The Age of Thyatira
The age of Thyatira of the church lasted from 606 A.D. when Pope Boniface III called himself the Universal Pope to 1648 A.D. when the Protestants and Catholics had that Treaty of Westphalia after over one century of war. This era saw a massive increase of the power of the Roman Catholic Church into its first peak. The church back then has gone through many changes. The Church of Rome for more than one millennium dominated the political and religious systems in Europe. This time saw the Crusades, the evil Inquisition, the invention of the religion of Islam, the Protestant Reformation, and other events. This time saw many people follow the simplicity of the gospel in many groups like the Waldensians, the Lollards, and other groups. Also, this time saw the rise of modern-day secret societies like Rosicrucians and Freemasonry (many members back then had links to the Merovingian bloodline, as members of the Merovingian bloodline had infiltrated some of the Papacy back then too). They tried to infiltrate the church. The debate on works contributed to the rise of the Protestant Reformation. Catholics believe that people must do works to gain and maintain salvation, and Protestants believe that God's grace through faith saves people's souls. The Bible is clear that if a person repents of his or her sins, then accepts Jesus Christ as Savior, he or she is a new creation:
“Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."
-Ephesians 2:5-10.
Good works alone never merit salvation, as no human is perfect. Yet, after salvation, we must do good works, representing the fruit of the spirit. In other words, good works are the fruits that grow out of being saved, but works don't make us saved. After salvation, we must obey God's Word found in his commandments as found in 1 John 2:3-4, "And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. HE THAT SAITH, I KNOW HIM, AND KEEPETH NOT HIS COMMANDMENTS, IS A LIAR, and the truth is not in him." So, we have to live holy lives. The leadership of the Roman Catholic Church did the right thing to defend the Trinity and many Christian doctrines (like the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Virgin Birth, and the physical existence of the Lord Jesus Christ), but the Roman Catholic Church added many false doctrines and man-made, unscriptural superstitions like the Rosary (when the Bible is clear not to use repetitive prayers), purgatory, calling Mary the Mother of God, Mary being the co-Mediatrix (when the Bible is clear that the only mediator between God and man is the Lord Jesus Christ), prayer to the saints (when that is necromancy as our prayers are only supposed to be sent to God alone), indulgences, calling the Pope Holy Father (when that title is only reserved to God alone), the embrace of the Scapular, forcing bishops to be celibate (when the Bible is clear that bishops can be married if they desire to as found in 1 Timothy 3:1-7. Even the Apostle Peter had a wife), etc. that movements existed to challenge these false doctrines like the Petrobussians, the Lollards, the Waldensians, etc. Even Catholic scholars like Erasmus challenged the indulgences and wanted the Bible to be translated into diverse languages for the people. Then, Martin Luther started the Reformation in rejecting the theocratic authority of the Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church excommunicated Luther, and the Reformation spread globally.
The Reformation had many strengths and weaknesses. The Reformation did good to spread the gospel to the common people in an efficient way, to allow the Bible to be translated into multiple languages, to promote the rule of law, and to promote the power of God alone to save people. Yet, many Reformers kept some of the false doctrines of the Catholic Church, some unified church and state in theocratic kingdoms (that suppressed the rights of Anabaptists, Baptists, and Protestant dissidents), and some allied with occult secret societies like Rosicrucians and Freemasons. Many Protestants (in the Bartholomew Day Massacre in France), Anabaptists, and Baptists were persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church in an unjust fashion. The Catholic Church used the Council of Trent to condemn Protestant views and promote basic Catholic doctrine. The problem with the Council of Trent is that further false doctrines were believed in the Vatican like even papal infallibility and the embrace of the Apocrypha (which was rejected by the Jewish scholars of the early centuries after Christ, but it has been embraced by the Catholic Church. 2 Edras 3:5 said that Adam's body was without soul when the Bible is clear that Adam was a living soul. Many scholars exposed contradictions in the Apocrypha, and it is condoning sorcery). There was the rise of Cathars who were Gnostics. Also, there was the rise of Islam, which explicitly denied the existence of the Son of God, when even the Old Testament mentioned that God the Father and the Son existed as found in Isaiah 9:6: "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Islam is a works-based salvation religion that views Muhammad the last of the great prophets. Conflicts among Muslims and Christians will persist. At the end of the era of Thyatira saw the increased hostility towards monarchies and the creation of the modern world as we know it.
After the Roman Empire (and the Early Middle Ages)
By 606 A.D., the Christian Church changed. The modern-day Roman Catholic Church existed when by 606 A.D. Pope Boniface III blasphemously claimed to be the Universal Pope overall Christians (when only the Lord Jesus Christ is the head of all Christians). Historically, the Pope called themselves titles reserved for God alone like Holy Father. There was one major religious change in the world by the 600s A.D. By the early 600's A.D, Islam was created by Muhammad. Islam is a monotheistic religion that believes in one God called Allah, denies God having a Son, follows works to gain salvation, refuses to allow its followers to eat pork, and requires all Muslims (who are able) to go to Mecca to have the hajj. Islam was a very rapidly growing religion with Muslims forming caliphates or public offices from the Middle East, North Africa, parts of India, and the Iberian Peninsula (in Spain and Portugal) from 632 A.D. to 750 A.D. Muslims embrace the Koran as their holy text, and some Muslims also support the Hadith. The Hadith is like the Early Church Fathers' documents to us Christians. The Hadith makes various interpretations of what the Koran says but isn't as authoritative to Muslims as the Koran. Muslims take almsgiving seriously and view Jesus Christ as a prophet, not the Son of God. Conversely, the Scriptures are clear that the Lord Jesus Christ is more than a prophet, but the Word being God:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and THE WORD WAS GOD. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH, AND DWELT AMONG US, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." (John 1:4, 14).
By this time, many urban Asian churches disappeared, because of the spread of Islam. Some churches survive. The Eastern Roman Empire, or the Byzantine Empire, promoted art and monasticism (or the existence of religious monks) persisted. Western Europe from 606 to the 8th century was filled with poverty, political fragmented, and they depended on the Catholic Church for literal survival. Some people wanted to merge or syncretize with local pagan traditions because of governmental neglect, invasion by many forces, and other issues. The monks promoted chastity, obedience, poverty, prayer, celibacy, fasting, manual labor, memorization of scripture, and almsgiving. Monasteries housed monks, orphanages, and inns for travelers. They gave food for people who need it. Many of these monks supported literacy and studied the classical arts and crafts.
Many monks helped to preserve and pass down Western literature and other forms of Western culture passed down from generation to generation. Even some of the Islamic and Byzantine scholars did the exact same thing. The monks in the monasteries preserved ancient texts in their scriptoria and libraries. Dedicated monks created illuminated manuscripts. From the sixth to the eighth centuries, most schools were connected to monasteries, but methods of teaching an illiterate populace could also include mystery plays, vernacular sermons, saints' lives in epic form, and artwork.
This was an age of uncertainty, and the role of relics and holy men able to provide became increasingly important. Promoting that special access, church offers that donations would fund prayers for the dead (which is forbidden by Scripture), provided an ongoing source of wealth. Monasteries became increasingly organized, gradually establishing their own authority as separate from political and familial authorities, thereby revolutionizing social history. Medical practice was highly important, and medieval monasteries were best known for their public hospitals, hospices, and contributions to medicine. The sixth-century Rule of Saint Benedict has had extensive influence.
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The East developed an approach to sacred art unknown in the West, adapting ancient portraiture in icons as intercessors between God and humankind (which is unscriptural too). In the 720s, the Byzantine Emperor Leo banned the pictorial representation of Christ, saints, and biblical scenes, and destroyed much early representational art. The West condemned the Byzantine iconoclasm of Leo and some of his successors. By the tenth and early eleventh centuries, Byzantine culture began to recover its artistic heritage. There were icon busters too back then who opposed the veneration of images.
Eastern Europe had been exposed to Christianity during Roman rule, but it was Byzantine Christianity, brought by the ninth-century saints Cyril and Methodius, that was integral to the formation of its modern states. Dukes and kings used the new faith to solidify their position and promote unity, while some directly enforced it with new laws, building churches, and establishing monasteries. The brothers Cyril and Methodius developed the Glagolitic alphabet to translate the Bible into the local language. Their disciples then developed the Cyrillic script, which spread literacy and became the cultural and religious foundation for all Slavic nations.
In 635, the Church of the East brought Christianity to the Chinese Emperor Taizong whose decree to license the Christian faith was copied onto the Sianfu stele. It spread into northwestern China, Khotan, Turfan, and south of Lake Balkash in southeastern Kazakhstan, but its growth was halted in 845 by Emperor Wu-Tsung, who favored Taoism. The Church of the East evangelized all along the Silk Road and was instrumental in converting some of the Mongolic and Turkic peoples. After 700, when much of Christianity was declining, there were flourishing Christian societies along all the main trade routes of Asia, South India, the Nubian kingdoms, Ethiopia, and the Caucasus region.
In Western Europe, canon law was instrumental in developing key norms concerning oaths of loyalty, homage, and fidelity. These norms were incorporated into civil law where traces remain. Within the tenets of feudalism, the church created a new model of consecrated kingship unknown in the East, and in 800, Clovis' descendant Charlemagne became its recipient when Pope Leo III crowned him emperor. Charlemagne engaged in a number of reforms which began the Carolingian Renaissance, a period of intellectual and cultural revival. His crowning set the precedent that only a pope could crown a Western emperor enabling popes to claim that emperors derived their power from God through them. We saw the Middle Ages with kings, knights, nobles, and other cultural representations in society. The Papacy became free from Byzantine control, and the former lands of the Exarchate became States of the church. However, the papacy was still in need of aid and protection, so the Holy Roman emperors often used that need to attempt domination of the Papacy and the Papal States. In Rome, the papacy came under the control of the city's aristocracy.
In Russia, the baptism of Vladimir of Kiev in 989 is traditionally associated with the conversion of the Kievan Rus'. Their new religious structure included dukes maintaining control of a financially dependent church. Monasticism was the dominant form of piety for both peasants and elites who identified as Christians, while retaining many pre-Christian practices.
Viking raids in the ninth and tenth centuries destroyed many churches and monasteries, inadvertently leading to reform. Patrons competed in rebuilding so that "by the mid-eleventh century, a wealthy, unified, better-organized, better-educated, more spiritually sensitive Latin Church" resulted. There was another rise in papal power in the tenth century when William IX, Duke of Aquitaine, and other powerful lay founders of monasteries, placed their institutions under the protection of the papacy. Independent churches and the Catholic Church existed. The Catholic Church, by the Middle Ages, baptized babies at birth, which is never found in the New Testament at all. The papacy allowed people to have some knowledge of the Apostles' Creed and the Lord's Prayer, to rest on Sunday and feast days, to attend mass, to fast at specific times, take communion on Easter, pay fees to the needs, and receive the last rites at death. The Medieval Papacy gained more power over the lives of Europeans, like a religious monarchy system. During that time (from 606 A.D. to 1500 A.D.), many people disagreed with the false doctrines of Roman Catholicism in Europe too.
The Catholic Church used canon law as a complex legal system to regulate the lives of Roman Catholic believers. By the High Middle Ages, the Catholic Church added the unscriptural seven sacraments being required for salvation. They enforced celibacy for priests, bishops, and popes which the Bible forbids as celibacy is voluntarily not mandatory for a bishop, priest, etc. The heresies of the Papacy went into another level when they made purgatory an official doctrine. In 1215, the Catholic church made confession required for all. The Catholic Church promoted the Rosary and the veneration of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mary should be honored and respected as a holy woman who was chosen for a great purpose, but she shouldn't be worshiped or venerated. Romanesque architecture existed in 910 at Luny Abbey. Monastery schools lost influence by 1000 A.D. to be replaced by cathedral schools. Independent schools existed, and universities were being chartered by popes and kings. The Pope and kings had a union of church and state. Literacy improved in the world. Christianity in Africa and in Asia continued to grow from Nubia to China. The further union of church and state was promoted by Pope Gregory VII in the 1000s. He promoted the Pope's temporal power to increase its wealth, consolidate territory, and form a bureaucracy. The Dictatus Papae of 1075 declared that the pope alone could invest bishops. Disobedience to the Pope became equated with heresy; when Henry IV rejected the decree, he was excommunicated, which contributed to a civil war. A similar controversy occurred in England. So, the Pope was gaining too much power by his decrees which wasn't sanctioned or condoned by God.
The Church of the East had help from Byzantium to survive after the Chalcedon issue. At the height of its expansion in the thirteenth century, the Church of the East stretched from Syria to eastern China and from Siberia to southern India and southern Asia. The second separation between east and west took place in 1054 when the church within the Byzantine Empire formed Byzantine Eastern Orthodoxy, which thereafter remained in communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, not the Pope. There were the Albigenses. Many people view them as Bible believers or Gnostics. All mainstream sources prove that the majority of the Albigenses were Gnostic heretics, but still they shouldn't be murdered by many in the Vatican. The Waldensians in the 1100s were founded by Peter Waldo. The Waldensians believed in fundamental Christianity and opposed many of the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. They rejected infant baptism, opposed the swearing of oaths, and disagreed with other heresies. Both the Waldensians and Albigenses were unjustly and viciously persecuted by the Catholic Church back then.
Along with geographical separation, there had long been many cultural differences, geopolitical disagreements, and a lack of respect between east and west. Nevertheless, the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos still asked Pope Urban II for help with the Seljuk Turks in 1081, and Urban asked European Christians to "go to the aid of their brethren in the Holy Land" in 1095. By this time, there was a massive amount of false doctrines and heresies in the Catholic Church like kissing the Pope's feet in 709 A.D., the usage of holy water by the priest in 850 A.D., the veneration of St. Joseph in 890 A.D., the canonization of dead saints done by Pope John XIV in 995 A.D. when the Bible says that every believer and follower of Yeshua is a saint in Romans 1:7 and 1st Colossians 1:2, fasting on Fridays and during Lent in 998 A.D., the mandatory celibacy of priest done by Pope Hilderbrand, Boniface VII In 1079 A.D. (when Peter was married and bishops can be married), the Rosary in 1090 A.D, the Inquisition being formed in 1184 A.D. (by the Council of Verona when Jesus never taught the use of violence or force to spread the Gospel), the usages of indulgences in 1190 A.D, the dogma of transubstantiation in 1215 by Pope Innocent III, and the the doctrine of purgatory by Council of Florence in 1439 which has no basis of Scripture as the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses people from all sins (Romans 8:1).
The Crusades
The Crusades were an important part of Christian history. The New Testament is clear to spread the gospel by peaceful means, but the Catholic Church readily wanted to use force to promote their theological views. The Crusades lasted for a long time from 1095 to 1717. The first era of the Crusades existed in the Holy Land from 1095 to 1291. The Crusades were a series of religious wars between Roman Catholics and Muslims over disputes over territories, the travels of pilgrims into the Holy Land, and other issues. By the end of the 11th century, the Muslim Arabic people ruled over the Middle East for centuries. Contact between Western Europe and the Muslim world was minimal except for the Iberian peninsula. The Byzantine Empire and the Islamic world had great wealth, culture, and military power. Then, disputes grew. Many Catholics promoted the doctrine of holy war after a distortion of what Augustine wrote. The Catholic Church promoted military attacks against Muslims. By the 1040s, the Turkish people migrated from central Asia to the Middle East to rule Persia, Armenia, and Iraq. They captured Baghdad. They ruled Jerusalem from the Fatimid dynasty of North Africa by 1070 A.D. The Crusades existed in phases. Later, the Fatimids ruled Jerusalem over the Seljuk Turkish people. Many Crusades massacred Jewish people in Europe during the Spring and Summer of 1096.
The map above showed the Crusader states in 1135.
The First Crusade was an unexpected event for contemporary chroniclers, but historical analysis demonstrates it had its roots in earlier developments with both clerics and laity recognizing Jerusalem's role in Christianity as worthy of penitential pilgrimage. In 1071, Jerusalem was captured by the Turkish warlord Atsiz, who seized most of Syria and Palestine as part of the expansion of the Seljuks throughout the Middle East. The Seljuk hold on the city was weak, and returning pilgrims reported difficulties and the oppression of Christians. Byzantine Empire leaders desire for military aid converged with increasing willingness of the western nobility to accept papal military direction. In 1095, Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos requested military aid from Pope Urban II at the Council of Piacenza. He was probably expecting a small number of mercenaries he could direct. Alexios had restored the Empire's finances and authority but still faced numerous foreign enemies. Later that year, at the Council of Clermont, Urban raised the issue again and preached a crusade. Almost immediately, the French priest Peter the Hermit gathered thousands of mostly poor in the People's Crusade. Traveling through Germany, German bands massacred Jewish communities in the Rhineland massacres during wide-ranging anti-Jewish activities. The Crusades attacked in Turkey and then in Jerusalem by 1099. The European Crusades temporarily ruled Jerusalem and other places in the Middle East. When the Crusades ruled Jerusalem on July 15, 1099, they sacked the city, massacred Muslims, Eastern Christians, and Jewish people. Godfrey was elected ruler of Jerusalem. Future Crusades would cause the Catholics to be defeated consistently by Muslim forces.
They or the Catholic military armies had some rule in the Middle East until the fall of Acre in 1291. The Crusader states existed in Edessa, Antioch, Jerusalem, and the County of Tripoli. This time saw the Knights Templar and the Teutonic Order.
Other church-sanctioned campaigns include crusades against Christians not obeying papal rulings and heretics, those against the Ottoman Empire, and ones for political reasons. The struggle against the Moors in the Iberian Peninsula–the Reconquista–ended in 1492 with the Fall of Granada. From 1147, the Northern Crusades were fought against pagan tribes in Northern Europe. Crusades against Christians began with the Albigensian Crusade (Albigensians were Gnostics, but they should never have been murdered because of their religious views) in the 13th century and continued through the Hussite Wars in the early 15th century. Crusades against the Ottomans began in the late 14th century and include the Crusade of Varna. Popular crusades, including the Children's Crusade of 1212, were generated by the masses and were unsanctioned by the Church.
The Inquisition
The Inquisition was one of the most wicked actions of the Roman Catholic Church. It was evil and immoral because you don't use torture, murder, and other forms of sadistic abuse to force people to believe in your creed. The Inquisition was a Catholic judicial procedure where Catholic judge would initiate, investigate, and try cases in their jurisdiction. The problem was that torture and murder were commonly shown in the Inquisition. The judges in the Inquisition claimed to want to combat heresy, apostasy, blasphemy, witchcraft, etc. Many people were forced to undergo penances if they submitted to the Vatican. Those who refused to renounce their views during the Inquisition faced execution or life imprisonment by the Vatican using secular courts. People have the right to peacefully agree or disagree with any religion or creed in a free and open society. The Dominican Order was created in 1220 as the Dominican Order helped to execute the Inquisition. Pope Gregory IX initiated the Medieval Inquisition by 1231 A.D. The Inquisition attacked the Cathars (or Gnostics), the Waldensians, and religious dissidents. The Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions often focused on the New Christians or Conversos (the former Jewish people who converted to Christianity to avoid antisemitic regulations and persecution), the Marranos (people who were forced to abandon Judaism against their will by violence and threats of expulsion), and on the Moriscos (Muslims who had been forced to convert to Catholicism), as a result of suspicions that they had secretly maintained or reverted to their previous religions, as well as the fear of possible rebellions, as had occurred in previous times (such as the First and Second Morisco Rebellions). Spain and Portugal also operated inquisitorial courts not only in Europe, but also throughout their empires: the Goa Inquisition, the Peruvian Inquisition, and the Mexican Inquisition, among others. Inquisitions conducted in the Papal States were known as the Roman Inquisition. The activities of Bernard Gui, inquisitor of Toulouse from 1307 to 1323, are better documented, as a complete record of his trials has been preserved. During the entire period of his inquisitorial activity, he handed down 633 sentences against 602 people (31 repeat offenders), including: 41 death sentences, 69 burning of remains of people who disagreed with Roman Catholicism, 308 prison sentences with confiscation of property, etc. Inquisitor Heinrich Kramer, author of the Malleus Maleficarum, in his own words, sentenced 48 people to the stake in five years (1481–1486). Jacob Hoogstraten, inquisitor of Cologne from 1508 to 1527, sentenced four people to be burned at the stake. A notable former inquisitor, Jesuit Friedrich Spee, published a book Cautio Criminalis (1631) which helped end witch-hunting and the reliance on torture, highly regarded in Catholic and Protestant circles. These inquisitors were sadistic and wicked people who gloried in human suffering.
By 1478, Pope Sixtus IV authorized the Spanish Inquisition. Pope Leo IX instituted the pre-press censorship, but it isn't enforced. The Inquisition continues after the Protestant Reformation existed and after the Jesuit Order was founded in 1540. Bernardino Ochino left Italy and converted to Protestantism by 1542 AD. Pope Paul III formed the Roman Inquisition. There were limited press censorship that banned Ochino's works. Pope Paul IV's Pauline Index was created. The Inquisition became the Congregation of the Index by Pius V. Pope Sixtus V formed the Congregation of the Holy Roman and Universal Inquisition or Holy Office. The Inquisition burned Giordano Bruno after his trial, Galileo's trial happened in 1633. The Spanish Inquisition ended in 1834. Later, the Inquisition became the Holy Office in 1908. By 1965, Pope Paul VI reorganized the Holy Office and renamed it the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. The Index of Forbidden books was abolished in 1966. The Index of Forbidden book is like the Catholic church using book bans to restrict Catholic followers from reading certain books which is against the freedom of speech and the freedom of conscience. Pope John Paul II on March 12, 2000, apologized for the Catholic Church's role in the Inquisition. He wanted forgiveness for many sins involving the Inquisition. Some feel that the apology wasn't enough as many inquisitors were praised by the Catholic church like Peter of Verona and there is the beatification of anti-Judaism Pope Pius IX (along with kidnapping a six-year-old child and Jewish person Edgardo Mortara to be raised in the papal household). The Inquisition was evil period, and we should always show religious views in peaceful means.
*It is no secret that the Merovingians and other wealthy families have tried to infiltrate the Church. The Merovingians are a ruling family of the Franks. Franks are a Germanic people who came from Germany and Scandinavia from ancient times long before the Roman Empire was in existence. Many Merovingian rulers had long hair. The first well-known Merovingian king was Childeric I (he died in 481). His son Clovis I (he died in 511) converted to Nicene Christianity, united the Franks and conquered most of Gaul. The Merovingians treated their kingdom as single yet divisible. Clovis's four sons divided the kingdom among themselves, and it remained divided until 679 with the exception of four short periods (558–561, 613–623, 629–634, 673–675). After that it was divided again only once (717–718). The main divisions of the kingdom were Austrasia, Neustria, Burgundy and Aquitaine. Charlemagne was a famous leader of the Merovingians. Many Merovingians invested in the monasteries of Europe. Some followers of monasticism copied the ancient heresies from paganism like venerating sacred sites, forced celibacy, etc. Today, many Merovingian descendants are U.S. Presidents, celebrities, and other famous human beings. One important part of the history of Catholicism is called the Avignon Papacy. This was when the Roman curia and pope were forcibly removed to the area of southern France. That was when the Papacy ruled in France from 1309 to 1376. This came after conflict between the Papacy and the French crown. Pope Boniface VIII died after his arrest and maltreatment by agents of Philip IV of France. This time was called the Babylonian captivity of the Papacy. The conflict ended in 1417 with the Council of Constance. France supported the antipopes in Avignon and England supporting the popes in Rome. The Avignon Papacy in France declared the falsehood of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Even Thomas Aquinas didn't agree with the Immaculate Conception. The corruption of the Avignon Papacy caused a change and the Papacy embraced more falsehoods that led ultimately into the Reformation.
The Prelude to the Reformation
*It is important to note that independent believers lived during this time, as documented by the classic book Martyr's Mirror. Bishop Claudius of Turin taught iconoclasm or not supporting images used for religious purposes. Claudius believed that faith is only required for salvation, denies the supremacy of Peter, sees praying for the dead as useless, and attacked the practices of the Roman Catholic church. He held the church to be fallible. He opposed the veneration of the cross and said that we should bear our own cross instead of adoring the cross. He was right. Claudius lived from ca. early 800s to 827. He lived in Spain before. Many people oppose the baptism of infants and other heresies. According to the Martyr's Mirror book, Christus Taurinensus wrote and taught against the invocation of images, of the cross, relics, of the saints, and against the power of the Pope plus pilgrimages. Bruno and Berengarius spoke out against infant baptism and against transubstantiation. Arnold of Brescia, Italy preached against infant baptism and transubstantiation. His followers of the Arnoldists, in the 12th century, were burned at the stake by Papal guards. Henry of Toulouse didn't believe in transubstantiation, rejected infant baptism, and monks, including priests, should be married, and flesh or meat may be eaten on Sunday and other days as found in this verse: "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ." (Colossians 2:16-17). The remnant of God's church (in the Waldensians, Petrobussians, Arnoldists, etc.) spread from France and Italy to England and beyond.
Before the Protestant Reformation, the Vatican was filled with superstition and false doctrines. Believers in God worldwide existed, and many people in the Catholic Church and outside of it desired the Vatican to come to the simplistic Gospel without falsehoods. The leadership of the Roman Catholic Church refused to change during the eras of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Therefore, some leaders were preludes to the actual Reformation that existed in stages. By the days of the Waldensians in the 1100 A.D., the Roman Catholic Church's hierarchy was filled with corruption, false doctrines, immorality, hypocrisy, and tensions. So, many people wanted reforms or outright changes to reflect the glory of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. One such leader who promoted the Gospel was John Wycliffe of England. He was born in Yorkshire, England in ca. 1328 A.D. He was ordained to preach in September 1351, he was the Master of Balliol College in 1360 and was warden of Canterbury College in 1365. He was the Rector of St. Mary's, Lutterworth from 1374. John Wycliffe is earliest known teacher of evangelical ideas in England and a translator of the Bible into the vernacular Middle English. He is popularly known as the morning star or stella matutina of the English Reformation and both he and his followers (the Lollards) were much invoked by later reformers. While the Lollard influence on the Henrician Reformation was negligible, nevertheless, Wycliffe's writings did influence Jan Hus, who in turn influenced Martin Luther. The Lollards are also a key topic of Foxe's Book of Martyrs, and their story did much to solidify the self-understanding of the 16th-century reformers. The Vatican hated John Wycliffe so much that they got his bones and burned them in the water. The Black Death from 1348 to 1350 ravaged England, inspiring more followers of Wycliffe and proto-Protestants. John Wycliffe wanted the church to own no property, and no member of the clergy should exercise political or judicial power (which is part of the separation of church and state). Pope Gregory XI in 1377 censured Wycliffe and wanted an Inquisition in Oxford and London.
On February 19, 1377, John Wycliffe was summoned by William Courtenay, Bishop of London, for an examination of heresy. In attending, he was accompanied and supported by John of Gaunt, Henry Percy, Earl Marshal of England, and four theologians representing the four major mendicant orders (Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites, and Augustinians). The session ended in aporia over the question as to whether Wycliffe should stand or sit to answer questions. The event showed how useful Wycliffe's theories might be to the aristocracy, who had good political reason to support reformers who might undermine the powerful and wealthy church. The English monarchs also had a strained relationship with the Avignon Papacy and its supporters, the French monarchy, because of the ongoing conflict of the 100 Years War. For these reasons and others, in the early days of Wycliffite Lollardy, many of the institutions of secular authority were supportive. John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, was a strong supporter of Wycliffe in the early days as too was Joan of Kent. In 1382 the Mayor of Leicester personally attended the sermon of the Lollard William Swinderby. The ideas Wycliffe was under investigation for would return as a major theme of the 16th-century reformation when the idea of a secular requisition of church property would again prove popular with authorities. John Wycliffe believed that direct scriptural backing ought to validate theological issues. This was Sola Scriptura. Wycliffe in ca. 1379 published De Eucharista to attack transubstantiation as it has no basis in scripture. The Peasants' Revolt started on May 30, 1381, to spread Lollard views. In ca. 1383, Philip Rpyngdon was deprived of his position at Oxford for defending Wycliffe's teachings. Finally, the Wycliffe Bible was completed by 1384. The Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards were presented to Parliament and posted on the doors of Westminster Abbey and Old St Paul's. In 1399, the tolerance of Lollardy ended. De heretico comburendo is passed by parliament, which required forfeiture of all property, both for themselves and for their children, for all those found in possession of copies of Wycliffe's Bible or some part of it. Back then, the Vatican refused to send the Bible to the people in their own language, which is immoral. The Lollards were persecuted in the 1400's. Thomas Cranmer was killed by Mary I for believing in reformist views in 1489. Erasmus was a Catholic humanist scholar who criticized the Catholic Church. He was part of the New Learning movement that wanted the Catholic church to reform and get rid of indulgences. This New Learning loved to study Greek and Latin works. He visited England constantly. Agnes Grebill and other 4 women Lollards were burned in 1511 too. Erasmus' first edition of the Greek New Testament was published in 1516 being part of the Textus Receptus script and many future English translations of the Bible. Many pro-Protestants included Wessel Gansfort (who rejected transubstantiation and indulgences), Jan Hus, and other people.
After being ordained as a Catholic priest, Jan Hus began to preach in Prague. He opposed many aspects of the Catholic Church in Bohemia, such as its views on ecclesiology, simony, the Eucharist, and other theological topics. Hus was a master, dean and rector at the Charles University in Prague between 1409 and 1410. Alexander V issued a Papal bull that excommunicated Hus; however, it was not enforced, and Hus continued to preach. Hus then spoke out against Alexander V's successor, Antipope John XXIII, for his selling of indulgences. Hus' excommunication was then enforced, and he spent the next two years living in exile. When the Council of Constance assembled, Hus was asked to be there and present his views on the dissension within the Church. When he arrived, with a promise of safe-conduct, he was arrested and put in prison. He was eventually taken in front of the council and asked to recant his views. He refused. On July 6, 1415, he was burned at the stake for "heresy" (it wasn't heresey but Jan Hus rejected many of the false views of the Vatican) against the teachings of the Catholic Church. After Hus was executed, the followers of his religious teachings (known as Hussites) refused to elect another Catholic monarch and defeated five consecutive papal crusades between 1420 and 1431 in what became known as the Hussite Wars.
The Historic Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was one of the most important events of the history of Christianity. The Protestant Reformation did a lot of good in the world, from spreading the Bible more efficiently in multiple languages to promoting the rule of law and due process. Yet, it had weaknesses. The original spark of the Protestant Reformation in my view was of God, but later fallible people didn't go far enough to make more revolutionary changes spiritually as heroic Anabaptists and Baptists have advocated. The Reformation existed in phases. Long before the Reformation, the remnant of God's church has always opposed the false doctrines of the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church from Benegarius to Peter Waldo. With the growth the movable type during the days of Gutenberg and the advances of technology, we see more people saw the truth about the folly of the selling of indulgences and other myths. Martin Luther was the founder of the Reformation. Many Baptists and Catholics disagree with Luther, ironically enough, for different and similar reasons. The Catholic Church believed that man must do works to be saved, which is not found in the Scriptures (as the Bible says that God alone is the author of salvation, but people still must do good works after salvation). Many Baptists and Anabaptists disagreed with Luther for agreeing with infant baptism and other Vatican doctrines. Martin Luther was a former German priest and biblical studies professor who exposed the evil of selling indulgences to the Roman Catholic Church. Indulgences were done in an attempt to obtain forgiveness of sins, which is offensive, false, and heretical. Luther wrote the Ninety Five Theses to oppose indulgences and the corruption found in the Roman Catholic Church. That was done in 1517. Later, after debates, the Pope excommunicated Martin Luther, kicking him out of the Roman Catholic Church forever. Luther led a bonfire burning the Papal bull that condemned his writings by 1520. Luther started to translate the Bible into German, which was historic as in Europe, most people read the Bible in Latin (primarily priests and the rich read the Bible in a regular basis).
Diverse Reformers
Many authorities protected Luther's life from being killed by Vatican authorities. The Reformation spread all over Europe. This was bigger than the Orthodox schism of 1095 A.D. The Reformation spreads to Switzerland with former priest Huldrych Zwingli being its leader there. Zwingli opposed religious fasting and believed that priests should be allowed to marry. He and Luther agreed on many theological issues and disagreed with other theological points. By 1525, Martin Luther publicly disagreed with other religious reformers on the isssues of theology. These groups that loved that the Reformation opposed many false doctrines of the Vatican, but they wanted the Reformation to be even more revolutionary. These groups like the Baptists, Mennonites, the Anabaptists, etc. would oppose infant baptism, believe in the separation of church and state, some wanted pacifism, and some desired to help the poor with mercy. Luther opposed the Peasants' Revolt in Germany as Luther unfortunately became more reactionary as time went on. In 1531, Laurentius Petri became a Protestant archbishop in Sweden. He is one of the leaders of the Reformation in that country. Eventually, most of Sweden converts to Lutheranism. By the end of Martin Luther's life, Martin Luther unfortunately would go down the evil path of anti-Semitism, hatred of believers' baptism, embrace of baptismal regeneration (or the false belief that baptism, not the blood of Jesus Christ, saves human souls), and a hostile attitude about people who disagreed with him. For example, later in his life, Martin Luther made this hate filled, anti-Semitic, and demonic rant about Jewish people: "Burn their synagogues. Forbid them all that I have mentioned above. Force them to work and treat them with every kind of severity, as Moses did in the desert and slew three thousand... If that is no use, we must drive them away like mad dogs, in order that we may not be partakers of their abominable blasphemy and of all their vices, and in order that we may not deserve the anger of God and be damned with them. I have done my duty. Let everyone see how he does his. I am excused." ('About the Jews and Their Lies,' quoted by O'Hare, in 'The Facts About Luther, TAN Books, 1987, p. 290.).
In 1534, England's King Henry VIII broke with the Pope. He forms the Anglican church with him as its leader. By 1536, French lawyer John Calvin in Switzerland published Institutes of the Christian Religion. It was a very prominent book of the Reformation. John Calvin was right to promote the absolute sovereignty of God, but he was wrong to believe that God doesn't want all people to be saved, he was wrong to have an union of church and state (in his dictatorship in Geneva), and he was wrong to allow authorities to persecute religious dissidents like Michael Servetus (he was a heretic, but heretics shouldn't be murdered). Petri and others published the first Swedish translation of the Bible in 1541. William Tyndale of England made a very important English translation of the Bible. He wanted the working class and the poor to have access to read the Bible in their own language. William Tyndale was more theologically correct than Luther, because Tyndale believed in no prayer to saints, he believed in a symbolic view of the Lord's Supper (Luther believed in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist), and the Scriptures is not only interpreted by clergy: "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 21For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." (2 Peter 1:20-21). William Tyndale was unjustly murdered because of his religious views. The Reformation spread and different groups (like the Lutherans, Calvinists, Anglicans, etc.) were found in the Reformation. Some wanted a split from the Vatican but retained some of the false doctrines. Other people wanted the Reformation to be more revolutionary, following the Anabaptist and Baptist views of allowing priests to marry, people should be baptized not as infants but believing first, and following the separation of church and state. Both Protestants and Catholic persecuted Anabaptists and Baptists, because they refused to support infant baptism. We know of the strengths and weaknesses of the Protestant Reformation. One positive aspect of the Protestant Reformation was that it helped to facilitate the translation of the Bible into German, French, English, and other languages in a more efficient way.
There are many unsung Protestants who sincerely wanted to spread the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, risked their lives in expressing their religious liberty, and desired to grow their spirituality. Their names were John Foxe of England, John Frith of England (he heroically opposed the doctrines of purgatory and transubstantiation. For that reason, he was murdered by the authorities on July 4, 1533), Caspard De Coligny of France (being a Huguenots), Peter Martyr Vermigli of Italy, Olof Persson of Sweden, etc.
The Catholic Church created the Council of Trent, the Jesuits, and the Counter-Reformation to fight the Reformation. Some people convert to Catholicism in Germany, but the spread of the Reformation couldn't be stopped. John Knox formed the Protestant religion in Scotland by 1547. The Peace of Augsburg in 1555 allowed German princes to decide whether their territories would be Catholic or Lutheran. The Thirty Years' War happened for religious reasons from 1618 to 1648.
The Council of Trent
The Roman Catholic Church used many instruments in trying to end and destroy the spread of the Protestant Reformation. Two of those instruments were the Council of Trent and the Jesuit Order. The Council of Trent was held between 1545 and 1563. It was a large meeting of Roman Catholics to not only respond to the Protestant Reformation. It was formed to define Catholic doctrine, address abuses in their church, and respond to Protestant criticism. This was part of the Catholic Counter Reformation. It took place in Trent in Northern Italy. The place is now called Trento. It was convoked by Pope Paul III. The Council of Trent listed 17 dogmatic decrees. The Council of Trent included lies and blasphemies against God like venerating saints when the saints should be honored and respected not venerate or prayed through. The Council of Trent listed 125 anathemas (or eternal damnation) against Christians who disagree with many of the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. This is wrong as only God can condemn a soul to perdition. The Fourth Session calls anyone anthema who refuses to accept the Aporcyphal as part of the 66 books of the Bible. As we know, the Apocypha was rejected by Jewish scholars and it had heretical, unscriptural views in them with contradictions plus falsehoods. The Sixth Session condemns the biblical truth that good works are the fruits and signs of salvation and that good works alone never merit salvation. The Thirteenth session condemn people as anathema of anyone who doesn't agree with the Eucharist being the literal blood and body of the Lord Jesus Christ. This shows the intolerance of the Roman Catholic Church's leaders. The Council of Trent has never been revoked by the Catholic Church to this very day. Vatican II has reaffirmed the Council of Trent. At the opening of the Second Vatican Council, Pope John XXIII stated, “I do accept entirely all that has been decided and declared at the Council of Trent.” The Council of Trent supports penance which has no basis in Scripture either.
The Jesuits was created by the military leader Ignatius Loyola. He was a priest and theologian from Span of Basque descent. He made the Jesuits for clear reasons. He wanted to promote missionary work, teaching, and to try to end the Protestant Reformations. The Jesuits were overt leaders of the Counter-Reformation. He promoted his Spiritual Exercises by 1548 to promote his organization. The Jesuits was approved by 1540 by Pope Paul III. The Superior General of the order was Ignatius Loyola. Peter Faber and Francis Xavier were also founders of the Jesuit Order. Their principle is Ad maiorem Dei gloriam or for the greater Glory of God in Latin. Ignatius claimed to have a vision to promote his organizaiton, he would live in a cave in a year to beat himself never bathing, etc. By 1650 there were 15,000 of them operating throughout the world. Pope Paul was a staunch proponent of the Inquisition and the founder of the Council of Trent, which issued curses against those who refused to accept Catholic doctrine. In his Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius taught absolute obedience to Rome:
“WE MUST PUT ASIDE ALL JUDGMENT OF OUR OWN, and keep the mind ever ready and prompt to obey in all things the true Spouse of Christ our Lord, our holy Mother, the hierarchical Church. We should praise sacramental confession ... the frequent hearing of Mass ... vows of religion ... relics of the saints by venerating them ... the regulations of the Church ... images and veneration of them. ... Finally, we must praise all the commandments of the Church, and be on the alert to find reasons to defend them, and by no means in order to criticize them. ... If we wish to proceed securely in all things, we must hold fast to the following principle: WHAT SEEMS TO ME WHITE, I WILL BELIEVE BLACK IF THE HIERARCHICAL CHURCH SO DEFINES” (The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, Vintage Books edition, Rules, 352-362, 365, pp. 124-124).
They have expanded their power since September 27, 1540, to be involved in evangelicalism, hospitals, politics, education, research, and cultural influences. They have promoted ecumenical dialogue. The Jesuits have been controversial. Many Protestants and Baptists have written books criticizing the Jesuits for subterfuge. Also, the Jesuits have been opposed once upon a time by the Catholic Church and many secular governments. Secular governments and institutions opposed the Jesuits. The Catholic Church in 1759 expelled Jesuits from most countries in Europe and from European colonies. The Jesuits were complicit in the enslavement of both Native Americans and Africans. Antoine Lavalette, a slave owning French Jesuit in Martinique (or in the Caribbean) had large debts and he was unable to pay them. This led to the banning of the Jesuits in France in 1764.The Jesuits had a stronghold in Maryland. In England, Henry Garnet, one of the leading English Jesuits, was hanged for misprision of treason because of his knowledge of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot. That Plot was about people who wanted to assassinate King James VI and I, his family, most of the Protestant aristocracy in a single attack, by blowing up the House of Parliament. Another Jesuit, Oswald Tesimond, managed to escape arrest for his involvement in the plot. Pope Clement XIV officially suppressed the Jesuits in 1773. They should be reinstated to the Catholic Church by 1814. Georgetown University is a Jesuit controlled institution. Now, in 2025, people shouldn't underestimate the Jesuit. Their goal of destroying the influence of the Protestant Reformation and trying to evangelize all people to the Vatican remains. They may talk about social justice and other progressive sounding phrases, but they still are bound to the Council of Trent and all Papal decrees. The Gospel of Jesus Christ and all of the truth are superior to Vatican superstitions and false doctrines.
*At the end of the day, the Apostles taught us nothing about purgatory, prayers to Mary and the saint, and they never called Mary "The Queen of Heaven." The Apostles gave us the New Testament Scriptures by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Scriptures are given a warning to not add too nor detract from them as found in Revelation 22:18-19.
Wars and Rivalries
The Protestant Reformation changed Christianity forever. No longer would the Vatican dominate most of the political or the religious power of Europe. The Catholic Church failed to stop the influence of the Reformers. By the late 1500s, the Reformation existed in three major groups of the Lutheran, Reformed, and Anglican traditions. Reformed churches were created by the theologian John Calvin, who argued that the church can function without interference from the state. They had the ideal of a constitutional representative government in both in church and in society. Puritans and other Dissenter groups were formed in England. There were the Huguenots in France, Beggars in Holland, Covenanters in Scotland, who became the Presbyterians, and Pilgrim Fathers of New England. These were Reformed churches that have their theological origin from John Calvin. The Anglican church was formed by Henry VIII that became the Church of England. King Henry VIII appointed himself Supreme Head of the Church and England, and Henry preserved Catholic doctrine and the church's established role in society. Luther made his German New Testament Luther Bible in 1522, The Freedom of the Will was published by Erasmus in 1524, and the Anabaptist movement was formed by 1525. The Tyndale New Testament in English was created in 1526 with great influence from the Greek text of Erasmus. The Lutheran movement spread into Denmark, Norway, and Holstein by 1528. Luther believes in the real presence of Christ's body and blood in 1528, so he had a debate with Zwingli in 1529 in the Marburg Colloquy. Huldrych Zwingli was killed during the Second War of Kappel in 1531. In 1531, there is the claim of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico. The Myles Coverdale Bible was created in 1537. It used Tyndale New Testament and the Latin and German versions. Thomas More (who was a Roman Catholic scholar) was executed for his refusal to accept King Henry VIII's claim to be the supreme head of the church. Desiderius Erasmus passed away in 1536 being the historic editor of the Textus Receptus. Tynadale was put to death in 1536 for just expressing his religious liberty rights in translating the Bible to English. The 1536 Institutes of the Christian Religion was written by John Calvin in 1536. There was the growth of Anabaptists. Later, Michaelangelo painted The Last Judgement from 1536 to 1541. The Matthew Bible was created by John Rogers in 1551. The Great Bible was created by Thomas Cromwell. Francis Xavier was the Jesuit missionary who spread Catholicism as far as China. The Geneva Bible was created in 1560. The Reformed Churches formed the Heidelberg Catechism by 1563. After the 1571 Battle of Lepanto, Pope Pius V organized the Holy League, led by Don Jaun de Austria to defend Europe from the larger Islamic Ottoman forces (of 230 galleys and 56 galliots). In 1572, John Know created the Scottish Presbyterian Church due to disagreements with Lutherans over sacraments and church government. The Bishops Bible was created from 1572 to 1606. The St. Bartholomew Day's Massacre in 1572 was when thousands of Protestants in France were unjustly murdered by Catholic mobs. It was one of the most wicked actions of fanatics.
Pople Gregory XIII made the Gregorian calendar in 1582 which has been adopted by many regions of the world. The Catholic Church published the 1582 Rheims New Testament. It has been part of the 1610 Douay Rheims Bible. The Jesuit scholar Francisco Ribera published a pre-trib futuristic interpretation of the books of Daniel and Revelation in 1585. The Japanese people with Toyotomi Hideyoshi expelled the Jesuits from Kyushu in 1587. The Catholic missionaries come to St. Augustine, Florida. The Spanish Armanda was defeated in 1588 in their attempt to reconquer England for Roman Catholicism. Michaelangelo's dome in St. Peter Basilica was completed in 1590. The historic Edict of Nantes in 1598 grants toleration to French Protestants or Huguenots. This victory is not just a victory for Protestants but of religious liberty in general. It was a great law. By 1600, Giordano Burno, a Dominican priest was burned at the stake. Jamestown, Virginia was founded in 1607. Ironically, I visited Jamestown 410 years later in 2017. In 1611, the historic King James Version of the Bible (the Authorized Version) was published. It was created mostly on Tyndale's work and the Bishops's Bible (done by Reformers and Anglicans). It has printings and separate Apocrypha (shown as background literature, not as authoritative as the Bible) between the testaments. Later, the Rosicrucian Manifesto existed in the 1600s, and some Protestants (not all Protestants) started to work with some Rosicurcians. We saw the Plymouth Colony in 1620 founded by Puritans. We see Roger Williams banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635 for advocating the separation of church and state. Harvard was founded in 1636 as originally a religious university. Jansenism (in Catholicism who believed that God's grace was the only way to salvation and that human free had not role) was created by Corneilus Jansen, bishop of Ypres. Roger Williams formed the Rhode Island colony to promote religious liberty. George Fox made the Quaker movement in 1648.
There were many royal houses being in conflict with each other religion and political ideology. There were two religious camps (of Catholics and Protestants) having wars. There were many wars in France by 1562. The most destructive war of that era was the Thirty yeas' War from 1618 to 1648. By this time, we saw the growth of colonialism and imperialism done by many Catholics and Protestants. Imperialism and colonialism are evil and immoral, because human beings have the right to voluntarily and peacefully form their own cultures without other people unjustly oppressing, exploiting, or dominating them. The Golden Rule refutes the nefarious evils of colonialism and imperialism 100 percent.
Black people have been involved in the Christian religion since the beginning. Jesus Christ was not a blonde hair, blue eyed European (regardless of the images shown in cathedrals and churches worldwide). When Christianity was created by the first century, early Christians included many black sub-Saharan people like the eunuch mentioned in the Book of Acts accepting salvation and being baptized. One of the Christians who experienced Pentecost was a black man named Simeon. Early Christians were enslaved and oppressed by the mostly paganized Roman Empire. Therefore, many professing Christians, who enslaved black people (during the late Middle Ages and beyond), lied and said that being black is inferior, and black people deserve no justice are not only heretics. They are completely demonic and wrong. Likewise, many in the Body of Christ in many cases didn't do enough to combat the lie of black inferiority and stand up for the liberation of black people. The millions of black people, Native Americans, and people of color experiencing genocide, enslavement, racism, xenophobia, sexism, and all forms of oppression (done by those who claimed to be Christians, Muslims, atheists, etc.) have no justification. Those responsible for those atrocities are degenerate, obscenely wicked people period. That is why we should always never sugarcoat the Maafa and other atrocities that human beings experienced. Many Catholics, many Protestants, many Baptists, many atheists, and many Muslims have a definite role in the Maafa and the genocide of Native Americans. That truth must not be omitted or whitewashed. That wickedness is contrary to morality as the OT and NT forbids murder, forbids rape, forbids slave trading, forbids splitting families, forbids mistreating your neighbor, forbids stealing lands, forbids lying, forbids being a respecter of persons, and forbids oppression against human beings.
The commandment of love they neighbor is an eternal edict that slave traders and racists didn't follow. The New Testament is clear that all believers are one in Christ, regardless of race, color, or sex. Africa has a very important role in spirituality in general as Africa is the location where the first humans came from. Historically, many of the earliest Christians lived in Africa. Jesus and Mary lived in Africa. The children of Abraham lived in Africa, Joseph lived in Africa, the Nubian Church flourished in Africa, and other people were strong in the faith in Africa, long before the Maafa. The Gospel of Christ was in Africa, India, and other places before it spread into England. Today, about three fourth of Christians live in the Third World, heavily persons of color. Real, authentic Christians have been leaders in the abolitionist, civil rights, labor rights, environmental justice, and other social movements for decades and centuries. Also, we have to oppose those who want to whitewash atrocities against human beings for the sake of religiosity. We must adamantly be in favor to show real history to be known by the general public (in opposition to the MAGA agenda that wants book bans, bans some black history from websites, and desires black museums to be targeted in 2025 not 1865). So, Christianity is not the white man's religion. It's a religion that is universally found in all believers coming from God. There is a distinction between distortions in faith used to advocate oppression and an authentic faith used to free souls to be free from injustice.
The Peace of Westphalia
The Treaty of Westphalia was signed in 1648 that ended the Thirty Years' War. That war destroyed much of Europe. It was an important part of the history of international relations. The treaties of the Treaty of Munster and the Treaty of Osnabruck ended the Thirty Years' War too. The treaty formed the concept of national sovereignty, where states have exclusive authority within their territories and are not subject to external interference. The Treaty of Westphalia promoted religious toleration. That means that individual states can choose their religion. The Holy Roman Empire formally recognized Calvinism, Catholicism, and Lutheranism. There were many territorial changes. France gained Alsace-Lorraine, Sweden gained territories on the Baltic Sea, and the Netherlands gained independence. The influence of international law and diplomacy grew after the Treaty of Westphalia. The Holy Roman Empire weakened and France plus Sweden gained power in Europe. The treaty confirmed the legal independence of the Swiss Confederation.
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Epilogue
The era of Thyatira was one of the most important ages of Christian history. It lasted for over one millennium filled with false doctrines promoted and a rising up of believers who stood up against these heresies. The Christian Church, during that time (from 606 A.D. to 1648 A.D.) spread far and wide from Africa to Asia and beyond. The time saw the Middle Ages, the growth of the monks, the rise of more Chinese dynasties, African civilizations flourishing, the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the imperialistic advance of European forces globally. It saw the righteousness of the Waldensians spreading the simplistic gospel to the people, and the evil of the start of the Maafa bringing death, rape, and oppression to innocent African human beings. This time saw the conflict of Roman Catholicism within itself. There was the total split with the Orthodox Church by 1095 A.D., and the Reformation by 1517 A.D. Also, the rise of Islam was another monotheistic religion that was popular in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and parts of Spain. The Reformation sent so much shock waves to the Catholic Church, that they formed the Jesuits and the rest of the Counter-Reformation to solidify their belief systems plus trying to end the spread of the Reformation. They failed, and the Catholic Church would promote missionary services in the world. The Protestant Reformation accelerated the translation of the Bible in many languages, inspire the spread of the rule of law, and caused the growth of independent spiritual movements. It had weaknesses like some in the movement promoting church/state unified kingdoms, and some persecuted Anabaptists and Baptists later on. The Roman Catholic Church's false doctrines from Rosary to calling the Pope Holy Father including all bishops to be celibate by force inspired believers to stand up against those errors to promote the truth. Also, it is important to not hate Catholic people as some zealots do. We can disagree with many of the doctrines of the Vatican without bigotry or hating people personally. I believe in the Holy Trinity 100 percent. At the end of the day, it is about following the true doctrines of the faith and standing up for truth and justice beyond a denominational title. The end of this era saw the modern world filled with global revolutions, opposition to monarchies, and a shift to government run by the people increasingly. I believe that God is All Seeing and All-Knowing. Therefore, repenting is always a key spiritual truth that we must all do while we are here on this Earth. The following Bible verses shows how repentance in truth is very important in our spiritual walks with God:
"The Lord is...not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9)
"[I]f thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, THOU SHALT BE SAVED." (Romans 10:9)
John 3:16-17 says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."
There is no question that we are in the last days. It is important to repent and follow the precepts of God Almighty.
By Timothy
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