The Bondage of the Church - Part 2 - Who is in charge?

The Bondage of the Church - Part 2 - Who is in charge? - by P.K.Odendaal - June 2013. 

In Old Testament times, God spoke to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, to His leaders of the people like Moses, to His friends like Enoch, and to the High Priest in the Holy of Holies.

The reason He did not speak to plebs like you and me in those times was that there was a dividing wall of sin between us and God - and secondly, we were afraid to speak to God lest we should die. I can quote a scripture which is relevant in this regard:

Exo 19:8  And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD. … v:17  And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. v:18  And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. v:19  And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.

It is clear from the above that Israel agreed to do everything God has told them to do, and that Moses should speak on their behalf because they were too afraid to speak directly to God. This was a democratic, unanimous, enforceable and legal compact. God was in charge and they would follow His good guidance. It will never again get as good as this. And it was very good. The Israelites reached the pinnacle of a theocratic system, never to be repeated again.

So why did it end?

Israel wanted a king - and so the degeneration started. The first king, Saul, did not heed the words of God spoken through His prophets, and so God ceased to waste His time with Saul. Was the King higher in authority than God or the High Priest or the Prophet? We shall see later.

In the end one High Priest was appointed to stand between God and the nation. Man could not talk to God directly anymore. They had to go through the High Priest who could only go into the Holy of Holies once a year. That was limiting mankind's communion with God - something God wanted to prevent from the start - but sin made it imperative. In fact, it became a hazard for the High Priest to go into the Holy of Holies, as he might not come out alive again. So they tied a rope to his body so that they could pull him out of the Holy of Holies should he die in there due to God's wrath.

How can God get around this obstacle?

Only by offering Himself as a sacrifice of atonement for the sin of Adam and Eve and the many sins of their progeny. But God did not flinch from this challenge. He faced it squarely to save mankind, in a way which put the blame on Him and not on mankind, and caused His temporal death.

What did He want to accomplish with this offering of atonement?

To hold communion with you and me! And that He obtained and so vividly demonstrated with the renting of the veil. Mar 15:38  And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. Breaking down the division between man and the Holiest place on Earth.

So man and God could have a personal relationship again.

The devil did not like this. Something had to be done to upset the relationship between God and mankind again - and we did not have to wait for long for that.

The Roman Catholic Church was established, with Peter, the Apostle, as the first Pope (without his legal consent or knowledge). Jesus Christ said to Peter: Mat 16:19  And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Firstly the Church had to make Peter the first Pope to have a shadow of legitimacy to take hold of the keys, and secondly they misunderstood what Jesus said to Peter. To quote it again in a shortened version: Mat 16:16  And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. … v:18  And I (Jesus Christ) say also unto thee … upon this rock (This rock which is Jesus Christ) I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. It does not take a lot of study to see that the Rock of Ages is Jesus Christ, and not Peter.

The Roman Catholic Church took this scripture, contrary to its meaning, as a pretext to shift God and mankind out of this equation to rule supremely on earth. What the Pope or the Bishop of Rome, at the time said was: I am the Vicar of Christ (Meaning in the place of Christ ... or in the Greek: I am Anti-Christ - like in Anti-pasta) - He has given me full authority over Earth and mankind. I am also representing mankind and they have given their right to speak to God directly, to me. So I am the Power Supreme. I represent God and mankind simultaneously. I am infallible. I am now the power of the universe. I have arrived. Now it will be all about me. God and mankind have no say in this equation - and I will kill and make war to maintain my position.

If we look closely, we see that God never appointed the Pope as the Vicar of Christ. The fact was that 'the veil of the Temple was rent in twain.' Everybody now had a direct line of communication with God. From the people's side there was no-one who wanted the Pope to rule supremely - and neither was it a democratic or a unanimous feeling as with Moses, and never was it any sort of compact.

In mitigation, I must say that it was also historically driven by the collapse of civilization in the 4^th to 7^th centuries due to the Barbarians and the rise of Islam. The leaders of Christianity went into exile to secluded islands, and on their return started schools and learning centres in Europe again - something which was also started and advanced under Charlemagne in 800AD, who started the drive to expel Islam from today's Spain - a drive only completed by Ferdinand and Isabella in the 14^th century. This placed the Ecclesia in a favourable position to rule due to their learning and influence. You can read more about the latter in the book: The Dogs of God by James Reston Jr.. The first part is more accurately and vividly portrayed in the BBC series: Civilization by Kenneth Clark. He did not dwell on the latter in that series, as it was a history too ghastly to contemplate.

It was the usurpation of power by power hungry ecclesiastics who hid the words of God from the people for their own gain - mostly financial gain. The hiding of scripture to the people, and their own interpretation thereof for their own benefit would, in the fifteenth century, give them blow back they were not prepared for and which would take the lives of more than a million people. The subsequent invention of the printing press would make the scriptures available to millions of people and expose the false teachings of the priests and lead to the Reformation - but that is another story. Saved by grace alone (and not by lucrative indulgences) would bring the Catholic Church to its knees.

The Bondage of the people by the Church officials was now complete. They could now with impunity (from God and man) issue encyclicals saying what they wanted to, in God's name, and they could now decide how man responds to God. (You can read more about this in the book by David Yallop: 'In God's name'). Now the Roman Catholic Church could do anything in God's name - even until today.

What did they do with this power?

Firstly they prohibited anyone from speaking to God directly, from reading the Bible, or from deciding for themselves whether and how any man can serve God. Anyone coming into conflict with the Pope would be murdered or killed by any way possible. And so more than a million Christians and Jews were killed who did not agree with this. In this regard you also had the persecution of the various 'heretic' factions and the inquisition (too many to enumerate). The Pope now had (until today) the power to send anyone to Hell - a privilege he regularly exercised with impunity. I wonder what the Pope will say one day when he sees those same people he excommunicated, in heaven - and not inconceivably, some of those Popes and Bishops who did the excommunication, did not make it there - still suffering in Purgatory.

This bondage had to be broken - it could not last forever. God has created man to be free. How was this bondage going to be broken? As I already said, it took the invention of a machine called the Printing Press to do that.

God was in charge and He would even work through a Printing Press, invented in 1450 by Gutenberg, to save mankind from this bondage. But later more about this.