and wine continue after consecration, but their essence and substance are replaced by the substance of the true and actual Body and Blood of Christ” (3).
It was Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) who furnished the justification for transubstantiation. Chemical changes before the enlightenment were explained according to Aristotle’s pseudo-scientific philosophy of “accidents,” where the substance could be one thing but appear to be another. In alchemy there was not much distinction between chemistry and magic. So, when an alchemist combined chemical elements, the resulting compound and chemicals was seen as having changed appearance, not a change of substance. The reverse of this is how Aquinas explained transubstantiation, where the bread and wine would be the mere appearance, but the substance would actually be the protoplasm of Jesus Christ after the priest uttered the magic phrase. Joan Cruz gives the example of water changing to ice, the outward properties change, while the molecular structure (substance) does not. The Eucharist is the opposite scenario, while the outward properties remain the same, the substance has changed into the very body of God.
So, while modern science reveals transubstantiation to be preposterous, the Roman Catholic Church still hold onto the belief because of their doctrine De Fide (“always the same”), which will not allow them to change a doctrine instituted by an infallible Pope! Regarding the tradition of transubstantiation Jacob Prasch had this to say “the whole idea of transubstantiation comes from a concept no one believes anymore. It is unfounded. The idea of the “accidents” and the host being transubstantiated is absolutely absurd” (4).
All aspects of the Eucharist are pagan:
- The concept of eating your god is totally pagan, and is derived from the worship of the sun god Mithras by the Romans.
- The shape of the Eucharist is a sun disk
- The belief in “accidents” is derived from the philosophies of Aristotle.
- The magic words that can only be spoken by a priest is the type of ploy used by pagan priest to have power over the people. An authority that is found nowhere in scripture.
In Matthew 24, Jesus warns of the great deception of the last days and that there would be many false Christs. The Eucharist certainly fits that description. Jesus said if people say “‘look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it” (Matt. 24:26). The Greek word inner room is Tameion, which actually means a storage container. It is important to note that at the end of the Mass, the remaining hosts are placed in a storage container referred to as the “tabernacle.” This then becomes a focal point for prayer and worship of Christ and his real presence in the church. Jesus makes a mockery of this belief when He explicitly says, “for as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Matt. 24:27).
- (1) Joan Carol Cruz, Eucharist Miracles, Tan books and Publishers, Rockford, II, 1967, P13
- (2) Fr. Stephano Manelli, OFM, The most Blessed Sacrament: Our Lord is truly present: Body Soul and Divinity to make you happy now and for eternity!. Children of the Father Foundation, Havertown, PA. P4.
- (3) Joan Carol Cruz, Eucharist Miracles, Tan books and Publishers, Rockford, II, 1967, P40.
- (4) Jacob Prasch, Shadows of the Beast, Moriel Ministries, 2011.
The Monstrance
It must be made clear that, according to the Roman Catholic Church the Eucharist is not just the body of Jesus, it is Jesus, and during the Benediction, the “Eucharist Christ” is placed in a monstrance that is designed to depict the sun, and is worshiped by the congregation, which is pure pagan idol worship. Many of the Roman Catholic monstrance, as the one displayed below, also have a crescent moon, the symbol of both the queen of heaven and Mary.
The belief that the Monstrance contains the full body of Jesus is refuted by Paul in Acts 17:24 when speaking to the philosophers of Athens, “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man.” The idea that Jesus can be taken from the right hand of God the Father and be encased in a glass chamber within a sun burst Monstrance, is not only totally unscriptural, it is ludicrous and abhorrent.
The origins of the sun disc eucharist resting on the crescent moon is found in the goddess Isis (an alter ego of Semiramis). The sun disc supported by the crescent moon is symbolic of the womb of Isis, that bore the sun child Tammuz.
This Roman Catholic link between Jesus as the “sun” and Mary as the “womb/crescent moon” is further revealed by Pope John Paul II, in the weekly Vatican publication Zenith, writing that “the relationship between the Virgin Mary and the Eucharist is explained by referring to the ‘Eucharistic faith’ that Mary already practiced ‘even before the institution of the Eucharist, by the very fact that she offered her virginal womb for the incarnation of God’s word’.”
The “Eucharist Christ”
There will be those, who, on reading this presentation who will be offended, because they have Roman Catholic fiends who believe in the historical Jesus: That He was born of a virgin, raised in Nazareth, died on the cross, and was raised from the dead on the third day. This is the danger of syncretism, where Biblical truth is contaminated by man’s wisdom and pagan philosophies. The deception of Satan here is not on the historical accuracy of the life of Jesus, but on the means of salvation. The apostle Paul warned the Galatians about adding additional requirements for salvation (Gal. 3:1-5). Just as the Galatians had legalistic traditions as requirements for salvation, the Roman Catholic Church has pagan traditions. They are preaching another Jesus, who is not the Jesus of scripture, and that is where Roman Catholicism must be judged. According to Roman Catholic doctrines, which are clearly stated in The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, anyone who denies that the Eucharist contains the “whole Christ,” is an anathema (to be cursed and excommunicated). The “Eucharist Christ” must therefore be worshipped! Because of the depth of pagan syncretism in Catholicism, the faith must be considered a cult, just as Mormonism and Jehovah’s are cults.
So, for those that have felt offended, bear in mind, the Church of Rome holds that no one outside of their church can be a Christian, and that you are a heretic, an anathema, and are destined for hell for not believing in their doctrine.
Bread and Wine are Symbols
Roman Catholics refuse to recognise that the bread and wine are symbols of the body and blood of Jesus, and that when Christians partake in communion, it is done in remembrance of what Jesus has done for them. Thousands upon thousands of Protestants died during the inquisitions for refusing to worship the Catholic wafer god. There is also absolutely no evidence of the mass in scripture, where a mere man becomes a mediator between God and a congregation of people, and performs the duties of a sacrificing priest.
The Catholic Mary Points to the Eucharist Christ
Roger Oakland in his book Another Jesus? The Eucharist Christ and the New Evangelism, reveals the increased emphasis being made by Mary apparitions around the world on the importance of Eucharist adoration. He writes: “Apparitions from the four corners of the globe express this common theme. The Eucharist has the power to transform the world. The Eucharist should be worshipped. Eucharist adoration will bring peace and unity. Messages originate from such diverse places as Amsterdam, Holland; Akita, Japan; Rome, Italy; Naju, Korea; Bayside, New York, and Budapest, Hungary all convey this common idea’.”
Mother and son worship that was so prominent in ancient paganism, continues in the Roman Church, Mary is to be worshipped as queen of heaven, and Jesus is to be worshipped in the form of the sun disc “Eucharist Christ,” held aloft in a monstrance.
A more detailed explanation of the Mary worship and her many apparitions, will follow in the next series which will have a two-part study on Mary worship, which will expose the depth of paganism in the Roman Catholic Church.
Mary Worship is connected to Sun Worship
Mother, or Mary worship is the most powerful and emotional phenomenon in the Roman Catholic Church today. This mystic cult is given credence by the multitude of accounts about supernatural phenomena involving statues, apparitions and healings. Since Mary worship is found nowhere in the writings of the first Christians, it is evident that its origin is found in the universal adoration of the mother goddess throughout all paganism, well before the time of Christ. Mary veneration was adopted into the rising Roman Church early in its history – from the Constantine era (306 – 337).
The Spread of Babylon Religion
When people of Babylon were scattered to all parts of the earth by God, they took the worship of mother and child with them. Examples of mother and child worship are found in China with the mother goddess being given the title of “holy mother” or Shingnoo. Woodrow, in his book Babylon Mystery Religion, names other mother goddesses:
| Hertha – Ancient Germans | Disa – Scandinavians | Nutria – Etruscans | Indrani – India |
| Aphrodite or Ceres – Greeks | Nana – Sumerians | Venus or Fortuna – Rome | Cebel – Asia |
Bach, in his book Strange Sects and Curious Cults, sums it up by saying “But regardless of her name or place she was the wife of Baal (lord), the virgin queen of heaven, who bore fruit although she never conceived.” As you travel through history, the title “Queen of heaven” is given to the alter egos of Semiramis. And as more focus is given to the mother than the child, eventually she is worshipped individually.
The Egyptian gods of Isis, Osiris and Horus are the Egyptian equivalent of Semiramis, Nimrod and Tammuz – the Babylonian gods – with Isis being the Egyptian alter-ego of Semiramis. The Egypt mythology of Isis sticks closely to the story of Semiramis: Isis was married to her brother, Osiris. Another brother, Set (Seth), who was jealous of Osiris, killed him and cut him up into pieces and spread the body parts around Egypt. Isis went out and gathered all the parts of Osiris and magically restored him. Isis then conceived a child through her relation with Osiris. The child was a boy called Horus, who was considered a miracle-child born after the restoration to life of Osiris by Isis. It is of interest to note that Seth was the third son of Adam and Eve, born as the righteous line of Adam and Eve, after his elder brother Cain had killed Abel. So, Satan has the evil Semiramis and Nimrod depicted in their Egyptian alter egos as righteous, and Seth, the righteous son of Adam as evil.
With the conquest and Hellenization of Egypt by Alexander the Great, the Greeks were exposed to Isis worship. Due to her attributes as a protector and mother, Isis became the patron goddess to the Greek sailors, who spread her worship from Egypt to all ports of the Mediterranean, including Rome. There was universal appeal for the Isis cult in Roman society, from lowly slaves to traders and businessmen. Isis worship also had a strong appeal to women, which was a feminine alternative to the Roman patriarchal dominated religions such as Mithraism. Another factor that made Isis popular with women was that unlike Cybele, the resident Roman mother goddess, she did not require a change in lifestyle.
With the dominance of Isis worship at the time of the fledgling church in Rome, the myth of Isis had a direct influence on the elevation of the Mary in the Roman Church. Aspects of Isis that attracted worshippers to her, and had a direct influence on the status of Mary in Roman Catholic theology are:
- Isis was depicted as the Lady of sorrows weeping for the dead Osiris. The Egyptians believed that the weeping of Isis for Osiris was the reason why the Nile flooded each year. Mary has become the Lady of sorrows in the Roman Church, weeping over the dead body of her Son. The focus in the Church should be on the resurrection of Jesus and His triumph over death, which gives all believers the assurance of eternal life. The Roman Catholics, however, want to focus on the suffering of Mary at the crucifixion of Jesus, to elevate her suffering to be equal with the suffering of Jesus. Because of this indoctrination, Mary could soon become co-redeemer with Jesus in the Roman Church, as the majority of Roman Catholics already believe she is equal with Jesus.
- Isis was commended as the divine mother, nursing her infant son Horus, and in that form, she was often depicted in statues and paintings. The Roman Catholic Church depicts Mary as the divine mother holding the baby Jesus. Archaeologists in Rome, discovering statues (idols), and paintings depicting mother and child veneration from the time of Constantine, are unable to distinguish between Isis -Tammuz and Mary – Jesus. The reason being that the Pagan statues and paintings of Isis and Tammuz, simply changed to be “Christian” images of Mary and child.
- The title of Isis in Rome was “the queen of heaven,” that title has been adopted by the Roman church for the Catholic Mary.
- Isis was also referred to as “mother of the gods.” The belief that Mary is the “Mother of God” is central to the Roman Catholic faith.
- Isis was called “Lady of the Words of Power.” This is another indication that Mary worship developed out of the old worship of the mother goddess. Mary is often titled “Madonna.” Alexander Hislop in his book The Two Babylons states that the title “Madonna” is one of the titles by which the Babylonian mother goddess (Semiramis) was known. Nimrod came to be called Baal, which means lord, while Semiramis was referred to as “My Lady,” which is Baalti. The Latin for “My Lady” is “Mea Donna,” and in Italian it is corrupted into “Madonna.” When Catholics venerate the Madonna, they are venerating Semiramis, not Mary.
Conclusion
For a believer to be able to identify the Whore of Revelation in the world today, they must be able to connect that religion back to the rebellion at the Tower of Babel and make connections to Nimrod, Semiramis. As was revealed in Part 9, chapter 17 of the book of Revelation gives 10 explicit criteria that may be used to identify the Great Whore. A further factor is that the Whore is directly linked to Mystery Babylon Religion in that chapter. So, when the Roman Catholic Church ticks all the boxes for the ten criteria, and then ample evidence is presented linking the Roman Church with pagan Babylon, the question must be asked, what more evidence do you need? A further question must be asked, which is what are you going to do with this important information? There are over a billion Roman Catholics that have been deceived by the lie, they worship a sun disc and the queen of heaven. They believe their salvation is dependent upon following the tradition connected to these two pagan deities:
CANON IX. “If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema (a formal curse by a Pope).”
Consequently, millions of Roman Catholics are on the road to hell, not purgatory, and the pulpits of the “Protestant” churches of today are silent on the matter, it is a disgrace.
Sound the Warning 