The History of the Counter-Reformation in a Nutshell

January 9, 2024 James Arendt

A friend asked me to write about the Counter-Reformation as succinctly as possible because he wanted to add pictures to the text. Most of the materials in this article have been compiled from other articles on this website.

Let’s start off with definitions:

The Protestant Reformation

The 16th-century movement that was started by Martin Luther. Entire European nations protested against the abuses of the Roman Catholic church, endeavored to reform it, refused to continue to submit to the Pope, and sought to base their Christian beliefs and worship of God solely on what the Bible teaches, and not on Roman church traditions.

The Counter-Reformation

The Roman Catholic Church’s reaction to the Protestant Reformation and its efforts to undo it.

A brief history behind the two movements
Martin Luther

Martin Luther (10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymn writer, professor, and Augustinian friar. He was the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation.

Luther turned to the prophecies of the “little horn” of Daniel 7:8, the “man of sin” of II Thessalonians 2:3, and “the beast” of Revelation 13. He saw the truth and said to himself, “Why, these prophecies apply to the Roman Catholic Church!”

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther posted on the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany, a statement of 95 points called the Ninety-five Theses, which protested against the sale of indulgences by the Church. According to Catholic doctrine, an “indulgence” is a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for forgiven sins. Luther wrote the sale of indulgences is an unbiblical practice that only enriches the Vatican and does nothing for the soul. Because of the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg in the previous century, the Ninety-five Theses was reprinted and distributed to all the nations of Europe. The kings and princes of the nations who agreed with Luther subsequently left the Roman Catholic Church, and this resulted in a substantial loss of income for the Vatican! Catholic nations are usually poorer than Protestant ones because of the sale of indulgences and paying the Church money for other fruitless unbiblical practices such as masses for the dead.

Besides identifying the prophecies of the Antichrist as the office of the papacy, Luther also discovered that salvation is only through faith in Jesus Christ and not through works or the Catholic sacraments as the Church of Rome insists. He discovered the truth of Romans 1:17 that salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ alone.

Seven Events Evangelicals Incorrectly Believe Will be Fulfilled in the Endtime

November 28, 2023

My friend Luke shared the below with me. If you study Eschatology from the Bible, you should know that the following doctrines most evangelicals hold to be true are based on a false interpretation of Daniel 9:27, namely, the Antichrist will make a treaty with the Jews and Israel for a 7-year period during which he will allow the Jews to rebuild the temple of Solomon. Please know that this doctrine was created by a Jesuit priest circa 1585, and was rejected by Protestants until sometime in the 19th century through Jesuit infiltration into Protestant churches and seminaries. It began when Darby and Scofield taught dispensationalism. The purpose was to sidetrack Protestantism and to get the Protestants’ eyes off the Pope and the Papacy as the true Antichrist of the Bible. Did it work? You know it did!

I was asked to give confirming Scriptures for all these points. Normally verses are given to teach a doctrine. In this case, I will show how Daniel 9:27 was incorrectly interpreted to support popular but false Endtime doctrines.

My comments of Daniel 9:27 in parenthesis show what Protestants up to the beginning of the 19th century used to teach and believe.

"
And he (Jesus Christ) shall confirm (not make) the (definite article) covenant (the Covenant God made with Abraham, not a treaty as modern translations say) with many (Jews) for one week (seven years): and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease (when Jesus was crucified 3 1/2 years after He began His ministry, He became the ultimate sacrifice for sin which ended the need for animal sacrifice. The second 3 1/2 year period was the ministry of the Apostles to the Jews up to the stoning of Stephen and the calling of Paul to give the Gospel to the Gentiles.), and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (The destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple 40 years later.) — Daniel 9:27

"

1. There is no seven-year countdown to Armageddon – prophesied in the Bible. The Scripture used to support a final 7 years is Daniel 9:27: And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week… Protestant Christians up to the 19th century used to teach the seven-year confirmation of the Covenant was fulfilled in Christ and His Apostles up to the stoning of Stephen.
2. There is no Antichrist seven-year Middle East peace covenant – prophesied in the Bible. The Scripture used to support a Middle East peace covenant is Daniel 9:27: And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week… Protestant Christians up to the 19th century used to teach the Covenant is the same Covenant of Daniel 9:4, namely the Covenant that God made with Abraham.
3. There is no rebuilt Jewish temple in Jerusalem as a result of a seven-year peace covenant – prophesied in the Bible. Protestant Christians up to the 19th century never taught the Temple would be rebuilt! The idea it will be rebuilt is pure speculation and a wrong interpretation of “and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, ”
4. There is no Antichrist that is going to make or break a seven-year peace covenant – prophesied in the Bible. Protestant Christians up to the 19th century used to teach the “he” of Daniel 9:27 is Jesus, not the Antichrist
5. There is no Antichrist that is going to stop the Jews from sacrificing in the middle of a seven-year peace covenant – prophesied in the Bible. Protestant Christians up to the 19th century never taught that! Part of Daniel 11:31 is used to support this, “and shall take away the daily sacrifice“, but history says it was fulfilled by Antiochus Epiphanes in 168 BC when he set up an altar to the pagan god Zeus in the very temple of God at Jerusalem.
6. There is no Antichrist that is going to sit in a rebuilt Jewish Temple in the middle of a seven-year peace covenant – prophesied in the Bible. Protestant Christians up to the 19th century never taught this. The idea of a rebuilt Temple of Solomon is pure speculation based on the reasoning: “How can the Antichrist stop the Daily Sacrifice when the Daily Sacrifice can only be performed in the Temple? Therefore, the Temple must be rebuilt for the Daily Sacrifice to be resumed in order for the Antichrist to stop it!” This type of interpretation is called eisegesis, or a reading into Scripture something that is not there.
7. There is no Antichrist that is going to declare himself to be god in the middle of a seven-year peace covenant – prophesied in the Bible. This idea came from the wrong interpretation of 2 Thessalonians 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Protestant Christians up to the 19th century used to teach this Scripture is fulfilled by the Popes of Rome. The “temple of God” is the Church, according to the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? The Popes claim to be God / Christ on earth.

For the biblical and historical reason behind this, please see The 70th Week of Daniel Delusion on this website.

Download a PDF file of this article.

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Jesuit Disinformation Agents

October 14, 2023 

James Arendt

Jesuit disinformation is rife on the Internet. The Jesuits are the leaders of the Catholic Counter-Reformation. Their goal is to destroy Bible-based Christianity in the USA and the world. It’s no surprise, therefore, when some people are actively working to divert attention from the Jesuits and call Satan’s work on earth a “Jewish-Masonic cryptocracy.” I’m thinking specifically now about a guy named Timothy Fitzpatrick of fitzinfo dot net. He mocks conspiracy researchers who point to the Jesuits and calls them, “naïve dupes.” He specifically mentions Alexander Hislop, Walter J. Veith, Christian J. Pinto, Tupper Saussy, David Wilcock and Sherman Skolnick whose articles are on this website. But Fitzpatrick exposes himself when he writes such things as,

Documentary filmmaker Christian J. Pinto of Adullam Films pulls out all the tired old slanders against the Church—all for the advancement of the Jewish-Protestant alliance… 

and,

Pinto is your typical Zionist shill accusing the Vatican of everything the world has known for 500-plus years that the Jews are responsible for. Make no mistake, the Vatican is now an agent of the Judeo-Masonic conspiracy, thanks to Jews and masons subverting the Church, especially during the buildup to the Protestant Reformation and the French Revolution, culminating in the Jewish-sponsored Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. But the true Church remains within the fractured Vatican as well as in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Protestantism has and always will be a Jewish perversion, a cheap imitation of the Church of Christ, right down to the sexually depraved Waledensians and Albigensians, whom Pinto specifically defends, giving away his Puritan bias. (Ref: https://fitzinfo.net/2014/04/01/christian-j-pinto-zionist-shill-espousing-what-else-jesuit-conspiracy-theories/)

Wow! Timothy Fitzpatrick is clearly identifying “the Church” as the Roman Catholic Church. And he’s calling Protestantism – which is really only Bible-based faith in Jesus Christ – a “Jewish perversion.” Who else would say that but a Jesuit or a hard-core traditional Catholic?

I believe the primary source of Neo-Nazi antisemitic rhetoric is the Roman Catholic Church. It’s very convenient for the Jesuits to deflect blame of the evils they are doing away from themselves and say, “The Jews did it!”

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying all Jews are guiltless. What I am saying is the Jesuits are using the Jews as scapegoats. Former Catholic priest Leo H. Lehmann gives pretty convincing evidence that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion was written by Jesuits, not Jews!

Articles about that:Evidence of Jesuit authorship of the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion
Authors of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion — Jews? Or Jesuits!

If anybody has any further evidence of the Jesuits / Catholic Church as the source of antisemitism, please share it in the comments section.

Download a PDF file of this article.

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The Effect of the Jesuit Eschatologies on America Today

August 1, 2023 James Arendt

– by Dr. Ronald Cooke
Foreword by the webmaster

I once had a hard copy of this booklet sent to me from a visitor to this website. I lent it to my Baptist pastor hoping he would read it and learn that all the Endtime prophecy stuff he learned in Baptist seminary was bunk and based on Jesuits doctrines. I’m thankful that the pastor himself confesses he is weak in Endtime prophecy and therefore doesn’t teach it from the pulpit. If he did, I wouldn’t be going to his church. Though it’s been over a year now, I don’t think my pastor read it for if he did I’m sure he would have said something to me about it. Before I lent the booklet to the pastor, I scanned the pages to make sure I have a copy. This article is the introduction only. I hope it inspires you to do your own research, and especially so if you don’t agree with what Dr. Cooke is saying.

The emphasis in bold in the text are mine. The images at the beginning of the chapters are not the original images in Dr. Cooke’s book, they’re my own idea.

INTRODUCTION

In closing off this series of Tracts our desire has been to look at how the different errors and deceptions of this present evil age culminate in what the Bible calls Mystery Babylon the Great. Demonstrating that the god of this age has been working in the “church” since Paul wrote his epistle to the Thessalonians mentioning the truth that in his day, the “mystery of iniquity was already at work.”

I do not know what the future holds as far as my life on earth is concerned. My life is now drawing to a close. I have no idea what my future ministry holds for me, nor how long it will continue. But I can, and DO, look at what has occurred in my lifetime, and what is occurring at the present time.

Almost all my American friends are FUTURIST in their eschatology. All my teachers, every last one of them as far as I know, at Trinity College and at Talbot Seminary, were FUTURISTS. As I am now getting older, if not old, many of my friends have already died, and ALL my teachers at Trinity and Talbot, have all died. I think of them still and remember what they taught concerning the Antichrist-the BEAST-of Revelation. They all taught that he would be a coming world dictator who would not appear until after the church was raptured.

I listened with patience to all my teachers at Trinity and at Talbot, who taught me fifty years ago. They warned about the terrible Man of Sin, the last great world dictator who would arise at the very end of the age. They never told me, this view was first set forth by the Jesuit, Francisco Ribera, in 1590.

I have read several works by the Reconstructionists who, taking the Preterist approach to the book of Revelation dismiss Antichrist as a man who existed in the first century of the church, but who has long since disappeared off the face of the earth and so affects NO ONE in America or the world today. This view was first set forth by the Jesuit Luis Alcasar, in 1604. So the two Jesuit views of Antichrist have had a very great impact upon the church in America over the past generation. The view that the Protestant Reformers and Puritans had of the Antichrist has been dismissed both by the Futurist and the Preterists.

I have wrestled with eschatology for more than fifty years. I am not dogmatic on the details of prophecy. There are many details that I have great difficulty fitting into a complete system. However, where the Scriptures reveal clearly the meaning of symbols then I follow what the Scriptures reveal in those areas. In this tract I am looking at the revival of Jesuit teachings in England and America over the past two hundred years. I am also looking more at the impact of the Jesuit eschatologies on American Christianity in my lifetime, than at any complete end-time scenario.

Romanism and the Reformation – H. Grattan Guinness

October 31, 2020 James Arendt

This is an outstanding series of lectures exposing the Roman Catholic Church as “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” of Revelation 17:5. I got the text from PDF file ROMANISM AND THE REFORMATION and posted it here to make it easier to read. If you still doubt the Roman Catholic Church represents Mystery Babylon, rather that knock the idea, why not read at least the first chapter of what Henry Grattan Guiness had to say?

PREFACE


Henry Grattan Guinness – (11 August 1835 – 21 June 1910), an Irish Protestant Christian preacher, evangelist and author.

THE following lectures were delivered, by request, under the auspices of the Protestant Educational Institute, at Exeter Hall, in the spring of this year [1887]. That Institute exists to do a much needed work to keep alive, especially in the hearts of the rising generation, some measure of intelligent sympathy with the Protestant traditions of our country. England’s Protestantism has long been England’s glory, and the direct cause of her unrivaled prosperity and peculiar preeminence among the nations of Europe. That Protestantism is now sustaining a double attack, from without and from within. Yet few seem fully alive to the danger. The late Lord Beaconsfield saw it clearly enough however. “Your empire and your liberties are more in danger at this moment,” he said, “than when Napoleon’s army of observation was encamped at Boulogne.” What would he have said had he lived to see the present position of affairs!

The Reformation of the sixteenth century, which gave birth to Protestantism, was based on Scripture. It gave back to the world the Bible. It taught the Scriptures; it exposed the errors and corruptions of Rome by the use of the sword of the Spirit. It applied THE PROPHECIES, and accepted their practical guidance. Such Reformation work requires to be done afresh. We have suffered prophetic anti-papal truth to be too much forgotten. This generation is dangerously latitudinarian indifferent to truth and error on points on which Scripture is tremendously decided and absolutely clear.
See also Vietnam: Why Did We Go? - By Avro Manhattan

These lectures, simple and popular as they are, will, it is hoped, open many minds to perceive that the Bible gives no uncertain sound as to Romanism, and that those who will be guided by its teachings must shun an apostasy against which the sorest judgments are denounced.

The lectures are given as delivered, with the exception of the first and last, which have been extended and modified. In recasting and enlarging the opening lecture on the Daniel foreview, and the closing one on the Reformation, I have availed myself of the valuable help of my beloved wife, who has for so many years been my fellow laborer both in literary and evangelistic work.

I shall rejoice if these lectures obtain a wide circulation, for they contain, I am sure, truth for the times, truth deeply and increasingly needed, not only for the preservation of the civil and religious liberties of our country and empire, but for the practical guidance of the people of God in these last days.

H. GRATTAN GUINNESS Harley House, Bow, E., June 1st, 1887.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

From the first appearance of these lectures in the form in which they were originally published, I have been urged to produce a cheap popular edition suited for wide-spread distribution. I do so now the more willingly because the need of testimony to Protestant Truth is increasing instead of diminishing. Romanism and Ritualism are making extensive progress year by year, and seriously imperil “The Protestant Religion and Liberties of England.” The duty of diffusing information on the true character and history of “Romanism and the Reformation” is one which presses on God’s faithful people in these days. The apathy of many as to the present crisis only increases the danger, and intensifies the call for clear and cogent teaching suited to counteract the Romeward tendencies of these times. The testimony of Scripture, especially of the “sure word of Prophecy,” should be set forth afresh, as in the days of the Reformation, that those in danger of departing from the faith once delivered to the saints may be warned, and those who have so departed may be delivered. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual, and mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Our combat is with error, therefore let us diffuse the Truth. Books and pamphlets bearing on the questions at issue, and taking the side of Truth, should be circulated by the million. Let our readers do what they can in this direction, without delay, committing the result to Him who has promised that His word shall not return to Him void, but shall accomplish the ends for which He has sent it.
See also Popery - the Accommodation of Christianity to the Natural Heart

H. GRATTAN GUINNESS. HARLEY HOUSE, BOW, LONDON, E. MAY 1ST, 1891.



Contents

Intro

The Daniel Foreview of Romanism
THEOCRACY ON EARTH.
3. PAUL’S FOREVIEW OF ROMANISM
4. JOHN’S FOREVIEW OF ROMANISM
5. INTERPRETATION IN PRE-REFORMATION TIMES
7. INTERPRETATION IN POST-REFORMATION TIMES
8. DOUBLE FOREVIEW OF THE REFORMATION
IT WAS FORESHADOWED IN THE HISTORY OF ISRAEL
A LINE OF FAITHFUL WITNESSES
NEW TESTAMENT PROPHECY OF THE REFORMATION
SEPARATE EVANGELIC CHURCH.
CONCLUDING REMARKS ON THE BEARING OF THE SUBJECT

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The Origins of Dispensational-Futurist Theology – the Jesuit Connection

May 20, 2018 

James Arendt

I got this from http://theologyreview.com/index.php?topic=7011.0 I consider it the clearest and most thorough explanation I have heard to date of why evangelicals believe what they believe about the Endtime.

1. The Jesuits created the modern system of dispensational futurism. Although the Jesuits derived certain aspects of this myth from “futuristic elements” embedded in the teachings of the early church fathers, the evidence is clear that they elaborated the elements of this myth from the early church fathers as a tool to destroy and counter the Protestant Reformation by attempting to lift the heat off the Papacy as the identity of Antichrist.

2. The theological elements of Futurism are derived from the extra-biblical writings, such as: The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, The Sibylline Oracles, Baruch, 1st and 2nd Esdras, T. Levi, The Ascension of Isaiah, etc. etc.

3. The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha writings were written by Hellenistic Jews. These Jews mixed Babylonian, Persian, and Greek paganism with Judaism.

4. Long before the first advent of Christ, mystical Jews believed that an anti-messiah would come and oppose the Messiah; the anti-messiah was called “Beliar”; and he was believed to be the devil incarnate in human form.

5. The early Church Fathers such as Ireneaus, Hippolytus, Apollinaris and others, borrowed Futurist elements from these mythical, pseudepigraphal writings, which served to shape their views of end-time events.

6. The Jesuits created Futurism from the Beliar myth found in these writings, indicating that modern Dispensational Futurist theology is nothing more than pagan mythology convoluted around real scripture.

7. The Protestants of the Reformation era knew about this fable, and Protestants separated the real Bible from the extra-Biblical writings.

8. When the Protestants studied the Bible without the fables of the Catholic Church fathers – the Beliar myth – they clearly identified the Papacy as the Antichrist.

9. Modern Protestant Churches the world over have abandoned the Protestant Reformation, and they now teach Catholic theology from the Council of Trent which commenced in 1545 A.D. The Jesuit Cardinals Francisco Ribera (1537-1591) and Robert Bellarmino (1542-1621) in the 16th and 17th centuries were foremost at setting out to accomplish this Protestant destroying task in scraping every bit of knowledge they could formulate from the Early Church Fathers to concoct and repackage the fantastical Jesuit scheme of Futurism. Jesuit Cardinal Manuel de Lacunza in the early 19th century, also an advocate of Futurism, deliberately attempted to take the pressure off the papacy by proposing that the Antichrist was still off in the future, and also laid the foundation for much of modern-day dispensational ideology. On the other hand, the Spanish Jesuit Luis de Alcazar (1554-1613) in the 16th and 17th century was set to the task of concocting the Preterist scheme. Both schemes blossomed about the same time and successfully got the “heat” off the Papacy from detection of Antichrist. It took about 300 years before the Protestant world allowed itself to become infected by these two deadly viruses. Dr. Maitland, James H. Todd, Henry Newman (who later became a Catholic Cardinal after accepting Futurism), Irving, and later Darby and Scofield all came to accept major elements of Ribera’s and Bellarmine’s fantastical views of a singled-out, future, one-man Antichrist (stemming from the Beliar myth that comes from Persian dualism and Zoroastrianism) as well as the incredible disjointed “gap” theory by which the Jesuits adopted from Hippolytus’ erroneous construing of the first 69 units, or weeks of years, as reaching from the first year of Cyrus (or Darius the Mede) to the incarnation of Christ–a chronological impossibility without elongating the period. This “faulty reasoning” of Hippolytus inspired modern Futurism’s “gap” theory.

10. Dispensationalism is simply another branch of Catholicism—developed by the Jesuits in the Counter Reformation. After all is said and done, the Roman Catholic Jesuits must still be identified as being responsible for concocting and inventing the Futurist schemes of prophetic interpretation seen so rampant today in the Protestant and Evangelical world. Why? Because they concocted their Futurist interpretations based on outdated futuristic elements embedded in the teachings of the Church Fathers who thought the world would end no later than AD 500, not to mention many of their Futuristic views were shaped through the lenses of the extra-Biblical, Psuedepigraphal books written by uninspired authors. After the passing of some 1000 years, the Protestant Reformers were able to look back in retrospect comparing history with prophecy and were clearly able to see the manifestation of Antichrist and that Little Horn of Daniel 7 in the Roman Church State.

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Exergesis vs Eisergesis of Interpretation of Bible Prophecy

April 7, 2018 James Arendt




Did you know that most evangelicals today believe interpretations of the prophecies of Daniel, Matthew 24, and the Book of Revelation that are based not on what the Bible says, but what John Nelson Darby (18 November 1800 – 29 April 1882) and C.I. Scofield (August 19, 1843 – July 24, 1921) says it means?

Scofield’s Endtime teaching is based on Darby’s teaching. Darby read into Bible prophecy stuff that is not there! Sound Bible prophecy interpretation should be based on what is called, “exegesis” which comes from Greek and it means “to lead out”. Exegesis means to interpret a text by way of a thorough analysis of its content. In other words, we should stick with what the Bible says it says and not insert our own ideas based on assumptions.

John Nelson Darby, C.I. Scofield, and most modern Bible prophecy interpreters have have used a method of interpretation called, “eisegesis” which is the process of interpreting a text or portion of text in such a way that the process introduces one’s own presuppositions, agendas, or biases into and onto the text. This is commonly referred to as reading into the text.

Let me give you examples of eisegesis:
The 70th Week of Daniel being ripped off from the first 69 weeks and thrown into the future.
The “he” of Daniel 9:27 interpreted as the Antichrist.
The word “confirm” of the KJV changed to “make” in modern translations.
The “covenant” interpreted as something the Antichrist will make with the Jews in the Endtime. It is also called “treaty” in some modern Bible translations.
The “one week” interpreted as the last 7 years of Satan’s reign through the Antichrist.
“He shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease” interpreted as the Antichrist breaking the covenant with the Jews, stopping all animal sacrifice, and declaring himself to be God.