Truth or Consequences.

 Truth or Consequences. What does that mean to you? It's a trivial game right? Tell the truth or face the consequences. In reality without the truth that we find in our Lord and Savior,  and in His word, the consequences are far from trivial, and most certainly not a game. There are eternal consequences to our decisions. We don't want to think about that, we like to imagine that we can do things that just don't matter in the grand scheme of things. All our decisions matter, all. We need to seek forgiveness for our daily sins, a true repentance, daily because we know the consequences of our actions, our decisions are eternally important. We need to believe that we have a Savior who will forgive us, but never forget we need to seek forgiveness from Him, not assume forgiveness, never forget His unending love towards us! His mercy, His grace!

Amen!!!!!!!

(Quick synopsis of the following- In 500'sAD, hundreds of years after Jesus' and the Apostles' deaths, the church lost its first love entirely. The corruption started when the Bishop of Rome was left at Rome when the throne of the empire was moved to Constantinople. Rome still remained the seat of importance and the Bishop there retained the power of the church and held great sway with the politics of the day. Through much deception and bribe taking in the form of gifts bestowed upon the powers that be and such, the corruption only grew more and more. What God intended, what our Savior wanted for His church was gone. The detailed historical proofs of this are given below. Please read it so you have the knowledge you need. We need facts, not suppositions. We need facts not fallacy. We need to know why we believe the way we believe. There is proof, please pray for comprehension. We all need to pray, pray and pray some more. Satan is ever ready to deceive. The Papacy today believes it is everything because they claim the Apostle Peter as its original head. It doesn't take much to bring corruption into truth. Yet so few want to know the real truth. The following is just a continuing excerpt of our study… there is so much to learn.) 

CHAPTER XI. THE BEAST WITH SEVEN HEADS AND TEN HORNS

Continued..

But the work was not yet complete. Others were ambitious as well as the bishop of Rome, and with the throne of the empire at Constantinople, that became actually the imperial city. For this reason the bishop of Constantinople thought that he should be first in rank. True, the primacy was conferred upon the bishop of Rome at the Council of Nice, but great changes had taken place since that time, and other bishops, but especially the bishop of Constantinople, strove for the highest honors. And everything seemed favorable to his purpose. An orthodox emperor, ambitious and powerful, was reigning in Constantinople. The Arians held Italy, though under a mild sway; but the neighboring country of Africa was not only under the rule of the Arians, but they were faithfully following the

example set them by the orthodox or Catholic party--they were persecuting their opponents in the faith. The surroundings of the pope were every way unfavorable, while everything appeared favorable to the bishop of Constantinople. But an unexpected opportunity occurred. There were divisions in the East, and Justinian was strongly favorable to the Roman see, inasmuch as Rome was the representative of the Nicene faith, and its constant defender. The condition of the so-called Christian world was most deplorable. They who read the discussions of those times cannot fail to be struck by, if not disgusted with, the quarrelings over forms of expressing distinctions which the Scriptures do not notice, and which the parties did not at all understand. It not infrequently happened that the orthodox party stood in defense of the very modes of expression which it had strenuously opposed and condemned not long before. If a form of faith was held by those to whom they took a dislike, it was immediately denounced as heretical, and this was always the key-note of persecution, and often of blood-shedding. Of that very time Bower speaks:--

"The Christian worship was now become no less idolatrous than that of the Gentiles, who therefore chose to retain their own, there being no material difference between the one and the other, between their worshiping the ancient heroes, or the modern saints; and as to the articles of belief, they were now, by the cavils and subtilities of the contending parties, rendered quite unintelligible to the Christians themselves."

That to which we have previously referred must now be noticed more in detail. The expression, "One of the Trinity suffered in the flesh," was the subject of contention between Justinian and the monks of the East. That expression, though perfectly orthodox all down the ages of the church, had been condemned by Pope Hormisdas; but Justinian, who delighted in controversies on such distinctions, had adopted it. The monks, having the decision of a former pope on their side, had no doubt of an easy triumph if they appealed to the pope. But they were not as wise by experience in the devious ways of papal infallibility as they afterwards became. Bower gives the issue of the controversy thus:--

"The emperor no sooner heard that the monks were applying, than he too resolved to apply to the pope. Having therefore drawn up a long creed, or confession of faith, containing the disputed article among the rest, 'one of the Trinity suffered in the nesh,' he dispatched two bishops with it to Rome, Hypatius of Ephesus, and Demetrius of Philippi. At the same time he wrote a very obliging letter to the pope, congratulating him on his election, assuring him that the faith contained in the confession that he sent him, was the faith of the whole Eastern Church, and entreating him to declare, in his answer, that he received to his communion all who professed that faith, and none who did not. To add weight to his letter, he accompanied it with a present to St. Peter, consisting of several chalices, and other vessels of gold, enriched with precious stones. The deputies of the monks, and the two bishops sent by the emperor, arrived at Rome about the same time; and the pope  heard both; but, being quite at a loss what to determine, wisely declined, for the present, returning an answer to either. He was sensible that he could not condemn the doctrine of the monks without admitting the expression, which his predecessor had rejected as repugnant to the Catholic faith. But, on the other hand, he was unwilling to disoblige Justinian, and well apprised of the consequences which he had reason to apprehend from his condemning a doctrine that was held by all the bishops of the East, and the emperor himself, as an article of faith." History of the Popes, under John II. 

In this dilemma he took council of the clergy, and appealed to the wisest bishops of the time, who, after deliberation, decided that the confession of Justinian was altogether orthodox, and condemned as heretics all who denied it, or held a contrary doctrine. Thus was one infallibility contradicted by another infallibility, on a point of faith, and both remained infallible. Had the question stood the other way, had Justinian been in harmony with the decision before given by Hormisdas, the pope would not have taken a moment for consultation over the matter. To show that the popes were conscious of their power, it may be worth while here to note that Pope Agapetus, successor of John II., was not in all things so complaisant to Justinian. The emperor wrote another courteous letter to him, and

granted some favors and privileges to the pope, and asked certain favors of him in return, but these the pope denied him. But Justinian's letter to Pope John II. is that which specially demands our attention. This was written in the year 533, the same in which Belisarius went on his expedition against the Arians in Africa. But first it may be well to notice the real effect of Arian rule and Arian toleration in Italy. The popes chafed under the restraining rule of heretics, as may be judged from the fate of John I.; but the situation as set down by the historian, Gieseler, shows the direction in which

things were tending:--

"Thus, the Roman bishops were so far from being hindered by any superior power, that it proved an advantageous circumstance to them in the eyes of their new masters, that they steadfastly resisted innovations of faith made in Constantinople, till they gained a new victory over the changeable

Greeks, under the Emperor Justin. The natural consequence of this was, that while the patriarchs of Constantinople were constantly sinking in ecclesiastical esteem on account of their vacillation in these controversies, the bishops of Rome still maintained their ancient reputation of being the defenders of oppressed orthodoxy.

"Under these favorable circumstances, the ecclesiastical pretensions of Roman bishops, who now formed the only center of Catholic Christendom in the West, in opposition to the Arian conquerors, rose high without hindrance. They asserted that not only the highest ecclesiastical authority in the West belonged to them, but also superintendence of orthodoxy and maintenance of ecclesiastical laws throughout the whole church. These claims they sometimes founded on imperial edicts and decrees of synods; but for the most part on the peculiar rights conferred on Peter by the Lord. After the synodis palmaris, called by Theodoric to examine the charges newly raised by the Laurentian party against Symmachus (503), had acquitted him without examination, in consequence of the circumstances, the apologist of this synod, Ennodius, bishop of Ticinium (511), first gave utterance to the assertion that the bishop of Rome is subject to no earthly judge. Not long after an attempt was made to give a historical basis to this principle by suppositions Cesta (acts) of former popes; and other falsifications of older documents in favor of the Roman see now appeared in like manner."

Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 2, pp. 123-126.

The Encyclopedia of McClintock & Strong says that Justinian "regarded it as his special mission to compel a general uniformity of belief and practice." While the western empire was divided into many kingdoms, he was sole emperor of the East; yet he wrote, as Bower says, "a very obliging letter to the pope, . . .entreating him to declare in favor of the faith set forth by the emperor, the courtesy and the entreaty being supported by the weight of costly presents--an argument that never failed to convince the Roman bishops. This is substantial proof of the high position then already occupied by the pope.

The fourth step. The letter of Justinian to Pope John II. greatly strengthened the power of the Roman pontiff, and constituted the fourth and last step in the full establishment of the papacy. 

As was said by Gieseler, the pope was already "the only center of Catholic Christendom in the West," and Justinian's letter and gifts fully accomplished the same result for the pontiff, in the East. The following is a copy of that part of the letter which specially relates to this point:--

"Justinian, pious, fortunate, renowned, triumphant, emperor, consul, etc., to John the most holy archbishop of our city of Rome, and patriarch. "Rendering homage to the apostolic chair, and to your holiness, as has been always and is our wish, and honoring your blessedness as a father; we have hastened to bring to the knowledge of your holiness all matters relating to the state of the churches. It having been at all times our great desire to preserve the unity of your apostolic chair, and the constitution of the holy churches of God which has obtained hitherto and still obtains. "Therefore we have made no delay in subjecting and uniting to your Holiness all the priests of the whole East.

"For this reason we have thought to bring to your notice the present matters of disturbance; though they are manifest and unquestionable, and always firmly held and declared by the whole priesthood according to the doctrine of your apostolical chair. For we cannot suffer that anything that relates to the state of the church, however manifest and unquestionable, should be moved without the knowledge of your Holiness, who are the head of all the holy churches, for in all things, as we have already declared, we are anxious to increase the honor and authority of your apostolical chair." Annals of Baronius, Antwerp edition, 1584.

To be continued…