-19
The Revelation of Jesus Christ mother. We can go directly into His presence, and address Him as our Lord. But even to Thyatira, which means "continual sacrifice," and represents the papacy with all her corruption, especially, in this connection, with the "continual sacrifice" of the mass, the Lord commended that which deserved His approval: "I know thy works," He said, "and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first." Before the Reformation period, the only hospitals were the monasteries, and those who looked after the sick were the monks and nuns. Many of those faithful servants of the Lord gave their lives for their fellow man. The early schools and libraries were connected with these religious houses. So we find our Lord, before He be gins to point out the shortcomings and serious faults of Thya tira, commending her works. But again those "eyes like unto a flame of fire" see the faults which existed side by side with the good points; and the Lord proceeds to set before the church the errors into which they had fallen. First of all, He says: "Thou suf ferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols." No person in all history so aptly represents the papacy as Jezebel. You will remember that she was a heathen, mar ried to Ahab, the king of Israel. She perverted and corrupted the religion of Jehovah, introducing into Israel the religion of Baal, that religion which began with Babel, introducing the mysteries of Babel into the worship of Jehovah. There fore, Jezebel is an excellent type of the Romish system with her spiritual fornication and idolatry. We have not time now to go into the mystery religion which Jezebel introduced into the worship of Jehovah, except to say that it began with Nimrod, whose main business seemed to be to turn the people aside from the worship of God. The mystery religion which he started spread over the world into Italy, Greece, and Egypt. One of the principal doctrines of that religion was introduced by the wife of Nimrod, teaching that her son, whose name was Tammuz, was without a human father. She became known as the Queen of the Heavens, and was worshipped. If we had time, we could go further into the
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker