The Great City Devastated - 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, and the kings of the earth committed fornication with her, and the traveling merchants of the earth became rich due to th power of her shameless luxury." (Revelation 18:3)  She has indoctrinated all nations of mankind in her unclean religous ways.  In ancient Babylon, according to Greek historian Herodotus, each maiden was requirred to prostitute her virginity in tempel worship.  Revolting sexual corruption is portrayed to this day in the war-damaged scultures at Ankor Wat in Kampuchea ab nd in the temples at 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. 

We have already reviewed the illicit  religio-political relationship  that catapulted Hiler into power in Nazi Germany.  Other nations also suffered because of religion's meddling in secular affairs.  For example, In Fascist Italy, on February 11, 1929, the Laterian 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." Was 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 practice 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 Vaticaan in the Age of Dictators, Anthony Rhodes reports:  

In his  pastorial letter of the 19th of October [1935], the Bishop of Udine [Italy] wrote, 'It is neither timely nor fitting for us to pronounc on the rights and wrongs  of the case.  Our duty as Italians, and still more as Christians is to contribute to the success of our arms.'  The Biship of Padua wrote on the 21st  October,  'In the difficult hours through which we are passing, we ask you to have faith in our statesmen and armed forces.'  On the 24th October, the Bishop of these soldiers who, on African soil, will conquer new fertile lands for the  Italian genius, thereby giving to them Roman and Catholic culture.  May Italy stand once again as the Christian mentor to the whole world.

Abyssinia was raped, with the blessing of the Roman Catholic clergy. Could any of these claim, in  any sense they were like the apostle Pau in being "clean from the blood of all men"?  - ACTS 20:26. 

Add to Germany, Italy, and Abyssin another nation  that has fallen victim to the fornication of Babylon the Great-Spain. The Civil War of 1936-39 in that land was sparked, in part, by the democrat goverment's taking steps to reduce the huge power of the Roman Catholic Church. As the war  got under way, the Catholic Fascist  leader of the revolutionary forces,Franco, described himself   as "The Christiana Generalissimo of the Holy Crusuade," a title that he later dropped. Several hundred thousand Spainards died in the fighting. Apart from this, according to a conserative estimate, Franco's Nationalists had murdered 40,000 Popular Front members, while the latter had murdered 8,000 clerics-monks, priests, nuns, and novices.  Such is the horror and tragedy of civil war, illustrating the wisdom of heeding Jesus' words:  "Return your sword to its place, for all thoses who take the sword will die by the perish by the sword." (Matthew 26:52)  How disgusting  that Christendo gets involved in such massive bloodshed!  Here clergy have indeed  failed utterly to "beat their swords into plowshares"! -  ISAIAH 2:4.

Next time: The Great City Devastated - The Traveling Merchants

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