In the history of ancient Israel, Jezebel is that heathen woman whom king Ahab married; and who brought with her her heathen worship and practices: and above all, sun-worship.
However, it was not enough for her to bring along her heathen then worship and her god: she would supplant all the worship of God, and even God himself, by compelling all the people to worship the sun in the Baalim that she introduced. This she did so thoroughly by her persecuting power, that in all Israel there were but “seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.” 1 Kings 19:18.
And even these were so scattered and concealed that the prophet Elijah thought that he alone was left, as they sought his life to take it away.
--Exactly corresponding to this fourth phase of the Church, in the course of the Seven Churches, is the Fourth Seal in the series of the Seven Seals.
For it is written: Revelation 6:5-8 And when he had opened the Fourth Seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
And that this was the slaughter of the saints of God is made plain by the very next verse: 9And when he had opened the Fifth Seal, I saw under the al tar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held. This fixes upon the Papacy the application, in the Christian dispensation, of the phrase “that woman Jezebel."
In the reign of the original Jezebel, when the king charged Elijah with being “he that troubles Israel,” the prophet replied, 1 Kings 18:18 I have not troubled Israel, but you, and thy father’s house, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and you have followed Baalim.
The ancient Jezebel caused the people not only to forsake the commandments of God, but to do honor to idols. And she not only caused them to forsake the commandments of God, and to do honor to idols, but to do honor also to the sun. .jpg)
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So it was with the modern Jezebel: In the making of the Papacy, idolatry—image-worship—was introduced, and grew until it became universal in the Church.
And when in the seventh century an effort was made to abandon it, the Church of Rome, under Pope Gregory II and his successors, defended the images and their worship, and maintained their cause until the seventh general Council, September 24 to October 23, 787, the Second Council of Nice, by a decree confirmed image worship, and established it as a legitimate part of Catholic worship."
A.T. Jones
