If there are Protestants or Catholics reading this thread please contribute to the discussion. This is not a discussion about the existence of God but about eschatology.
"Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.'Daniel 12v10
In the book of Revelation there are two woman who represent religious systems. One woman in Revelation 17 is riding a beast. The beast represents a political power, a government.
I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her. Rev. 17v7
The woman controls the beast. What are we seeing today, right now? The woman riding the beast.
President Reagan appointed Scalia and Kennedy, both Catholic. Then, the first President Bush appointed Clarence Thomas. The second Bush further appointed Samuel Alito and John Roberts. Now we have 5. But, there are more, president Obama appointed Sonia Sottomayor, a Catholic. Now we have 6. The rest are Jewish, Breyer, Ginsburg, Kagan. There is not a true protestant on the supreme court. In 2000 32% of the governors where Catholic. But then, in 2005 44% where Catholic. In 2008 it went to 50%. In the first congress in 1789 there was only one Catholic. In the 110th congress (2009) there are 161 Catholics, 54 graduating from Jesuit Universities.
Revelation 13 speaks of a new beast and this beast creates an image to the beast. What does this mean? It is the unholy alliance of apostate protestantism uniting with the Catholic church enforcing laws that will destroy liberty of conscience. They will try to legislate religion by making people worship on Sunday on penalty of not being able to buy or sell. Has not happened yet but it is SO OBVIOUS this is the direction we are headed.
Pat Robertson said this
Its not the duty of any particular group of people, it's not the duty of the church, but its the duty of the government of its people to thus proclaim a day as Sabbath to be universally observed throughout the length and breath of our land Sunday as the Lord's day. If we as a nation would escape the doldrums of increased trouble as God's hand rest heavily upon his people opposition to Sunday nationally declared must cease
Remember unholy alliance of the Protestants with the Catholics, image to the beast.
This is history repeating itself.
During the first three-hundred years of Christianity, Christians were outlawed because the Roman emperors, in their office as Pontifex Maximus ("Supreme Pontiff"), protected the state religion for the sake of civil unity in Roman society. It is estimated that three million Christians perished in the first three centuries of the Christian Era. Those persecutions had come in two major waves, under Decius and Diocletian. After the last great persecution had ended (303-312), Emperor Constantine suddenly reversed the whole situation with his famous Imperial Edict of 313, which allowed the Christian religion to exist legally beside the traditional religion. In 321 he imposed on all peoples the civil observance of Sunday, as the Dies Solis ("Day of the Sun"). As patron of the church (calling himself "the bishop of bishops"), Constantine summoned the first ecumenical council of Nicea in 325. He introduced then the practice of subscription to the articles of a written creed and of civil punishments for a refusal to do so. It is the first occurrence of a civil punishment of heresy. This Roman emperor thus elevated the Catholic hierarchy and its exclusive orthodoxy as the state religion of the Roman Empire. All offenses against the church were now regarded as crimes against the state.
