(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

All right, we're here in Revelation chapter 17, and we're starting a new series on the Protestant Reformation. And so I was raised Protestant. I was raised as a United Methodist. And so look, I had the water springing on my head, just like most of you did in your Catholic churches. Okay. And I'll tell you what, when I grew up as a Protestant and I did not get saved in a Protestant church because they don't have the right gospel and I got raised as a Protestant And the belief in my head was this. Catholics are really weird. I mean, what a strange religion that is with a Pope and you confess your sins to a priest. What a bizarre call and weird religion that is. That's what I thought growing up. But what I did not realize growing up as a Protestant was that I was a Catholic, okay, because Protestants are Catholics. Now, there's not a whole lot of Protestants in the Philippines compared to other areas. You could also ask brother Mateus for everything I'm saying during the sermon series, because Germany is the country that's really loved Martin Luther and just brought in the Protestant religion. And there's a lot of Scandinavian countries that are pretty much all Protestant. They're ruled by Protestants, just like a lot of countries are ruled by Catholic churches. And it's been that way for a long time. Okay. Now, before we get into this series, turn to Daniel chapter seven, Daniel seven. And to understand when it comes to the Protestants, first, you have to understand where did the Protestants come from, okay? And they came from the Roman Catholic Church, okay? This is one of the two big split offs in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. The other big split off was in the 11th century, which is known as the Great Schism, which is a split off with the Catholic Church and the Orthodox. Worldwide there are over 250 million Orthodox people. Countries like Russia and Belarus and Romania and Ethiopia. They're pretty much all Orthodox, okay? And then there was a major split 500 years ago with the Protestant Reformation. What's interesting is if you talk to Baptists about the Orthodox religion, they will say the Orthodox is a false religion, preaching a work salvation, just like the Catholic Church, and they're no different than the Catholic Church. But then you talk to Baptists about the Protestants and they think the Protestants are good, that they were our friends. Now, wait a minute. They also came from the Catholic Church, and we're going to get into that during the sermon series, but I would highly recommend all of you watch the documentary that our church in Sacramento put together called Being Baptist, because this sermon series is really not about understanding who Protestants are. It's helping you understand your Baptist history, okay? And understanding the Protestant Reformation, and we're going to see the groups that were persecuted by both the Catholics and the Protestants. It's going to help you understand your Baptist history, and there will be a lot of Bible in this sermon series, okay? But Daniel chapter seven, notice what it says in verse seven. Daniel seven, verse seven, after this, I saw in the night visions and behold, a fourth beast, okay? This fourth beast is basically the Roman Empire is what it's talking about, okay? A fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth. It devoured and break in pieces and stamped the residue with the feet of it, and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. Notice how it says it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it. What's interesting in the book of Daniel is it's going to transition from the Roman Empire to basically the end times Babylon, okay? The end times empire. In the Bible, the Bible speaks about Babylon, and Babylon literally existed with Nebuchadnezzar reigning, but then also there's this spirit of Babylon, which is basically the empire that would rule the world, okay? In today's world, that's the United States of America, but there have been other empires that basically ruled the world, okay? And then at one time, that was Rome. That's the fourth beast that's being mentioned. We'll talk about that later on, okay? During the days of Jesus Christ, who rules the world? Rome. They own the world. I mean, it says he made, Augustus Caesar made a decree that all the world should be taxed. They had the power to tax the entire world, okay? So Rome owned the world, and it's talking about that in the fourth beast, but it says it's diverse from all the beasts that were before it. Notice what it says in verse eight. I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots. Remember on Wednesdays, we talk about the little horn is the antichrist, and the antichrist will have opposition from three horns. Throughout this chapter, it talks about that three kings are subdued. That's what the three horns are. And then it says, plucked up by the roots, and behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man and a mouth speaking great things. So we see a transition in Daniel seven, verses seven and eight, from the Roman Empire to the end times kingdom, where the antichrist is going to come, he's going to be that little horn. You say, why are you telling us that? We'll turn to Revelation 17, Revelation 17. See here's why this is important. When it comes to prophecy, a lot of things are not the simplest, okay? Some of these sayings are dark sayings. You've got to really study the Bible and cross reference and compare spiritual things with spiritual. But I want you to understand that in Revelation 17 and Revelation 18, which we will talk about in a few months on Wednesday nights, it's going to be talking about Babylon, okay? But what's important to understand is that in chapter 17, it's talking about the Roman Empire. In chapter 18, it's talking about end times Babylon, okay? I want you to understand the Bible speaks about this spirit of Babylon that would be in different areas, okay? We're going to prove Revelation 17 is about the Roman Empire. There's verses that prove that in the chapter, okay? Not just ones that you could tie to the Catholic church, but verses that would say that's what it's talking about, okay? But chapter 18 is talking about the end times Babylon, that end times empire, which I believe is going to be the United States of America, okay? I hate to break it to you, it's not going to be the Philippines probably, okay? But 17 I believe is referring, 17 is referring to Rome and in chapter 18 I believe is the United States of America, but if you're just reading those chapters, you'd be confused into thinking Babylon in 17 is Rome and then Babylon in 18 is the United States of America. Now understand when we talk about the spirit of Babylon, this sort of spirit can be applied to all of those kingdoms to a degree, okay? But it's important for us to understand with a Protestant reformation that the Protestants are mentioned in Revelation chapter 17. If we understand that Revelation 17 is referring to the Roman Empire and the Roman Catholic church that would come out of it, okay? Notice what it says in verse number one. You say, Brother Stuckey, why would you call a sermon Children of the Whore? I mean that's such a terrible thing to say. Well, notice what it says in verse one. And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither, I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters. I'll prove to you in this sermon today that the great whore is referring to the Roman Empire and the Catholic church, okay? And it's gonna talk about in verse five, notice what it says. And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. So the Bible mentions in verse one, it mentions this great whore, okay? That is the Bible word. So me saying the Children of the Whore, that's a Bible word. That's what the Bible says, okay? It says the great whore, which is referring to the Roman Empire, which we will prove in this sermon. And then it says in verse five, the mother of harlots. So this whore, as she's whoring around, she's created a lot of harlot children. And those harlot children are the Orthodox and the Protestants, my friend. That's what it's talking about in Revelation chapter 17 verse five, and we're gonna see this, okay? And so it says the great whore in verse one, verse five, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth, and that is referring to the Orthodox and the Protestants, okay? Ninety five percent of sermon series on the Protestant Reformation would just be praising the Protestant Reformation. We're not gonna praise the Protestant Reformation during this sermon series, okay? Because the Bible calls them harlots, okay? Those children, the Protestants, okay? Now look at verse number one, verse number one. And let me say this, that there have been many split offs from the Catholic Church, but there's been two big split offs. The first big one was the 11th century with the great schism, and then in the 16th century, the Protestants. Those are the two big split offs. Now there have been a lot of small split offs because the Catholic Church has always been corrupt and wicked, and people have seen that, and they've left, and they've formed these small little denominations, but there's been two major separations. The major difference between the Orthodox and the great schism and the Protestants are that the Protestants, they split off into their various different groups. See, it didn't say the mother of a harlot. It said the mother of harlots, okay? Because there's a lot of different children from the Roman Catholic Church, okay? Now I want you to understand point number one is this, the Catholic Church, they had control over the people of the world. The Catholic Church controlled the world. Verse one, and there came one of the seven angels, which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither, I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore, notice this, that sitteth upon many waters. This great whore that's being mentioned sits upon many waters. You say, what does that mean, sits upon many waters? Well, go down to verse 15. Verse 15, the Bible defines itself. Verse 15, And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the horse sitteth, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. And so the waters is basically talking about nations and locations and various languages. So basically, you think of various different countries. So the question is, has the Catholic Church controlled countries around the world throughout history? Absolutely. Now, we look at the Catholic Church today, and the Catholic Church is not as big as it used to be. They used to own and control countries. It used to be, if you became the king of Spain, it's only based on the approval of the Catholic Church. If you became the king of France or the king of England, you better get along with the Catholic Church, or the Catholic Church is going to start a war with you. And the pope was more powerful than the kings. Okay, and we're going to see that in chapter 17. But it's definitely true that the Catholic Church has sat upon many waters. There's no question about that. They've all they I mean, the Roman Empire owned the world and then the Catholic Church starting in the fourth century AD, they basically control the entire world and they control the countries of the world. So in chapter 17, it talks about this great whore. Is it true that the Catholic Church has sat upon many waters? Absolutely. There's no denying that. There's something known as the divine right of kings. Okay, this really came from the Catholic Church. And in simplistic terms, what the divine right of kings means is this, if you get declared as the president or the king of a country, anything you do is correct, because you've been chosen by God. Okay, here's a quote from St. Augustine of Hippo, and he's not a saint, but Augustine of Hippo, okay, in his work, the city of God. He stated his opinion that while the city of man, which is referencing basically like a kingdom or a country, the city of man and the city of God, which is referencing the Catholic Church, may stand at cross purposes, both of them have been instituted by God and served his ultimate will. Even though the city of man, the world of secular government may seem ungodly and be governed by sinners, it has been placed on earth for the protection of the city of God. Therefore, monarchs have been placed on their thrones for God's purpose, and to question their authority is to question God, okay? What it's basically saying is this, God chose the kings and the presidents and the rulers, so anything they say is basically straight from the mouth of God. You're questioning God if you question them. Now here's the thing, there is a shred of truth to what he's saying, because the Bible tells us we should obey governments. Think about in the story of Daniel where they were told to bow down and worship an idol. What if this country one day said you must worship an idol? What should we do as Christians? We should deny that. You say, but it came from the government, and the government's been chosen by God. Yeah, you know what? The government makes mistakes. The government can be wrong. Now we should try to get along with our government the best we can. I mean if the government tells us to do something, we should obey it as long as it doesn't go against what the Bible says. But look, if the government asks you to do something wicked like worship an idol, then you break that commandment like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. See if the government oversteps their authority, then you know what? You have the word of God to go on, okay? Now look, I saw just yesterday, we had a sign up that said in De La Paz that if you are walking without a face mask in public, you can have a major fine in two months in jail, okay? Right now, it is against the law, at least in De La Paz, to walk without a face mask. You say, Brother Stuckey, what's your opinion? My opinion is put a face mask on. My opinion is don't get arrested for something like that. It would be a dumb battlefield to die in. Whether you agree with it or not, I'm giving you advice. You know what? The Bible says that yes, the government has been put as an authority, and look, the government telling you to wear a face mask is not telling you to commit a sin, okay? So even if you don't agree with it, I would strongly suggest you just put on a face mask. That's what I do when I go out in public, okay? That's what the government says, and look, that's not telling you to worship an idol, okay? But I want you to understand something. The Catholic Church really kind of came up with the divine right of kings because what the Catholic Church has been able to do throughout history is they basically start wars via telling a king what to do. See, the Catholic Church will say, we haven't killed 50 million people, and in a way they're kind of right, but they've basically given orders to the kings of Spain and France and England and say, hey, we want you to go to war, and guess what you're going to do if you're a king back then? You're going to listen to the Catholic Church. Why? Because the Catholic Church sat upon many waters. They controlled the nations of the world. The king wasn't in control of those countries throughout history. By and large throughout history in Europe, it was the pope that controlled those countries, not the king, okay? Now look at verse number, let me see, I can't tell what verse this is where I stapled it. It says, I'll just read it to you, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication. I think that's verse, is that verse two, Revelation 17 verse two? With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. Notice how it says the kings of the earth have committed fornication with this great whore? You say, well, how does that apply? Well, great example, and I don't want to go too much in detail because we'll talk about it in a few weeks, is with King Henry VIII. Now if you were to look at the most famous kings in history, wouldn't King Henry VIII be like right near the top of the list? I mean, everybody knows King Henry VIII. I mean, he married a bunch of women, he divorced a bunch, he had them killed, everybody knows that story, right? He was very heavy as he got older and everything like that. People know King Henry VIII, most famous king in the history of England, okay? But did you know that when he was part of the Catholic Church, before he started the Church of England, he basically wrote a book defending the pope, attacking Martin Luther, okay? A Defense of the Seven Sacraments was the name of that book translated into English. A Defense of the Seven Sacraments. And King Henry VIII was a big advocate of the Catholic Church. In fact, he got an award from the pope for being such a good Catholic before he turned on the Catholic Church and started his own religion, which we'll talk about in a few weeks, okay? But that is what kings did throughout history. They basically took the back of the Catholic Church and defended the Catholic Church and they basically told their country to become Catholics and they forced them to, okay? Why? Because they like having that power and the kings of the earth committed fornication with this great whore. Why? Because they gave them power. Isn't it true in today's world that politicians will basically do a lot of wicked things in order to be a high level politician? I mean, it's like that in any country. Look, when people donate to your campaign to run for office, they're not donating you money because they really like you. They're donating money because we scratch your back, you better scratch ours and obey what we say once you get elected. That's the reality, okay? I'm sure it's like this in any country, okay? And so I want you to understand that's not really that surprising that the kings of the earth would commit fornication over this Roman Empire that ruled everything in order to become the king and have power and not to go to war with the Catholic Church. Verse number three. So the first question we have to ask when we're talking about Revelation 17, does it make sense that the Catholic Church sat upon many waters? Does that fit with the Catholic Church? Absolutely it fits with the Catholic Church. And if this is the Catholic Church, then that phrase mother of harlots means a lot with the Protestant Reformation. Because think about this, the Catholic Church has sat upon many waters. But is it not true that the Protestants have sat upon many waters as well? Did you know that Protestants rule various countries? And we're going to see during this series that they basically took some political power. And if you didn't do what they said, if you baptized, were baptized as an adult, they would drown you, they would kill you. Why? Because the Protestants gained power as well in various countries. Throughout Scandinavia, like every country I believe is Lutheran. It's like 90% Lutheran in those countries. Why? Because they developed power and sat upon their waters as well coming from the Roman Catholic Church. Point number two, the colors of royalty and evil. Now notice on the front of your bulletin, notice this picture. This picture really brings to light these verses in the book of Revelation chapter 17. Notice how you have the purple and the scarlet and the gold. This is right from the Catholic Church, okay? Well notice what the Bible says in Revelation 17 verse three. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. Look, you can watch videos on YouTube where they have these big Catholic assemblies and you'll see purple and scarlet and gold. I've seen the Pope decked out with these bright red shoes, okay? I mean, the colors mentioned in Revelation 17, they fit with the Roman Catholic Church. Here's what's funny. Did you know they fit with the Protestant churches as well? I didn't ask Brother Matthias this, but the church I grew up in, they had a nice long purple robe that they wore when they basically preached the sermons, when the minister preached the sermons. I mean, they were decked out with those colors as well. You say, why? Because they came from their mom, the great whore, the Roman Catholic Church. And guess what? They kept a lot of the attributes, most of the attributes of the Roman Catholic Church. It said purple in verse four, it said scarlet, it said gold and precious stones. When it comes to the Catholic Church, cardinals, they wear red, okay? Cardinals wear the color red. You see that in the picture. Now the reason why they wear the color red is to say that they're willing to die as a martyr for the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why they say they wear the color red, okay? But quite honestly, you know, they're just fitting with what the Bible said. The Bible said red, and that's what they were. This is a color of royalty, okay? That's the reason why they wear it. I mean, if they're wearing it to represent blood, they're wearing it to represent that they're going to kill a lot of Christians, okay? Not because they're willing to die as a martyr, okay? And so cardinals wear the color red. Archbishops wear purple and red is what I saw in pictures. bishops, they used to wear green until the 16th century, but now they wear purple, okay? Bishops wear purple. And the Pope will usually wear white and will have sometimes gold necklaces, red shoes. And when he's wearing color, it's always these bright, flashy colors, okay? You say, why? Well, you have to realize in the Bible that purple was not a color that was accessible to everyone like it is today. In today's world, I mean, our chairs aren't really purple, but they're like maroon kind of scarlet-ish or something like that. You wouldn't necessarily have access to all these colors in the past. In the Bible, it talks about Lydia being a seller of purple. She made her money by selling things with purple, okay? Now in today's world, you're not going to make any money by selling clothing with purple, okay? Because clothing is very cheap to make. We have all the colors, all the fabrics and things like that, but she was a seller of purple. So they wore colors like scarlet and gold and purple because they're flaunting off all the money they have, okay? That fits with the Roman Catholic Church. You can look at videos on YouTube, look at pictures on Google, or the picture right here really kind of sums it up best with the colors of the Catholic Church. Does it fit these colors, the colors of royalty and evil, does that fit with the Catholic Church? Absolutely, it fits with the Roman Catholic Church. So we see that the Catholic Church sat upon many waters. That really fits well with the Catholic Church. We see the colors of evil and royalty. That fits with the Roman Catholic Church from chapter 17. Let's talk about this point number three. Let's talk about blasphemous names. Because what it says in Revelation 17 verse 3, so he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast full of names of blasphemy having seven heads and ten horns. I mean does it fit with the Catholic Church the names of blasphemy? I mean I think it fits pretty well. Go to Matthew 23, we're going to see this, Matthew 23. You say why, why would it be talking about in chapter 17 the Roman Empire and as a result of the Roman Empire, the Roman Catholic Church? Because the Roman Empire ruled the world during the day of John. So it's helping him understand this concept of Babylon and it would make sense to him because the Roman Empire would basically force you to do what they wanted and they were really starting to persecute the Christians. It's said that John was exiled due to the persecution from the Roman Empire which is probably true. I believe Diocletian might have been the name, I'd have to double check that. Basically he fled due to persecution. He would understand this empire that would be wicked and full of money and would murder believers. So it makes sense chapter 17 is referring to Rome and the Roman Catholic Church and then that's going to help him understand this end times Babylon which is a different empire but it's the same sort of spirit, same sort of style. Names of blasphemy, notice what it says in Matthew 23 verse 9. And call no man your father upon the earth for one is your father which is in heaven. Call no man your father upon the earth it says in Matthew 23 verse 9. Now look, obviously my son Zephaniah can call me dad, he can call me father. There's nothing wrong with that because I am his father physically. In Matthew 23 we're obviously talking about spiritually. It says you have one father up above and it says call no man your father but is it not true with the Roman Catholic Church that you call the priests holy father? Isn't that true? And look, I didn't grow up Catholic and the Protestants, they did not call the ministers or reverends as we'll talk about that later on, they did not call them father. They would just call them reverend which is also blasphemous. But they at least didn't call them father. We've had people that have visited this church. I remember this kid came to church, he had gotten saved and baptized and it's great. New people that are unfamiliar with what a Baptist is and all these doctrines. And look, in case you're not aware, I'm not the pastor of this church. One day Lord willing I will be the pastor but Pastor Roger Jimenez is still the ultimate authority of this church and one day as my kids are a little bit older then I will be Lord willing ordained as the pastor of this church by Pastor Jimenez and then I will be the pastor. So right now I'm kind of running it as the evangelist and I was ordained in Sacramento but I'm not the pastor yet because I don't quite meet the qualification the Bible says. But I want you to understand something that a good way to call me would not be pastor but call me Brother Stuckey. That's the best thing to call me, Brother Stuckey. Well we've had people come into this church though and they've come from the Catholic Church and they've come in and said Father Matt or Father Stuckey. And look, when people call me Pastor Stuckey, I don't stop them and just say no, no, no, don't call me that because you know honestly people come from backgrounds of Baptist churches and they call the spiritual leaders pastor and they're trying to be nice and they're being very respectful. And so if someone's trying to be nice and respectful I don't want to stop them. But you're not going to call me Father here. Okay there's a limit to things I'm going to let you call. If you call me Pastor Stuckey I won't stop you every time and just you know because from time to time I mention it behind the pulpit. But look when somebody calls me Father it's like wait a minute. It's like that because that's a blasphemous title. Okay. And I'm not a pastor but at least that's not like blasphemous. But to call me Father that would be blasphemous. Okay. And so what does the Bible say? Call no man your father. But is it not true with the Catholic Church that you say Holy Father. Okay. Use the blasphemous title of saying Father. Okay. To your priest. Turn to Matthew one. Matthew one. Matthew chapter one. Matthew absolutely blasphemous titles that fits with the Roman Catholic Church but that's not the only blasphemous title. Blasphemous names plural. There's a lot of blasphemous names with the Catholic Church. And another one would be this the mother of God. Isn't that what the Catholic Church calls Mary the mother of God. I mean correct me if I'm wrong but in the beginning was the word didn't we see on Wednesday that Jesus Christ was here at the very beginning. I mean did Mary give birth to God before the beginning of the world. I mean that's ridiculous. Okay. Jesus was already here. She gave birth to the physical nature of who Jesus Christ took on when he was here. Okay. But she didn't give birth to God. God was here at the beginning. It says in Matthew one verse twenty three behold a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son and they shall call his name Immanuel which being interpreted is God with us. The Catholics will turn to this verse and they'll say well see she gave birth to God so she's the mother of God. She gave birth to the body of Jesus Christ and the vessel that was used when he was here. But look Jesus Christ was here before Mary. In the beginning was the word so to say the mother of God that's blasphemous. That's not the only blasphemous name though with Mary. Mary is called the mediatrix. Okay. The Bible says there is one for there is one God and one mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus. One mediator. Mediator is a male term. One mediator. And Catholics will say well yes she's not the mediator. She's the mediatrix. Okay. The feminine. No the Bible is very clear Jesus is the only mediator between God and men. The only one we go to is through Jesus Christ. That's what we say in the name of Jesus when we say our prayers at the end. In Jesus name. Okay. You don't have to go to a priest. You don't have to go to Mary. You don't have to go to a mediator. Okay. But calling her the mediatrix it's a blasphemous title. They also call Mary the means or the cause of your salvation. Look is Mary the cause of our salvation. It's like did Mary die on the cross for our sins. And look some Catholics go really extreme and they say it's like a 50 50 thing between Mary and Jesus. And the Orthodox as well they worship Mary as a God. Okay. Great is Diana of the Ephesians. Okay. Or you know whatever just in our modern day same sort of thing. And look I want you to realize it's blasphemous to say that Mary's the means of our salvation. She's not the means of her salvation because there is one name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. The man Christ Jesus. Okay. Only Jesus Christ according to Acts chapter 4 verse 12. So look it makes sense with the Catholic Church blasphemous names. That fits with the Catholic Church in Revelation 17 doesn't it. Turn to Psalms 111 Psalms 111. But here's the thing as goes the mama so goes the child because those blasphemous names get passed on to the Protestants as well. See when I grew up we called the person who ran the church Reverend. That is a blasphemous title. Now I'm shocked because there's Baptists here in the Philippines that call their leaders Reverend and I'm like what in the world because I thought that was only with the Protestants. Okay but apparently they're passing that off to the Baptist. But look Reverend is a blasphemous title you say prove it to me Psalms 111. This is your only example in verse 9 of the word Reverend in the Bible. He sent redemption onto his people. He had commanded his covenant forever. Holy and Reverend is his name. That's not referring to a pastor that's referring to God Almighty. Why Reverend means worthy of being revered. Okay and only God alone is worthy of being revered like that. That's the only one mentioned where it says holy and Reverend is his name referring to the name of God. Holy and Reverend is his name not my name not your name not a pastor's name but only God Almighty. And yet the Protestants use the blasphemous title by calling their spiritual leaders often times Reverend. That's what we said in the United Methodist Church growing up where I'm from. We call them reverend. Okay turn back to Revelation actually look at verse 10. Verse 10 notice what it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom a good understanding have all they that do his commandments his praise endureth forever. It mentions in verse 9 about holy and reverend is the name of God and I guess my question is when it talks about in verse 10 the fear of the Lord do these spiritual leaders have any fear of God whatsoever that they would be willing to take on the title of reverend when that's given alone to God. It says the fear of the Lord in the next verse and apparently these spiritual leaders that call themselves father and reverend they have no fear of God whatsoever or they just are ignorant of what the Bible says. Turn to Revelation 17 Revelation 17. So point number one Revelation 17 talks about an empire talks about something that sits upon many waters controls countries and nations around the world. Does that fit with the Roman Catholic Church in history. Absolutely it talks about basically colors of you know royalty and evil scarlet gold red. Does that fit with the Catholic Church. Absolutely you say the Catholic Church wasn't around when this was written. No it wasn't but the Catholic Church as we've talked about is a continuation of the Roman Empire and I'm sure with the Roman Empire the same colors were used because the Catholic Church was not some new religion they just took the Roman false gods and said this is Christian. OK. It continued everything and I'm sure the long robes and the colors of scarlet and gold and red they were just from the Roman Empire. OK. And so we saw the colors and we also saw the names of blasphemy that certainly fits with the Catholic Church. Well verse number six we're going to see that this great whore murdered lots of believers. Verse six and I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her I wondered with great admiration what it says in Revelation 17 that this great whore has basically killed a lot of saints or believers. She's martyred a lot of believers. Has the Roman Catholic Church throughout history murder a lot of believers. Absolutely I mean they're responsible for more than 50 million deaths and whether it's directly that they had the Spanish Inquisition and they had all these torture techniques or they used a country to start a war and things like that they're responsible for persecuting and killing lots of believers. OK. Look it's really impossible to know how many people the Catholic Church killed because if you questioned anything about the Catholic Church throughout history they would kill you. If you got baptized as an adult they would kill you. If you had a Bible in your house they would kill you. OK. You say but didn't that all change with the Protestant religion. No it didn't because when the Protestants took power if you baptized someone as an adult you were murdered in those areas. You say why. They didn't believe in adult baptism. They believe in infant baptism. How would they believe in infant baptism. Well they learned that from their mom the Catholic Church because that's not something you learn from the Bible. I mean show me anything that would hint at infant baptism in the Bible. The only way they got that is from the Catholic Church. Now the Catholic Church started that because they wanted money. And so they said well you've got original sin. If your baby doesn't get baptized your baby could go to hell. Just pay us you know 20 bucks and we'll baptize your baby. OK. Look the Catholic priests make a lot of money through baptisms and doing ceremonies like that. That's how they make. They don't have a high salary. I mean it's technically low but they get all these money by doing you know infant baptisms and things like that. These big events. That's how they make a lot of their money. OK. And so look that came from the Catholic Church. And so I want you to realize what the Protestants did and we'll see this is that when they murdered people that got baptized as adults they did it by drowning usually. You say why by drowning. Because they said if you're going to get baptized in water you're going to get immersed in water we'll just immerse you all the way and kill you. Does that sound like a pretty I mean that's the religion that a lot of Baptists like lean on like the Protestant look I'm not a Protestant. I was a Protestant before I'm saved and I would have gone to hell and then I got saved by an independent fundamental Baptist who gave me the gospel and I've been a Baptist ever since then. You say why because the Baptists are the ones with the right gospel not the Protestants. This doesn't mean every single Baptist church but let me tell you something the Protestants teach a work salvation that you can lose your salvation. They teach things like you've got to baptize babies as infants. Where is that in the Bible. They learn that from the Catholic Church and look the Catholic Church is responsible for the blood of saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. But look the Protestants are as well. I'd recommend to everybody and I'm planning to as well to go back and watch being Baptist again because you know it talked about that in there. It did talk about the Protestants murdering believers and look we would have been murdered by the Protestants if we lived during that time period in the areas where the Protestants had the political power. That's the truth. So look when it comes to basically the bloodshed murdering believers does that fit with the Roman Catholic Church. It absolutely fits with the Roman Catholic Church. Revelation 17 verse 7 Revelation 17 verse 7. Look I know it's a rough title to call this children of the whore but you can't really give this a good title. You know what I mean. I mean it talks about murdering believers that use the terms harlots and whores. This is what the Bible says. And when the Bible uses terminology like that what it's trying to tell you is how bad or how evil this is. Look the Catholic Church is evil my friend but they spawned a lot of evil and wicked religions as well. Verse 7 and it says and the angel said unto me wherefore didst thou marvel. I will tell thee the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carryeth her which hath the seven heads and ten horns. The beast that thou sawest was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition and they that dwell upon the earth on the earth shall wonder whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world when they behold the beast that was and is not and yet is. And notice what it says in verse 9 and here is the mind which hath wisdom the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. Notice how it says the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. Did you know that Rome is called the city set on seven hills. That is how it's known by the secular world. You could type in Rome city on seven hills and you're going to find a million Google results. Why? Rome is the city set on seven hills and as I'm telling you it does transition to end times Babylon. That's where it can get confusing when you're looking at some of these verses but I want you to understand the kingdom that was in the day of John was the Roman Empire centered at Rome. And look it says the seven heads are seven mountains and Rome is the city set on seven hills. You learn that in history class growing up. Now we don't remember because history is pretty boring when you learn it in school but that is what Rome is known as the city set on seven hills. Does that fit with the Roman Catholic Church? I mean set on seven mountains and Rome is known as the city set on seven hills. It definitely fits with the Roman Catholic Church in the Roman Empire. Now go to verse number 10 verse 10 and I want to show you the transition that takes place from Rome to Babylon because this transition is mentioned in verse number 10 and this can be a bit confusing. It says in verse 10 and there are seven kings five are fallen and one is and the other is not yet come and when he cometh he must continue a short space. So it mentions seven kings and five are fallen meaning five are already dead. One of them is present tense and one is not yet come. Now if you remember in the book of Daniel the vision that Nebuchadnezzar saw was basically Babylon or the Chaldean Empire centered at Babylon and then the Persian Empire would take over for Babylon and I'm just giving you a rough overview because I understand it was a dual monarchy. But it was Babylon, then it was Persia or the Medes and Persians, Babylon, the Medes and Persians, then it was Greece with Alexander the Great, then it was Rome. You see those four different ones mentioned and there's a transition from Rome we saw in the book of Daniel to the end times Babylon but there were two other big empires that existed before Babylon. Now all of this can be found in the Word of God you don't have to go to a history book. One of the big empires is clearly Egypt. Egypt's mentioned spiritually in the end times like it mentions Egypt in the book of Revelation but Egypt was the big empire in the book of Genesis right? Isn't that where they came out of and Joseph became a part of Egypt? Egypt was the big empire. Now the second big empire has been kind of forgotten in secular history because God kind of said they're going to be forgotten and that is Assyria. The book of Jonah is referencing Nineveh which was the capital of the Assyrian Empire. Now the book of Jonah is more about the life of Jonah. The book of Nahum is the destruction of Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire but if you remember in the Bible in the Old Testament Assyria was the empire that was always mocking God's people. They were the most evil one and the reason why they had that arrogance and confidence is because they ruled the world. They were even talking smack to Egypt in the Old Testament. They were more powerful than Egypt because Egypt was there and Assyria takes over. Now it's kind of funny because even if you look at what remains of the Assyrian Empire, I had a friend of mine, he's visited this church, brother Matt, he's back in the US now, he's in Hong Kong but he talked about, I can't remember what museum he went to but he said the art depicted exactly what I had preached about because the art depicts Assyria basically torturing their enemies and killing them. Not just that they won a battle but actually torturing their enemies because the Assyrian God was a god of war so they took glory in the fact that they were more powerful than other people. So the first big empire in the Bible is Egypt, the second big empire is Assyria, then you have Babylon which is number three, then you have Persia or the Medes and Persians, that's number four. Number five is Rome or Greece, not Rome. Remember it said five are fallen? See there are five major empires before Rome, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, and Greece. Five are fallen and one is. So when Revelation 17 is talking about the present tense, who's it referring to? It's referring to Rome. It's referring to the Roman Empire. One is not yet come, why? Because the United States of America was so part of Great Britain, right, or whatever. This is long before and I could be wrong about the U.S. but that's what we believe that the U.S. will be that end times empire probably. And then basically out of that the Antichrist will come and then rule the world. But look the first five were Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, and Greece and then Rome comes and Rome is the one where it says five are fallen and one is. So when it's talking about Revelation 17 this is the current Babylon that John can understand because he's been persecuted and gone to the Isle of Patmos due to the persecution. One is and the other is not yet come. And when he cometh he must continue a short space. Now I believe it says a short space because Rome ruled the world for a very long time didn't they? I mean at the beginning when Jesus was alive Rome controlled. They had taken power from Greece and look Rome was in power for a very long time weren't they? Well over a thousand years. I mean they basically were sitting upon many waters for a very long time. Look the end times empire whether that's the U.S. or not they're not going to continue for thousands of years. They're going to continue a short space and then it's going to lead to another one. Now let me say this I believe in what it's referring to is the United States with that end times Babylon which we'll talk about in Revelation 18. But I will say this there have been other empires since Rome that people thought might be the end time Babylon. A lot of people thought Great Britain because Great Britain was very powerful and they tried to use a lot of symbolism to say that. I believe it's going to be the U.S. I don't believe some other country will rise in power and there's many reasons for that but I want you to realize the one that is is without question Rome according to the Bible. And then the other is not yet come and when he cometh he must continue a short space. And the beast that was and is not this is referring to the Antichrist who's going to die he was and is not he dies he gets brought back to life even he is the eighth. OK so we had the first five then we have Rome then the U.S. and then the Antichrist is going to rule that end times Babylon and is of the seven and goeth into perdition. Notice how it is of the seven you say why because this spirit of Babylon has existed in all of these areas. Look a lot of the verses we're looking at in Revelation 17 although this is referring to the Roman Empire I'm sure you could probably apply most of this stuff to all of those empires because they're going to run things in the same way because that's not God controlling those areas. It's the devil that's controlling that he's the god of this world. OK. So I'm sure a lot of those verses would tie together with a lot of the empires but in Revelation 17 we are looking at Rome. OK. So does it make sense so far. Absolutely. Point number five we just saw was it's a city set on seven hills. Obviously it fits with Rome but notice also what it said. It said it was the mother of abominations of the earth. OK. I think that was back in verse number two but it said abominations of the earth. OK. And so when you think about this the mother of harlots which is referencing the orthodox religion and the Protestant religions but then it's also the mother of abominations of the earth you say what is that referring to. But look when Martin Luther was a Catholic priest he was a very zealous Catholic priest. He was very worried he was going to die and go to hell. So he would do crazy things like sleep outside in the snow till he was almost dead and harm his body and they drag him back in almost dead. And so Martin Luther was a hardcore Catholic. And so guess what Martin Luther did. He made his trip to Mecca so to speak. OK. He went to the holy city Rome because Rome was his city. Right. He lived in the Roman Catholic Church and he went to this Babylon in Rome. And when he went to Rome what he found out it was the most wicked and sinful area he had ever seen in his life. I mean there was gambling. There was prostitution with the priests with the clergy. One thing he had expressed to the pope was he wanted to limit how many little boys as sex slaves that the priests could have. And the pope said no there is no limit. OK. This is not. I mean this is history. Martin Luther said that but you know here's the thing. The priests throughout history the priests today are a bunch of pedophiles. Is that not right. It was no different 500 years ago. You say isn't that just a modern day thing. No it's been around since the fourth century A.D. Actually before the fourth century A.D. before the Catholic Church the Roman Empire was famous for having boys as sex slaves. This has always existed in the Catholic Church. And Martin Luther was shocked. I mean he goes to Rome and he figures this is going to be the most holy place in the world. Everyone's going to be reading the Bible and praying and loving God. And all these other priests have a bunch of little boys as sex slaves and they're blaspheming God and there's gambling and prostitution and all these things were helping fund the Catholic Church. The gambling helped fund the things the Catholic Church wanted. That is what really caused Martin Luther to say maybe I'm in the wrong religion. Unfortunately he didn't find the truth because he never heard the gospel and got saved. He was a Catholic priest though. But guess what he found out when he went to Rome. This is the mother of abominations of the earth. He said this is like the most sinful place on the planet. I've watched Catholic apologetics on YouTube where they answer various questions and these high level Catholics that will basically do the debates and things like that. They talk about how Rome was like the sickest most perverted place on the planet. They admit that. They don't even deny that. I mean you can go to the Catholic Answers is the YouTube channel and they make jokes about it how Martin Luther went and he's like yeah I'm in Rome. It's a pretty bad place. Well that's the center of your religion. It's like I think there's a problem there but the Bible says the mother of abominations of the earth. So the mother of filthiness and wickedness. It came from the Roman Catholic Church. It certainly fits with the Catholic Church. Go to verse five. Verse five. I mean even if you look at the areas that are heavily Catholic what you're going to find is those areas have more pedophilia cases more children molested. The more hardcore Catholic they are the worse it is. I mean what what area of the Philippines has the most cases of pedophilia trials. OK. And this was a book that that President Duterte recommended. I read the book in Altar of Secrets that area of the Philippines is San Fernando. Wouldn't you say San Fernando is the most religiously. I mean my wife used to live in San Fernando when she was a child. She didn't crucify herself but she used to live in San Fernando. Isn't that the most religiously Catholic area. I know it's like a competition between these Catholic areas but San Fernando is probably number one. And guess what. It's also the area with the highest percentage of pedophilia cases like a large percentage of the priests. OK. You can read that. I think it's called an Altar of Secrets is a book President Duterte recommended. You can check it out if you want it was an interesting book. So lastly let's look at this Revelation 17 verse 5 where it said this and upon her head was a name written Mystery Babylon the Great the mother of harlot. See point number seven is the mother of harlots because we're describing the Roman Catholic Church. I believe this is this is for sure talk about Rome and it calls her a great whore. So does it fit with the Roman Empire that she's also not just a whore but she's the mother of harlots. Now isn't a harlot pretty similar to a whore. What it's saying is the children of the Catholic Church are very very similar to their mom. OK. Now we looked at a lot of points that fit with the Protestants wearing the colors like the ministers or reverends the blasphemous title wearing purple robes like I saw every week growing up. I used to ask my parents why does he have a purple robe on as I thought it was weird. And it's like that they and look we have an elevated platform and the purpose of this is so when you talk to people they can you can talk to more people easier you're not just eye level. But look in the Protestant religion they have like a 50 foot tall platform. They're like up in the air and you're like looking at the inside. What in the world. I mean it's bizarre. It's like they're a king or something. They got this purple robe. They're sitting in their throne with their crown. You know it's like the names of blasphemy the colors the you know all these things doing infant baptism. That is just like their mom the Catholic Church. And so does it fit that she's the mother of harlots. Well the Catholic Church started the Orthodox which will praise that I'm sure sometime not part of the series but also in the 16th century what was started was the Protestant Reformation and one of the great lies within Christianity is that the Protestants were good. A lot of people think that. Well say the Orthodox were bad but when they talk about the Protestants well the Protestants had the right gospel. No they didn't. They were just like the Catholic Church. Why the Bible mentions them as harlots. OK. And look when you look at the major Protestant denominations you look at the Lutherans and guess what. They taught work salvation. We'll talk about the Lutherans here in a couple of weeks. You look at the Church of England King Henry VIII the religion he started and what came from that the Puritans the Church of England Anglican or Episcopalian. They taught work salvation. You look at basically the John Calvin branch the Presbyterians teaching work salvation. The United Methodists which I grew up in they came from the Anglican religion which was the American version of the Church of England. OK. And guess what. They taught work salvation. They all teach baptism as babies. All of these things that are false that are not biblical. So does the mother of harlots fit. It certainly does. The Orthodox religion has 250 million people worldwide over 250 million people. One out of 30 people in the world basically is Orthodox. OK. That's obviously you know pretty big religion 250 million people. The Lutheran Church has 80 million followers worldwide. One percent of people are Lutheran in this world. The Methodists have 80 million worldwide. One percent. The Presbyterians have 75 percent. One percent. The Anglicans or the Church of England or Episcopalian they have 85 million which is about one percent. When you add it up about 10 percent of the world's population are Protestant. One out of 10 people. And look this includes religions like Hinduism and Islam and atheists and the other Christians. Ten percent are basically Protestant. OK. And so look that's and they say it's and what they define as Protestant is different than what I would define because they would define us as Protestant. But that's part of this sermon series. OK. I'm trying to help drive home to you that we're Baptists. And I recommend you watch Being Baptist because we did not come from the Protestants. We did not come from the Catholic Church because the Protestants came from the Catholic Church. And if we say we came from the Protestants what are we saying. We're saying you go back far enough the Catholic Church are our brethren. Look the popes have never been our brethren. They've always taught work salvation. It's always been a false religion. We did not come from that. So look we reject the term Protestant around here. As Baptists we're not Protestants. We did not fall under that umbrella of the Catholic Church. And so look just to give you an overview of basically what we're going to talk about in this series and look we're going to go through the history of this. There's going to be a lot of history in this and we're going to see what these various branches believe. Next week we're going to basically talk about some kind of foundational principles of the Protestant Reformation. The next week we're going to talk about the Martin Luther branch which will include Ulrich's Wingly and the Lutherans. Then we're going to talk about the Church of England and King Henry VIII and the Puritans come out of that and the Methodists come out of that. And then we're going to talk about the Presbyterians, John Calvin and basically the Calvinism that came out of there. But then we're going to look at the Anabaptists will be the next sermon. The Anabaptists as we know from the documentary Being Baptist those are our brethren and from 500 years ago and let me tell you something they were murdered and tortured by both the Catholics and the Protestants. So look we're going to look at a lot of Bible in this series but I think it's important for us to understand where we came from. And I recommend you watch that documentary Being Baptist and we're going to go in depth but I want you to understand there's Bible to back up everything I'm saying. And the Protestants were not Protestants were Baptist. Dear Heavenly Father thank you for allowing us to be here today and helping us to see what you have to say here in Revelation 17 about the Catholic Church and also the Protestants as well God and help us to understand our brethren from the faith God from a long time ago people that were murdered and crucified and tortured not just by the Catholics but by the Protestants as well and look I know because I grew up Protestant and every single week we said we believe in the Holy Catholic Church and we had infant baptism and all these false things that the Bible speaks against and you know vain repetitions in the whole nine yards God and and also other people at our church grew up Protestant as well and help us understand that we are Baptist. We have always been different from the Protestants. We did not come out of the Protestants or the Catholic Church and we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.