Eusebius goes on to relate, later, that Satan the devil, "the enemy of man's salvation, in a wily attempt to capture the imperial city [Rome] in time, brought there Simon who was mentioned earlier, and by lending his own weight to the man's artful impostures took possession of many people in Rome and led them astray" (p. 85-86).

Eusebius quotes Justin, who lived soon after the original apostles, and who wrote of this same Simon, as follows:

"After the Lord was taken up into heaven the demons put forward a number of men who claimed to be gods. These not only escaped being persecuted by you, but were actually the objects of worship -- for example Simon, a Samaritan from a village called Gittho, who in Claudius Caesar's time, thanks to the art of the demons who possessed him, worked wonders of magic, and in your imperial city of Rome was regarded as a god, and like a god was honored by you with a statue in the River Tiber between the two bridges. It bears the inscription in Latin, SIMONI DEO SANCTO. Almost all Samaritans, and a few from other nations too, acknowledged him as their principal god, and worship him. And a woman named Helen, who traveled around with him at that time and had previously lived in a brothel, they call the First Emanation from him" (p. 85-86).

Eusebius describes the teaching and success of this apostolic impostor Simon Magus, and in so doing gives us a horrible glimpse into the workings of the mind of Satan, and his master plot to subvert and destroy the true Church of YEHOVAH God, by replacing it with his own widespread, easy, popular version of "Christianity"! He writes of this diabolical figure who rose up just a few years after the Church itself began:

"Simon, we are given to understand, was the PRIME AUTHOR OF EVERY HERESY. From his time to our own those who follow his lead, while pretending to accept that sober Christian philosophy which through purity of life has won universal fame, are as devoted as ever to the IDOLATROUS SUPERSTITION from which they seemed to have escaped: they prostrate themselves before pictures and IMAGES of Simon himself and his companion, the Helen already mentioned, and give themselves to worshipping them with incense, sacrifices, and libations" (ibid., p. 86-87).

As long as the original apostles were alive, the success of Simon was limited. But the seeds of apostasy and heresy which he sowed with such great success, especially in Samaria and in Rome, the capital of paganism and the Empire, sprouted and bore evil fruit in the generations to come, as his neo-pagan form of "Christianity" infiltrated the nominal and lukewarm churches throughout the Empire.

The apostles were very concerned that this type of thing would occur. Paul warned the church at Ephesus, the major capital city of Asia Minor, "For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them" (Acts 20:29-30).

"Another JESUS" Foretold!

Paul warned the church in Corinth, "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth ANOTHER JESUS, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit [masquerading as the holy spirit, but a demonic spirit!], which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him" (II Corinthians 11:3-4).

By 58 A.D., the apostle Paul marveled that the churches in Galatia were already departing from the true faith. He admonished them, "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto ANOTHER GOSPEL: which is not another, but some pervert the gospel of Christ" (Galatians 1:6-7).

Seeing how rife and surreptitious the fledgling but powerful and growing pernicious apostasy was already in his own day, the spirit of YEHOVAH God inspired the apostle Paul to warn that in the LAST DAYS before the appearance of the Messiah, that the "mystery of iniquity" which was "already at work" in his own day -- the secret, underground, hidden, invisible flames of apostasy and heresy -- would in the end time burst forth with renewed energy and vigor, "with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved" (II Thessalonians 2:7-10). The world would suffer "strong delusion" in the end times, Paul wrote, "that they should believe the lie" -- the same old "lie" Satan the devil has always palmed off on mankind, to worship him as "light bringer," that man himself is already a "god," and there is no need of the Creator -- all the world's religions are fine, and good, and should dwell together in mutual respect, acceptance, and "unity."

Paul prophesied that in the "last days" there would be a "form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away" (II Timothy 3:1-5). The great existing religious entity would merely be a "form" -- a shell -- a hollow pretense! It would be a fraud, a sham, a masquerade -­ which the apostle John speaks of as the "synagogue [or assembly, Greek] of SATAN" pretending to be the universal, real, only true "church of God" (see Revelation 2:9; 3:9). This great false church, masquerading as YEHOVAH's true Church, was begun almost two thousand years ago by Simon Magus, the arch heresiarch, and continues down to us today, as the "mystery of iniquity," but which YEHOVAH God calls in His Word "the synagogue of Satan," and "the great HARLOT" (Revelation 17:5).

In essence, Satan's church, and his world Empire centered at Rome, co-opted the Messiah -­ they spiritually "hijacked" the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua of Nazareth, and carried him off to Rome, where they completely changed him -- repudiated his teachings, renounced his Judahiteness, rejected his Father's Law, the Torah, and his message of the Kingdom of YEHOVAH God to come -- and replaced these vital elements of the true gospel with their own "laws" and customs, introduced pagan holidays and days of worship and renamed them "Christian," brought in worship of images and pictures, just as Simon Magus did, and pictured the Messiah as a Roman "savior" instead -- with aquiline features, brooding blue eyes, the very image of the pagan Adonis or Apollo, the pagan god of revelry and wine!

Alexander Hislop describes the descent into paganism this way:

"The festival, of which we read in Church history, under the name of Easter, in the third or fourth centuries, was quite a different festival from that now observed in the Romish Church, and at that time was not known by any such name as Easter. It was called Pasch [Passover], or the Passover, and...was very early observed by many professing Christians...That festival agreed originally with the time of the Jewish Passover...That festival was not idolatrous, and it was preceded by no Lent. 'It ought to be known,' said Cassianus, the monk of Marseilles, writing in the fifth century, and contrasting the primitive Church with the Church in his day, 'that the observance of the forty days had no existence, so long as the perfection of that PRIMITIVE CHURCH REMAINED INVIOLATE.' Whence, then, came that observance? The forty days abstinence of Lent was directly BORROWED from the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess....To conciliate the Pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome, pursuing its USUAL POLICY, took measures to get the Christian and Pagan festivals AMALGAMATED, and, by a complicated but skilful adjustment of the calendar, it was found no difficult matter, in general, to get Paganism and Christianity -­ NOW FAR SUNK IN IDOLATRY -- in this as in so many other things, to SHAKE HANDS" (The Two Babylons, p.104-105).

In the first few hundred years of the Church, the vast majority of members were seduced by the devil's clever campaign to insert paganism into the mixture. Millions were lead astray. The apostle Paul had predicted it would happen. He warned, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto FABLES" (II Timothy 4:3-4). Peter himself warned, "There shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies...And MANY shall follow their pernicious ways" (II Peter 2:1-2). He added, "Through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you" (v. 3). The apostle John warned, "Many false prophets are gone out into the world" (I John 4:1). He declared, "Ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists" (I John 1:18). He warned in his second epistle, "For many deceivers are entered into the world" (II John 7). The conspiracy was so strong already, he said in his third epistle, written in A.D. 90, that one church leader, Diotrephes, loved to have the preeminence, and refused to accept envoys sent by John himself, and cast out of the church -- excommunicated and disfellowshipped -- those in the church who would accept and receive them (II John 9-10).

Even in A.D. 66 the conspiracy was so strong that Jude, the brother of the Messiah, felt compelled to write to the church and exhort them to "earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.  For," he wrote, "there are certain men crept in unawares...turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only LORD God, and our Lord Jesus Christ" (Jude 3-4).

Hurlbut in his Story of the Christian Church writes about this subtle but massive change which overtook the visible church during the end of the first and beginning of the second century.

"For fifty years after St. Paul's life a curtain hangs over the church, through which we strive vainly to look; and when at last it rises, about 120 A.D. with the writings of the earliest church-fathers, we find a church in many aspects VERY DIFFERENT from that in the days of St. Peter and St. Paul" (p. 41).

At the end of the first century, Hurlbut writes, "Heretical opinions were arising, and sects were forming, the germs of which had been noted and warned against by the apostles, but their full development came later" (p. 44). Originally, he points out, baptism was by immersion, but by 120 A.D. pouring water upon the head had become a custom. "As long as the church was mainly Jewish" [Israelitish], he notes, "the Hebrew Sabbath was kept; but as it became increasingly Gentile [non-Israelitish] the first day gradually took the place of the seventh day" (p. 45).

The Conspiracy Grows

Church government itself became perverted. During the early church, the titles "bishop" and "elders" were applied freely to the leaders of the church, Peter calling himself an "elder" (I Peter 5:1). The apostles and elders convoked the first church council in A.D. 51 (Acts 15). But by 125 A.D. bishops were everywhere ruling over the church, each with his own diocese. By 150 A.D., "The episcopal form of government became dominant and universal" (p. 60).

"When we enquire why this particular form of government was adopted, a government from above by bishops, in preference to one by the ministry as equals, we find that the analogy of the IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT furnished a plan naturally followed in the development of the church" (p. 61).

In 313 A.D. Emperor Constantine put an end to persecutions of the vast numbers of "Christians" in his empire, by his famous "Edict of Toleration." In 323 A.D., when he became sole emperor, he enthroned "Christianity" as the religion of the state. The vast church by then had become an "intellectual faith," with a hard and fast system of doctrines and practices, many of them stemming from paganism. Doctrine became more and more the "visible test" of "Christians," and the "Apostles' Creed" was composed long after the true apostles were dead and buried. Says Hurlbut, "It was two generations after Constantine when images began to appear in the churches; the early Christians having a horror of all that might lead to idolatry" (p. 75). He adds that under Constantine, "The ministers of the church soon became a privileged class, above the law of the land" (p. 76). "The first day of the week was proclaimed as a day of rest and of worship, and its observance soon became general throughout the empire" (p. 77). Says Hurbut of this time:

"The services of worship increased in splendor, but were less spiritual and hearty than those of former times. The FORMS AND CEREMONIES OF PAGANISM gradually crept into the worship. SOME OF THE OLD HEATHEN FEASTS BECAME CHURCH FESTIVALS with change of name and of worship. About 405 A.D. images of saints and martyrs began to appear in the churches, at first as memorials, then in succession revered, adored, and worshipped. The adoration of the Virgin Mary was substituted for the worship of Venus and Diana; the Lord's Supper became a sacrifice in place of a memorial; and the elder evolved from a preacher into a priest.

"As a result of the church sitting in power, we do not see Christianity transforming the world to its own ideal, but the world dominating the church. The humility and saintliness of an earlier age was succeeded by ambition, pride, and arrogance, among churchmen....

" ...But the church and the state BECAME ONE when Christianity was adopted as the religion of the empire, and out of the unnatural union arose two evils, one in the eastern, the other in the western provinces. In the east the state dominated the church until it lost all energy and uplifting life. In the west...the church gradually usurped power over the state, and the result was not Christianity but a more or less corrupt hierarchy controlling the nations of Europe, making the church mainly a political machine" (p. 79-80).

Will Durant, in his epochal work The Story of Civilization, volume III, "Caesar and Christ," wrote of the early history of the Christian Church. He concluded that the new "Christian" faith was not really all that new after all. Seeing how the "Christians" imbibed of the traditions and customs of the pagan world, and declared them to be "Christian," he wrote:

"Christianity did not destroy paganism; it adopted it. The Greek mind, dying, came to a transmigrated life in the theology and liturgy of the Church; the Greek language, having reigned for centuries over philosophy, became the vehicle of Christian literature and ritual; the Greek mysteries passed down into the impressive mystery of the Mass. Other pagan cultures contributed to the syncretist result. From Egypt came the idea of a divine trinity....The Mithraic ritual so closely resembled the eucharistic sacrifice of the Mass that Christian fathers charged the Devil with inventing these similarities to mislead frail minds. Christianity was the LAST GREAT CREATION OF THE ANCIENT PAGAN WORLD" (p. 595).

What gift did Rome itself give to the seething mass of syncretic elements now blended together into an apostate "Christianity," virtually identical in many aspects to its pagan predecessors? Writes Durant:

"Despite over-reachings and setbacks, the Roman see [bishop] increased its power with almost every decade. Its wealth and ecumenical charities exalted its prestige...It took the initiative in repudiating and combating heresies...it gave its attention to organization rather than theory; it built and governed and let others write and talk. Cyprian rebelled; but it was he who, in his De Catholicae Ecclesiae Unitate, acclaimed the see or seat of Peter (cathedra Petri) as the center and summit of Christendom...By the middle of the third century the position and resources of the papacy were so strong that Decius vowed he would rather have a rival emperor at Rome than a pope. The capital of the Empire naturally became the capital of the Church.

"As Judea had given Christianity its ethics, and Greece had given it theology, so now Rome gave it organization; all these, with a DOZEN ABSORBED AND RIVAL FAITHS, ENTERED INTO THE CHRISTIAN SYNTHESIS. It was not merely that the Church took over some religious customs and forms common in pre-Christian Rome -- the stole and vestments of pagan priests, the use of incense and holy water in purifications, the burning of candles and an everlasting light before the altar, the worship of the saints, the architecture of the basilica, the LAW OF ROME AS THE BASIS OF CANON LAW, the title of Pontifex Maximus for the Supreme Pontiff, and, in the fourth century, the Latin language...The Roman gift was above all a vast framework of GOVERNMENT, which, as secular authority failed, became the structure of ecclesiastical rule....The Roman Church followed in the footsteps of the Roman state [not the footsteps of the Messiah or the apostles!]; it conquered the provinces, beautified the capital, and established discipline and unity from frontier to frontier. Rome died in giving birth to the Church; the Church matured by inheriting and accepting the responsibilities of Rome" (Durant, ibid., p. 618-619).

So what really happened to the true Church of YEHOVAH God described in the pages of the New Testament, in the writings of the original apostles? Church history itself relates that the vast visible church became co-opted by the pagans, who, seeing a good thing, immediately began to subvert, seduce, and pervert it into their own shape, form and image, adding certain elements from the new "Christian" faith to their ancient, ages-old primal pagan beliefs, practices and festivals. In essence they "hijacked" the Messiah and changed his religious truth into a blend of pagan syncretism -­ something vile, abominable, and polluted and utterly corrupt in the sight of YEHOVAH God and the Messiah!

The Hijacking of the Messiah

The Roman Empire, actually fearing for its very existence from the threat posed by this new, energized, vital faith that was emanating from Judea -- this "new form of Judaism" which had such an attraction for Gentile believers -- decided to disguise its fight against this new "enemy" of the state. When the church could not be conquered by force, it was conquered by stealth. The conspiracy, hatched in the mind of Simon Magus, and embraced by members of the Roman Senate, and certainly by the Roman Emperor himself, in the time of Constantine, grew irresistible. Constantine, for one, saw that the survival of the Empire depended on the Empire's "taking over" the leadership of the new faith, embracing it, and making it an "ally." Thus Satan seduced the church on the one hand, by offering the "carrot" of wealth and power, and brandishing the rod in the other hand, as the threat of persecution and punishment for activities contrary to the interests of the state. Constantine, in 323 A.D., finally achieved the prize -- the union of Church and state -­ by declaring the "Roman Catholic" Church the official religion of the Empire!

Rabbi Simcha Pearlmutter, in his book The Tents of Shem, describes the process:

"Hence what began as a Jewish influence on vast numbers of gentiles, polarizing them to the Jewish National Hope [of a Messianic King], was subtly re-orientated rather than trampled upon by Rome. Just as the Roman master plan called for the ultimate forced exile of all Jews from their homeland, the emphasis became focused upon the particularized exile of the One Special Jew, Rabbi Yeshua Himself. It was most important to divorce this now 'dead and harmless god' from his people, his habits, his nation, his identity, his local address. Since few dead people answer back, it is not difficult to put new words, new messages, new meanings, into their mouths. Who can deny their authenticity? A local Jewish Messiah who threatened his influence even after death to attract and polarize members of all nations to the Jewish cause had to be defused. But rather than downgrade Him or mock Him, which could only exalt His memory, increase His heroism, and further identify Him with Jews and Judaism, He would now be upgraded, or, as we say today, 'kicked upstairs,' made chairman of the board. He had to be resurrected in a NEW IMAGE. Remove His Kippah, His talit, His tzitzit. Take off His tefrllin.  Uncover His nakedness and leave Him naked in but a loin cloth....Even Yeshua, the name, was too Jewish....Thus the key to the success of the Roman plan involved the KIDNAPPING OF CHRIST, the key Jew forced into exile and made King of Heaven" (p. 53-54).

Thus the Roman plot was to adopt, co-opt, and kidnap Yeshua the Judahite, the Messiah, and turn him into a Roman "god" -- and to "kick him upstairs," and make him a part of the "Trinity," a pagan concept dating back to time immemorial.   They even changed his name, rejecting the Israelite name Yeshua, and added a Roman "J" to the Greek form Iesous so that the world would pronounce his name "Jesus," instead. They stripped him of his Judahiteness, repudiated everything Judahite about him, rejected the Torah and the Israelite Scriptures, which he taught, rejected his message of the Kingdom of YEHOVAH God, and declared that the Church/Roman Empire was the "Kingdom of God"!

Thus the very Hebrew Messiah was hijacked, and surgically altered, and then re­introduced to the world, by the Romans, saying, "Here is your Messiah! Worship Him!" But those of Israel, knowing that the true Messiah would not denounce the Torah or the Laws of YEHOVAH God, could not accept this pagan perversion or caricature of the true Messiah.

Very few, down through history, have been unable to see through the masquerade, the deception, the ruse. The "Christian" Messiah, or that of the professing Christian-Catholic Western world, taught according to the "Church" that heaven is the reward of the saved, that the wicked will burn forever in the flames of a ghoulish hell fire presided over by the Devil himself, that to be "saved" you merely need to "accept Christ," that good works are not required for salvation, that worship must be done on Sunday (not the true Sabbath!), that Easter and Christmas, etc., are the festivals of the Church, approved by the Messiah, and not those old "Israelite" holy days of Passover, Shavuot, Sukkoth, and so forth. In other words, the "Christian mirror­image Messiah" is "ANOTHER JESUS" that the apostle Paul warned would be preached to the world (II Corinthians 11:4, II Timothy 4:3-4).

Satan the devil is the source behind the great conspiracy of the Roman world to pre-empt the true faith of Yeshua the Messiah, to subvert it, and to make "Christ" their own hero, Savior, and Messiah, while altering totally his teachings, doctrine, and message! But "God is not he author of confusion" (I Corinthians 14:33). YEHOVAH God does not and never did endorse the "Westernized" version of Yeshua the Messiah, presented to the world by mainstream "Christianity." That is a false "Christ." A false Messiah! A Satanic impostor! A sham -- a fraud -- a shill!

Isn't it time we took another look at the REAL Messiah of the Bible? Isn't it time we rejected human tradition, and religious dogmas of erring religious institutions, and got back to the pure, simple, undefiled faith of the Scriptures, taught by the apostles of the first century? Isn't it time we rejected the false doctrines, heresies, and abominable teachings of those who "wormed their way" into the church, and crept in "unawares," who slipped in stealthily, and kicked out the true Messiah and substituted their own pagan mirror-image of "Christ" instead?

The apostle Paul warns us, "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good" (I Thessalonians 5:21). He warns that those who do not "love the truth" will be deceived in a massive delusion, and will believe lies (II Thessalonians 2:10-11). According to the Phillips Translation, Paul declared, "Evil is already insidiously at work" (v. 7).  An evil "lawless man" is soon going to rise up, who will be "armed with all the force, wonders and signs that falsehood can devise. To those involved in this dying world he will come with evil's undiluted power to deceive, for they have refused to love the truth which could have saved them. God sends upon them, therefore, the full force of evil's DELUSION, so that they put their faith in an UTTER FRAUD, and meet the inevitable judgment of all who have refused to believe the truth and who have made evil their playfellow" (vs. 9-12).

Let's face the facts, honestly -- squarely. Jesus Christ, or Yeshua the Messiah, was indeed a Judahite. He lived like a Judahite. He observed all the laws written in the Torah. He wore fringes in his garments, according to the Law (see Luke 8:43-48; Mark 5:25-34; Matthew 9:20-22; also, Numbers 15:38-41; Deuteronomy 22:12). It is reported that Daniel Boone, the famous pioneer and explorer in early American history, who was a very observant Christian, wore fringes in his garments, out of respect to this commandment.

How well do you know the true Messiah, who came upholding the laws and commandments of YEHOVAH God? How well do you know the true Yeshuah ha Moshiach (Yeshuah the Messiah) who observed the Torah, and taught that we should follow in his steps (Matthew 4:19; Matthew 28:19-20; John 13:15; I Corinthians 11:1; I Peter 2:21)?

The apostle John declared: "He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked" (I John 2:6). Isn't it time we got to know the true, Biblical Jesus -- whose REAL NAME is Yeshua the Messiah? Isn't it time we all truly set our hearts and minds and souls to get back to the true faith which was once delivered to the saints (Jude 3)?

Hope of Israel Ministries -- Proclaiming the Good News of the Soon-Coming Kingdom of YEHOVAH God Here On This Earth!

Hope of Israel Ministries P.O. Box 853 Azusa, CA 91702, U.S.A. www.hope-of-israel.org

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