Since you have made the comment "there are saved people in the 
Protestant Churches, and saved people in the Catholic Churches", I know 
the subject of truth is on your mind. Please consider this matter as you 
enjoy reading this article: 

        Have you ever heard someone say, "Well, I should go to church, but
there are so many different kinds which teach so many different beliefs
that I would have no idea which one to attend"? Why are there so many
different "Christian" churches?!

        Do you know that it was prophesied in the Bible that there would
come a time when there would be many different churches which would go
under the banner of Christianity? Not only that, the Bible reveals in
this prophecy the distinguishing teaching of the true church. The
prophecy which explains all this is unveiled in the following study.

        Revelation 17:1-3. "And there came one of the seven angels which
had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, come hither: I
will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon
many waters: 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. 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."

        The importance of this study in every individual's life is shown
in the very first verse. The angel said, "I will shew unto thee the
judgment of the great whore." Here God has pronounced judgment upon
someone or something. The question immediately arises, "Am I going to be
included in this judgment?" If we don't know who or what is destined to
be judged, then we cannot act to dissociate ourselves from that which is
to be judged.

        The first and foremost question we must ask is, "Who is this
woman?" As we search for the answer to this question, we will find that
every symbol which surrounds this woman is interpreted in plain language
in this very same chapter.

WHO IS THE WOMAN?

        Rev. 17:18 states very plainly, "And the woman which thou sawest
is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth." So the
first thing we discover is that the woman represents a city. There is a
city somewhere on earth right now that God has pronounced judgment upon.
We need to discover what city this is. If we live in that city, we need
to move out so that God's judgments will not fall upon us also. Rev.
18:4 speaking of the same city says, "Come out of her, my people, that
ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her
plagues."

        The next clue in Rev. 17:9 tells what these seven heads symbolize.
"And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven
mountains, on which the woman sitteth." (Or on which the city sitteth.)

        We now know two things: the woman is a city, and this city is
located upon seven mountains or hills. There is only one city in the
world today that is known as the city of seven hills. If you will look
in many encyclopedias under Rome, you will see ROME, THE CITY OF SEVEN
HILLS. If Rome is this city, then the rest of the clues in this chapter
should fit her too.

        Again in Rev. 17:18 - "And the woman which thou sawest is that
great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth-" Does
Washington, D-C- reign over the kings of the earth? Does Moscow? Does
New York? London? Paris? The answer of course is definitely not! We can
prove, however, that Rome does reign over the kings of the earth. 

In 1951 the Roman Catholic Church made a law that the Catholic Church had
the right to guide the political thinking of any and all of its members.
That states very plainly that if a pope should choose to issue an order
to a head of state who is Catholic, that he is bound by the laws of
Roman Catholicism to obey. Do you realize that many heads of state today
are Roman Catholic? One pope emphatically declared, "Popes have the
right to remove kings and emperors, since spiritual rules over
temporal." During the middle ages, 500-1500 A.D., the pope named,
removed, and replaced kings in Europe at will. European rulers, as
recently as 100 years ago, went to be crowned by the pope. Napoleon
planned to be crowned by the pope, but a rift developed between his
country and the Vatican, which prevented it. When the pope is crowned in
his coronation ceremony, he is pronounced "king of kings and ruler of
rulers of the earth." God foresaw all of this before Catholicism ever
existed, and foretold it in minute detail so that honest-hearted
individuals would not be deceived. The remarkable thing is that
Catholicism issues statements which are worded almost exactly like God's
prophecies concerning her!

        In verse one again, the woman is shown sitting upon many waters.
The angel tells John in verse 15, "The waters which thou sawest, where
the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and
tongues." Roman Catholicism claims 500,000,000 subjects or members.
(Catholics are many times referred to as subjects of the pope.) These
members are in virtually every kingdom of the world. What an accurate
description of Catholicism given by God before Roman Catholicism even
existed! Roman Catholicism-a city and yet an international system.

        Verse 4 further described Catholicism, "And the woman was arrayed
in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones
and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and
filthiness of her fornication."

        In a description of a papal parade, the attire of the pope and the
cardinals was described using almost the identical words as those above.
Scarlet (red) is the color worn by cardinals, purple is worn by the pope
and others, the pope's crown is gold, his throne is gold, the pope and
the cardinals always have gold crucifixes hung about their necks, and
pearls are used by all members in the form of their rosary. The
astonishing thing is that the Catholic Church claims to be the true
church, yet Paul taught against the wearing of pearls, gold, and costly
array. (I Timothy 2:9.) Of course if you will take notice of the
different doctrines of Catholicism, you will find that hardly any are
the same as those of the early church. That's the reason God hates
Catholicism so, and has vowed to send terrible judgment upon it.

        Verse 6- "And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the
saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus:"

        Of all the persecutors of the true saints of God, Roman
Catholicism ranks number one. In her history she has killed in the
neighborhood of 68,000,000 Christians because they would not bow to her
false doctrines. In one six-year period alone, Roman Catholicism was
responsible for 6,000,000 deaths. (Not mentioning the unspeakable
torture that came before death.) There are countries today in which one
may not preach contrary to Catholicism without endangering his life.

This seems so foreign today in the midst of the Ecumenical Movement, but
the history books shout a warning to us if we will but listen. Not only
has Catholicism been a persecutor in the past, but the Bible prophesies
that in the immediate future she is going to be a party to persecution
such as the world has never seen. It is no wonder that God said that
Catholicism was drunken with the blood of the saints.

        Verse 5-"And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery Babylon
the Great, The Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth."

        To understand the first part of this name which was written upon
the forehead of this woman, "Mystery Babylon the Great," we must know
something about Babylon. The first time we hear of Babylon is at the
tower of Babel. This was shortly after the flood. The idea behind
building the tower which would reach high into the heavens was that if
another flood came, the people could save themselves by going up into
the tower rather than depend on God to save them. Also this great tower
would weld the people together into a single nation and government. They
already had the same language. So the spirit of Babylon which began at
the tower of Babel was the spirit of self-sufficiency. One ruler, one
government, one language, and one economy. Give us these and we can
solve all our problems.

../