THe woman representing the church of Christ in Revelation 12 who fled into the Wilderness is patricularly associated with the those that fled into the mountains of Northern Italy and were persecuted known as the Waldenses.
“Some have suffered torture because they would not rest when others kept Sunday, for they declared it to be the holiday and law of antichrist.” Sebastain Frank, AD 1536
The inquisition was first applied to Sabbath keepers and then to the heros of Protestanism. This is in their own written history as stated below.
The Cambridge Companion to The Jesuits Edited by Thomas Worcester
Thomas Worcester is a Jesuit priest, and a Professor of History at the College of the Holy Cross, in Massachusetts. He is a specialist in the religious and cultural history of early modern France and Italy.
“The inquistion was founded to prosecute judaizing conversos, namely individuals of Jewish ancestory who were baptised as Christians but continued to practice aspects of Mosacis law such as dietry rules and rituals associated with the Sabbath. To Christian religious authorities, conversos who followed Jewish ceremonies were heretics because they appeared to be practicing two religions simultaneosuly and hence betraying their baptismal vows. The Inquisition was surpposed to find these judaizing heretics and, if possible, enclose them again in the Christain community after eliciting from them an expression of repentance. If the suspected heretic refuse to confess her error and sufficient eyewitness testimony against her, she would be relaxed to the secular arm, a phrase meant released to the secular authorities and burn at the stake. p23,24
Following the reformation that began with Luther, the inquistion turned to force the will and conscious of the great men of the reformation. Only Satan binds the hands and mind in such a way.
This anti sabbatarian/ Jewish stance that marked the Jesuit’s history seems to fit well with the extermination of the Jews during the Second World War.
She has clothed herself in Christ-like garments; but she is unchanged. Every principle of popery that existed in past ages exists today. The doctrines devised in the darkest ages are still held. Let none deceive themselves. The popery that Protestants are now so ready to honor is the same that ruled the world in the days of the Reformation, when men of God stood up, at the peril of their lives, to expose her iniquity. She possesses the same pride and arrogant assumption that lorded it over kings and princes, and claimed the prerogatives of God. Her spirit is no less cruel and despotic now than when she crushed out human liberty, and slew the saints of the Most High.
Popery is just what prophecy declared that she would be, the apostasy of the latter times. [2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4.] It is a part of her policy to assume the character which will best accomplish her purpose; but beneath the variable appearance of the chameleon, she conceals the invariable venom of the serpent. “We are not bound to keep faith and promises to heretics,” She declares. GC88 570
The Teletraph 15-8-13
Francis ‘will open files on Hitler’s Pope’, says friend
Decades of doubt over the role played by “Hitler’s Pope” under the Fascist regimes in Italy and Germany during the 1930s and 1940s may be answered if Pope Francis, as a close friend has suggested, opens the Vatican archives.
Rabbi Abraham Skorka, who has known the Argentine former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio for 20 years, said he had discussed the role of Pius XII – the man long dubbed as “Hitler’s Pope” – at length with the new pontiff.
The Rabbi, who recently co-authored On Heaven and Earth, a book of interviews with his friend, said he had made clear that he thought Pius’s legacy ought to be “investigated thoroughly”.
“It’s a terribly sensitive issue, but he says that it must be investigated thoroughly,” he said. “I have no doubt that he will move to open the archives.”
In an interview with The Tablet, Rabbi Skorka said he was convinced his friend – who he predicted would be a “revolutionary” Pope – favoured opening the archives to clarify once and for all Pius’s role.
It follows decades of speculation about the extent to which Pius cooperated with the Fascist regime in Italy and Nazi Germany during his reign which began in 1939.
Benedict had attracted criticism only months before when he approved a decree recognising Pius’s “heroic virtues”, a statement which moved him a step closer to sainthood.
Prediction that parallels the dark past—>
Satan will excite indignation against the humble minority who conscientiously refuse to accept popular customs and traditions. Men of position and reputation will join with the lawless and the vile to take counsel against the people of God. Wealth, genius, education, will combine to cover them with contempt. Persecuting rulers, ministers, and church members will conspire against them. With voice and pen, by boasts, threats, and ridicule, they will seek to overthrow their faith. By false representations and angry appeals, they will stir up the passions of the people. Not having a “Thus saith the Scriptures” to bring against the advocates of the Bible Sabbath, they will resort to oppressive enactments to supply the lack. To secure popularity and patronage, legislators will yield to the demand for a Sunday law. . . . On this battlefield comes the last great conflict of the controversy between truth and error.– Testimonies, vol. 5, pp. 450, 451. {ChS 158.3}
THE CHURCHES MARK OF AUTHORITY; THE MARK OF THE …..
Sunday is a Catholic institution, and its claims to observance can be defended only on Catholic principles…from beginning to end of scripture there is not a single passage that warrants the transfer of weekly public worship from the last day of the week to the first.” Catholic Press, Sydney, Australia, Aug. 1900.
“Protestants…accept Sunday rather than Saturday as the date for public worship after the Catholic Church made the change…But the Protestant mind does not seem to realize that…in observing the Sunday, they are accepting the authority of the spokesman for the church, the Pope.” “Our Sunday Visitor,” Feb. 5, 1950.