Voice of the Kingfisher speaks out …from a different perspective
by Elinor Montgomery
The Dark Ages
March 05, 2011
The Middle Ages represent a period of time between the fall of the western branch of the Roman Empire in 476 A.D. and the 15th century A.D., when classical learning began to give way to Renaissance scholarship to usher in what we call the modern era. It roughly represents a 1000-year period between 500 A.D. and 1500 A.D.
In 286 A.D., the Roman Empire was split into two parts by Emperor Diocletian, at which point they were administered as the eastern and western halves of the empire. In 330 A.D. Constantine founded Byzantium as the new capital, but the Byzantine control of the collapsing western part of the empire could not be sustained.
During the fourth century A.D. Constantine literally took the growing church of Christ into captivity to a Roman, religious system, which he, and not Jesus, established as the new religion of Christianity. This was done by adopting the mocking term of Christian applied first in Antioch to the adherents of the fledgling church of Jesus Christ who were properly known as ‘the Way’ and, rightly so.
They were called ‘the Way’ because Jesus is the only way to the eternal kingdom of God in truth and in total rejection of all things religious, which pertained to practices, lies and idolatry. It would never have been His intention for His apostolic church to join forces with the pagan practices of one of the empires of the Babylonian system.
This new religious system established the pagan priest of Rome as the high priest of Christianity, calling him ‘the pope’. Once again, Rome appointed the high priest of religion in the same manner as Caiaphas had been appointed the high priest of Judaism. Both subverted the high priest role, which belonged only to Jesus. There is no other high priest except in the darkness of religion, for He is the light of the world in truth. The reins of high-priesthood were transferred from John the Baptist to Him when He was baptized by a man with the legitimate title to the office of the Levitical high priest through the lineages of both his father and mother.
During the early years of Roman Catholicism, which means ‘universal’ Romanism, society, more or less, collapsed into a period of spiritual darkness when the voice of truth was silenced to make way for religion. Civic administration in the West fell into the hands of the Catholic Church and its apostate Nicolaitan system of priests who then became civic administrators allied to the ruling powers. Literacy, the prerogative solely of the priesthood, allowed Catholicism to maintain control over the people.
The traditions of monasticism had their origins in Egyptian and Syrian cultures. Since this was the problem, which kept education in the hands of a few religious leaders, the world actually moved into a period of darkness where religion replaced the spread of the truth of the gospels. The church of Jesus Christ was taken into a captivity of sorts, keeping her asleep within the tomb of religion. It was during this period that the Crusades took place and the church literally took on the role of fighting Rome’s empirical battles for religious-state control over portions of the Middle East, including Jerusalem.
During the seventh and eighth centuries A.D., Islam raised its ugly head and began her own empirical battles for conquest of the Middle East and North Africa. Strange as it may seem, all these years later, we are still looking at the same East-West battle over the middle-eastern and North African countries, as Islam seeks to take full dominance over the area with the same darkness threatening the entire world today.
It was during the dark period of the Middle Ages that Catholicism made its inroads in the West. The great cathedrals of Europe began to sprout up with a grandeur equaled only by the former Temple of Jerusalem and the synagogues and mosques, which had appeared throughout the East. Roman Catholicism was in the process of establishing a religious stronghold with its own structures of man-designed and man-built houses of religion. There was far more mysticism in them than there ever was light. Few cathedrals exist to this day in which one is not able to discover the faces of gargoyles and other demonic images imbedded in the stone masonry.
It was toward the end of the Middle Ages, when the people began to rise up against the tightening noose of religion. Men, such as Luther and Cromwell, started to question the whole religiously-controlled state and the stronghold of the papacy, which was keeping the people apart from the truth of the Bible. Luther’s Reformation of protestation opened windows of light into the dark, stifling, religious system of Christianity.
In England, a reformation of another sort followed that of Luther’s, with men, allied with Cromwell, fighting a civil war to bring about separation from the religious control of the throne over parliament. The break had to be made from religion to truth, with the common man gaining the right to the Word and to any form of worship he might choose, over which the state was keeping a tight control. Education begins with knowledge of the Bible, allowing the light of truth to dispel the darkness of religion.
The stage was set for the Lord God to now bring His people from out of all nations into a land and wilderness waiting and ready for the establishment of His nation in truth. He, alone, was to be the Ruler over the land with His Law being the basis for government and justice. There was no room in His land for religious overlords, such as the Roman Catholic pope and Islamic ayatollahs.
America was to be established as a land of liberty under the ruler-ship of the Lord Jesus and His Word – the Author of perfect justice. The light of liberty shone out to the world, and the oppressed, under the control of religious rulers, yearned for the freedom of America. But they came on God’s terms and they pledged allegiance to Him, with the Bible being the guardian of her borders. There was no need for border guards; for only those who wanted God to rule over them came to this land. It offered no other ruler.
The blessings of God were poured out upon this nation, with the religious nations, under satanic rule, hating America for her attraction and growing power in her relationship with God. The darkness could do nothing about the obvious torch of light and liberty, which marked the country’s allegiance to God and country. Even the victory of Pearl Harbor caused the Japanese admiralty to tremble at the idea that they had awakened a sleeping giant of power under a God they did not know, but feared.
However, America was unable to overcome the powerful antichrist forces, which were unleashed against her; she forgot that her strength came from God. She took the blessings and ran, just like her older sister, Israel, did before her. She became a harlot to her Husband and Maker, the very Author of creation and life (see Ezekiel 23).
We are moving steadily toward a One World Order in which there will be one economic system, one government, and one allowed religious system known as United Religion. The world ruler, the coming Antichrist, will forbid the use of the Bible, and all known Bibles will be destroyed. At this point the last witnesses to the truth, as the covenant keepers, will be raptured to meet with Jesus, as was Noah taken out of the judgment in the ark, during the flood. The world will then move into the darkest age that it has ever known, with the judgment of God falling upon those who rebelled against Him and rejected the gift of salvation, which His Son offered to mankind.
And so, we came out of the Dark Ages, only to make the same mistake again as that of Adam and Eve, followed by that of Israel, the nation. We, the spiritual nation, like they, are about to choose to return to darkness by forsaking the truth of God. No people or nation can reject God and survive, for creation begins with the light, which dispels the darkness. It will end with the true apostolic church coming out of the darkness of the tomb to shine forth the light again in truth to a world reeling under the weight of darkness.
And so the Spirit and the bride will make the last call to all humanity to come out of her, that great harlot, Babylon and the last of her empires as Rome rises again with the strength of the beast in the coming One World Order. The antichrist leader will take control, forcing all to take his mark of 666, in order to buy or sell. It is the mark of man who has chosen to participate in the empirical governments of man and his religious and economic systems, totally controlled by Satan instead of being ruled by God.
Adam and Eve chose to return to darkness and now the entire world will do so as it makes the same choice to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You can’t have it both ways; you either will believe the truth of God or you will be deceived by the lies of Satan, which lead to religious belief systems. One takes man into the light and the other will lead him back into the darkness from which the Lord delivered him.
And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. And whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely (Revelation 22:17).