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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Eric Walsh

Identifying Babylon’s Invaders

It's a very beautiful day, but it is, of course, quite warm.

And I'm noticing that Southern California is getting more humid earlier in the season.

So I guess before long it'll be like Miami, where I went to medical school and lived for a while, and hopefully we don't start having hurricanes here.

Let's just say 1 word, another word of prayer before we go into this presentation.

Father God, we thank you Lord for your word and for your truth.

We just ask Lord that we be faithful stewards of what you have given us.

Lord, I ask that you speak this afternoon.

Lord, let me not be of any significance in this presentation, I pray.

Our talk this afternoon is entitled, Identifying Babylon's Invaders.

It is kind of a follow up from this morning's message, but this is a little more nuts and bolts so that you get Some more practical things.

Let me start by saying that we're going to be dealing with actual individuals, quotes, and ministries.

I have no personal bone to pick with anyone.

But I have been myself fooled at times, greatly deceived by charismatic speakers by myself.

And So I feel an obligation to speak out against error if error is being taught.

And maybe I'll get a chance to talk about that a little later on.

In the book of 2 Timothy, Chapter 3 and verse 1, 2 Timothy 3 and verse 1, the scripture says, this know also that in the last days perilous times will come.

For men shall be lovers of their own selves, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.

From such turn away." That is verse 4 of chapter 3.

Paul, speaking to Timothy, goes on and he says, for of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with diverse lusts, ever learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.

But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

But continue thou in the things that thou hast learned and been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." Paul was on the floor of a Roman dungeon as he wrote the book of 2 Timothy.

He was writing this book because a transition was about to happen and Paul, as you read the last chapter of the book of 2 Timothy, was ready to die for the cause of Christ.

He found it necessary before he died that he would give warning to Timothy about what would come on the earth because Paul, like every generation of Christians, believed that Jesus was soon to return.

And so he wanted Timothy, who would be his kind of heir apparent, to take these truths and to then be able to use them in his own ministry, but also to warn the Christian believers everywhere.

I call the book of 2 Timothy the message to the last generation.

The message to the last generation, because Paul was writing this book to prepare Timothy and the church for the terrible time that Paul knew was ahead.

Now Paul, again, was in a dungeon, yet He spoke of a coming time that would be terrible.

I believe that we are seeing that time now.

And I believe that the warnings that Paul gave to Timothy are applicable to God's church today.

Unfortunately, warnings often are not good, meaning that we often don't want to hear warnings.

They're often good, but we don't want to hear them, is what I should say.

And so there are many times, you know, when you're a kid and you want to go down a slide into a swimming pool, Or if you're out at a lake and somebody says, you know, you may not want to dive into that lake or swing across the rope and land in the middle of it because there are alligators in that lake or in that swamp.

And you know, that warning doesn't sit well with you.

On the 1 hand, you don't want to be alligator food.

But on the other hand, you would love to go into the cool water.

Warnings make us or force us to make a choice.

We must weigh the risk and benefit of our choices.

We can choose to jump in the water with the alligators if we want to, But unless you're a world-class swimmer and probably gifted in walking on water at some level, jumping into alligator or crocodile infested water is probably never going to be a good thing.

So Paul gives those warnings and the warnings began to come true not long after Paul's demise.

It just took a few hundred years before the gentleman on the left, there's a bust of the Roman emperor Constantine, began to meddle with the church.

The Christians were growing strong, and ironically, Christianity grows fastest and strongest, it seems, when the church is being persecuted.

When the church is not being persecuted, it seems as if, you know, being Christian becomes more popular, more easy, more accessible.

And so the church might grow in number, but the character of the church often suffers.

So the church was obviously going to stay in the Roman Empire.

And when Constantine's mother, according to tradition, when his mother was converted to Christianity, he decided he had to do something because the Christians were viewed as such enemies.

And so Constantine was baptized into the Christian church and began instantly to try and unify the empire.

And he did this by taking bits and pieces of paganism with Christianity and mixing it so it would be most palatable to those in the Roman Empire who had not accepted Christianity.

So you see a picture here of the Council of Nicaea.

And here they began to work on these different things.

By 321 AD, the first Sunday laws were passed.

And the way that they got Sunday to become a popular day, you've probably heard this before, is that Sunday became a feast day and a day to celebrate and, you know, it was more of a festive day.

And then the Sabbath was made to be more of a burden day, and fasting and people weren't as happy on that day.

And so, eventually, paganism mixed into the church.

We know that from a lot of different ways.

We know that because the days that are chosen for the celebration of Christmas all the way through the line are days that you can directly translate right back to pagan holidays, and they became Christianized.

That's probably another discussion, but 1 of the proofs of This is found in the 10 Commandments as it is found in, as this is found in the Catholic catechism.

I said this this morning, my family, I come out of an Anglican and Catholic background.

And so I'm not, I don't say what I'm saying to make Catholics feel bad as individuals.

I believe there are many sincere Catholics that, many of whom will be found in the kingdom of God, honestly, because they would have lived based on what they've been taught and what they know.

But when you are confronted with truth, there's an obligation to learn truth and to, you know, incorporate truth into your life.

1 of the best telling tales that something has been changed is the 10 Commandments as found in the catechisms, because as you look here, the second commandment is removed.

The second commandment says that we should not make graven images all the way out, nobody should bow down and worship them, and that commandment has been removed here.

The fourth commandment is now the fifth commandment.

And the fourth commandment in the Decalogue of the Scripture is the third commandment.

And of course, in order to make up for the fact that The second commandment was removed, the tenth commandment is split into 2 parts.

So you can compare this, any Catholic catechism you find, you can take it, look at the 10 Commandments and compare them to the 10 Commandments as found in the Bible and you see that there was a change made.

This was prophesied that these changes would be made.

In Daniel 7 and verse 25, the Scripture says, "'And he shall speak great words against the Most High and shall wear out the saints of the Most High and think to change times and laws.'" I don't want to focus on the history too long, except to say that it happened again.

You fast forward all the way to the 1960s, and what you find is that there was another council.

This is the council of, I heard her say, what did she say?

And you can see the great order and ceremony involved in this.

There's a great spectacle to Catholic services.

And in the Second Vatican Council, which lasted for 4 years in its breadth, the Catholic Church decided to move to being more friendly.

The Catholic Church, if you looked around the world, in Africa, South America, even of course in the United States, all over the world, they saw that they were losing followers, that Protestant churches were coming in and baptizing many of their believers, So they began to change things.

1 of the things that they changed fundamentally was, before that time, mass could only be done in Latin.

And so they changed that, so that mass could be done in the language of the people wherever they were.

So you could have Spanish mass in a Spanish country, English, on and on and on.

Now, someone like Mel Gibson is called a pre-Second Vatican Council Catholic.

Mel Gibson and many Catholics are angry at the changes that were made, and Mel Gibson actually has the money to do something about it.

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Identifying Babylon’s Invaders

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