Sunday, December 25, 2016

From Pergamos to Pontifex Maximus

Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon.
Zechariah 2:7
"On the overthrow of Babylon by the Persians, who nourished a tradi­tional hatred for its idolatry, the Chal­dean priesthood fled to Pergamos in Asia Minor, and made it the head­quarters of their religion. Hence Christ in His charge to the church in that city speaks of it as being ' where Satan's seat is.'

"The last pontiff king of Pergamos was Attains III, who at his death bequeathed his dominions and authority to the Roman people, and from that time the two lines of Pontifex Maximus were merged in the Roman one."— The True Christ and the False Christ, J. Gamier, Vol. II, pp. 94, 95.

In the great apostasy, which re­ceived a marked impetus hi the days of Constantine and the two centuries which followed his reign, when the Christianity of the West became so largely paganized, the religion of the empire gradually became the religion of the professed church, being cloaked under the forms and names of Chris­tianity. Note the following extract:

"But just as pagan Rome was the true offspring and successor of Baby­lon, so is papal Rome the true
offspring and successor of pagan Rome. When paganism was nominally abolished in the Roman Empire, the head of the pagan hierarchy was also suppressed.
Some of the Christian emperors did indeed accept the title of Pontifex Max­imus, while others, refusing it them­selves, appointed a pagan priest, until the reign of Gratian, who, refusing to do either, abolished the office 376 A. D. Two years afterward, however, fearing that religion might become disorgan­ized, he offered the title and office to Damasus, Bishop of Rome. . . . This bishop, less scrupulous than the em­peror, accepted the office, and from that time until now the title has been held by the popes of Rome, from whom, and through whom, the whole hier­archy of Western Christendom have received their ordination. So also the honors and powers attached to the title, the dominion of the civilized world, previously wielded by the pon­tiff emperors of pagan Rome, passed to the pontiffs and hierarchy of papal Rome, who for centuries imposed their will upon kings, and held the nations in thralldom, because the dragon god of paganism had given them ' his power and his seat and great author­ity.' "—Id., pp. 95, 96.

Furthermore, as the religion of papal Rome became, in its essential features, the same as the re­ligion of pagan Rome, which was the same as ancient Babylon, the papal church is fittingly entitled Babylon." MinistryMagazine April,1929
"The Pontifex Maximus (Latin, literally: "greatest pontiff" or "greatest bridge-builder") was the high priest of the College of Pontiffs (Collegium Pontificum) in ancient Rome.... the term pontifex literally means "bridge-builder" (pons + facere); "maximus" literally means "greatest"." wikipedia
 More on the PERGAMOS connection (Link below)
http://master1844-dc.blogspot.com/2016/12/how-pagan-babylon-invaded-christendom.html