July 30: A WARNING UNHEEDED

But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts. Revelation 9:20-21

In 1054, the rocky relationship between the western and eastern legs of Rome came to a head. History calls it the Great Schism. The Eastern Orthodox Church did not care to acquiesce to papal authority. Though correct in that declaration, they held tightly to other trappings from Catholicism that had entered the church with the influx of pagans following the Edict of Milan by Constantine, some 700 years earlier.

The Easterners thought of themselves as Christians, yet they loved their idols more than the God of love. Like their western counterpart, they elevated Mary to pray to instead of Jesus. Even as the hordes of Islamic locusts ravaged them, they clung to their rosaries, rituals, icons, and gold—none of which could save them from the Turkish nightmare.

This scenario served as a warning to the large and growing (by force) Roman Catholic Church. But it was a warning they did not heed. Instead, they continued to traffic their abominations, including the worship of idols, and thefts in the form of cash extracted from rich and poor alike for the sale of penances and indulgences. Streets ran red with the blood of Protestants. Worst of all, there has been no repentance. The last three centuries of the Dark Ages came to an abrupt close in 1798 when Napoleon, fed up with the horrors of the Catholic Church, captured the pope. This seemed to be a mortal wound to Roman Catholicism (Revelation 13:3,14), yet it has made a remarkable comeback as a religio-political entity over the last 95 years (as of 1929). Napoleon’s action launched a worldwide movement of atheism called by historians “The Age of Enlightenment”.

It is interesting to note the Providential protection of the Protestant Reformation by the distractions the Ottomans provided. After the total collapse of the eastern leg, the Ottomans pushed incessantly into Catholic territory. The “Holy Roman Emperor Charles V” focused on defending himself from the outside Turkish threat instead of the usual extermination of Christians within his borders.

The Protestant Reformation for a while made steady progress in shedding pagan trappings of the “mother church” while holding the sacred Scriptures as the sole definer of faith and practice. But the transition out of Babylon is incomplete (Revelation 3:2;18:4), and recent decades show a reversal of direction and increasing acceptance of man-made doctrines, traditions, and pagan practices that the Reformers were trying to lead people away from.

Thus, chapter 9 concludes with the two verses above, setting the tone of world affairs for the duration of the second woe. The seventh trumpet and third woe will be Christ’s return (11:15)!

“He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” Revelation 3:5