The Trail of Blood
(Ron Cook April 2008)
Lesson One
Martyr: One who chooses death rather than renounce religious principles
This is a study of the Trail of Blood which is the Outward Manifestation of the invisible battle between Satan and God. It is between 2 Kingdoms one of light and of darkness of one the kingdom good the other the kingdom of evil.
By way of introduction:
Since the beginning of time there has been a battle going on and it is still going on. And the armies of the 2 kingdoms are the most part invisible. Read Ephesians 6:12, Ephesians 1:12 exaltation of Jesus Christ. Colossians 1:13 shows that we have been translated from one kingdom to another.
All the kingdoms of this earth had a prince assigned to them. Satan assigned princes and God in Daniel assigned Michael. There is an invisible warfare going on right now
The people that where in the rule and reign of the kingdom of God is seen, as the body of the people in the world at any given time where we see the kingdom of God is outward manifestation is where will see the spiritual invisible warfare will be taken place. It is there that will we see the blood.
At any given time we see in history, people seeking to abide by the truth of the word of God, it is there where will see outward manifestation of the warfare will we see the war of good and evil.
The Trail of Blood is seen the Old Testament as you will see is mostly observed chiefly in the nation of Israel. The reason we see the Trail of Blood there is because Israel was given the oracles and commandments of God. (Romans 3:1-2) again the invisible warfare is going on and seen by people who where trying to keep the truths of God.
In the New Testament you will see the Trail of Blood observed by the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because it was in the New Testament times, unto the churches is committed the oracles of God. (Matthew 28:18-20. It is our responsibility to teach the word of God and the sovereignty of God to the world. When this is done that is where you will see Satan fight and people will die and that is again when you will see the Trail of blood.
So what we are going to see in this study of the Trail of Blood is in history, which has stood for the truth and become martyrs (one who speaks or seals his testimony with blood).
The Trail of Blood in the Old Testament is enmity between thee and the woman’s seed and the seed of the serpent. It is going on until Satan is thrown into the bottomless pit. It is in this study we will see people that stood for the truth to the point of death. That is what the Trail of Blood is all about.
SOME EXAMPLES IN THE OLD TESTAMENT OF THE TRAIL OF BLOOD, AND THIS SPITITUAL BATTLE MANISFESTED IN AN OUTWARD WARFARE OF AN INVISBLE BATTLE BETWEEN 2 KINGDOMS.
Genesis 4:8
Cain rose up and slew Able. Why is Able slain? It is because Able presenting his sacrifice is the truth about salvation. Salvation is through the blood. It is through shedding of blood. Satan is opposed to that. Again in Genesis 3:15 the word of God states “I will put enmity between thy seed and the seed of woman. The fact that Jesus Christ may come through that lineage, Satan enters into Cain and Cane rises up and kills Able. What this is really the enmity between Satan and the Lord Jesus Christ. Between the kingdom of light and darkness that causes this first death. The death of the first martyr, the first martyr is Able.
Exodus 1:22
The drowning of little baby boys in the river is a contest between God and Satan. Moses represents God and Pharaoh represents Satan. All the way through to Exodus chapter 14 we see the battle manifested. Why was Pharaoh drowning these baby boys, was it something he thought up? No!! It is an outward manifestation of what Satan was trying to do in the invisible battle against the power of God. This is one Kingdom battling another kingdom. One kingdom said a seed of woman would come that of the Lord Jesus Christ and Satan refusing to relinquish that without the battle entered into the heart of Pharaoh and he said put to death all the male babies of Israel. That way they won’t be great in power and you will be able to keep them in place. That was not Satan’s real reason. The real reason was evil is battling against good. Darkness against Light. What was the outward manifestation of the invisible battle “Blood?” That is the Trail of Blood, it is death, and it is always death. These people wanted to teach the oracles and commandments of God and so Satan is persecuting them. It’s a history of Blood
There are many other examples of them in the Old Testament but for time sake we can read them all. Joash, (II Chronicles 22:10) Ester (Ester 4:14) in all these cases Satan thought he had a winner and God came through. Satan can not and will not be victorious in defeating God.
Where people are trying to do what God says do and remain true and firm to the word of God, that’s where the Trail of Blood is going to manifest openly the human eye you are going to see people killed.
What’s this all about? Satan battling against God. In the history of Israel you will find many wars where made against Israel. Why? Satan is seeking to destroy them before the Lord Jesus came.
The 400 years between the Testaments, the persecution and battles kept going against Israel. We have the Macaabeeans and others there history is in Blood. What is this all about it is a manifestation of Satan trying to dethrone God, that’s what is this all about.
TRAIL OF BLOOD IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
Now God changes His mode or operation, from Israel and its teaching to the New Testament church. Now the New Testament church has the responsibility of teaching and proclaiming the gospel to the whole world. (Matthew 28:18-20). The Trail of Blood Switches by Jesus, from the Jews to the Churches of Jesus Christ. This is because the churches now have the truths are to be seen and manifested
THE FIRST MARTYR
John the Baptist, Matthew 14:1-8 John the Baptist had the authority to baptize. Why was John the Baptist beheaded? John had the gathering material for the building of the New Testament Church. Acts 1:20-22, 1St Corinthians 12:28, God placed first in the Churches the Apostles and all of them had been baptized by John the Baptist. (Baptist do not believe in Apostolic Accession, that office ceased with the death of the Apostles). John the Baptist was the only one who had the authority to baptize. That is why I am saying that John the Baptist had all the materials that were gathered to build the 1st Baptist church. This church is the outward manifestation of the kingdom of God the rule and reign of sovereignty of God in action here is this life. Therefore, the invisible kingdom of darkness battles against the kingdom of light and seeks to keep the church from being organized. This is where the Trail of Blood begins in the New Testament. Satan’s hatred for the church which Jesus has given the truth to and from now on the Trail of Blood is going to be directed at the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The biggest problem today is that young preachers and students of the Bible and history of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is that they don’t have the love for the Church as they ought to and members of the church don’t have the love for the church either. The Church is a very precious thing to the Lord Jesus Christ and He loved it so much that He gave His life for it. And the church should be very precious to all it members.
THE NEXT MARTYR
Jesus Christ
The Son of God, and the founder of the Church (Matthew 16:13-18). He is saying here because the Nation of Israel does not know me and you do I am going to build my church. So the truth will be manifested in the Church and that is where you should be able to see the manifestation of God in action. This is why Jesus was martyred you see the battle is still going on between the 2 kingdoms and manifesting itself where the truth is. WHERE THERE S NOT TRUTH THERE IS NO BLOOD
NEXT POOL OF BOOD
Acts 7:54-60 deacon Stephen; he told Israel and the Jews their glorious history. They became jealous and mad and gnashed on him with their teeth and stoned him. He told the Jews the truth. You see Stephen was out of the 1st Baptist Church of Jerusalem where the truth was. But the real reason he was killed was the invisible warfare between Satan and Gods kingdoms. Satan is now attacking him through the institution that now holds the truth, (the Church).That’s what’s going on behind the scene. The Trail of Blood will always be that way. It’s still that way today.
NEXT POOL OF BLOOD
James, Acts 12:1-2
James was beheaded because he was a close friend for Jesus part of the inner circle. Herod wanted to be popular with the Jews. Here again is the invisible battle going on with an outward manifestation of the battle between 2 kingdoms and you see the hatred of Satan has for the kingdom of God and that is going to be your Trail of Blood in the New Testament. We will see this later on in the history of the Baptist.
All thru the book of Acts in Chapters 4:13-21 (threatened) 5:33 (going to be killed), 16:22,24 (beaten and thrown into jail) how that our fore fathers where told not to preach the truth and beaten and killed for standing for the truth. Where there is truth there is blood where there in no truth there is no blood. Look at Page 17 in your Trail of Blood book and #2 of how many of the Apostles where martyred
SUMMARY OF WHAT THE TRAIL OF BLOOD IS ALL ABOUT
The outward manifestation between Satan and God, enmity between thy seed and the seed of woman and put the enmity between Satan and the Lord Jesus Christ. Anytime you will live for the Lord Jesus Christ you are furthering His kingdom (Matthew 6:33) When you do this you will be persecuted and that’s what the Trail of Blood is all about.
Any time you live for the Lord Jesus Christ, you are furthering His kingdom and His righteousness and Satan will persecute you, that again is what the Tail of Blood is all about. You have to understand when you receive Jesus as your savior you are enlisting in an army that is in a battle, just as Israel was in a battle you will also be in a battle, and one day you may have to shed your blood and seal your testimony with your own blood. This can never happen here in the USA, just think if the wrong person got elected and USA became a dictatorship and that dictator said you have to worship ect. It can happen and the gospel of Jesus Christ not permitted to be preached.
Lesson 2
Revelation 12:11
We saw in our 1st lesson the persecution was on the nation of Israel. In Israel, they where deposited the oracles and commandments of God, to be taught and because they had the truth we saw they where persecuted and many where killed. In the New Testament Jesus, established His church Mark 3:12-14 & Matthew 16:16-18 we see the church the Lord Jesus Christ was given the truth and they where persecuted.
Wherever the Truth is, there will be evidence of the Trail of Blood. Where the Truth is there are martyrs who will give up there life. It is going to happen over and over again and again in History.
We saw in the book of Acts how Satan persecuted the Church vehemently, put many to death. Saul in his unregenerate days put to death, cast into prison people of the sect (followers of Jesus), they where of that way, (Acts 9:1, 2 14) that’s the true Churches of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then after this, the Roman Empire persecuted the church, they where put to death, fed to lions and mistreated in every possible way imaginable.
Satan used the Jews and the Romans to persecute the Church while he was establishing his own “church”. Satan is a counterfeit and made a counterfeit church. Everything God has, Satan counterfeits it. It is this counterfeit church that has persecuted the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ until this day and that persecution is still going on and will until Jesus comes again. That is where we will see the vast majority of blood in this study.
How do you know which church is the Church that Jesus built?
We have to see the characteristics of that church or the true marks of that church.
(example) Ford Car
Again in Mark 3:16-18 Jesus is calling out the disciples when He gathered the people John the Baptist baptized to start His church ( Mt. 16:16-18). HERE IS A VERY IMPORTANT POINT YOU NEED TO REMEMBER. In this verse we have the guarantee of the perpetuity of the Lords church for Jesus Himself. It is His churches that he promised a continual existence not the Apostles.
Let’s examine this, the church that the Lord Jesus Christ built and He said the gates of hell will never prevail against, that church will never go out of existence. There are churches today that are teaching the same thing that the 1st church taught back then. That means from 29-30 AD up to this day there has never been a time when it passed out of existence. Keep that in mind because it what Jesus said and guaranteed it by His own word until He comes back again it will be here.
How can we recognize this church that Jesus built?
How can we determine which church is His church or a false church?
I think it does have to be brought out here and we will see this later on, that the name does mean they are a New Testament church. There are Baptist Churches today that do not believe in the Virgin birth of Jesus, that the first 12 chapters in Genesis is a myth, the death and resurrection of Jesus was not necessary and a useless and meaningless death. So when we look at this chart we look at the church and not name but ITS DOCTRINE and what it teaches. If we find a church in the 1200 years called the Dark Ages and it taught the same doctrine that the 1st church taught. I can rightfully say this church is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, even if the name is another name.
SOME MARKS OR CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CHURCH THAT THE LORD JESUS CHRIST BUILT
1. Jesus is the founder and Head of it. (Matthew 16:18) Jesus said (I) will build MY church!! None other than the Son of God is the head of the church. Colossians. 1:18. so, anytime in history you need to look and see if Jesus is the Head of the Church. If you find a church on this chart and Jesus is not its head, you can know right away this is not the Lords church. This is absolutely the first thing to look for.
2. The church has only one rule faith and practice, THAT IS THE BIBLE. II Timothy 3:15-17, this church has for its AUTHORITY the Bible. If I find a church that has the Bible and tradition or other writings as it rule of Faith. I had better be Leary of that church. It makes no difference what I say or you say or the Pope says or anyone else says. It only matters what the Bible says.
3. Its members can only be saved people Acts 2:41-42. They that gladly received the word (born again) baptized and added to the church. Some churches take anyone into it saved or lost.
4. Its government is the congregation Acts 1:23-26 all members are equal. They did things by a congregational government. (this is a very important point because it is here where the 1st false church went in error.. it is not ruled by its bishops, by a presbytery, or a Pope. (Matthew 20:24-28) (Matthew 23:5-12) If you see a church that is not congregational it is false.
5. Teaching on Salvation, Ephesians 2:8,9. Not by your works are you saved but by the Grace of God are you saved. All the true churches down through the ages have taught salvation by grace. (John 6:14, Romans 10:9 Jesus is the only way for salvation) (This is the 2nd false teaching that came into the counterfeit church of Satan) baptismal regeneration and works for salvation. On your Trail of Blood chart you can see where some of these churches went in error. Like many cars may look like a Ford but there is only one Ford, likewise many churches may look like a Church of the Lord Jesus Christ but there is only one true Church the Lord Jesus Christ built. There are a lot of them that do not have Jesus as its founder, or its salvation right or anybody can be a member save ort not. I believe if you are off on the church (what a church truly is) you can be off on a lot of the teachings of the church the Lord Jesus Christ built.
6. The Church has 2 ordinances; BELIEVER’S baptism followed by the Lord’s Supper. Jesus gave these to His church while He was here on earth (1st Corinthians 11:22-25) these do not have saving power or they do not change into the actual body and blood of Jesus. (As the Roman Catholic church teaches, “Transubstantiation” in 1100 AD) They picture the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
7. The Commission is Inclusive. Matthew 28:18-20 to teach the whole council of God. To get folks saved.
8. Independent. It carries its own government and is independent of any one else telling it what to do. They are under the leadership of Jesus only. Separated from the state and government. Funded by the tithes and offerings of its members. Its only offices are pastors and deacons.
It is where these truths are stood for that we see the Trail of Blood and you will find persecution and martyrs of it and the churches in the history of these kinds of churches are written in blood.
Satan sought to persecute these churches to build his churches as they developed corruption, he had to bring in false and counterfeit doctrines contrary to where we have already seen.
THREE THINGS SATAN CHANGED
1. Changes the Churches government: from congregational to Episcopal
2. baptismal regeneration
3. Infant baptism
These three doctrines developed the Roman Catholic Church. As the early church of the Lord Jesus Christ grew, they had a lot of elders with no churches many pastors and preachers so they began to assume more authority than God had ever given them. Big churches started assuming judgment over smaller churches.
Revelation 2:15 (Nicolaitanes) Jesus said he hated the doctrines they taught. Nico.. Conquer
Loaos.. Common people, the Laity
Bishops began to conquer the little churches. God never meant it to be like this.
Rome - Big Church began to conquer little churches and assume more power than they had and the hierarchy begins and we see eventually the POPE (Matthew 23:1-12) we are brothers no one should lord over us.
Baptismal Regeneration: came along when a lot was said about baptism. You must be born of the water and the spirit in John 3:3-8 and Mark 16:16 so the Roman Catholic Church started saying your sins are washed away by water when you are baptized. That changed salvations true plan of Saved by Grace.
Infant Baptism: so the Roman Catholic Church said lets get them saved as soon as possible. The question came up in 250 AD by a man called Fidus, should we not baptize as soon as a baby is born or wait 8 days according to the law, and they decided to baptize as soon as the baby is born to make sure they go to heaven if it died as an infant. You see the Roman Catholic Church taught up to this point that the baby if it was not baptized would go to hell. So they came up with a place called LIMBO later. So they decided why take a chance, lets baptize them as soon as they are born. And they did baptize by emersion later the Greeks changed it to sprinkling.
So all down through the years of the Trail of Blood millions of members of the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ, died because they believed in believers baptism and they would not take the baptism when it was an infant or by Baptismal Regeneration and when the church of the Lord Jesus Christ refused to accept their baptism they where put to death. It was for this doctrine in the Catholic Church that the True churches refused to accept them into the church because they where not baptized scripturally.
This is why we at Heritage Baptist Church need to check and make sure when we accept someone into our church that we check out their baptism and make sure they are saved. That is why we vote for members to be added to our church it is the congregation authority.
It is for these reasons and many more that we will see that the True churches that the Lord Jesus Christ built have broken fellowship in 251 AD with these churches. Remember this that the “outward manifestation of the persecution of the church is an invisible battle going on between Satan and God. This is what the Trail of blood is all about. ere He
LESSON THREE
Titus 3:10, 11; A Heretic is someone who has gone away from the truth of the word of God. Someone who does not believe the Bible and the truths contained in the Word of God. What Paul is saying here is, one that is like this is sinning and knows it. One that believes like that is condemned of himself. Paul says put them outside the fellowship.
We have studied thus far the first of three errors or departures from teaching of the truth of the type of church that the Lord Jesus Christ was building that go into making up a Heretic.
1. The church government changed from congregational where everybody is equal and every individual has an equal voice in the church. To a bishop or elder who now was the dictator. This is not according to the teaching from the word of God.
2. Baptismal Regeneration, a heretics teaching of that stinking doctrine of the irregular church where a person is saved by their baptism. They all say, “There is so much in the Bible and its emphasis on baptism, that surely God must mean that a person has to be baptized to be saved.” Baptism does not save it is a symbol of the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is a Picture of what Jesus did for your salvation. (photo)
3. Infant Baptism, If they believe in Baptismal Regeneration surely we must baptism or get people saved as soon as possible, the problem with this is the it goes against the believers baptism and their confession that Jesus is the only way. A baby can not confess anything.
So these are the truths that began to change even in the time of the apostles where John wrote in Revelation 2:15 about how Jesus hated the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes (conquerors of the common laity). All this leads up to the establishment of a false church and all along as the false church begins to grow in strength, there are strong churches of the Lord Jesus Christ existing independently of the false churches. All this led up to the formation of the Catholic Hierarchy that led itself to be divided in 869 from the Greek Catholics and the Roma Catholics.
Light and darkness and truth and error cannot exist together. At this time there are no denominations, no Roman Catholic Church, no Baptist, just churches out of the first church of Rome that had started changing the true teachings of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. So since they cannot agree on these things there had to be a division and that it happened in 251 AD declared non fellowship with these churches.
The persecution that happened from the early times of church history to Dark Ages (500 to 1700 AD), was done by the Roman Empire rather than the false church. This is because the false church had not gotten enough power yet. Let me make this one point at this time, anytime in the history of the world, when the state religion had the power or the state behind them, they were the ones that persecuted the churches of the different faith and practices. This has never failed in all of history. If you can ever get a copy of the Foxes Book of Martyrs it lists 10 persecutions that took place during the Roman Empire and their strength.
You see when Jesus came on the scene the Roman Empire had conquered the known world at that time. Jesus began building His church and the Roman government slowly declined and started loosing its strength. So the emperors blamed the Christians and they said “since these Christians and the followers of Jesus have caused the decline they have angered the gods and the gods are displeased with the Romans and therefore we are losing our power.” They reasoned that this was all because of the Christians, and so they said “this is what we will do, we will kill all of the Christians.” That’s like what Hitler said in World War 2, “if Germany is going to be successful then they must kill all of the Jews,” because the Jews was the cause of the problem. He tried to kill them all.
So the Roman Empire started persecuting the True churches of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nero in the first Century (this is probably where Paul died). Christians that did not denounce their faith in Jesus Christ where put to death, many hung on stakes and others boiled to death in hot oil, and many other horrible deaths. The Roman Government did this up until Satan established his false church. You see the false church had not gotten the power to do this yet. And later you will see when the false church got its power and it will be that persecuted the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the Church of Rome (started by Paul) there was a pastor by the name of Fabian, in his church he had two elders, one by the name of Novation and the other by the name or Cornelius. When an emperor came that favored the church, the church grew and when an emperor came that did not favor the church it declined and the people would flee. And this went back and forth for years. When some of these people left the true church and went to the false church, Novation would say “bring me meat for repentance” and would not accept them back into the church those that fled under persecution. Cornelius said we want numbers and the church to grow and said they can come back anytime they want. This went on for a time and the pastor Fabian died and these two men where nominated to take his place, Cornelius won and this caused a split and so Novation withdrew from them and took a lot of people with him and he established a church and he became the pastor.
Novation had a lot of friends. He had a friend in Africa named Novatist, this one had split off from a church that supported infant baptism and Novation supported him and others. So for around 200 years the True Churches where called Novationalist because they followed after him.
Early in history of the Ashland Avenue Baptist Church the members where sometimes called, Walkerites, because they followed after the teachings of Clarence Walker its pastor, this name was not a put down but a blessing to be called a Walkerite.
Montanists were another group that existed in the land called Phrygia that taught the same thing as the Novations. You did not have a universal name for the True Church of the Lord Jesus Christ at this time, they where scattered in Italy, Wales, Spain, France. These people were called Donatists because they agreed with his teachings which stood for the truth and they took his name.
All during this time the irregular churches were forming into the Hierarchy toward the Catholic Church in the year 869AD.
A few things on the Chart
1. Persecution Act in 303 AD, A Roman emperor by the name of Galerius issued a edict that every man in the army had to denounce being a Christian or be put to death and were put to death, 100s of men were put to death.
2. 311 AD, the Toleration Act, 8 years later Galerius saw he could not wipe out the Christians, so it was at this time the Roman Empire began to tolerate Christian beliefs officially. This is very important because of Constantine the Great (a Roman Emperor) will come on the scene and make a lot of history for the Roman Government and the church.
3. 313 AD Church and State United, Constantine declared he saw a remarkable vision, he saw in the sky a fiery red cross and he saw written on that cross the words in fiery letter this statement “By this thou shall conquer.” He thought this meant that if he became a Christian the he would conquer the world and get the glory back that Rome had under some of the earlier emperors. So in 313 AD he sent out instructions to the Churches to come together at Rome and he would talk with them interested in becoming a Christian and this was his desire and he wanted to become a Christian and serve the Lord. Not all the churches came to this meeting especially the True Churches. But the irregular churches came because they wanted the favor of the Roman government. It was here that Constantine said this “ if you give to the government your spiritual power and the government will give you its power. Together we will conquer the world and all the irregular churches accepted his proposal so in the year 313 AD the Church and state where united and he became the head of the church. You can now see the Hierarchy is being formed and all during this time they had many converts (false) and if you did not believe like them you were killed.
This is the way it was until Leo II became officially the head of the religious power and not the government power. It was the removal from state controlled to church controlled leadership. In all the big cities he put Patriots and bishops and cardinals over the churches, Constantine structured the church like the government of the state.
This again is contrary to what the Bible teaches that the church is to be Congregationalist and every member had an equal vote and men and women were equal.
Constantine ask this question during this time, “how do I become a Christian” and because they believed in Baptismal Regeneration they said “be baptized and you will be saved.” Then he asked the question they could not answer and still today can’t answer it: “if baptism washes away my sin I have already committed what happens to the sin I commit after I am baptized?” you see if baptism washes away past sins, (which is what baptismal regenerations means) what happens with the sins after I am baptized?” so Constantine said to them “I want to be baptized right before I die. This is what happened to him on his death bed he had them pick him up and baptize him.
Puritans. Strict on what they believed
Paterins.. Means suffers, they were called the church of sufferings, this church was in Italy.
Some dates of evil not on your chart.
1. 310 AD is when prayers for the dead and the making of the sign of the cross came into existence.
2. 320 AD wax candles were burned unto a saint.
3. 345 AD Veneration of angels and dead saints came into existence.
4. 394 AD daily mass being celebrated and adopted.
5. 416 AD infant baptism established as a law. This was against the Bible teachings two New Testament teachings that the church did away with at this time, believers baptism and voluntary baptism. Let me say this we have in the Bible its laws and all our duty is to carry them out. Not to make new laws. This is the start of a legislative government by the false churches.
So you can see this slowly happened over years, I just heard on the radio that the Pope says it is ok to believe in Aliens, they say God made the heavens and the earth and maybe there are other types of life on the other planets.
So when all this happened the true churches of the Lord Jesus Christ refused to baptize babies so they separated away from the false churches that where wed to the false churches of the state in 251 AD.
So the pastor of the false church issued an edit that said “ be it declared to all persons re-baptized and the re-baptizer should be put to death.
More blood has been shed and flowed thru the martyrs over infant baptism that blood that has been shed than all the wars since the beginning of time.
6. 431 AD Mariology: the worship of Mary, the use of the phase “holy Mary Mother of God…” in the Bible Mary was never called the mother of God she was called the mother of Jesus. If she was the mother of God she would have had to have been before God. Pray to a
1st Timothy 2:5 says we have one mediator between men and God and that man is Jesus.
Leo II again it says was the Pope officially established. Leo II did a lot for the false church and subdued many nations, but many believe that later on Gregory the Great was actually the first to be called Pope.
A note right here did you know that the United States of America is the only nation that is not controlled by the Roman Catholic Church. This nation was founded on Christian freedom.
Cathari, on the map Was the church that was known as the pure church because they would not believe in false teachings and would not compromise.
Can’t you see what’s going on, it’s like a snow ball going down a big hill and the snow ball is getting bigger and bigger.
Thanks be to God that during this first part of our study that we saw true Churches of the Lord Jesus Christ standing for the truth and because they have their blood shed, again this is what the Trail of Blood is all about. It is the Outward manifestation of the invisible battle going on between Satan and God.
I am glad to be a member of Heritage Baptist Church a church that still stands for the truth of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ and still stands for the truths it taught in the Word of God.
LESSON FOUR
Psalm 116:15; Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
We have seen thus far the shedding of the blood of our fore fathers and in this verse we are told in the sight of God they are precious.
We are now up to the 6th century, by way of review, that Satan has begun to establish his false church, which will attack the true churches of the Lord Jesus Christ.
How has he done this? By the changing of three important teachings of the true church!
1. The church government to a Nicolaitanes type of church to where one man is over the church.
2. Baptismal regeneration
3. Infant Baptism
And we have seen in 215 AD the true churches of the Lord Jesus Christ broke fellowship with the churches that believed these three errors.
We have seen a little bit about Constantine and the uniting of church and state. To which the government was behind or gave power to the false church which Constantine had brought into his power. This is where we begin today.
This lesson brings us to the Donatists. Look at the bottom of your chart around 400 AD, Donatists, were the Baptist in the history of North Africa. An old mountain preacher said of these people, “you can grab hold of the chain of church history and shake it and it will rattle plum back to Jordan.” Well, that is great theology, the way it really is and we find the Donatists are the ones who held to the truths of the doctrines of the Lord Jesus Christ.
As seen so far the Baptist peculiarities were held by the Novations and these are Bible peculiarities therefore we can conclude that they are part of the succession of Scriptural churches against the gates of Hell have never and will never prevail. The Novations possessed these peculiar marks which now identify them as the Baptist, the Donatists of Africa. Many religious historians say the Ana-Baptist where the same as the Donatists of old.” Donatists were very much concerned with church discipline and purity in the church. They did not want people who were immoral or practiced immorality to be members of their congregation. The Donatists were a church that was very strict on church discipline. They re-baptized all those who were baptized in infancy and also those who came from irregular churches. All those that came from Catholics where re-baptized in those fellowships.
They thought a church ought to be separated from the world. They removed anything from church that resembled the world. But the Catholics were doing the opposite of the Donatists. The Donatists wanted to keep the church pure and were called Puritans in 4 areas. For members to be admitted to the church they did these things.
1. Those that are true believers visibly that they were real saints.
2. Purity of church discipline
3. independent of each church
4. They baptized those whose first baptism they doubted.
You can see why they were called re-baptizers and Ana-Baptists. The Donatists were as numerous as the Catholics at this time. I like to see in the religious history books, stories of our Baptists fore fathers, we can rejoice and praise God at their faith even when it meant certain death.
There are constant changes, in developing the Hierarchy. It was that way in those times and it is still changing in our time and will continue to change until there will be a one world church when we see the Anti-Christ rule thru the false church with the false profit out of it.
The priest began to dress differently than the laity in approximately 500AD. We see that today by the colors and uniforms to distinguish themselves from the regular church common members. Brethren we are all brethren we ought not to make differences in our dress. The marks of a Christian are not in the color of his dress.
Then in 526 AD they developed and “extreme unction” This is where the body is anointed with holy oil. The hands, the feet, the head the lips ect. And a prayer is offered up, meaning that any sins committed since the last confession are forgiven by the anointing of the oil and the prayer offered up. By this at least they will not go out in Purgatory with those sins.
The only time the word Unction is used in the Bible is in 1st John 2:20, in this verse it means every believer of God has the holy anointing of God which is the Holy Spirit that lives in us to guide us and talks with us in truth and that no man needs to teach you.
Then in 593 AD under Pope Gregory the 1st. The doctrine of Purgatory was established. The Catholics tell us that only those who have established a state of Christian perfection will go immediately to heaven when they die. They say this is a very rare thing but of course Jesus went straight to heaven and so did Mary. They say “all those who had not been baptized (by the Catholic Church) or who have committed a moral sin go immediately to Hell. The Catholic Church taught that there was not salvation outside the Catholic Church, (be a Catholic of be lost) and those even if they had been baptized, and commit a moral sin go immediately to Hell.
The Catholic Church also states “All those who die at peace with the church (did you get this the Church not Jesus) but are not perfect must undergo penal and purify suffering in an intermediate realm known as Purgatory.
One Catholic historian states that the pains in Purgatory are very severe, surpassing any sufferings endured in this life. And states the fire in Purgatory does not differ from the fires of Hell, except in the duration, because there is hope of getting out of Purgatory. (This is really encouragement for a Catholic!!)
A note right here. Don’t you see why it is important to know this information so that we can present the gospel message to the Catholic people we know. And let them see the real Jesus and the real unconditional love he has for them and the great gift of eternal life they can have if only we go and tell them. How can they know if they do not hear about the greatest gift ever offered by the greatest man who ever lived and it is free to all who will ask? 1St John 1:9 says if we confess our sin he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
I need to point out again and again that the power of the state is behind the false church and the sword is always busy.
When a Novationalist spoke out against the evils of purgatory, or the evils of “extreme unction,” or the evils of the dress, he fail by the sword of treason to the state government and was put to death.
A lot of Baptist preachers today believe if we see our government behind the church we could see our church closed by the Catholic Church power.
Another note about Constantine that is very important as we follow thru chart. When Constantine embraced Christianity, he refuted the Roman religion of the state and Rome was very, very angry with him. So Constantine was removed from the seat of the empire (The white house of that day) from the city of Rome to the old city of Byzantium and rebuilt that city and renamed it Constantinople for Constantine. Constantine started a church of his own there. This rivalry caused trouble, which church with the greatest that in Rome or Constantinople.
So this caused a split of the Roman Catholic Church in 869 AD one as the Greek Catholic Church and the other was the Rome Catholic Church.
Let’s look at one other thing during this time. From time to time the church had council (Called Ecumenical) meetings. (Acts 15:1) In council meetings the bishops were there on the Empire side and called by different Emperors at that time. There are 10 in this time we need to look at but really just a few we need to make comments about. In these council meetings decisions were made for the good of the church.
1. The 4th in AD 451 with around 600 bishops there, they introduced
The doctrine of Mariology, the worship of Mary was passed as law
2. The 5th council AD 553 was called to condemn heresy.
3. The 7th council AD 787 Image Worship which was a violation of God’s commands (Exodus 20:3-5) and Saints Worship which has no Bible encouragement at all, the only reference at all they can get is in Luke 16:24-31 where the rich man prayed to Abraham.
4. The 8th council in AD 869 Infant communion since they were baptized and members of the church, they needed to take the Lords Supper. How to administer it was the problem. So they decided the best way to do this was to soak the bread in the wine and have the infant suck it. It was also taught this is another way of salvation.
In all these council meetings they decided either to make a new dogma or throw out one.
But praise God that during all these times there are True Churches of the Lord Jesus Christ standing for the truth all over the world. These are our Baptist fore fathers we are not Protestants, we never came out of the Catholic Church. They existed independently of Catholics down through the years of our heritage which we are very thankful for their stand. Their blood was shed for the true church, because they loved the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can hold your head up high and by the grace of God we are still the people called Baptist.
Where you see the truth stood for there is where you will see the blood. No truth no blood.
LESSON FIVE
Matthew 24:9
Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: And ye shall be hated of all nations for my names sake.
You might say the reason they hated Jesus was because of the doctrine that He preached. So He was warning His disciples that after His departure, that they would be hated of all nations for His name sake for what they believed. That is the reason why they were hated and this is why we have the “Trail of Blood.”
Matthew 10:21
And brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
This is a prophecy that the Lord gave, because of the teachings that they held, sons would not believe what the fathers practiced and they would deliver them up to the authorities and they would be killed and that is something that we see happening in “Trail of Blood.”
We are on the Chart at the time when the division of the Catholic Church occurs, which resulted with the Greek Orthodox Church with the Patriot at Constantinople and the Roman Catholic with the head being the Pope.
Again just for review at the church of the Lord Jesus Christ with its peculiarities of teachings that it had and as time began to go with the accession of Jesus Christ, Satan sought to corrupt those doctrines.
1. Changing of Government of the church
2. Baptismal Regeneration
3. Infant baptism
The religion of Jesus Christ was making converts from the Jews and the pagans. The Jews and the pagans put much stock in ceremonies, rituals and rites. Since the Bible put so much emphasis on the baptism they wrongfully thought that they needed to be baptized to be saved, which means to be regenerated in the waters of baptism.
These are the three errors that caused the separation of fellowship from the true churches and the irregular churches in AD 251.
And you have to remember that through the vision Constantine saw of the fiery burning cross with the words on it saying “Under this you shall conqueror the world.” And as a result of this Constantine gave temporal power to the church and he said with this and their spiritual power they would conqueror the world together. So the marriage between the state and the church happened. And remember also what I have told you that anytime in the history of the world you find the state behind the Church you will find blood.
Now with the sword of the hierarchy and the state behind the irregular church we now will see the “Trail of Blood” is beginning to develop. Anybody that disagreed with them was put to death. We also know at this time there are churches of the Lord Jesus Christ still teaching the truths of God’s word all over the world. They were first called Christians at Antioch then by many other names of the great leaders they had that stood for the truth.
Paulicians…are churches that were organized of the Apostles that went down into Armenia, for Mesopotamia and Persia were they had a lot of success preaching God’s word. They were noted as a people that taught the books of the Pauline epistles. A quote about these people “We establish in perfect faith those who have not holy baptism therefore, according to the word of The Lord we must first bring them into the faith, induce them to repent and give baptism unto them
This was entirely contrary to baptismal regeneration and against what the state church taught and so many of them were found guilty of treason and were killed.
Why were they called Paulicians? Because, of the great interest in the epistles of Paul. They read them and taught them more than many other parts of the Bible. The reason they taught this was they believed people ought to know how they should act in Church.
What about the blood of the Paulicians?
690 AD they had a great man by the name of Constantine who was a great leader and teacher and writer of Word of God. He was stoned to death by the command of the emperor Theodora; she had 100,000 Paulicians put to death. These people who put to death these true believers were thinking they are doing it for God’s sake will one day get their do.
We saw last week in Psalm 116:15 that Precious on the eyes of God is the death of His saints.
The book of Revelation tells us in Chapters 17 & 18 that there will come a time, when God will get His vengeance on that old harlot, the old whore who shed the blood of His saints. Vengeance is coming, and He will put them to death.
Then these Paulicians began to go make their appearance in England. In the year 1154 a body of Germans migrated to England and settle in Oxford. A Pastor of that church and a group of his congregation was stoned to death. And 6 years later there was a group of them that were branded with a hot iron in their fore heads and publicly whipped and their clothes cut off real short. Then they were driven into the open country to die. The villagers in the area where instructed not to give the food or shelter so many of these froze to death or died of hunger.
This could happen to the USA if we had a state religion. We would have to worship the religion they told us to. If you go against the state religion you would be found guilty of treason and put to death.
DARK AGES ON YOU R MAP: 476-1620.
They were called Dark for many reasons they killed 100,000,000 people in that time. That works out to 8,000,000 people every 100 years. It was called Dark because their were times when they tried to gather all the manuscripts and writings and burn them and lock them up so no one could find them. The Hierarchy thought, lets get rid of the Bibles and they could not and would not be able to study them and we can convert them to our church. Were the Bible has been proclaimed there is Light, no Bible ignorance. The Bible brings light into the dark world. Today there are only 30 know manuscripts left. By the way you really need to make sure of the kind of Bible you read from. Many of the new translations are made form the irregular churches who do not believe like the true churches of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Back then they had informers from the irregular churches that would seek out the places were the Paulicians were meeting and find writings and turn them for rewards. After this the pastors of those churches and some of the congregation people were put to death and the writings would be destroyed.
But praises be to God, He still had faithful people to stand for the truth.
“THE OUTWARD MANIFESTATION OF THE INVISIBLE BATTLE GOING ON BETWEEN SATAN AND GOD.”
WERE THERE IS TRUTH THERE IS BLOOD AND WERE THERE IS NO TRUTHT THERE IS NO BLOOD.
If a man came on the scene and he began to teach the truth he would be found out and condemned and beheaded or nailed to a stake and burned and killed in many was. This went on and on and on.
In the days of the great reformation they were taught to reform them. But he Bible says to come out from among them and be ye separate says The Lord.
I have made reference that the Roman Catholic Church is not today what it used to be. It has developed over the years. Let’s look at some changes over a few years.
600 AD… Latin became the language they used in mass and messages from the bishops. Prayers directed to the many dead saints and angels. If during these days some one said I pray to Jesus they would be killed.
607 AD… The title Pope (which means universal Bishop) Now can’t you see why some who said Peter was the first Pope did not know what they were taking about. All the bishops everywhere had to go through the Pope to get the ok to do anything he was the final authority.
709 AD…kissing the Popes foot was instituted. He is the universal king. Today you see people kiss his ring his hand and feet. If you find one of our fore fathers who did not do this you would find his head in a box.
750 AD…Temporal power given to the Pope, he had power over all the emperors.
786 AD… worship of the cross and images and relics were authorized for you to bow down to and worship.
850 AD… Holy water and a pinch of Salt and blessed by the bishop was introduced into the service. (What is holy water?)
Anybody again that opposed these things was put to death because you were opposing the world..
890 AD… Worship of Saint Joseph
927 AD… College of the Cardinals established. They are like the President of the USA and his congress.
998 AD… Fasting on Friday and during Lent was made into law. Fasting ought to be voluntary not a law. Fasting is a time when you get so wrapped up in a thing God has laid on your heart that you just don’t want anything to eat.
11th Century… Mass attendance is made Mandatory, you come to mass and before you go out and drink, commit adultery you confess your sins and get blessed and it will then be ok. In the Roman Catholic Church they have “absolution” (the power to forgive sins when a Pope takes office he becomes god on earth the only one who can forgive sin) to forgive sins the only church that has that power.
1079 AD…Celibacy became order. No bishop could be married. That is why there is so much immorality in the Roman Catholic Church. The Bible says Marriage is honorable and the Bible also says in 1St Corinthians 7:9, it is better for a man to marry than to burn. That is in the lust for sex. Every person has the natural urge for sex. This has proven to be a downfall for the Catholic Church. Over 50% of all the Popes have been homosexuals. All this kind of changes is of the devil.
1090 AD…Rosary the mechanical praying with beads was invited by Peter the Hermit. A man living in a cave by himself came up with this ideal of having beads together and praying with them. There is nothing in the Bible anywhere that comes anywhere close to this practice.
1190 AD…sale of indulgences, is the way of purchasing forgiveness of sins and the permission to indulge in sin. If you had enough money you could purchase anything.
Let me close this section and stop and Praise God for the fact that during all this going on. He had a people that would not budge on the truths of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, even if it meant them losing their life.
Don’t ever belittle your church or the Word of God.
We ought to be thankful and pray this does not happen to us or our children one day. If it does we need to be prepared, we need strong faith in Jesus Christ if persecution came to churches today.
If this happen to our church I am afraid some would leave our ranks and I know some would not waver on their faith. How about you, is your faith solid? Do you love your church? Do you know in whom you have believed in and are persuaded He is able to keep s until that day?
LESSON 6
Revelation 12:6, 15-17
6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
15, So the Serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. 16 but the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her off spring, who keep the commandments of Jesus Christ.
In verse one the first wonder: the kingdom of God represents the rule and righteousness of God and the kingdom of light.
In verse two the second wonder: The dragon represents Satan, the fall of Satan predicted.
In verse five we see the kingdom of Christ bringing forth a man child, the Lord Jesus Christ and we see the child was to rule all nations with a rod of iron and then we see the child was called up unto God into His throne. That is the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ and at that ascension of Christ we see that the woman representing the kingdom of light, the kingdom of God fled into the wilderness and while in the wilderness the old dragon seeing he could not do anything with the child or the Lord Jesus Christ he begins to persecute the children of the kingdom of God.
We see the best evidence of the kingdom of God on earth in the New Testament times in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is there that you see more clearly the rule and reign and sovereignty of God in action.
So really what the Trail of Blood is is the fulfillment of what we have read in verses 15-17 of Revelation Chapter 12. Satan is really persecuting the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some were down the Baptist line, Baptist got cheated out of the interpretation on the book of Revelation but all the old Baptist held to the interpretation I have here explained.
So up to this point in the “Trail of blood” what we have seen is the following of Satan persecution of the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ. With the many errors in falling away from the true teachings set up the First Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
1. Preacher church government
2. The union of church and state
3. Religion by law and degree
4. Baptismal regeneration
5. Infant Baptism
6. Infant communion
7. Mariolatry
8. Worship of images
9. Praying to saints
10. The doctrine of celibacy
11. The Doctrine of Transubstantiation
12. The doctrine of Purgatory
13. The doctrine of Church Salvation
We are going to see 3 more in this lesson the doctrine of auricular confession, the doctrine of papal infallibility and the doctrine of Indulgencies (selling men the right to commit sin).
When true churches failed what the false churches wanted them to do, they must answer to the government or the Lord and they brought about persecution and blood shed.
All through these years up to now I have tried the best I know how to show you how irregular churches added new doctrines and I will try to keep you informed as we go through the years and each lesson when and why they were added.
By the way in 869 there were differences that caused the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church that caused a split and they are still split today. And I think this is a good time to explain the differences between the two churches.
1. In Nationalities: The Greeks, speaking in Greek, and are in Greece, Russia, Bulgaria, Serbia as a few. The Romans are mainly Latin and speak in Latin embracing Italy, France, Spain, South and Central Mexico.
2. The Greeks rejected sprinkling or pouring for baptism. The Roman use sprinkling entirely, claiming the right to change from the original Bible plan of immersion.
3. The Greek Catholics continue the practice o Infant Communion. The Romans have abandoned it though once taught it as another means of Salvation.
4. The Greeks have their priests or marry. The Roman priests are forbidden to marry.
5. The Greeks reject the doctrine of Papal “Infallibility.” The Romans accept and insist upon that doctrine.
6. The Lord’s Supper the Greeks give the bread and wine to all the people in the church, the Romans the priest can drink the wine (he drinks, I am told enough for everybody) and all the people are served the bread.
The above are the main point the Creek and the Roman Catholic Churches disagree on and if they could settle them they could stand together. In the last few years as early as 35-40 years ago they tried to unite but they failed. Let me say this, in the time of the Tribulation period they will be united. There will be one world church.
So we are at the 12th century, and again I have tried to point out all the points on the top and the bottom of the chart to cover everything on the chart from the early century until this time from bottom to top.
We now are going to talk about our ancestors. Who are we? Where did we come from? Individually we can look up a family tree we need only the follow our blood line. If I wounded a deer if I follow its blood trail I can find it. If we can do that with the churches we would come back to the Church the Lord Jesus Christ built. Even though they may be called by different names they all were of the same doctrines.
PETROBRUSIANS: in the 12th century, they were named after a man by the name of Peter de Bruys, he was a able minister among those were of the Cathari people (these believed in being pure) He lived what he preached, he spoke out against immorality as it existed in that day in the Hierarchy churches. The Petrobrusians were located in France. They believed the same as our fore fathers and the same as we believe today. Peter spoke out against the people about worshiping images, and relics and crucifixes and he became very successful at leading people to the Lord and so finally the pope had him burned to death on a bunch of cut up crosses. In the year 1126 AD
HENRICIANS: Henry of Toylouse, he was a friend of Peter de Bruys for about 10 years and when Peter died or was burned to death Henry became the one the people followed because they believed the same truths Peter de Bruys.
You know it want be long until we will not be called Baptist, because the Baptist do not believe what I am teaching right now. As a matter of fact we are called fundamentalist, independents, southern Baptist adding all these things to our Baptist identification. Some day we will just be called Ana-Baptist. It might be a good idea to start right now and re-baptize every person who wants to join our church to make sure they have the right baptism. We don’t know what other churches believe any more.
In 1148 AD, Henry was cast into prison and he and died in prison. He believed the same things as our fore fathers did about the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
ARNOLDISTS: Arnold of Bresica, he was quite a fellow and preacher in northern Italy. He preached against the three main doctrines the Roman Catholic Church. The wrong government, wrong baptism, and spoke about the evils of the Catholic Church so he was run out of Italy. He went to France about the time of the inquisition. (We will talk this about later) because he preached against the irregular churches and the government. So he was run out of France to Switzerland. He had a lot of converts there and so the Pope Alexandria had a treaty set up with Fredrick Barbarosa and in that treaty it was stated that Arnold had to be surrendered and he was executed. The bloody trail continues in it is our bloody history, blood shed by our enemies.
Folks you get right down to it and tell the people the truth about this they would want to kill you or cut your throat. You tell someone about the doctrine of eternal security they will want to fight you. I tell them in John 3:16 Jesus says if you believe in Him you shall never perish but have everlasting life and I ask them if you don’t believe what Jesus said that you possess everlasting life as soon as you believe in Him, that you are calling Jesus a liar and by the way the Bible says it is impossible for God to lie.
There are a lot of people who will not even want to talk to you, I can remember when I was just a young Christian and me an Leonard Neal were out going door to door and this man came to the door and looked like he was possessed or something and he said you get out of here you bunch of Jesus freaks. We about fell off the porch and it scared us to death we had never had anything like that happen to us.
People don’t want to hear the truth of about Jesus and the Bible.
Let me state one other thing about the Arnoldists. The enemy wrote in history what they believed in as a charge against them and it is right down the line of what the first church our Lord Jesus Christ started. It could be used by any true believe Baptist church today as their Doctrinal Statement.
Look at your chart all these brothers in the red circles were teaching the same things the churches in the first century taught and we teach today and will be taught until the Lord Jesus Christ comes back again because He said the Gates of Hell shall not be able to stop it.
People that say "there are where no Baptist in those days." don’t know what they are talking about. There have been people who believe like us all the way back to Jesus.
I have stated several times in this study that the Catholic Church is developing all the time.
Well in 1215 AD the Roman Catholic Church introduced another doctrine into law, Auricular confession it means to whisper into the ear of the Priest. What you are doing is confessing your sins into the ear of the Priest. It became religious dogma. Everyone had to go to the priest on a regular basis and confess to the priest. Primarily it was a practice instituted to head off rebellion. It was a means by which Rome could keep informed on what was going on. It was an intelligent move, and that is what it is today. The information wires of the world head up in Rome. They teach this to young children as soon as they can set them upon their knee. They are taught you go to the priest (and were trained on how to the get this information out of them) and priest and turn you heart wrong side out on a regular occasions to a father confessor, if you believe that you would go to Hell if you did not tell him everything you knew, you would tell him everything. (Example of a switchboard operator)
Two points about this Auricular Confession
1. It is no wonder why there is so much immorality in the Catholic priests, they hear all the filth and they have to do something to satisfy their lusts.
2. When a priest knows all this stuff about another person, that priest can blackmail them into doing what ever he desires. That person becomes a slave to the church. This is how the Hierarchy fells up the churches and monasteries with slave labor. This is a thing of the devil.
TRANSUBSANTIATION: Became doctrine under Pope Innocent III. He claimed when the Priest would speak in Latin words over the bread and the wine they would turn literally into the body and blood of Jesus. (This is where the term HOCUS POCUS came from). You just don’t know how many of our fore fathers who spoke against this lost their lives.
Let me just say something about Heritage Baptist Church, we are a peculiar people in Lexington Kentucky. We stood up for the Lords Supper and the Baptist baptism ( the two ordinances of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ) and it caused us to split from people we loved there was families that split and friends that split for these reasons.
But praise God we stood for the truth. Ever heard the phrase “I will stick with you through thick or thin” will when you get into the thick of it you will find you will be every thin.
I need to say some things about The Lord’s Supper. This is another battle ground in which a lot of our fore fathers lost their lives also. I have heard some people say that is the Lord’s Table not yours. If a man is a heretic on Baptism he will invariably be a heretic on the Lord’s Supper also,
The Lord’s Supper belongs to the Church (1st Cor. 11:2) The Lord’s Table is inside the church (1st Cor. 11:18) not outside of it. It is not a social affair. It is not a social institution. Someone once said it is a sin if you don’t invite everybody to the Lord’s Table, Well the Lord didn’t do it. It is a pretty big matter. If you get right on the Lord’s Table you will be right on the other things but if you are off on the Lords Table you will off on other things,
Think of it this way, do you invite everybody to your table at home? Of course you don’t. Then, why do you think we should invite everybody to the Lord’s Table. You think more of your own table than you do of The Lord’s Table. The Lord’s Supper belongs to the church.
The church is an assembly of baptized believers. Not just any Baptist can come into our church and partake of the Lord’s Supper with us and we cannot go to another Baptist church and take it with them. It is for the members of that local assembly.
Christ’s church had Christ as it Head: The New Birth as its gate; baptism as the door of service; the Lord’s Supper on the Lord’s Table in the Lord’s House.
1229 AD Bible was forbidden to church people. The only one’s who could read it were the clergy or officers of the church. It is still that way today in most Catholic Churches, some have said it is ok, not many. Do you know why they decided this? Because if the common people read the scriptures you know what would happen? They would find out that the Catholic Church has been lying to them. Then they would question the priest and challenge their authority. Jesus said search the Scriptures for in them you will find the truth. We are not to withhold the scriptures but encourage people to read them.
In 1245 Pope Innocent IV excommunicated Emperor Frederick of Germany. This shows you how much power the Pope has.
ALBIGENESE: These ancestors and we are very proud of them. There is a group of mountains in the south of France and borders Northern Spain 300 miles long and 100 miles wide. Remember back through history all the people that got run out and had to escape for their lives. This is they all ended up and there is an estimate of 800, 000 to 3,500,00o million people there converting people to Jesus.
We are Ana-Baptist we do re baptize people. We are not mean and we make no apologies about this. We have to answer to almighty God. We have convictions about what we believe and we have to stand for those convictions. And to stand for those convictions is what we will do.
All our fore fathers died of a worthy cause. We should be willing to stand of the truths given to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You may be here and even a member here and you really have not had the experience of the new birth and if so you will when you die or when the Lord comes back go to hell. You have to repent of your sins; Jesus says if you will confess your sins that He will be faithful and just to forgive you of you sins. If you are saved and don’t have our Baptism you don’t have the Baptism measuring up to the requirements of the word of God. We invite you to come and talk with us and we will show you from the word of God what you should do.
