50 The Revelation of Jesus Christ history of that strange worship which has come down to us, embodied into the forms and ceremonies of the Roman Cath olic Church. We shall go into it more fully later on in these studies. Here, however, suffice it to say that Jezebel intro duced it into the worship of Jehovah, and the papacy has introduced it into Christianity in the form of virtual wor ship of the Virgin Mary. For hundreds of years, the papacy has been adding doctrines to the Word of God. Let me mention briefly some of these: The immaculate conception of Mary. They declare that Mary was born sinless. There is no scriptural ground for such a doctrine. When Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, pronounced a blessing upon Mary and upon the Son to be born of her, Mary said, "My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour" (Luke 1:47). Only the sinful need a Saviour, and Mary acknowledged her need. The doctrine of the ascension of Mary. They declare that she did not die, but that she ascended and was made Queen of the Heavens. The infallibility of the pope. This doctrine was added less than one hundred years ago, and therefore cannot be apostolic in authority. Add to these the unscriptural teach ing concerning purgatory, the priesthood, the mass, and such doctrines: and you begin to see why the Lord's con demnation rested upon Thyatira, the church which repre sented the whole system. You will recall how Jezebel persecuted the true prophets of God. (See I Kings 18: 1-21 :29.) In that also she was a true type of the system which reached out over Europe dur ing the period covered by the years between A. D. 500 and 1500, and persecuted Christians. God says, "I gave her space to repent ... and she repented not" (2: 21 ). Rome is the same today as she was five hundred years ago. She does not change. God gave her a chance to repent in the days of Luther. Luther did not start out with the idea of bringing about a Reformation. His purpose was to bring about a change within the church·. He saw, from his study of God's Word, just how the church had gone away from the truth of God. He went to Rome, intending to do all he could to awaken the leaders of the church, in an effort to bring the
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