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Rome--a Christian Nation: Part 3

The meaning of "Chosenness" [i.e., "The Elect"] in the Bible is hidden to those who do not understand the essential difference between a Right and a Privilege. Herein is the underlying reason why all the nations of the past, including Israel, abused its Chosen status, causing God to strip them of it and give it to others.

The American Declaration of Independence states that we have certain "unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The Supreme Court has ruled that all rights come from God, while government has the power only to grant privileges. Rights are unalienable--that is, they cannot be removed by governments, because rights come from a Higher Power, God Himself. Obviously, the American form of government recognizes God, and no legislator has the right to exclude God from government.

But as we have excluded God, so also have rights been transformed into mere privileges. The right to "life" is now only a privilege, and in its place is "the right to choose" whether or not to kill one's offspring in the womb. The right to "liberty" is now only a privilege, as government works steadily to remove those rights in the face of the threat of terrorism.

The right to the "pursuit of happiness" (that is, the right to work or labor without being taxed for it) has been replaced by the government's "right to tax labor." On the law books, government has only the right to tax a privilege, not a right. Thus, all licensed professions (which operate on privilege) and all corporations, which are state-created entities, are taxable according to the original American way of life. Yet we see the right of the pursuit of happiness being taxed regularly today, as if every job was a privilege granted by government.

As Mystery Babylon tightens its grip upon America and the world, it has been usurping the rights that God has reserved for Himself. It has assumed the role of the rights-giver, as if it were God. And in this, Mystery Babylon has abused its Chosen Status that God gave it in 1914 when he put us under bondage to that system.

Of course, I recognize that America itself had already revolted against God, and that this was the reason for our captivity. The captivity itself is a divine judgment upon us and upon the Church for the abuse of Pentecost (1901-1906) when the Church took authority over the Holy Spirit through the denominationalizing process. Even so, we ought to know the mistakes of our forefathers so that we will not repeat them when God ends this captivity.

Each of the beast-empires prophesied in Daniel 7 has declared God to be sovereign over the empire at some point in their history. But the kings assumed that they had the authority to give rights and remove them at will. They did not recognize that they were authorized only to enforce the rights that God grants to all men. Men were not to be abused or oppressed. They were to enforce the divine laws regarding impartiality of justice, and that the judgments should always be directly proportional to the crime or damage done to others.

When God gave these empires the authority to rule other nations, the kings assumed that this meant they were authorized by God to treat men's God-given rights as though they were government-given privileges. Such abuse ensured that their rule would be temporary. They would not be "chosen" forever, but would have to give some other nation an opportunity to rule men properly.

So far, all have failed. The only ones who are destined to succeed are the overcomers, who form the government of the coming Stone Kingdom, the last kingdom in Daniel 2:45. In Daniel 7:27, we read of these overcomers,

"Then the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His Kingdom will be an everlasting Kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him."

But at the present time, we are still in the last days of Mystery Babylon. The final generation of overcomers are still being trained to rule by divine authority without usurping His sovereignty. They are learning how to rule by love, without oppressing others, and without partiality.

The Church under Pentecost was disqualified many centuries ago, even as King Saul was disqualified early into his reign. The Roman Church, which was the "little horn" coming out of the iron empire of Imperial Rome, persecuted the saints of the Most High for many centuries, culminating with the great Spanish Inquisition that began in the 13th century. Daniel 7:21 says,

"(21) I kept looking, and that horn was waging war with the saints and overpowering them (22) until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the Highest One, and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the Kingdom."

The Church has followed the example of King Saul, who himself was crowned on the day of "wheat harvest" (1 Sam. 12:17), which is Pentecost. By the second year of Saul's reign, Samuel knew already that Saul would lose the kingdom (1 Sam. 13:14). In his 18th year, he lost all opportunity to redeem himself, and it became a sure thing that his kingdom would not endure (1 Sam. 15:26).

The Church has followed the pattern of Saul's 40-year reign in its own 40-Jubilee reign of 1,960 years (49 x 40). In the first Jubilee of the Church (33-82 A.D.), it did quite well. The problems began in the second Jubilee cycle (82-131 A.D.), even as with King Saul.

The 18th year of Saul corresponds to the 18th Jubilee cycle of the Church (866-915 A.D.). It was the prelude to what historians call "the golden age of Pornocracy." On pages 19 and 20 of E. R. Chamberlin's book, The Bad Popes, he writes,

"In the closing years of the ninth century, the faction battles for the Chair of Peter brought Rome to the edge of social disintegration. In March, 896, the ghastly Synod horrenda, which sat in judgment upon a corpse [that of the previous pope, Formosus], marked the moment when the city plunged finally into anarchy and delivered, as inescapable result, the Chair of Peter to whosoever was bold enough to ascend it. . . The corpse itself was dragged from the tomb where it had rested for eight months and, dressed again in its sacerdotal robes, was brought into the council chamber. . ."

"Immediately after the Synod horrenda it chanced that an earthquake overthrew the ancient Lateran basilica--an only too apposite [suitable] omen."

And so the word of the Lord came to the "little horn," the Roman Church, even as the word had come to King Saul in his 18th year.

Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303) decreed in his Unam Sanctum,

"Wherefore, no marvel if it be in my power to change times and times, to alter and abrogate laws, to dispense with all things, yea, with the precepts of Christ. . . Likewise against the law of nature, item against the apostles, also against the canons of the apostles, I can and do dispense [overrule]."

The full quotation can be read in Chapter 5, pages 51, 52 of my book, The Seven Churches. This usurpation of divine sovereignty fulfills the prophecies regarding King Saul, who was rejected for his rebellion against God. "Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft," Samuel told Saul in 1 Samuel 13:23.

The "little horn" was given power as an extension of the iron kingdom of Imperial Rome, but it too usurped power, not recognizing the meaning of being "Chosen" or the difference between a right and a privilege. Being chosen is not a right, but a privilege under God, and when that privilege is abused, God has every right to give it to another.

This is the great lesson of the history of the Kingdom of God.