In this series we will examine the falling away (apostasy) of the Catholic/Protestant Church from the God Who created her on the Day of Pentecost 31 A.D. in Jerusalem. At that time the promised Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4,5) entered the lives of those disciples who had remained true to His Son. On that date the “last days” of the world began as prophesied by the Prophet Joel (2:28) and declared by the Apostle Peter in Acts 2:17. Just as Satan had attacked the Church of Eden’s two members (Adam and Eve), he attacked the recently created New Testament Church in Jerusalem. Ananias and Sapphira were his first two conquests of record (Acts 5:1-5). The rest is history. With the establishment of Roman Catholicism in 33 A.D. and her joining with the Roman Empire in an advisory capacity, the Church of God (Acts. 20:28) quickly began to feel the wrath of Satan as he worked to deceive her into oblivion by embracing his perverted gospel (Gal. 1:6-9) and a counterfeit Jesus (2 Cor. 11:4). From day one the original apostles found themselves fighting against the “forces of evil in high places” whom the “prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 6:12; 2:2) had placed within the church. Their ministerial descendants continue to preach his counterfeit Christianity known as Catholicism and Protestantism.

Satan used the Roman Empire, specifically Emperor Constantine, to force the people of the nations whom the empire conquered into the Catholic Church. These people had for centuries worshiped a variety of gods and goddesses and practiced all manner of heathen customs. In order to appease their captives, which numbered in the multiple thousands, the church embraced their gods, beliefs and practices and absorbed them into her catechisms. To make the union of Christianity and heathenism work the church changed some of the heathen personages and “truths” to make them fit into church doctrine. This series presents some of the customs and beliefs “the church” incorporated into her religious system, changed a name here and an act there and came up with what came to be known as “the word of God.” Because the people were not allowed to read the Bible, the people believed what they were told. By this time (the fourth century) the so-called “church” was well into her “falling away” from the Lord–apostasy.

Later, when the so-called “Protestants” (protesters) left the mother church they took much of her paganistic religion with them. Understand this: When Martin Luther and his followers left the Catholic Church they were not protesting the church’s beliefs, customs and practices. They were protesting the sins of the priesthood. The priests were known, among other things, for their sexual sins and the selling of indulgencies.

As this website in general and this series in particular will show, the heathen beliefs and practices embraced by the mother (Catholic) church and her (Protestant) daughters (Rev. 17:1-5) continue to serve as foundation stones of the Catholic/Protestant Church System. Let us examine some of those “Bible truths” upon which professing Christendom is built. As you will see, not one of them has so much as a hint of Biblical backing. Because they are Satanic in origin, the Biblical God calls them “ABOMINATIONS.”

In Deuteronomy 12 and Jeremiah 10:2-5 the Lord, speaking through His prophets, warns the children of Israel not to associate with the people living near them. In these passages He gives His people one general command: “DO NOT LEARN THE WAYS OF THE HEATHEN FOR THEY ARE AN ABOMINATION UNTO ME.” What were abominations to Him then are abominations to Him now. The following passages offer Biblical proof of this Truth: He is “the Father of lights in Whom there is no variableness, no shadow (hint) of turning (change)”–James 1:17. “I am the Lord; I do not change” (Mal. 3:6). “He is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). Those who remain trapped within professing Christendom reject these truths and, like Adam and Eve, have been deceived by Satan into believing that they can create their own truths. The following are some of those “truths.”

On a personal note, I have found that, when confronted with God’s Truth, which invariably contradicts church truth, church people react in ways ranging from “So what?” to hostility. I have found that the more religious the deceived one is, the more resentment one expresses. As would be expected, ministers are among the most resentful when their errors are exposed by God’s Word. Let us now examine some of the pagan “truths” upon which the Institutional Church is built. God calls her foundation “sand” (Mat. 7:26,27). As Jesus prophesied, the church is falling, and great is her falling. The world is watching the death of a God-established church and the premiere nation He chose to shed His light to that world. America’s light has gone out because of the apostasy of the church. Only His tiny remnant remains true to Him. Now let us examine the #1 church sin that condemns her as a spreader of iniquity (Gk.-Lawlessness) and keeps her separated from God and in the spiritual bed with Satan, who has become her god.

THE SUNDAY SABBATH– Because the Lord knew that commandment #4 would be the commandment Law-haters would reject, thereby making them iniquitous, He created a separate covenant with ancient Israel. The true church, called “the Israel of God” ( ), is party to that covenant today. Read Who and Where is Israel Today? Key word–Who? This covenant is found in Exodus 31 where God tells Moses that correct observance of His chosen Sabbath day–the 7th day of the week (Saturday)–would be a sign of one’s allegiance to Him. This was the day He blessed and sanctified (set aside for holy use). And more importantly, it is the ONLY week day which He designated as “MY HOLY DAY” (Gen. 2:3/ Isa. 58:13). So why did He change His Holy, blessed and sanctified Day to Sunday? He didn’t. Man did. Let us see when, where, and most importantly, why Satan convinced man to change God’s Holy Day.

Satan knew that if a person broke one of God’s Ten Commandments he would be guilty of breaking the entire Law (Jam. 2:10). Therefore, if he (Satan) could deceive a person into breaking a commandment and believe that he was doing good, that person would not change and would belong to him. What is more, that person would believe that He was obeying the Biblical God. The commandment of choice was obvious. The rest is history. But understand this: OBSERVING GOD’S SABBATH DOES NOT SAVE THE SOUL, not even when accompanied by faith and grace. OBEDIENCE TO GOD’S LAW IS A STONE-ETCHED REQUIREMENT FOR SALVATION. If a 7th day Sabbath keeper fails to obey God in any other way, he is separated from God (Isa. 59:2). One of the church sinners’ curses is his/her heaven becoming as iron so that God does not hear his prayers, which explains why the vast majority of church prayers are unanswered. We will begin our study of the pagan church with the #1 sin committed by church people. The Sabbath sin is actually a triple sin. By observing the Sabbath on Sunday (sin #1) the iniquitous one pays homage to the sun god, which is idolatry (sin #2) which is forbidden by commandment #1. Read Luke 13:27. By refusing to observe God’s Sabbath, the third sin comes into play. Recall that Jesus told the rich man that he would be denied salvation because of “one thing”–he broke commandment #12 (Lk. 18:22). Let us now examine the who and why aspect of the God-defined sin which billions of church people “know” He requires them to commit. Only Satan could pull off this incredible hoax.

In order to appease the sun worshiping nations the Roman Empire had conquered and enslaved, Emperor Constantine decreed at the Counsel of Nicea in 325 A.D. that from that time forward everyone under Roman control would observe the sabbath on Sunday–the day the sun worshipers paid homage to their god. He also ruled that the Empire, including the Catholic Church, would no longer observe Passover, but would instead honor Ishtar–the heathen goddess of fertility–and would do so on Sunday. All of Christianity had observed God’s Sabbath on the 7th day of the week for almost 300 years. Israelites had observed Passover since He instituted its observance during her extraction from Egyptian slavery. The church continued to observe God’s Holy Days until 325 A.D. With a few words both of His commands had been nullified. By connecting His Sabbath and the Passover commands to the forbidden fruit in Eden, one can see how quickly and completely His commands can be done away with if one’s heart is opened to Satan and closed to God. When the Sabbath was removed, God’s entire Law was nullified (Jam. 2:10). Where there is no Law, there is no sin (1 Jn. 3:4). With the eradication of God’s Law, man was able to make his own laws, which explains the existence of church doctrine. The true church has its own doctrines. They are called the Holy Scriptures.

EASTER– Ishtar (the sex goddess) was worshiped by a variety of names depending on the nation involved. In the Western World she became known as Easter. Ishtar was also known as “the queen of heaven” who was celebrated during a spring festival when people sacrificed their children and used their blood to color eggs laid by a chicken that Ishtar/Easter had supposedly turned into a rabbit. Thus the use of colored eggs, baby chicks and rabbits in the church’s worship of the heavenly whore. I remember when colored chicks and bunnies were sold on the streets of Campbell, Missouri leading up to the “Easter season.” On “Easter Sunday” we would gather at sunup and bow our heads toward the east as the sun came up. We assumed that this was God’s will because we had always done it. We had no idea that this “godly act” was borrowed from Babylonian sun worshipers. Frankly, I doubt that it would have mattered, just as it does not matter to modern church people when they learn the truth. L.J.