Before we go on to chapter three let me first finish talking about the church of Thyatira. This was as we said the time of the Dark Ages. When the truth is kept from men it allows evil to grow. The Scriptures were not in the language of the common man and so they could not check what they were told. That is why it is so important today for us to read and know our Bibles. Check what your preacher/priest/teacher tells you and see if it agrees with the Word of God - if it doesn't  - it is wrong!

Those who were in power during the Thyatira church age brought in superstition and idolatry. People knelt and prayed before images of the apostles, the virgin Mary, and other saints. The reverence for and worship of religious relics became commonplace. This church age saw the rise in the papacy and the doctrines of man. It saw the certain practices that the Lord and the true apostles NEVER taught become dogma in the Roman Catholic church such as :

Prayers for the dead -AD 330; Worship of Mary and use of the title "Mother of God" - AD431; Kissing of the pope's feet - AD709 (btw if you want to read about it from the Catholic site - click here and go down to kissing of the feet heading but keep in mind that Peter certainly didn't believe in - see Acts 10:25-26); Adoration of saints -AD788; articular confession of sins to a priest -AD 1215. I could go on but you get the idea. If you want to know more I can give you a web page that lists many of them.

It was also a time that many of the popes, men who were supposed to be religious leaders, were wicked. Almost 200 popes spanned the  centuries from 500AD to 1500AD; some of whom were notoriously corrupt, greedy, and violent.  Among some of the worse were: Sergius the 3rd (904-911) who was supposed to have had a mistress and lived in a palace that was a den of robbers; John XII who used his palace as a place of prostitution and was killed in the act of adultery by a jealous husband.

Even knowing such men were in the history of the papacy Boniface III (1294-1303) proclaimed "Therefore we declare, state, define, and pronounce that for every creature to be subject to the Roman pope is altogether necessary for salvation" When you consider these among other things it makes you wonder how in the world the infallibility of the pope was made official in 1870AD. You certainly will not find any of this authorized by the Word of God! Salvation is through the Lord Jesus Christ and none other - whether it be church, preacher, priest, pope, mary, mohammhed, who or whatever. Salvation is through faith in Christ and His finished work on our behalf.

I am not saying all the popes were wicked men. Some may honestly have wanted to serve God, but you don't serve God by putting out false doctrine.

Thankfully there were then, as there is in all of history, some who remained faithful to the truth of God's word. These Bible believing groups were severely persecuted by the worldly, pagan, Roman church, but they left a trail of blood which can be followed throughout church History. Some of the ones who stood for the Lord during this time were the Waldensians, John Wycliffe who began the first translation of the Scriptures into English. and therefore England became the first nation in which an entire people could know what the Bible taught. There was John Huss who in contrast to the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, taught not every priest is a saint, but every saint is a priest. This goes along with the New Testament doctrine of the priesthood of the believer (1 Peter2). Needless to say this didn't go over well and he was eventually burned at the stake. And of course at the end of this age we have Martin Luther who stood up against many of the false teachings of the Roman Catholic church.

That brings us to the Sardis Church age. Europe would be set on fire with the light of the gospel, dispelling the Dark Ages and ushering in a new era for Christianity and the world.

I didn't intend for the writing on the thyatira church age to be so long but I guess it makes sense since it is the longest of the ages. Tomorrow we will look at the last three church ages.

Kerri, I admit that I had to laugh when reading yet another of your ignorant rants. And yes, I want to see your references for this piece of work. I know space is limited here, so let me post a couple of thoughts. Anyone who wants to seriously talk about this can email me.

1.) You misunderstand and misrepresent the Catholic Church, the papacy, and Christianity. 2.) Latin WAS a "common" language at the time, as English is a worldly language now. 3.) Very few people could read. Heck, the ability of the masses to be able to read and write is a fairly recent accomplishment. 4.) The printing press wasn't invented until the 15th century so very few people actually owned Bibles. 5.) You have no clue was infallibility is. 6.) You forget that during the "Dark Ages," there were two Christian faiths, not one. ;)

Keep on posting ignorant diatribes against the Catholic Church. They make me giggle ... and reaffirm my decision to follow Christ out of the divided Protestant sea and across the Tiber -- Home to Rome and the Catholic Church He founded.

Pam, you can laugh now but you won't one day.

If anyone is going to look into the RCC they best do it with a good Bible and they will see it doesn't match. Which is why the RCC church wanted to keep the Bible out of the people's hands. They knew if people read the Bible they would see the Roman Catholic church lied to them and told them things that were not so.

Pam, as far as "two" Christian faiths - there has always just been one true Christian faith since Jesus died and rose again - and NO - I do NOT mean the roman catholic church - I mean those who have repented of their sin, believed God and trusted Jesus Christ as their only way to Heaven. Those are the ones who make uf the church.

There have also been pretenders to the faith from the beginning, but God knows who is His!