Isaiah 27 – Israel to be Delivered & The Plain Truth About the Catholic Church

Four HandsWow, I knew the Catholics were wicked, but I didn’t realize that they’re just like Satan.    They’re greedy, power hungry, liars, thieves, and they definitely want to be admired, just like the devil.  That’s a pretty good trick the devil pulled on the world, creating a religion that’s just like him and getting people to believe all those lies.

2 The Gods and Goddesses of Canaan
The Gods and Goddesses of Canaan
In 1928, a farmer digging in his field in northwest Syria accidentally discovered an ancient tomb. The tomb was part of a cemetery located in the area of the ancient city of Ugarit, a center of wealth and commerce from about 1450 to 1180 B.C. French excavators working at the site discovered the remains of two temples, a palace, and private dwellings, as well as two libraries of ancient clay tablets written mainly in alphabetic Ugaritic, the major language of the city.
Other texts were inscribed in Sumerian, Akkadian, and Hurrian. Translations of the Ugaritic literary texts provided the first insights into the religion of the Canaanites, known previously mainly from the pages of the Bible.

Ugaritic mythological tablets describe the activities of the main gods and goddesses of the Canaanite pantheon. Although there existed no single state theology, the major gods reflect local geographical concerns about the fertility of the earth and the importance of water as well as relationships to the sky and the underworld.

The universe was believed to be ruled in tandem by the older god El and a main warrior-god, Baal, surrounded by a council of deities and a lower level of attendant gods. The divine council included the older generation of the god El and his wife Athirat, known in the Bible as Asherah, as well as a younger group of figures that included the war god Baal and the war goddesses Anat and Astarte.

Forces of destruction included Yamm, the god of the sea (also known as Nahar, the River), and Mot, the god of death as well as burning (Resheph) and pestilence (Deber), a god described in the Bible (Habakkuk 3). In total, more than 234 deities are recorded in Ugaritic texts, and these gods, unlike humans, were thought to have eternal lives.

1 In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.

27:1-2, 12-13 – “In that day” – see 10:20, 27 and note, see also 12:1, 4, 24:21, 25:9, 26:1.

The climatic word of judgment.

“Leviathan…dragon” – a symbol (drawn from Canaanite myths) of wicked nations, such as Egypt (see 30:7 and note; 51:9; Eze 29:3, 32:2).

“Piercing…crooked serpent”  cf Job 3:8, 42:1; Ps 74:14Such descriptions.

2 In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine.

27:2-6a second vineyard song (see 5:1-7 and notes).

“Vineyard” – Israel.

3 I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.

4 Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle?  I would go through them, I would burn them together.

27:4-5a picture of Israel’s lukewarmness toward the Lord – not “briers and thorns” (v 4) like the other nations, but not fully trusting in the Lord either (see 29:13).

“Briers and thorns”see 5:6 and note.

5 Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.

6 He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.

“Take root” – see 11:1, 10 and notes.

“Blossom and bud” – see 4:2 and note.  The Messianic age is in view.

“Fill the face of the world” – contrast 26:18.

7 Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him?  Or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?

27:7-11 what the Lord is going to do with Israel in the judgments that are about to overtake her in Isaiah’s day.

If the people of Israel doubt the promise of v 6, then they should consider that the punishment they have received from God is not as severe as the one that he pours out on their pagan oppressors (cf 10:24-26).

8 In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.

“In measure…thou wilt debate with it” – the sense is that God measures the judgment that comes against his people and “debates” (“contends”) with Israel’s oppressors so that the punishment does not become too severe.

9 By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.

“Purged” – Israel (Jacob) will have to atone for her guilt through the coming judgment.

“Altar…groves and images” – see 17:8 and note.

“Beaten in sunder” – demolished (see Ex 34:13).

10 Yet the defensed city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.

“Defensed city” – Jerusalem.

11 When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favor.

1 Wall relief from Egypt
Wall relief from Egypt
Canaan was the fourth son of Ham and brother of Mizraim, who is Egypt. Canaan, the grandson who Noah cursed in Genesis 9:25 actually became a general term for “all the inhabitants” of the land of ancient Israel, and  to the tribe who dwelt west of the Dead Sea and conquered the area east of the Jordan River.

12  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.

27: 12-13 – the redemption that lies beyond the coming judgment.

“The LORD shall beat” – the verb means to “thresh” and refers to judgment on the nations into which Israel has been dispersed (see note on 21:10).  The threshing will separate Israelites from Gentiles.

“Stream of Egypt” – probably the Wadi el-Arish, the southern border of the Promised Land (the Euphrates is the northern border).  See Gen 15:18; 1 Kgs 4:21, 8:65.

13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

“Great trumpet” – used especially to summon troops (see 1 Sam 13:3).

“Assyria…Egypt” – see 11:11-12 and notes.

“Holy mount” – Mount Zion (see 2:2-4 and note; see also 24:23, 25:6-7, 10 and note).

Woe to Ephraim

The Plain Truth about
the Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church claims to have started in Matthew 16:18 when Christ supposedly appointed Peter as the first Pope.  This is as true as a three dollar bill.

And Jesus answered and said unto him, And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

Jesus Christ is the head of the church:

And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the first born from the dead; that in all things he might have preeminence (Col 1:18).

And hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church (Eph 1:22).

It was almost time for Jesus to be crucified and He wanted His disciples to spread the good news about Him, to let people know that He is the head of the church.  Jesus did not start the Catholic or even the Christian Religion, man did that in Antioch (Acts 11:26).

3 Church of the Primacy of St. Peter
Church of the Primacy of St. Peter on the Sea of Galilee.
The church is on the site where, according to Catholic tradition, the resurrected Jesus Christ appeared to his disciples and established Peter’s supreme jurisdiction.

Jesus warned us against the Catholic Church, against all religions, but He called it a division.  Yet, Jesus also called Himself the division to follow:

Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth?  I tell you, Nay; but rather division (Lk 12:51).

At the beginning of time God had let the people know that He would send a division:

And I will put a division between my people and thy people tomorrow shall this sign be (Ex 8:23).

After Jesus was crucified Paul warned not to accept divisions, but to only follow Jesus:

Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which  ye have learned; and avoid them.

For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple (Rom 16:17-18).

Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment (1 Cor 1:10).

For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it (1 Cor 11:18).

However, the honest and objective student of the scriptures and history soon discovers that the foundation of the Roman church is none other than the pagan mystery religion of ancient Babylon.

While enduring the early persecutions of the Roman government (65-300 A.D.), most of professing Christianity went through a gradual departure from New Testament doctrine concerning church government, worship and practice.

4 Ruins of the North Palace of King Nebuchadnezzar.
Ruins of the North Palace of King Nebuchadnezzar
These are the ruins of the so-called “North Palace” of Nebuchadnezzar II at the ancient city of Babylon. Neo-Babylonian period, reign of Nebuchadnezzar II, 6th century BCE.

Saddam Hussein was the person who re-discovered the site. He thought himself to be a descendent of the kings of Babylon. In 1995, Hussein built one of his own palaces on top of the ruins.

 Local churches ceased to be autonomous by giving way to the control of “bishops” ruling over hierarchies.  The simple form of worship from the heart was replaced with the rituals and splendor of paganism.

Ministers became “priests,” and pagans became “Christians” by simply being sprinkled with water.  This tolerance of an unregenerate membership only made things worse.  SPRINKLED PAGANISM is about the best definition for Roman Catholicism.

The Roman Emperor Constantine established himself as the head of the church around 313 A.D., which made this new “Christianity” the official religion of the Roman Empire.  The first actual Pope in Rome was probably Leo I (440-461 A.D.), although some claim that Gregory I was the first (590-604 A.D.).

This ungodly system eventually ushered in the darkest period of history known to man, properly known as the “Dark Ages” (500-1500 A.D.).  Through popes, bishops, and priests, Satan ruled Europe, and Biblical Christianity became illegal.

5 Emeror Constantine
Emperor Constantine I is often credited with converting the Roman Empire to Christianity. In fact, though he ended the persecution of Christians and eventually converted, some historians debate the true nature of his faith.

Throughout all of this, however, there remained individual groups of true Christians, such as the Waldensens and the Anabaptists who would not conform to the Roman system.

The Papacy and Priesthood

In the Bible there are no popes or priests to rule over the church.  Jesus Christ is our High Priest (Heb. 3:1; 4:14-15; 5:5; 8:1; 9:11), and all true Christians make up a spiritual priesthood (I Pet. 2:5).

Jesus Christ has sanctified all Christians who believe on Him (Heb. 10:10-11), so all priests today are unnecessary and unscriptural.  Furthermore, the practice of calling a priest “father” is forbidden by Jesus Christ in Matthew 23:9.  There is only ONE mediator between God and men and that is Jesus Christ (I Tim. 2:5).

The Catholic church teaches that Peter was the first Pope and the earthly head of the church, but the Bible never says this once.  In fact, it was Peter himself who spoke against “being lords over God’s heritage.” (I Pet 5:3).

Popes do not marry, although Peter did (Mat. 8:14; I Cor. 9:5).  The Bible never speaks of Peter being in Rome, and it was Paul, not Peter, who wrote the epistle to the Romans.

In the New Testament, Paul wrote 100 chapters with 2,325 verses, while Peter wrote only 8 chapters with 166 verses. In Peter’s first epistle he stated that he was simply “an apostle of Jesus Christ,” not a Pope (I Pet. 1:1).  The Roman papacy and priesthood is just a huge fraud to keep members in bondage to a corrupt pagan church.

The Worship of Mary

Roman Catholics believe that Mary, the mother of Jesus, remained a virgin after the birth of Jesus and was sinless all of her life (Joseph and Mary did not have sex until Jesus was born – Matt 1:25 – and they had other children – Matt 12:46, 13:55-56; Gal. 1:19).

6 St. John Evangelist Church
St. John Evangelist Church parishioners gather in April for a look at the 8,400 pound statue of “Our Lady of the New Millennium” statue.

She is worshiped in the Catholic church as the “Mother of God” and the “Queen of Heaven,” which breaks the first and second commandments (Ex 20:3-5).

St. Bernard stated that she was crowned “Queen of Heaven” by God the Father, and that she currently sits upon a throne in Heaven making intercession for Christians.  The Bible teaches otherwise.

In the Bible, Mary was a sinner just like the rest of us.  She said herself that she needed a “Savior” (Lk. 1:47), and she even had to offer a sacrifice for her sins (Lk 2:24).  There’s only ONE mediator between God and men, and it isn’t Mary (I Tim. 2:5).

The last time we hear from Mary in the Bible she is praying with the disciples, not being prayed to by  the disciples (Acts 1:14). The Bible never exalts Mary above anyone else. Neither should we.

Purgatory

The Catholic Church teaches that a Christian’s soul must burn in purgatory after death until all of their sins have been purged.  To speed up the purging process, money may be paid to a priest so he can pray and have special masses for an earlier release.

This heresy began creeping into the Roman Church during the reign of Pope Gregory around the end of the sixth century, and it has no scriptural support.  In fact, Jesus warned us about this pagan practice:

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation (Matt 23:14).

7 Purgatory
Purgatory, what is it?
It is the false doctrine created by the Catholics to place fear on their members and obtain fees.

Yeah, they’re going to hell and their punishment will be greater than those that just don’t believe:

But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more(Matt 12:48, see v 42-48).

The Catholic Church says the priests can forgive sins, the Bible says otherwise:

The Pharisees knew that only God can forgive sins (Lk 5:21).  They were evil but not like the Catholic Church.  Psalm 49:6-7 is very clear on this:

They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him.

Peter had addressed the issue of buying God:

But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money (Acts 8:20).

God’s word is clearly against the doctrine of purgatory.

The Mass

By perverting the Christian practice of the Lord’s Supper (Mat. 26:26-28; I Cor. 11:23-27), the Catholic Church has created the Mass, which they believe to be a continual sacrifice of Jesus Christ:

Christ…commanded that his bloody sacrifice on the Cross should be daily renewed by an unbloody sacrifice of his body and blood in the Mass under the simple elements of bread and wine (The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 10, Pg. 13, Article: “Mass, Sacrifice of”).

Jesus never made such a command.  If you’ll check the above references in Matthew 26 and I Corinthians 11, you’ll see for yourself that the Lord’s Supper is a MEMORIAL and a SHOWING of Christ’s death until He comes again. It is not a sacrifice.

The Catholic Encyclopedia states the following:

In the celebration of the Holy Mass, the bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ.  It is called transubstantiation, for in the Sacrament of the Eucharist the substance of bread and wine do not remain, but the entire substance of bread is changed into the body of Christ, and the entire substance of wine is changed into his blood, the species or outward semblance of bread and wine alone remaining (Vol. 4, pg. 277, Article: “Consecration”).

8 The statue of the Queen of Peace
The statue of the Queen of Peace on the church square. It was carved out of Carrarian marble by the Italian artist Dino Felici.

The Catholic Church teaches that the “Holy Mass” is a LITERAL EATING AND DRINKING OF THE LITERAL FLESH AND BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST.  The priest supposedly has the power to change the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ.

Now, what does God’s word say about such practices?  If you’ll read Genesis 9:4, Leviticus 17:11-12, and Acts 15:29, you will find that God absolutely FORBIDS the drinking of blood all through the Bible.

Rome teaches that the Mass is a continual “sacrifice” of Jesus Christ, but God’s word states that Jesus made the FINAL sacrifice on Calvary:

By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:

But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God (Heb 10:10-12).

The mass is unnecessary, unscriptural, and the work of the devil.  Satan will do anything to convince people to do anything that Jesus would not do.

The Catholic religion is filled with all sorts of symbols, images, and relics. The Catechism of the Council of Trent states these words:

It is lawful to have images in the Church, and to give honor and worship unto them…”

It’s lawful to honor and worship images?  Not according to God’s word and I don’t know about you, but I’m going to stick with God.

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me (Ex 20:4-5).

Image worship is unscriptural and will end with the eternal damnation of those who practice it:

And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: ands they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of this name (Rev. 14:11).

Salvation by Works

Through infant baptism, keeping sacraments, church membership, going to mass, praying to Mary, and confession (just to mention a few), the Catholic church has developed a system of salvation through WORKS.

9 Waldens
Waldensian schoolchildren and teacher (standing beside steps) at Valdese, ca. 1905. North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library.

God’s word says that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, not through works:

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Not of works, lest any man should boast (Eph. 2:8-9).

“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness (Rom 4:5).

Jesus Christ came into this world to lay down His sinless life for YOU; to pay for your sins, because you couldn’t.  Jesus is your only hope for salvation.  Only by receiving Him as your Savior can you enter the gates of Heaven.  There is no other way.

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me (John 14:6).

The Lord Jesus Christ has come and PAID for your sins by shedding His own Blood on Calvary.  By receiving Him as your Savior, you can be WASHED from all your sins in His precious Blood (Rev. 1:5; Col. 1:14; Acts 20:28; I Pet. 1:18-19).

Notice these important words from Romans 5:8-9:

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  

Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

The Pope can’t save you, only Jesus.  Yet, the Pope can share his one way ticket to hell with you.

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