BY FRIENDS OF GOD
Well, if you haven’t guessed it yet, It’s the Roman Catholic Church. It’s the only organization that matches all 12 of the descriptions in great detail. This is not to say that all people in this church organization are filled with the devil or demonically oppressed. God has his people in every organization. It would be better said that the Roman Catholic Church has done more to keep people from the real truth and stopping those who are truly following God more than any other organization.
There are 12 identifying marks of The Little Horn. We’re going to run through each one and simply present the facts as dictated by history. Once again, we need to remind the reader that if you’ve taken the short cut and decided to read this article first, it won’t make a lot of sense to you.
Birth of the Catholic Church
The bible describes The Little Horn as having a major role in World Government, so when we discuss the Little Horn, we are looking at world-wide movements. The Roman Catholic Church is a world-wide organization that’s been very involved in secular governmental affairs ever since the beginning. It all started when the Roman Emperor Constantine discovered Christianity in 312 AD and embraced it. In 313AD he issued the Edict of Toleration which granted freedom to all religions in the empire. Roman Citizens were now free to become Christians without having to fear persecution from the state. In his zeal, he decided that everyone should be a Christian and that the Christians should run the country, so he appointed many of the church leaders as Bishops and gave them powerful positions in government. He set them on thrones with the political nobles of the empire, wedding the church and Roman government together. The church leaders were responsible for civil functions as well as spiritual responsibilities.
The church was ecstatic. They felt as though they finally arrived and now ruled the country. The local governor controlled the church, made governmental decisions, handled all the income from taxes and church offerings, and set people in place to govern the land.
Over time, it seemed like everyone was a Christian, even those without a salvation experience. These high positions paid well and were sot after by the general population. Eventually the marriage of the church and state put the church under control of the ruling political parties, and for the next 1,500 years the church remained under the control of the state. It wasn’t until the constitution of the United States forbid the government from establishing a state religion that the structure of church government finally changed.
The unsaved political leaders were bored with the church services so they started bringing in images (idols) from their heathen temples, thus slowly statues of the apostles, Mary, and other biblical characters started appearing in places of Christian worship.
The Nicolaitans believed and taught that the clergy should be elevated above the lay people. They started calling the church leaders “priests” and they asked to be addressed as Father. All this is a direct violation of scripture.
After Constantine and other political leaders became benefactors of the church, the congregations looked to political leaders for their church leadership. When Constantine moved the political capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to Constantinople, his absence from Rome caused the church in the West to call upon the Bishop of Rome for important religious and political decisions.
The position of Bishop of Rome, became the most powerful figure in Rome and in the world. All the other Bishops would look to Rome for advice and considered the Bishop of Rome as their superior. The position eventually evolved into the papacy (papa, father) with the Pope as the head of the church.
Unfortunately, the celebration of church as state was very short lived, as the local Bishops passed away and they were replaced with Bishops that didn’t care a hoot about God. In one short generation, Satan beheaded the church and had total control over the church, tax base, and local government. It would take another 1,500 years before a non-governmental church structure would arise…
