Sabbath 14/2/28/120
Dear Friends
Well, the bell tolled and the smoke was white and the Roman Catholics have a new Pope. It is Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger the Bavarian Cardinal of the RC Church who served as the Head of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Originally termed the Holy Office, it was anything but that, and came to be termed by academics such as Professor Roth as the Unholy Office, due to the scandalous conduct of the Inquisition over the years. For an indication of what it did look at the paper The Role of the Fourth Commandment in the Historical Sabbath-keeping Churches of God (No. 170).
We are led to believe that the man renowned for his inflexible denunciation of matters that impinged upon the dominance and so-called magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church is really not that way at all. Was he really just playing at bad cop with John-Paul II as Pope and the supposed good cop? At 78 he is the oldest pope elected for 275 years since Clement XII in 1730. Why did they elect someone so old, and what does it mean for those who are not Roman Catholics? It was a very short conclave and a decision was reached very early (shades of John Bosco). So, obviously the numbers were there and the decision reflected the consensus of the voting cardinals, as it was not long enough in conclave to go to simple majority vote. Do we now take the ship of state and tie it up to the columns of Boaz and Jachin? Is that unholy union the next on the agenda?
It is being said he was chosen as a "transitional" Pope, who would fulfil the unfinished business of John Paul's quarter-century papacy, yet not be another long-term Pope. Certainly John-Paul II created enough Cardinals to ensure his supporters carried through his agenda. Ratzinger himself has said his papacy will be very short and indeed it will be. But much can happen in a short time. Much will indeed be precipitated in this period.
Choosing a pope is a bit like elephants mating. The innocent bystanders often get trampled in the process of all the trumpeting and stamping. The Church of God has suffered for centuries under the popes, and so often it follows the elections out of more than simple idle curiosity.
Two thirds of the world’s Roman Catholics live in the Southern Hemisphere. Africa is the largest growth area and South America has the most RCs, but also a great attrition rate. It is hurting and wanted a pontiff. Yet numbers on the ground did not translate into numbers of voting Cardinals. Europe is also hurting. Paganism is on the rise. North America is seeing the RC system as increasingly irrelevant. Affluence and immorality are seeing people adopt other religious systems, such as Paganism and Buddhism, in order that the people might pursue their immoralities without being hampered by the problems of conscience and moral censure.
When Cardinal George Pell of Australia addressed the Australian Roman Catholics, he said that the new Pope was “one of us”. “He was a European.” Pell said this as though Australia was somehow attached as an appendage of Europe, and not off the far edge of South East Asia, and among the Southern Hemisphere’s RC majority. What was significant was that the competing interest of the Jesuits and Opus Dei and all the factions could suppress their divisions in the face of what they perceive as a serious threat to their existence and European supremacy.
It is said that George Pell may become the new Inquisitor of the Church, and his support for Benedict XVI is obvious. Even he has family problems in this regard, with his cousin being a lesbian ex-nun.
Cardinal Pell seems to believe that there will be significant changes under this new Pope, and for that to happen there have to be changes in the Pope’s agenda and presentation. The cardinals are looking for collegiality and they want change to bring in the Protestant churches under the Roman system.
Joseph Ratzinger states he wants to be known as a man of peace during his pontificate. But how does all that square away with his known history? How does he change to absorb the Protestants and reform the Trinitarian apostasy?
Born in 1927, he was raised in Nazi Germany. He allegedly deserted from the army at the end of the war but we might expect him, in his old age, to revert to the conditioning of his youth.
He is known as being totally against multiculturalism. He reportedly regards it as Europeans “fleeing away from their own”. He is on record as opposing Turkey’s entry to the EEC and Europe. He is known to be anti-Islam.
His election is also seen as a disaster for the homosexual lobby or “gay and lesbians”. The Abortion Lobby sees him as a disaster. In short he promises to be the most divisive Pope in a century. Yet Malachi names him as the “Glory of the Olive”, which is a symbol of peace, or is it?
Although the Benedictine order of monastics comes from St. Benedict of the Sixth century, another name for the followers of St. Benedict is the Olivetans, which are a minor order following the rule of Benedict Tolomei of Siena, who established the order at Accona south of Siena, Italy in 1313. Others joined the original three men and in 1324 John XXII approved the formation of the order. Olive trees abound there. They wear white habits, perhaps to reflect that fact. The Benedictines were also inquisitors from the early days. They were superseded in that role after the Dominican Order was founded. The Church of God suffered under both, and later also, under the Franciscans.
Umberto Ecco expressed the conflict in theology and thinking fairly interestingly in the work Name of the Rose. There the dialogues between the Franciscans and the Benedictines were expressed in the conversations between William and the Benedictines where the discussion concerned the question, “Did Christ Laugh?” The Benedictine said: “It is nowhere written that he laughed but William said it is not contrary to reason that he laughed”. In this exchange we see the complex question of documented history versus the process of reason that marked the transition of the new orders of the Catholic system. The Benedictines represented an old approach against the new age of reason. Thus, it is of note that the Benedictines in Germany saw Cardinal Ratzinger suppress the intrusion of Zen Buddhist techniques under the Benedictine Zen master, Fr. Willigis Jäger, 76, also known by his Zen name of Ko-un Roshi. The decision was made public on 5 Feb. by the Würzburg diocese, where Jäger’s Münsterschwarzach Abbey is located. Fr. Nokter Wolf, the abbot primate of the Benedictine order, has stated that the decision came from Cardinal Ratzinger.
Jäger was faulted for playing down the Christian concept of God as a person in his work as a spiritual guide, and for stressing mystical experience above doctrinal truths. Jäger is well known in the German-speaking world as a spiritual teacher. In 1972, he met the Japanese Zen master Yamada Roshi of the Sanbo Kyodan school. In 1975, he moved to Kamakura in Japan and spent six years studying Zen. The core of Zen is a body of spiritual techniques derived from the Buddhist tradition. In 1981, Jäger was authorized by the Roman Catholic system to train students in Zen. The result has not been acceptable to the Inquisition and has divided the prayer structure of those affected from the core of the order.
A recent report also disclosed that Franciscan authorities say Fr. Josef Imbach, 56, has been assigned a year of “reflection”, amounting to a suspension. Though a Franciscan spokesperson would not elaborate on the motive for the action, Imbach had revealed two years ago that Cardinal Ratzinger was carrying out an investigation of his 1995 book on miracles.
Imbach said at the time that he was accused of not believing in the divinity of Jesus, of refusing the magisterium of the church, of describing the gospels as teaching texts rather than historically reliable accounts, and of excluding the possibility of miracles. He denied holding these views.
Thus, there are moves in Germany and in Europe towards what might be described as non-Christian views. The reality is that the RC Church is in damage control. Paganism and Transcendental Meditation are rife and escalating.
There are also a large number of people in the Roman Catholic Church who believe that John Paul II was an anti-pope, and they are termed seder vacantist, meaning that the seat of the Bishop of Rome is vacant due to heresy.
In a recent discussion with a Roman Catholic who might be described as holding this view, I said in effect we were both seder vacantists. The position of the Church of God was that the see of the Bishop of Rome became vacant in 154-192 CE with the election of Anicetus to the see of Rome and the introduction of the Easter heresy, and subsequent heresies and the schism forced by Victorinus in 192 CE.
The election of Joseph Ratzinger is a step towards reassuring the old guard that things are not really changing. The aim is to get a smaller and more pure church that is not under the influence of these heresies. What might result? The least likely is Protestant ecumenical absorption, but that is what we are being led to believe might occur.
One of the things suppressed by the curial system, and specifically by John-Paul II and by Rat zinger, was the third secret of Fatima.
The third secret of Fatima is now widely acknowledged to be in two forms, and the major thrust of the third declaration was that a pope would be killed by soldiers among many of his priests. These prophecies are examined in the paper The Last Pope (No. 288).
This also follows the vision of Pius X where he said that a Pope of his name would leave Rome over the bodies of his priests. The third vision of Fatima was held to have been fulfilled when John-Paul II was shot, but that is impossible and is recognised as being impossible. Clearly Pius’ vision says the Pope is of his name and thus Benedict XVI cannot fulfil this vision. However, the creation of a war with Islam is not only a possible agenda that might precipitate the circumstances that will see the destruction of the see of Rome but also the removal of the Roman Catholic system not only from there but also from the world in general.
Malachi lists the last Pope as Petrus Romanus or Peter the Roman and thus it may be that Peter takes the name of Pius XIII, or Pius was mistaken and he is only referred to in that way because of his predecessor Pius’ vision.
What appears to be the case is that this short period ahead will see the deliberate polarisation of Christianity and Islam and the culmination of World War III in the aftermath that sees the destruction of Rome and its see.
In order to get the church to a pure state, the trappings of paganism over the centuries have to be stripped away. In order to maximise the numbers of the church the see at Rome prostituted everything from the middle of the second century onwards.
I find it ironic that one of my great uncles was the fist bishop of Rome. They call him Pope Linus now but they did not have popes in those days. His father Caratacus (Latin for Caradog) was taken to Rome and held captive there in the “House of the Britons.” As king of the Cantii from 40 CE and the Catuvellauni and Silures from 43-51 CE he led the British forces against the Romans under Claudius. He was defeated in Kent at the Battle of Medway and fled west to the lands of the Dobunni in Gloucestershire, but was again forced further west by Roman advances. He gained the support of the Silures and Ordovices in South and Central Wales, and from 47 onwards they maintained a guerrilla war against the Romans. He was finally defeated at the Severn in the Cambrian Hills of Northern Wales leading an army of 15,000 Britons against the Romans. His brother and children were taken captive to Rome. He escaped to the land of the Brigantes hoping to raise more troops but was betrayed by Queen Cartimandua who had already made a deal with the Romans and handed him over to them. He and the family were taken to Rome in chains. Because he had been so powerful and his reputation so well known Claudius displayed him. Claudius spared his life and pardoned him after he made a rousing speech that impressed Claudius deeply. The family lived in comfort in Rome and he died probably around 54 CE. The family remained there in Rome, living comfortably, and at least some returned to Britain perhaps around 60 CE.
The family became members of the Church in Rome. They were exposed to and knew Paul intimately. Linus ultimately became bishop at Rome after the death of Paul. His brother Cylin, who was my ancestor, had a daughter that married her cousin’s son, the grandson of Caradog’s brother Arviragus. This man was Coel I son of Marius. It was this line that returned to Britain and brought the true faith with them. They were Sabbatarians and had the same faith as we follow today. Linus was a Sabbatarian and kept the Passover and Feasts as we do, and the Food Laws as we do also. They were Unitarians that believed that Christ was the Great Angel that gave the Law to Moses at Sinai and who was the elohim of Israel referred to in Psalm 45:6-7 and Hebrews 1:8-9. These teachings are to be found to this day in the writings of Justin Martyr who followed Linus about a century later in Rome.
It is thus bizarre to us to see a Pope trying to return to a paganised structure that has been inflicted on Christianity by corrupt Roman priests for power and influence. The end result of their syncretic heresy will now come to full bloom over the short reign of this Pope. At the end they will be taken away to make way for the restoration of the true faith once delivered to the saints. Only when Rome embraces the faith of Linus and his family will they return to Christianity.
Benedict XVI is seemingly concerned with syncretism as he sees it, yet he espouses doctrines that would have seen him disfellowshipped by the early Church as an idolater and a Gnostic heretic. He refers to Irenaeus in his comments yet believes none of what Irenaeus believed.
These divisions in the Roman Catholic Church are very deep. The problems in the Anglican, Lutheran and Orthodox churches are also very deep and serious. Ratzinger has not been supportive of these faiths nor has he been sensitive to their inclusion. Now it seems he may reverse this approach. This multi-marriage will be one of convenience in the face of adversity.
Much of the rhetoric of the Roman curial system has been to appear to be strong, and to appeal to the Protestant conservatives in order to lure them back into the Roman Catholic fold. Those churches are in the process of splitting. The Roman Catholics are trying to appear as though they are against homosexuality when in reality they are permeated with it at all levels.
The English language surveys show that over one third of them are openly professing homosexuality when it is expressly forbidden by the Vatican. The double standards are difficult to follow for the casual observer.
The fact is that these problems are simply seen as expediency in a long-term gambit for control and power.
However, time is running out. Their own prophecies say that they have one Pope left to go. This Pope will have a short reign by his own comments. Perhaps even that will be too long for some. Even so, there will be a great threat to the very existence of the Roman Catholic system. One reign will be short and the second reign will be cut short. Then, by their own words, Rome will be destroyed and the terrible judge will judge the people.
Even so, come Lord Jesus.
Wade Cox
Coordinator General
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