FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
SATAN’S ENMITY AGAINST CHRIST DEMONSTRATED BY ROME’S HATRED FOR THE WALDENSIAN CHRISTIANS.
Jesus told His disciples these words of immortal truth: “If the world hate you, you know it hated Me before it hated you…..Remember the word that I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will ALSO persecute you.” John 15: 18, 20, KJV. – FF 128-129: “In fact, amid the license of the Middle [and Dark] Ages, ASCETIC VIRTUE was apt to be recognized as a SiGN OF HERESY-“ ‘History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, H. C. Lea, Vol. 1, p. 87, NY, Harper & Bros. 1888.
Professor Philippus van Limborch writes:
‘It was the entire study and endeavor of the POPES, to crush, in its infancy, any doctrine that in any way opposed their EXORBITANT power. In the year 1163, at the Synod of Tours, all the bishops and priests in the country of Tholouse, were commanded to ‘take care, and to forbid, under the pain of excommunication, every person presuming to give RECEPTION, or the least assistance to the followers of this heresy, which first began in the country of Tholouse, wherever they shall be discovered. Neither were they to have any dealings with them in BUYING OR SELLING [fast forward to Rev. 13:15-17]; that by being thus DEPRIVED of the common assistances of life, they might be COMPELLED to repent of the evil of their way.
Whoever shall DARE to contravene this order, let them be excommunicated, as a PARTNER with them in their guilt. As many as them as could be found, let them be imprisoned by the CATHOLIC PRINCES, and punished with the forfeiture of all their substance.’
‘Some of the Waldenses, coming into the neighboring kingdom of Arragon, king Ildefonsus, in the year 1194, put forth, against them, A VERY SEVERE AND BLOODY EDICT, by which he ‘banished them from his kingdom, and all his dominions, as ‘enemies of the cross of Christ [!], profaners of the CHRISTIAN RELIGION [not all Christians are true Christians], and PUBLIC ENEMIES to himself and his kingdom.’
He adds: ‘If any, from this day forwards, shall presume to receive in their houses, the aforesaid WALDENSES and INZABBATATI, or other heretics, of whatever profession they be, or to hear, in any place, their ABOMINABLE PREACHINGS, or to give them food, or to do them any kind office whatsoever; let him know, that he shall incur the indignation of Almighty God [the god of this world, not the God of heaven!] and ours [so they admit they have ‘other gods.’]; then he shall forfeit all his goods, without the benefit of appeal, and be punished as though guilty of high treason.’ ‘ — ‘History of the Inquisition,’ pp. 88, 89. London. 1816.” – C. Edwardson, Facts of Faith, pp. 128, 129.
In stark contradiction, Jesus taught His followers and disciples that in His kingdom of grace and righteousness on earth, its subjects would “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and PERSECUTE you”(Matt. 5:44). And so did Paul in Rom. 12: 19-21.
Indeed “by their fruits you shall know them!” God bless all, NMF