Now The End Begins
Host And Founder Of ‘Now The End Begins’ Geoffrey Grider:
The Roman Catholic Church Rose From The Ruins Of Pagan Rome As Constantine’s Empire Turned Christianity Into A State-Favored Religious Institution
The origins of the Roman Catholic Church are not found in Peter preaching at Pentecost, Paul writing to the churches, or the apostles planting local assemblies under the authority of Jesus Christ. The New Testament church began in the first century as a spiritual body of born-again believers saved by grace through faith. The Roman Catholic system, as a centralized, hierarchical, sacramental, state-favored religious institution, began taking recognizable shape in the 4th century, when professing Christianity was forcibly joined to the power structure of the Roman Empire in what can only be described as a hostile corporate takeover. Cue the woman riding on the Beast.
The Bible knows nothing of a pope ruling from Rome, a priesthood offering a repeated sacrifice of the mass, Mary as mediatrix, purgatory, relic veneration, indulgences, cardinals, monasteries, confessionals, or a Vatican state. Those are not apostolic doctrines. They are later historical developments, many of them growing out of the centuries after Constantine. The church that Christ purchased with His blood was not a Roman corporation. It was, and remains, a spiritual body.
Constantine Did Not Start Christianity, He Politicized It
The decisive historical shift came under Constantine. In A.D. 313, Constantine and Licinius issued what is commonly called the Edict of Milan, granting legal toleration to Christianity and restoring confiscated Christian property. Britannica describes it as the proclamation that “permanently established religious toleration for Christianity within the Roman Empire.” That was the beginning of the Constantinian shift: Christianity moved from persecuted faith to protected religion. But what looked like relief from persecution also opened the door to corruption by imperial power. Before Constantine, Christians were often hunted by Rome. After Constantine, bishops began receiving imperial favor, church disputes became matters of state interest, and the machinery of Caesar began wrapping itself around professing Christianity. That is not the pattern of the New Testament.
The Lord Jesus Christ did not commission His apostles to build a religious empire. He sent them to preach the gospel for the salvation of individual souls for the body of Christ.
Nicaea Shows The New Imperial Church Order
In 325 AD, Constantine called the Council of Nicaea to address the Arian controversy over the deity of Christ. The deity of Christ is absolutely Bible truth, and Arius was wrong. But the historical issue is not merely what doctrine was debated; it is who summoned the council and what that revealed. Even the Catholic Encyclopedia, preserved at New Advent, says the emperor “begged the bishops of every country to come promptly to Nicaea,” provided imperial transport, and supplied their maintenance during the council. It also admits that it is “not historically known” whether Constantine convoked the council solely in his own name or in agreement with Pope Sylvester.
That is a staggering admission. Why? Because that means that the first great council of the emerging imperial church order was not called by an apostle, not called by Scripture, not called by a New Testament pattern of local church authority, and certainly not by Jesus hand-picked leader Paul, but by a Roman emperor. The problem is not that Nicaea affirmed the deity of Christ. The problem is that this moment reveals a new arrangement: the emperor and the bishops now standing together in a system of church-state power. The apostolic churches had pastors, elders, and bishops. They did not have Caesar organizing their doctrine and funding their councils.
Peter did not call himself pope. He called himself “an elder.” [...more]
The Roman Catholic Church Rose From The Ruins Of Pagan Rome As Constantine’s Empire Turned Christianity Into A State-Favored Religious Institution
The origins of the Roman Catholic Church are not found in Peter preaching at Pentecost, Paul writing to the churches, or the apostles planting local assemblies under the authority of Jesus Christ. The New Testament church began in the first century as a spiritual body of born-again believers saved by grace through faith. The Roman Catholic system, as a centralized, hierarchical, sacramental, state-favored religious institution, began taking recognizable shape in the 4th century, when professing Christianity was forcibly joined to the power structure of the Roman Empire in what can only be described as a hostile corporate takeover. Cue the woman riding on the Beast.
The Bible knows nothing of a pope ruling from Rome, a priesthood offering a repeated sacrifice of the mass, Mary as mediatrix, purgatory, relic veneration, indulgences, cardinals, monasteries, confessionals, or a Vatican state. Those are not apostolic doctrines. They are later historical developments, many of them growing out of the centuries after Constantine. The church that Christ purchased with His blood was not a Roman corporation. It was, and remains, a spiritual body.
“Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.” Acts 20:28 (KJV)
The decisive historical shift came under Constantine. In A.D. 313, Constantine and Licinius issued what is commonly called the Edict of Milan, granting legal toleration to Christianity and restoring confiscated Christian property. Britannica describes it as the proclamation that “permanently established religious toleration for Christianity within the Roman Empire.” That was the beginning of the Constantinian shift: Christianity moved from persecuted faith to protected religion. But what looked like relief from persecution also opened the door to corruption by imperial power. Before Constantine, Christians were often hunted by Rome. After Constantine, bishops began receiving imperial favor, church disputes became matters of state interest, and the machinery of Caesar began wrapping itself around professing Christianity. That is not the pattern of the New Testament.
“Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight,” John 18:36 (KJV)
The Lord Jesus Christ did not commission His apostles to build a religious empire. He sent them to preach the gospel for the salvation of individual souls for the body of Christ.
In 325 AD, Constantine called the Council of Nicaea to address the Arian controversy over the deity of Christ. The deity of Christ is absolutely Bible truth, and Arius was wrong. But the historical issue is not merely what doctrine was debated; it is who summoned the council and what that revealed. Even the Catholic Encyclopedia, preserved at New Advent, says the emperor “begged the bishops of every country to come promptly to Nicaea,” provided imperial transport, and supplied their maintenance during the council. It also admits that it is “not historically known” whether Constantine convoked the council solely in his own name or in agreement with Pope Sylvester.
That is a staggering admission. Why? Because that means that the first great council of the emerging imperial church order was not called by an apostle, not called by Scripture, not called by a New Testament pattern of local church authority, and certainly not by Jesus hand-picked leader Paul, but by a Roman emperor. The problem is not that Nicaea affirmed the deity of Christ. The problem is that this moment reveals a new arrangement: the emperor and the bishops now standing together in a system of church-state power. The apostolic churches had pastors, elders, and bishops. They did not have Caesar organizing their doctrine and funding their councils.
“The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder,”
1 Peter 5:1 (KJV)
1 Peter 5:1 (KJV)
Peter did not call himself pope. He called himself “an elder.” [...more]
Harbinger’s Daily
By Amir Tsarfati: I want to tell you something that revolutionized my entire life. I discovered Jesus in my own Bible, the Hebrew Old Testament, before I ever read a single word in the New Testament.
Growing up, I saw the New Testament as a Gentile book about a Gentile religion. It wasn’t mine. This presumption was called into question when someone challenged me: “Read your own scriptures. Look for the Messiah in the Torah, in the prophets, in the Psalms.”
So I did… and what I found was staggering. Jesus is everywhere from Genesis to Malachi.
What shocked me most was that Jesus proved He was the Messiah using only the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament. Not once did He quote the New Testament—it didn’t exist yet! In Luke chapter 24, after His resurrection, Jesus appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus. They were heartbroken and confused. Their eyes were kept from recognizing Him. In verses 25-27, Jesus said, “‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?’ And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”
Jesus gave them a complete Bible study from Genesis to Malachi, proving He was the Messiah. I wish we had those notes! Then in verse 44, Jesus declared, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.”
Let me show you Jesus in your Old Testament. [...more]
Amir Tsarfati is an Israeli Christian from Galilee. A former Deputy Governor of Jericho and IDF officer (hostage negotiator). He is a Bible teacher and a much sought after speaker world-wide. He is an Israeli tour guide, a well-known author, and the Founder and President of ‘Behold Israel,’ a Christian ministry with a world-wide outreach.
Growing up, I saw the New Testament as a Gentile book about a Gentile religion. It wasn’t mine. This presumption was called into question when someone challenged me: “Read your own scriptures. Look for the Messiah in the Torah, in the prophets, in the Psalms.”
So I did… and what I found was staggering. Jesus is everywhere from Genesis to Malachi.
What shocked me most was that Jesus proved He was the Messiah using only the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament. Not once did He quote the New Testament—it didn’t exist yet! In Luke chapter 24, after His resurrection, Jesus appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus. They were heartbroken and confused. Their eyes were kept from recognizing Him. In verses 25-27, Jesus said, “‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?’ And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”
Jesus gave them a complete Bible study from Genesis to Malachi, proving He was the Messiah. I wish we had those notes! Then in verse 44, Jesus declared, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.”
Let me show you Jesus in your Old Testament. [...more]
Amir Tsarfati is an Israeli Christian from Galilee. A former Deputy Governor of Jericho and IDF officer (hostage negotiator). He is a Bible teacher and a much sought after speaker world-wide. He is an Israeli tour guide, a well-known author, and the Founder and President of ‘Behold Israel,’ a Christian ministry with a world-wide outreach.
Prophecy News Watch
By Michael Snyder: Gigantic underground aquifers are being rapidly depleted all over the world, and once that water is gone it will take a very long time for it to come back. In fact, in some areas of the United States the recharge rate is less than an inch per year. That is a major problem, because more than half of the water that U.S. farmers use for irrigation comes from underground aquifers. What in the world are our farmers going to do once that water is gone?
The largest underground aquifer in the United States is known as the Ogallala Aquifer. It covers a vast area under portions of eight different states, and it accounts for approximately 30 percent of all groundwater that is used for irrigation in our nation. [...more]
The largest underground aquifer in the United States is known as the Ogallala Aquifer. It covers a vast area under portions of eight different states, and it accounts for approximately 30 percent of all groundwater that is used for irrigation in our nation. [...more]
Israel 365 News
By Tamar Stein: When Turkey’s Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi declared last week that Jerusalem would one day return to Turkish sovereignty, “just as in the past,” he was speaking as a senior official of a NATO member state, at a ruling party conference, invoking the name of Allah and the example of his president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The Ottoman Empire, he promised the crowd, is not finished with Jerusalem.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry responded directly. “The corrupt Ottoman Empire is gone. Forever,” it posted on X. Defense Minister Israel Katz addressed the minister directly in Turkish: “Jerusalem is not Constantinople, and the State of Israel is not a crumbling Crusader Empire.”
Çiftçi’s speech was a window into how Erdoğan’s Turkey now sees itself. The minister compared the coming “liberation” of Jerusalem to Turkey’s role in the fall of the Assad regime in Damascus and to Azerbaijan’s recapture of Nagorno-Karabakh, both achieved through Turkish-backed force or Turkish-aligned power. The message was clear: Turkey sees itself as the engine of a new regional order, with Jerusalem as its crown.
[...]
The Ottoman Empire is, as Israel’s Foreign Ministry stated, gone. The British Mandate is gone. Every power that ruled Jerusalem is gone. Israel is here, and according to every covenant in the Hebrew Bible, it is not going anywhere.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry responded directly. “The corrupt Ottoman Empire is gone. Forever,” it posted on X. Defense Minister Israel Katz addressed the minister directly in Turkish: “Jerusalem is not Constantinople, and the State of Israel is not a crumbling Crusader Empire.”
Çiftçi’s speech was a window into how Erdoğan’s Turkey now sees itself. The minister compared the coming “liberation” of Jerusalem to Turkey’s role in the fall of the Assad regime in Damascus and to Azerbaijan’s recapture of Nagorno-Karabakh, both achieved through Turkish-backed force or Turkish-aligned power. The message was clear: Turkey sees itself as the engine of a new regional order, with Jerusalem as its crown.
[...]
The Ottoman Empire is, as Israel’s Foreign Ministry stated, gone. The British Mandate is gone. Every power that ruled Jerusalem is gone. Israel is here, and according to every covenant in the Hebrew Bible, it is not going anywhere.
Geller Report
By Pamela Geller: In latest vote drop, Nithya Raman explodes to a roughly 22,000 vote lead over
Spencer Pratt. They were only about 3,000 apart after yesterday’s drop.
“Nithya Raman even LOST her own district (CD-4) to Spencer Pratt and Karan Bass, but you expect us to believe she beat them BOTH by winning 40% of the vote in the rest of the city by mail-in ballots.”
Where’s Kamala Harris braying, “We did it, Joe!” [...more]
Spencer Pratt. They were only about 3,000 apart after yesterday’s drop.
“Nithya Raman even LOST her own district (CD-4) to Spencer Pratt and Karan Bass, but you expect us to believe she beat them BOTH by winning 40% of the vote in the rest of the city by mail-in ballots.”
Where’s Kamala Harris braying, “We did it, Joe!” [...more]
Front Page Magazine
By Hugh Fitzgerald: A few days ago Israel, in response to pressure from President Donald Trump, promised that it would not bomb Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut as long as Hezbollah stopped its missile and drone attacks. It would, however, continue to attack Hezbollah operatives and weapons depots outside of Beirut. Hezbollah ignored the caveat, launched missiles and drones into the Jewish state, and then, as promised, the IDF resumed its bombing attacks in Dahiyeh, Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Beirut. This annoyed our mercurial president, who idiotically berated Israel when it was Hezbollah that had triggered Israel’s response.
Now Iran has sent ballistic missiles into northern Israel, where so far they have all been intercepted without any Israeli casualties. Iran promises there will be more attacks in coming days. Israel has promised a suitable response. Trump has expressed frustration with Iran, which, he said, could have had a deal ”that is so close” on “Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday.” But he has not expressed anger with Iran, and has given no sign of approval for the Israeli reprisal that is sure to be launched against the Islamic Republic, and most maddeningly, has again berated Israel for bombing Hezbollah sites in Beirut. [...more]
Now Iran has sent ballistic missiles into northern Israel, where so far they have all been intercepted without any Israeli casualties. Iran promises there will be more attacks in coming days. Israel has promised a suitable response. Trump has expressed frustration with Iran, which, he said, could have had a deal ”that is so close” on “Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday.” But he has not expressed anger with Iran, and has given no sign of approval for the Israeli reprisal that is sure to be launched against the Islamic Republic, and most maddeningly, has again berated Israel for bombing Hezbollah sites in Beirut. [...more]
Jihad Watch
By Robert Spencer: Corinna Mullin is most likely a U.S. citizen, and would find living in the Islamic Republic of Iran to be an extremely rude awakening, but there is no chance that she is going to move. Meanwhile, she continues to teach American college students, and what she teaches them is not significantly different from what most or all of their other professors teach them. That’s why it’s so easy to get American college students to go out onto the campus lawn and live in pup tents for Hamas. [...more]
Hope For Our Times
The Truth Daily News
06-09-26
06-09-26
Synopsis: Guest host Pastor Dave Bowen. News in 15 minutes or less through the lens of the Bible.
John Haller’s Prophecy Update
Geo-Theologically Speaking
Paul McGuire
What’s The Big Deal With Russia?
About: Join Internationally Recognized Prophecy Expert, Minister, Speaker and Author, Paul McGuire as he analyzes current events through the lens of Bible Prophecy.