David Pawson on Church History Part 4 - 16th Century 1500s

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Thoughtful Thoughts by John Dunning. 28.3.25. The Christian Story Pt 4;

1). THE GROWTH OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD…

The Roman Empire enabled incredible growth throughout the empire, via soldiers and then the Emperor Constantine… which was turbo boosted thanks to what history calls the “Pax Romana”. (The Roman Peace.) 

First, the “Pax Romana” - Wikipedia;- “The Pax Romana, spanning from 27 BC to 180 AD, stands as one of the most enduring periods of peace in the annals of civilization.”

That “Roman peace” allowed the gospel to spread throughout the world. 

Secondly, the conversion of  Constantine, who reigned 313 AD to 337 AD. 

His conversion led to Christianity becoming the national religion during his term. Of course that did not mean that citizens were now Christians, but it did mean Christians were not persecuted, they had Sunday off, and were free to evangelise. 

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i). King Aethelberht…

The Romans left Britain in 410AD, where soldiers left behind many churches. 

The church grew and in 589 AD a King came to the throne who was a Christian. King Aethelberht introduced Biblical laws to England.

In 597AD the King rejected a very rude request from the Pope  to hand over the churches of England to him;- (via his envoy, the priest Augustine, who became known as Augustine of Canterbury). 

The King allowed the Pope’s monk to settle in Canterbury anyway, and the Pope made Augustine “Archbishop of Canterbury”, even though he only had his 40 monks in his congregation. In England there were no such titles amongst churches. 

King Aethelberht  died between 616-618AD. 

His descendants came and went, until Alfred the Great became King, who was another significant Christian King, so we will look at him next…

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ii). Alfred the Great.

Alfred the Great was king of the West Saxons from 871 AD to 886 AD.

Like Aethelberht, he was one of the few kings in England that managed to beat the Vikings and to do it decisively, holding back the pagan Viking invaders, resulting in Christianity spreading further. His Christian faith caused him to add the Ten Commandments to the Biblical laws of King Æthelberht, resulting in him becoming known for being a just King. 

Much later even many Vikings became Christians. Alfred died in 899, leaving his part of England as a progressive Christian state, compared to the rest of the world.

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iii). Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians 

Alfred the Great’s sons came and went until his eldest daughter, Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, came to the throne, and she reigned from 911 to 918. She ended up being referred to as, "by the gift of Christ's mercy ruling the government of the Mercians". She went down as one of the great monarchs for that era. Bearing in mind the time period in history we are talking about, Christianity had really taken off in England. 

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2). SATAN’S ROAD BLOCK 

William the Conqueror & Sons Ltd.

England had become Christian well before William the Conqueror arrived waving the Pope’s flag. Now Jesus said the father of the murderer is Satan, so according to what Jesus said, it means that the mass murder (Google “Harrying of the North”), and the rape of Britain was done by someone whose spiritual father was still Satan. It was mugging on a grand scale. 

The Domesday Book compiled in 1086, which listed everything everyone owned. William simply took what he wanted. In other words, William the Conqueror was just a nasty dictator, who enslaved a nation by creating fear by murder and pillage. It has been worked out that his mugging of Britain made him more money than has been acquired by the world’s richest people today, if the money could be converted. His invasion pillaged England systematically, made possible by his Domesday Book. Some called it taxation, but William took for his lifestyle, living  off the oppressed, so it was a mugging. 

William the Conqueror’s invasion of England…

The Pope had given William his personal flag to conquer under, and out of the tax William had taken, a kind of sub-tax was sent back to the Pope. The invasion was at the expense of the English people who became slaves in their own country, entering into the darkest time in English history. 

Based on what I have seen in museums, I would say William took the country back hundreds of years. Catholic castles built to prevent rebellions, (which are now museums,) with built-in torture chambers and equipment. They were designed to inflict maximum pain for the longest possible time before the victim died, which I have seen. In other words, England went backwards, not forwards. 

Previously, Christianity had made England a civilised country, but under William and Sons Ltd. he gave a glimpse of hell. Under Catholicism, Catholic priests were protected by law from whatever illegal acts they did, in a law called “The Benefit of Clergy”. Only their church had the authority to decide if they wanted to reign their clergy in. On rare occasions they examined extreme cases, but were very lenient towards their own.) It was just as bad in other countries. 

Henry 8th…

We know that Henry 8th’s motives for breaking with Rome were selfish instead of being for genuine reasons of truth and faith, but it was also made easy because the public were relieved that priests were no longer in charge, and torturing people. There were priests who didn’t want to lose their position in society, but with them gone, the public could breathe a sigh of relief again, once their torturer was gone, which history books overlook. 

Even parliament recognised the danger the church posed to society, because in 1701 parliament passed a law called the Act of Settlement, forbidding Catholics from ever again being crowned as King or Queen, (because they kept returning Britain to the Pope.) The church’s murders and tortures made the public happy with Henry’s own version of Brexit, breaking away from Rome. It shows how unbearable the Catholic church had made life in England for any who were not committed Catholics. 

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3). BLOCKING THE BIBLE

It is important to know what was going on behind the scenes, because it was religious people who prevented the Bible from being published, so it was spiritual warfare… 

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A). The Old Covenant, (Testament).

God had not left the world unable to get hold of His Word. The Old Covenant, (or Testament), was available thanks to the Jews. The Old Testament was available wherever Jews were. But just in case someone is putting their hand up and saying what about the Catholic Bible… I’m coming to that next…

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i). The Apocrypha…

The Vatican tampered with the Old Testament by adding books that were not part of the Bible. They were later removed in the Reformation and kept them apart by putting them all in what we call the Apocrypha. It is not surprising that Messianic Jews refused to have anything to do with the church, and they simply kept themselves apart. 

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ii). Replacing Old Testament days, with days for man-made religions.

a). Passover

Pope Gregory joined in with the worship of a pagan German goddess called ‘Eastre’, and called his new holiday “Easter”, so he could dump Passover as he was so anti-semitic. 

The early church had used Passover to remember Christ’s death and resurrection. 

You couldn’t make it up.

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b). Tabernacles…

An earlier pope had already replaced the Feast of Tabernacles with the worship of the sun god with a Mass, they called Christ-mass. (Christmas.)

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iii). Gregorian Calendar…

In 1582 Pope Gregory created the Gregorian Calendar. It was kick started by skipping 10 days from history, creating a great deal of public unrest as many workers lost wages. The effect was that the Gregorian calculator meant that the Jewish Passover was at a different time to his new Easter holiday. As the new calendar was not 100 percent effective at preventing the meeting of their religious days, Gregory 13th then made it clear, by forbidding the church from sharing the dates on which the Jews had their Passover. Gregory’s decree showed his anti-semitism, by forbidding his church from ever sharing Jewish holidays. In that way, his motives were made clear. 

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B). The New Covenant (Testament).

As for the writings of the Apostles, they were at first so widely distributed and copied, that the church could not stop the New Testament spreading, even though it tried. Greek had become the international language of the time, which the New Testament was written. The church dumped it in favor of Latin - the language of Rome, and it still influences our language today, especially in science subjects. 

It meant that the Bible became out of reach for the common man, and even church services just became a performance to observe. Added to which, the Vatican inserted books into the Bible like the Gospel of Thomas, which were not of God, which were a mixture of tales with some history, all of which were thrown out by the reformers and dumped in a separate section called The Apocrypha. 

Now you can see why Popes could not afford to have a neighbour that was not interested in their grand religious plan making themselves world king. William the Conqueror’s invasion of England fixed the problem with the Pope’s grand plan, by bringing Britain to heel with mass murder, rape, stealing and pillage. You can Google “Harrying of the North” for more details.

The Bible was delayed from being translated into a language ordinary people could understand, from the inception of Popes, up to the time of reformers, but more next time… 

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EPILOGUE…

The Bible cost lives… make the most of it!

We are going through Mark’s gospel chapter by chapter, on our devotional page;- https://blog.inspirationalmedia.org.nz/

This is John Dunning signing off from “Thoughtful Thoughts” for another week.

This link takes you to our DEVOTIONAL https://blog.inspirationalmedia.org.nz/

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