The Holy Bible

And Their Soul Traders 

And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise anymore:
The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manners of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble.
And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men. 

Book of Revelation 18:11-13

And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise anymore:

Book of Revelation 18:11

Before we proceed the Vatican history dealing with the rise of papal power and the clergy that enforced it must be examined. 

". . . the Pope, in the plenitude of his power, assumes the right of wielding the lightnings of Jehovah, and of blasting by his "fulminations" whoever offends him. Kings, and whole nations, believing in this power, have trembled and bowed before him, through fear of being scathed by his spiritual thunders. The priests of Paganism assumed the very same power; and, to enforce the belief of their spiritual power, they even attempted to bring down the literal lightnings from heaven; . . .

If we examine the history of the Roman empire, we shall find that here also there is a precise accordance between type and antitype. When the deadly wound of Paganism was healed, and the old Pagan title of Pontiff was restored, it was, through means of the corrupt clergy, symbolised, as is generally believed, and justly under the image of a beast with horns, like a lamb; according to the saying of our Lord, "Beware of false prophets, that shall come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." The clergy, as a corporate body, consisted of two grand divisions — the regular and secular clergy answering to the two horns or powers of the beast, and combining also, at a very early period, both temporal and spiritual powers. The bishops, as heads of these clergy, had large temporal powers, long before the Pope gained his temporal crown. We have the distinct evidence of both Guizot and Gibbon to this effect.

After showing that before the fifth century, and clergy had not only become distinct from, but independent of the people, Guizot adds: "The Christian clergy had moreover another and very different source of influence. The bishops and priests became the principal municipal magistrates....

If you open the code, either of Theodosius or Justinian, you will find numerous regulations which remit municipal affairs to the clergy and the bishops." Guizot makes several quotations. The following extract from the Justinian code is sufficient to show how ample was the civil power bestowed upon the bishops: "With respect to the yearly affairs of cities, whether they concern the ordinary revenues of the city, either from funds arising from the property of the city, or from private gifts or legacies, or from any other source; whether public works, or depots of provisions or aqueducts, or the maintenance of baths or ports, or the construction of walls or towers, or the repairing of bridges or roads, or trials, in which the city may be engaged in reference to public or private interests, we ordain as follows:—The very pious bishop, and three notables, chosen from among the first men of the city, shall meet together; they shall each year examine the works done; they shall take care that those who conduct them, or who have conducted them, shall regulate them with precision, render their accounts, and show that they have duly performed their engagements in the administration, whether of the public monuments, or of the sums appointed for provisions or baths, or of expenses in the maintenance of roads, aqueducts, or any other work." Here is a large list of functions laid on the spiritual shoulders of "the very pious bishop," not one of which is even hinted at in the Divine enumeration of the duties of a bishop, as contained in the Word of God.

How did the bishops, who were originally appointed for purely spiritual objects, contrive to grasp at such a large amount of temporal authority? From Gibbon we get light as to the real origin of what Guizot calls this "prodigious power." The author of the Decline and Fall shows, that soon after Constantine's time, "the Church" [and consequently the bishops, especially when they assumed to be a separate order from the other clergy] gained great temporal power through the right of asylum, which had belonged to the Pagan temples, being transferred by the Emperors to the Christian churches.

His words are: "The fugitive, and even the guilty, were permitted to implore either the justice or mercy of the Deity and His ministers." Thus was the foundation laid of the invasion of the rights of the civil magistrate by ecclesiastics, and thus were they encouraged to grasp at all the powers of the State. Thus, also, as a justly observed by the authorities of Rome in the 19th Century, speaking of the right of asylum, were "the altars perverted into protection towards the very crimes they were raised to banish from the world."

This is a very striking thing, as showing how the temporal power of the Papacy, in its very first beginnings, was founded on "lawlessness," and is an additional proof to the many that might be alleged that the Head of the Roman system, to whom all bishops are subject, is indeed ho anomos, "The Lawless One" (2 Thess. ii. 8), predicted in Scripture as the recognised Head of the "Mystery of Iniquity." All this temporal power came into the hands of men, who, while professing to be ministers of Christ, and followers of the Lamb, were seeking simply their own aggrandisement, and, to secure that aggrandisement, did not hesitate to betray the cause which they professed to serve. The spiritual power which they wielded over the souls of men, and the secular power which they gained in the affairs of the world, were both alike used in opposition to the cause of pure religion and undefiled. At first these false prophets, in leading men astray, and seeking to unite Paganism and Christianity, wrought under-ground, mining like the mole in the dark, and secretly perverting the simple, according to the saying of Paul, "The Mystery of Iniquity doth already work." But by-and-by, towards the end of the forth century, when the minds of men had been pretty well prepared, and the aspect of things seemed to be favourable for it, the wolves in sheep's clothing appeared above ground, brought their secret doctrines and practices, by little and little, into the light of day, and century after century, as their power increased, by means of all "deceivableness of unrighteousness," and "signs and lying wonders," deluded the minds of the worldly Christians, made them believe that their anathema was equivalent to the curse of God; in other words, that they could "bring down fire from heaven," and thus "caused the earth, and them that dwelt therein, to worship the beast whose deadly wound was healed." When "the deadly wound" of the Pagan beast was healed, and the beast from the sea appeared, it is said that this beast from the earth became the recognised, accredited executor of the will of the great sea beast (v. 12), "And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him," literally "in his presence"—under his inspection.

Considering who the first beast is, there is great force in this expression "in his presence." The beast that comes up from the sea, is "the little horn," that "has eyes like the eyes of man" (Dan. vii. 8); it is Janus Tuens, "All-seeing Janus," in other words, the Universal Bishop or "Universal Overseer," who, from his throne on the seven hills, by means of the organised system of the confessional, sees and knows all that is done, to the utmost bounds of his wide dominion. Now, it was just exactly about the time that the Pope became universal bishop, that the custom began of systematically investing the chief bishops of the Western empire with the Papal livery, the pallium, "for the purpose," says Gieseler, "of symbolising and strengthening their connection with the Church of Rome." That pallium, worn on the shoulders of the bishops, while on the one hand it was the livery of the Pope, and bound those who received it to act as the functionaries of Rome, deriving all their authority from him, and exercising it under his superintendence, as the "Bishop of bishops," on the other hand, was in reality the visible investiture of these wolves with the sheep's clothing.

For what was the pallium of the Papal bishop? It was a dress made of wool, blessed by the Pope, taken from the holy lambs kept by the nuns of St. Agnes, and woven by their sacred hands, that it might be bestowed on those whom the Popes delighted to honour, for the purpose, as one of themselves expressed it, of "joining them to our society in the one pastoral sheepfold." Thus commissioned, thus ordained by the universal Bishop, they did their work effectually, and brought the earth and them that dwelt in it, "to worship the beast that received the wound by a sword and did live." This was a part of this beast's predicted work." ¹

Therefore all the papal clergy who participated in the Church's immoral acts and enjoyed her great luxury will bewail and mourn her fall. All who have sinned with the Church or profited by her will lament for her as they see the smoke rising from her charred remains. Their wares will be disused and despised all the world over, and there will be no more customers to buy her salvation goods. 

But the "spirit of antichrist is a worldly spirit, and their sorrow is a mere worldly sorrow; they did not lament for the anger of God, that had now fallen upon them, but for the loss of their outward comfort." ² Thus will they will cry out in grief for their temporal loss, instead of fearing eternal damnation, "How terrible, how terrible for the Vatican, that great city! In one single moment God's judgment came on her." 

The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manners of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble.

Book of Revelation 18:12

"The merchandise of gold and silver, and precious stones,
and of pearls…
Things for treasure and ornament, and with which the great whore is said to be decked, (Revelation 17:4) and, literally understood, may denote the vast riches which these spiritual merchants, or factors for Rome, cardinals, archbishops, bishops, priests, monks, and friars, bring into their own coffers and the pope's, by the trade they drive in her wares with the souls of men; and may have also a regard to what their images, chalices, crowns, mitres . . . and this they pretend to convey to men "ex opere operato", in the ordinances, as baptism… and to communicate the Spirit, with his gifts and graces, for money, which is direct simony; yea, they pretend to sell eternal life, nay, Christ, and God himself:

and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet:
things which belong to apparel and dress; and, literally taken, the "fine linen" is for their copes, wore by bishops and by chanters, and sub-chanters, and for surplices wore by their priests, in imitation of the Jewish priests, and for Mass clothes… the "purple, silk", and "scarlet", were for the popes, cardinals, archbishops, and bishops; so the woman on the scarlet coloured beast is said to be arrayed in purple and scarlet, (Revelation 17:4), Tyre had its merchants for these, (Ezekiel 27:7, 16,24) the fine linen and silk may mystically denote the holy lives, good works, and merits of the saints, those of them called works of supererogation, which become the church's stock, and they sell out for others that want; which is a monstrous kind of ware, and a dreadful imposition upon men, since men cannot be saved and justified by works; and the best of men are so far from having a redundancy of works, that in everything they sin and offend, and are greatly deficient: and they are so far from helping others, that they are unprofitable servants themselves: the purple and scarlet may signify the blood of Christ, which they pretend to sell in the Mass; . . . 

and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble:
things for utensils and furniture, not so much for their houses, as for their churches; . . .

and of brass, iron, and marble,
may intend various vessels used in their churches; as vessels for holy water, fonts of marble, and other valuable stones, for baptism, censers of iron and brass to burn incense in. Cocceius thinks that by these vessels of different materials are meant good men; who are like sweet smelling wood for the fragrancy of their doctrines and lives; and like iron, brass, and marble, for their courage, constancy, and patience; and who have been canonized for saints, which has brought in much money into the pope's coffers: this is a practice in imitation of the Heathens, who deified men, and set them over particular days and affairs; and the privileges of such canonization among the Papists are, that such a saint has his name set in the calendar in red letters, may have churches and altars dedicated to him, and his image set up in them, and a holiday be kept for him, and may be prayed to, and worshipped; a practice dreadfully derogatory to the glory of Christ's person and office, but is that in which these merchants have found their account; for through references, commissions, and reports, for proof of the saint's character and miracles, his friends are at very great expense before the affair is issued, especially if rich; our King Henry the Seventh was very desirous of having his kinsman Henry the Sixth canonized, and solicited the pope for it, but he would not do it under fifteen hundred ducats of gold, which the king thought was too much, and so declined it." ³

And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men. 

Book of Revelation 18:13

"And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense,
&c.] Things for delight and pleasure, for the gratifying of the senses; cinnamon, and odours were used for perfuming, (Proverbs 7:17) anointing with oil was used at feasts, (Psalms 23:5) and "frankincense", or censings, at banquets, and for the regaling of persons after food: these customs obtained among the eastern people. Tyre had its merchants for these things, (Ezekiel 27:19,22) and Mr. Brightman thinks Italy is Rome's merchant in these, which it fetches from Greece, Arabia, and Egypt; it may be these rather respect the ecclesiastical use of them; "cinnamon, odours", and "frankincense", may signify the perfumings and censings used in churches, or the burning incense in imitation of the sweet incense under the law; and "ointments" may denote their chrism, or anointing with oil at baptism, imagining that Christ was anointed with material oil at his baptism, whereas it was with the Holy Ghost: moreover, these things may be mystically understood, "cinnamon" being used by harlots in perfuming their bed, (Proverbs 7:17) may intend the stews and brothel houses erected at Rome, and licensed by authority, each whore paying so much per week; the revenues of which would sometimes yearly amount to twenty thousand ducats: "ointments" may be understood of chrism in baptism, and extreme unction at death: "odours" and "frankincense" may mean their prayers and pater nosters, their prayers for the dead, which were never made without the pence; hence that proverbial expression, no pence, no pater noster.

And wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep:
things for civil use; these are things which belong to food, to eating and drinking, and are the most material and necessary things of life, . . . Italy to be Rome's merchant for wine and oil; Sardinia and Sicily her merchants for fine flour and wheat; Germany for beasts, and England for sheep: and with respect to the ecclesiastical use of these things, wine is for the chalice, used in daily Masses, and drank only by the priests; "oil" for chrism at baptism, and for the extreme unction: "fine flour" for the Mass, or to make their breaden god of; and "wheat, beasts, and sheep" for tithes for the clergy:

and horses, and chariots, and slaves;
things for splendour, equipage, and attendance; horses and chariots for the popes, cardinals, archbishops, and bishops, to ride in state and grandeur, and slaves to wait upon them. . . .

and souls of men;
still in allusion to the merchandise of Tyre, some of whose merchants are said to trade in the persons of men, (Ezekiel 27:13) which the Targum and Septuagint render, in the souls of men; the popes have some of them sold their own souls to the devil, to get into the chair, and, when in, have been the means of destroying of thousands of others; they assume a power over the souls of men, of binding and loosing the consciences of men, imposing new laws upon them, and freeing them from obligation to the laws of God and men, to the ruin of their souls; and it has been said by their sycophants, that if the pope should send thousands of men to hell, no one should say to him, what dost thou? The Romish priests pretend to redeem souls out of purgatory for such a sum of money, and sell pardons and indulgences, say Mass, and promise heaven itself for money; and this they get at the expense of men's souls, by their false doctrine and superstitious worship, and so make merchandise of them, as is said of the false teachers, (2 Peter 2:3) moreover, as by "slaves", or bodies, in the preceding clause, are meant such who serve with their bodies, either by way of attendance, or in unnatural lust; so by "souls" of men may be meant men of soul, of great natural wit and understanding, of great parts, abilities, and learning, with which they serve the man of sin, and his interest, such as Bellarmine, and others. " ⁴ All the merchandise mentioned above occurs repeatedly in the Roman Ceremonial.

"Slaves and souls of men. The Greek reads, "the bodies and souls of men." The first seems to refer to the traffic in slaves, a common traffic until modern times and sanctioned by the Papacy. The latter expression seems to me to refer to a spiritual traffic. What is the whole system of masses for the dead, paid for out of the money drawn from mourning relatives, but a traffic in the souls of men?" ⁵ "Appropriate to the spiritual harlot, apostate Christendom, especially Rome, which has so often enslaved both bodies and souls of men. Though the New Testament does not directly forbid slavery, which would, in the then state of the world, have incited a slave revolt, it virtually condemns it, as here. Popery has derived its greatest gains from the sale of masses for the souls of men after death, and of indulgences purchased from the Papal chancery by rich merchants in various countries, to be retailed at a profit." ⁶ 

We should not be unduly disturbed that hundreds of millions of desperate humans for centuries filled its coffers with cold cash, indulgences, donations, and death-wills to pay for the services the Church excelled and had a strangulating monopoly — salvation of souls. This Devil’s cash cartel financed the most successful trading company in the world.

The Vatican then spread its tentacles over many nations and tongues. It is by far the greatest financial juggernaut whose vast holdings dwarf the Gross Domestic Product of many nations. Maybe by comparing the Roman Goliath with the Salt Lake City David we could grasp the size of this greedy global conglomerate that hoards its obscene wealth in utter secrecy.

"The Mormon Church is by far the most numerically successful creed born on American soil and one of the fastest growing anywhere. Its U.S. membership of 4.8 million is the seventh largest in the country . . .

The church's material triumphs rival even its evangelical advances. With unusual cooperation from the Latter-day Saints hierarchy (which provided some financial figures and a rare look at church businesses), TIME has been able to quantify the church's extraordinary financial vibrancy. Its current assets total a minimum of $30 billion. If it were a corporation, its estimated $5.9 billion in annual gross income would place it midway through the Fortune 500, a little below Union Carbide and the Paine Webber Group but bigger than Nike . . .

The top beef ranch in the world is not the King Ranch in Texas. It is the Desert Cattle & Citrus Ranch outside Orlando, Fla. It covers 126,000 hectares; its value as real estate alone is estimated as $858 million. It is owned entirely by Mormons. The largest producer of nuts in America, AgReserves, Inc., in Salt Lake City, is Mormon-owned. So are the Bonneville International Corp., the country's 14^th largest radio chain, and the Beneficial Life Insurance Co., with assets of $1.6 billion. There are richer U.S. churches than the one based in Salt Lake City: Roman Catholic holdings dwarf Mormon wealth. But the Catholic Church has 45 times as many members." ⁷

The Catholic Church started amassing wealth centuries before the Mormon Church even existed. Behind the tranquil mask of spiritual salvation hums a vast, vibrant network of multimillion secret holding companies hidden from prying eyes. The most profitable company, the jewel in the Vatican crown, is that trading in human souls. Even the Devil must have turned green in envy at the runaway success of this Antichrist Inc., an accomplishment beyond his vilest dream.

"Three hundred billion dollars. Gold deposits that exceed those of many industrial nations. Real estate holdings larger than the total area of many countries. These are but some of the riches of the Roman Catholic Church . 

When Matthew, Luke, and John spread the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ, they never could have envisioned that the institution entrusted with the perpetuation of the Christian ideals of love and charity and contempt for material things would become one of the richest single entities in the world.

Nor, in their wildest imaginings, could those apostles have foreseen the source of much of these riches. Some exist because of the desire of the wealthy for luxury: still more, throughout history came to the Church through war, terrorism, and destruction of human liberty.

Instead of helping the Third World's starving, disease-ridden masses — over 250 million of whom are Catholics — the Church, like any capitalist, seeks to increase its profit-making." ⁸

All the merchants of the Earth who traded with her shall cry and grief over the fall of the Vatican City in the next century. Their mutually profitable trade will dwindle as the churches themselves will cease to exist after all the Christian nations realize that they were owing their allegiance not to Lord Jesus Christ, but the Antichrist! All trading activity will eventually cease and the salvation of human souls will be drastically reduced. Hundreds of millions of Catholics will finally know that their unholy fathers have had no clothes all the time. They will moan and groan that their Vicars of Vice were naked since the Universal Savior departed. They will wail and rage that their religious monarchs were actually soul robbers. They will shriek and scream that their Vicar is utterly detested by their Lord Jesus Christ. None of them will inherit the Promised Land for ultimately they empower the Antichrist and perpetuate his rule over the nations and peoples of many tongues. 

Hildegard of Bingen depiction of the Antichrist as a beast is also very significant because it "reminds us that the history of apocalyptic expectations is not just a male phenomenon in the history of Christianity ... and her unique view of the theology of history and of the end times, the picture that she has of the Antichrist, for example, as part of this play or scenario, is one of the most inventive of the entire medieval period.

Well, Hildegard of course gives us several pictures of the end times. But the one that was most .. powerful, I think, is the picture in her book Scivas, the visionary book that she wrote in the 1140s. And this is a series of visions, many of the connected with the heavenly world, but others dealing with the course of history. One of these famous images is the picture of the kingdoms of the end time and the birth of Antichrist from the Church. This is a powerful image of a vast female figure representing the Church, with this horrible monstrous head being born from the woman. And that of course is the image of the Antichrist, who will be born from the Church, who will persecute believing Christians, and who will try to pretend that he is divine by ascending into heaven. And so in the image you have this monstrous head on the top of a mountain, and then being cast down and destroyed by divine power from above." ⁹

So, be forewarned all ye cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, priests, deacons and nuns who have baptized and bartered human souls on behalf of the Vicars of Satan! The Last Judgment is now just an hour away and your spiritual death is assured. Surely it is assured for all who continue seeking salvation from the Beast of Revelation! Surely, it is assured!

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

“Christianity works out everything secretly. So you have to expose some things also there because on top it is very nice, very good to talk about and all that. Inside they are doing all kinds of things and making people take to, what you can say, something very sinister, something very wrong."

Shri Sarva-tantresi Devi
Primordial Taboos And Sahaj Dharma
Cabella, Italy, August 23, 1997

 

 

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1. Rev. Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons [www.biblebelievers.org.au/]

2. Henry, Matthew. "Commentary on Revelation 18". "Matthew Henry     Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible". [http://bible.crosswalk.com]

3. Gill, John. "Commentary on Revelation 18:12". "John Gill's Exposition of     the Bible". [http://bible.crosswalk.com]

4. Gill, John. "Commentary on Revelation 18:12". "John Gill's Exposition of     the Bible". [http://bible.crosswalk.com]

5. Johnson, Barton W. "Commentary on Revelation 18". "People's New     Testament". [http://bible.crosswalk.com]

6. Fausset, A. R., A.M. "Commentary on Revelation 18". "Commentary     Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible". [http://bible.crosswalk.com]

7. TIME, August 4, 1997

8. Malachi Martin, Rich Church, Poor Church, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New     York, 1984, cover flap.

9. The Antichrist Legend, pbs online and wgbh/frontline

Continue: Rev 18.14-22 Vatican, Your End Is Near