Passion-Arousing Wine

The mighty angel next calls attention to the broad extent of the harlotry of Babylon the Great, proclaiming: "For because of the passion-arousing wine of her fornication" all the nations have fallen victim,m and the kings of the earth committed fornication with her, and the traveling merchants of the earth became rich due to the power of her shameless luxury." (Revelation 18:3) She has indoctrinated all nations of mankind in her unclean religious ways. In ancient Babylon, according to Greek historian Herodotus, each maiden was required to prostitute her virginity in temple worship. Revolting sexual corruption is portrayed to this day in the war-damaged Buddhist sculptures at Angkor Wat in Kampuchea and in the temples of Khajuraho, India, which show the Hindu god Vishnu surrounded by disgusting erotic scenes. in the United States, the disclosures of immorality that shook the world of TV evangelists in 1987, and again in 1988, as well as the revelation of the widespread practice of homosexuality by ministers of religion, illustrate that even Christendom tolerates shocking excesses of literal fornication. Yet, all the nations have fallen victim to an even more serious kind of fornication in this 20th century.

We have already reviewed the illicit relgio-political relationship that catapulted Hitler into power in Nazi Germany. Other nations have also suffered because of religion's meddling in secular affairs. For example: If Fascist Italy, on February 11, 1929, the Lateran Treaty was signed by Mussolini and Cardinal Gasparri, making Vatican City a sovereign state. Pope Pius XI claimed that he had "given Italy back to God, and God back to Italy." What that the truth? Consider what happened six years later. On October 3, 1935, Italy invaded Abyssinia, claiming that it was "a barbarous land which still practices slavery." Who, really, was being barbarous? Did the Catholic Church condemn Mussolini's barbarity? While the pope issued ambiguous statements, his bishops were quite vocal in blessing the armed forces of their Italian "fatherland." In the book The Vatican in the Age of the Dictation, Anthony Rhodes reports:

Next time: Continue with Passion-Arousing Wine.