Psychology and Religion

[toddao]

The Vatican’s darkest secret – no Apostolic Succession.

The Vatican is considered a castle by some, a temple by most. The Pope does not live, walk, sleep, sit, worship and breath the air of Holy Land but instead lives in a temple where he sits as the head of a state within a state – that state is the Vatican City. The Pope (from Latin: “papa” or “father” from Greek: “papa”, Papa in Italian) is the Bishop of Rome and as such is the leader of the Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic faith was created not by the teachings and followings of Jesus Christ but by the Roman Emperor Constantine (a pagan sun worshipper), 300 years after the Romans put Jesus Christ to death. There is no Apostolic Succession (succession of bishops, in uninterrupted lines, that is historically traceable back to the original twelve Apostles.) as claimed by the Vatican (it is one of four elements which define their false claim to be the true Church of Jesus Christ”) because of the fact that the Roman Catholic religion was not created by any of the original twelve Apostles, for they had all died some 300 years prior to the creation of the Roman Catholic faith.

For 300 years the Romans set out to destroy Christianity first by destroying all Christian Scriptures (as a result scholars do not know the exact year or date of Jesus’ birth or death), then slaughtering millions of Christians, and finally by decree by Roman Emperor Constantine. Constantine did not declare that Christianity was the new state religion he declared that Roman Catholicism was the new state religion.

It was Roman Emperor Constantine who issued the now famous “Edict of Milan”, in 313, permitting Christianity in the Empire. With the “Edict of Milan” Constantine declared himself to be the first “Bishop of Rome” and as such the leader of his newly created Roman Catholic religion. Constantine soon after sent his mother Helena to Christianity’s birth place, Jerusalem, to try to find the cross on which Christ was crucified. Constantine needed it to establish the Roman authority and domination over all true Christians. When she arrived, she bade all the Jewish Rabbis of the whole land gather to meet her. Great was their fear. They suspected that she sought the wood of the cross, a secret which they had promised not to reveal even under torture, because it would mean the end of Jewish supremacy. When they met her, sure enough, she asked for the place of the crucifixion. When they would not tell, she ordered them all to be burned. Frightened, they delivered up a man named Judas (not Iscariot), saying that he would tell. Judas sent her to the temple of Venus, which the queen quickly had destroyed and built the Roman Church of the Resurrection over it.

Rome, Italy claims to be home to a large number of the Apostles and Evangelists of Jesus. Many were put to death in Rome while others were brought to Italy centuries after the original apostles’ deaths. Several of these holy bodies found their way to Italy by less-than-holy means, usually by theft. There is also the fact that unscrupulous merchants, priests and crusaders helped fuel a trade in holy relics during the Middle Ages that left Europe with an enormous surplus of bones supposedly from the Apostles. Today the relics of the Apostles found in Italy may have more to do with tradition than fact; however the intercessory powers of these objects are just as powerful to the faithful. It is said that the Tomb of Peter is empty as the remains of Peter were incinerated. Other say it actually contains the remains of Roman Emperor Constantine as he was the true first Bishop of Rome. The latter is validated by the fact that the Roman Catholic Church was created by Roman Emperor Constantine in 313 AD, long after all of the Christian Apostles had died and their remains scattered so that surviving Christians could not find them. In the days of Christian persecution the bones of saints were often transferred to various locations for the safety of the Roman state. However once Christianity became legal in Ancient Rome, whatever relics survived were placed in the first basilicas. Today the city of Rome claims to be the final resting place of at least seven Apostles, although portions of these relics have been divided up among other churches worldwide. Even with today’s technological advances it is impossible to verify the identity of any of the remains. Roman Emperor Nero was so obsessed with destroying Christianity that he ordered all Christians to be slaughtered or ritually scarified and their remains dumped in mass graves or incinerated.

The current location of St. Peter’s Basilica was originally the site of the Circus of Nero in the first century AD. The circus of Nero was the site of the first organized, state-sponsored martyrdoms (the torturing to death on account of adherence to a cause and especially to one’s religious faith) of Christians in 65AD. It is said that two years later, Peter and many other Christians were captured and brought there by the Romans where they were tortured to death in an effort for the Romans to wipe out Christianity.

Crucifixion was an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross (of various shapes) and left to hang until dead. Crucifixion was in use particularly among the Persians, Seleucids, Carthaginians, and Romans from about the 6th century BC to the 4th century AD. Jesus Christ was the most famous victim of the Roman crucifixion. True Christians see the cross as an anti-Christ idol, not because Christ was tortured to death on one but because God forbids us from bowing down to them or from worshipping such idols.

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

Emperor Constantine adopted the cross as the symbol (”Veneration of the Cross”) of his newly created religion – the Roman Catholic Church. Veneration is often shown outwardly by respectfully bowing or making the sign of the cross. Since the adoption of the cross to represent the Roman Catholic Church the cross has been used as a symbol or banner of war – war involves the painful inhumane execution of innocent people. The Crusades were a Roman military campaign to take control of the Holy Land resulting in millions being murdered under the cross banner. The Spanish Inquisition was an ecclesiastical tribunal started in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms. An inquisition was created through papal bull Ad Abolendam, issued at the end of the 12th century by Pope Lucius III as a way to combat the Albigensian heresy in southern France. There were a huge number of tribunals of the Papal Inquisition in various European kingdoms during the Middle Ages. Millions were beheads or burned at the stakes for not converting to the Roman Catholic religion and not venerating the cross. In addition to the Napoleonic Wars, an Iron Cross was adopted and was awarded during the Franco-Prussian War, the First World War, and the Second World War. The Iron Cross was awarded for bravery in battle as well as other military contributions in a battlefield environment by Adolf Hitler. The Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross recognized extreme battlefield bravery or successful leadership. The Grand Cross of the Iron Cross was a decoration intended for victorious generals of the Prussian Army and its allies. It was the highest class of the Iron Cross.

After Emperor Constantine officially declared by decree the formation of the Roman Catholic Church he started construction (in 324) of a great basilica on the exact spot where the Circus of Nero once stood. St. Peter’s Basilica (Basilica is an oblong building ending in a semicircular apse used in ancient Rome especially for a court of justice and place of public assembly) was built at the place where the apostle Peter was supposedly crucified by the Romans and buried; his tomb is said to be under the main altar. Popes (the majority being Romans) are also buried in and below the basilica. Contrary to what one might reasonably assume, St. Peter’s is not a cathedral – the pope’s cathedral is St. John Lateran. The Basilica of St. John Lateran is the cathedral of the Church of Rome and the official ecclesiastical seat (chair of authority) of the Bishop of Rome, who is the Pope.

The cathedral of the Bishop of Rome (The Basilica of St. John Lateran), containing the papal throne (Cathedra Romana), it ranks above all other churches in the Roman Catholic Church, even above St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. This is evidence of the Roman authority and domination over Christians. This is further proof that the Roman Catholic Church is anti-Christian.

The Roman Vatican’s darkest secret is that there is no Apostolic Succession. The first Bishop of Rome was not Peter but Emperor Constantine. To this day the Romans arrogantly assume their authority over Christians. To mock all Christians they built St Peter’s Basilica upon the unholy site where the blood of countless Christians, perhaps even that of Apostle Peter was shed.

The Roman transition from Emperor to Pope

The Pope has always had the official title of Pontifex Maximus. Pontifex Maximus was the high priest of the Ancient Roman College of Pontiffs long before Christ was born. This was the most important position in the ancient Roman religion.

The Collegium Pontificum (College of Pontiffs) was the most important priesthood of ancient Rome. The foundation of this sacred college is attributed to the second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius. It is safe to say that the collegium was tasked to act as advisers of the rex (king) in all matters of religion. The collegium was headed by the pontifex maximus and all the pontifices held their office for life. Prior to its institution, all religious and administrative functions and powers were naturally exercised by the king. Very little is known about this period of Roman history regarding the pontiffs as the main historical sources are lost and some of the events from this period are regarded as semi-legendary or mythical. Most of the records of ancient Rome were destroyed when it was sacked by the Gauls in 390 BC.

In the Roman Republic, the Pontifex Maximus was the highest office in the polytheistic ancient Roman religion, which was very much a state cult. He was the most important of the Pontifices (plural of Pontifex), in the main sacred college (Collegium Pontificum) which he directed.

Unless the pontifex maximus was also a magistrate at the same time, he was not allowed to wear the toga praetexta, i.e. toga with the purple border. However, he could be recognized by the iron knife (secespita) or the patera and the distinctive robes or toga with part of the mantle covering the head.

The Pontifex was not simply a priest. He had both political and religious authority. Julius Caesar became pontifex in 73 BC and pontifex maximus in 63 BC. After Caesar’s assassination in 44 BC, his ally Marcus Aemilius Lepidus was selected as Pontifex Maximus. From this point on, Pontifex Maximus was one of the many titles of the Emperor, slowly losing its specific and historical powers and becoming simply a referent for the sacral aspect of imperial duties and powers of the modern day Roman Catholic Pope.

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