Wings of Liberty • December 12, 2024

Seven Mountain Mandate

Part 3: Clasping Hands


What is the link between the Papacy and the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR)? This installment hopes to provide some answers to this question.


On a stage in a Los Angeles stadium on April 9, 2016, NAR Apostle Lou Engle warmly welcomed a delegation from Pope Francis before a packed crowd of ecstatic worshipers. The wet weather had not deterred the throng of 60,000 people who had gathered to commemorate the 110-year anniversary of the original Azusa Street Revival, recognized as the beginning of both the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements.i The crowd eagerly welcomed the messengers of the Pope.


Pope Francis’ delegates greeted the gathered masses in the name of the Catholic church, and especially the 100 million plus charismatic Catholics whose worship practice closely resembles those in the Pentecostal/Charismatic movements. Charismatic Catholicism has grown rapidly around the globe, and like its Pentecostal cousins, focuses on deep emotional experiences, uplifted hands during worship singing, speaking in tongues, and a personal relationship with Jesus.ii Vatican II encouraged ecumenism, formally declaring that “The restoration of unity among all Christians is one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council.”iii


After effusive mutual expressions of unity and forgiveness, the Pope’s delegate and Lou Engle kissed each other’s feet before the gathered masses and the world, proclaiming a holy moment ending the “the diabolical sin” of division between Catholics and Protestants. The papal delegates proclaimed, “Jesus doesn’t care about our differences [in doctrine]”, “we must fly united”. The exchanges can be seen starting at the 6 hour and 50 minute mark.


This incident, and other ecumenical gatherings like it, are a stunning and ominous development in the Protestant world. It is a fulfilment of Bible prophecy.


It is all too clear that the aims of Vatican II have been balefully successful. For Pentecostalism and the Charismatics, gone is the protest of Luther, forgotten are the lives of Huss, Jerome, and Wycliffe. Abandoned are the works of John Knox and John Bunyan. Forgotten are the martyrs who died by the rack and at the stake, killed by the papal power. Forgotten are the centuries of persecution, and the suffering of Pilgrims who fled Europe for America to escape the persecution of that worst of all evils, the combined rule of the church and the state. Forgotten are the warnings of Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, Roger Williams and many others.


For many in what passes for Christianity today, the faith of their fathers is gone. Gone is sola scriptura. Instead, the paramountcy of the Bible has been replaced with the primacy of emotional ecstasy. The doctrines of salvation are supplanted, and dismissed as unimportant. Repetitive and trance-inducing rock music leads to an emotional high and what is seen by many charismatics as the worship’s climax: the ecstatic emotional utterances of congregants speaking in gibberish tongues.


Today, this worship experience is not only for Pentecostals. Its entrenchment is well advanced in
almost every major denomination in the world, including, as stated, in the ranks of over a
hundred million Catholics.iv


A clip of NAR Apostle, Lance Wallnau, teaching his followers to speak in tongues can be viewed
here.v



Bible Prophecy and the Papal Power


The Bible revealed that the Roman papacy would be dominant for a period of 1260 years.vi


History demonstrates the truth of the infallible Word. From 538 AD, when civil power was
assumed by the Bishop of Rome pursuant to the decree of Emperor Justinian, to 1798 and the
capture of Pope Pius VI by Napolean’s general Berthier, the Papacy had tremendous authority
and influence over western Europe. Kings knelt at the feet of the Pope for centuries, and did the
bidding of the Roman pontiff.


Church and state in union brought incredible peril to the human family. The Dark Ages were
marked by superstition, censorship and persecution. It was the age of the suppression of the
Bible, of the Inquisition, and the burning of so-called heretics.


With the Protestant Reformation, the power of the papacy to control the state gradually
weakened until the pope of that period, Pius VI, was taken captive and died in exile in France.
The Bible had prophesied that at the conclusion of the 1260 years the papal power would receive
a deadly wound, and so it did. To hear a detailed presentation on this subject, click here.vii


A beast in Bible prophecy symbolizes a kingdom.viii There are two beasts, or kingdoms,
mentioned in Revelation 13. The Protestant Reformers knew and taught that the leopard beast of
Revelation 13 was the papal power. They knew from the Bible that the papacy was predicted to
persecute God’s people,ix and then one day receive a deadly wound.x They were aware that the
book of Revelation also foretold the rise of another kingdom around the time the papacy was to
lose its dominance. In 1752, the Reformer John Wesley correctly predicted that the lamb-like
beast with the two horns of Revelation 13 was not far away.xi


History shows that only one nation was rising to global prominence at the time of the deadly
wound to the papal power, and that nation was the United States of America


America is the greatest nation the world has ever seen, and it was founded on an express
rejection of papal teaching and authority. The papacy vehemently opposes the
separation of church and state.xii The U.S. Constitution requires a separation of church and state
in the First Amendment.xiii The Papacy is opposed to liberty of conscience.xiv The U.S.
Constitution protects liberty of conscience and religious liberty as a God-given right.xv


The papacy is opposed to freedom of speech and freedom of the press,xvi and maintained a list of
banned books for centuries.xvii The U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and freedom
of the press, and the Founding Fathers taught that without a free press liberty would perish.xviii
The papacy systematically trampled on the principles of due process both before and during the
centuries of the Inquisition, torturing people to obtain a confession to so-called heresy.xix The
U.S. Constitution constitutionalizes due process, including a right to remain silent,xx and rejects
torture.xxi


The Bible foretold that the Bride of Christ would flee into the wilderness to escape the dragon
and from the power of the Roman papacy. Ultimately, Protestantism found its way to the New
World, and one of the last great wilderness areas on the planet. How fitting that the lamb-like
beast, the United States, comes up “out of the earth” – Revelation 13:11, as opposed to the point
of origin of the other beasts in Daniel 7 and Revelation 13! Geographically, those other beasts
come out of the water, and specifically find their geographic location around the Mediterranean,
as noted in Daniel 7:2.xxii But America rose from the ground of the New World.


The Declaration of Independence repudiated the contentions of the church/state system and thus
rejected the dominionist claims of the Pope. The Founders trumpeted that human rights come
from God, not from the state. The Founders declared as “self-evident truth” “that all men are
created equal, and endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable rights.”


“Righteousness exalts a nation” – Proverbs 14:34. America’s protection of the rights and
freedoms of humanity has brought it greatness. It’s secret strength, like Samson’s, has its source
in the Almighty. America was raised by the Lord as a haven for the persecuted, and as a place
where the Gospel and the light of the Scriptures could be proclaimed to all the world. Individual
rights, constitutionalism, and the separation of church and state have made America great.


But like Samson, even the mighty may fall.


Samson, the mightiest man recorded in the Scriptures, fell through continued liaison with a
harlot.xxiii Delilah wooed him and plied him with her charms until he violated the secret trust
between himself and God and gave up the secret of his great strength. In liaison with the
Philistine civil powers, Delilah cut his hair and took his power. His two eyes were put out, and
his liberty was taken from him.


Sadly, the Bible predicts that America will fall the same way. The harlot who seeks America’s
power is the papal harlot, described in Revelation 17.xxiv Long has she sought to bring America
to its knees


As discussed HERE and HERE, the NAR apostles also want political power. The Papacy is more
than willing to ally with the NAR to accomplish her ends.


In 2016, NAR leaders met personally with Pope Francis to discuss their mutual interests. This is
a photo of NAR Apostle Che Ahn and Pope Francis.


Further details of this meeting can be found here.


Conclusion


The Bible foretells that the Papacy’s deadly wound will be healed.xxv The Bible states that the
world will wonder after the first beast, the Papal power, and it is. And the Bible states that
America and the Papacy will work together to bring about the final events of Bible prophecy.


Today, both the New Apostolic Reformation and the Catholic Integralism of the Heritage
Foundation, which openly advocates for a reunification of church and state, are within striking
distance of their goal. This will be the subject of an upcoming installment in this series.
For now, we conclude with words written nearly a hundred and thirty years ago regarding the
events now taking place before our eyes:


Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan
will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of
spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome. The Protestants of the
United States will be foremost in stretching their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand
of spiritualism; they will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power; and
under the influence of this threefold union, this country will follow in the steps of Rome in trampling on the rights of conscience.xxvi



i https://news.ag.org/en/article-repository/news/2016/04/what-azusa-had-and-we-need


ii  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Charismatic_Renewal


iii Unitatis Redintegratio, the Decree on Ecumenism (1964, #1).


iv https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLmMHdYjWGI


v https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZi9F-5pXf8


vi Revelation 13:5 – the time period of the 42 months is the same as the time period of the 1260 years mentioned in Daniel 7: . Using a Hebrew lunar month of 30 days, 42 months is 1260 days. The day for a year principle of prophetic interpretation is found in Ezekiel 4:6.


vii https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-OX2Fzr1IU


viii See Daniel 7.

 

ix  Revelation 13:7


x Revelation 13:3


xi  https://ccel.org/ccel/wesley/notes/notes.i.xxviii.xiv.html


xii Pope Pius X, Vehementer Nos, 1906: “That the State must be separated from the Church is a thesis absolutely false, a most pernicious error.” “Hence, mindful of Our Apostolic charge and conscious of the imperious duty incumbent upon Us of defending and preserving against all assaults the full and absolute integrity of the sacred and inviolable rights of the Church, We do, by virtue of the supreme authority which God has confided to Us, and on the grounds above set forth, reprove and condemn the law voted in France for the separation of Church and State, as deeply unjust to God whom it denies, and as laying down the principle that the Republic recognizes no cult. We reprove and condemn it as violating the natural law, the law of nations, and fidelity to treaties; as contrary to the Divine constitution of the Church, to her essential rights and to her liberty; as destroying justice and trampling underfoot the rights of property which the Church has acquired by many titles and, in addition, by virtue of the Concordat. We reprove and condemn it as gravely offensive to the dignity of this Apostolic See, to Our own person, to the Episcopacy, and to the clergy and all the Catholics of France. Therefore, We protest solemnly and with all Our strength against the introduction, the voting and the promulgation of this law, declaring that it can never be alleged against the imprescriptible rights of the Church.”


Also see - Pope Gregory XVI, Mirari Vos, 1832: “Nor can We predict happier times for religion and government from the plans of those who desire vehemently to separate the Church from the state, and to break the mutual concord between temporal authority and the priesthood. It is certain that that concord which always was favorable and beneficial for the sacred and the civil order is feared by the shameless lovers of liberty.”


xiii  First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution


xiv  Pope Pius IX, in his Encyclical Letter of August 15, 1854, said: `The absurd and erroneous doctrines or ravings in defense of liberty of conscience are a most pestilential error—a pest, of all others, most to be dreaded in a state.’ Pius IX, in his Encyclical Letter of December 8, 1864, also anathematized `those who assert the liberty of conscience and of religious worship,’ also ‘all such as maintain that the church may not employ force.’


xv  First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution


xvi Pope Pius IX, Mirari Vos, 1832: “This shameful font of indifferentism gives rise to that absurd and erroneous proposition which claims that liberty of conscience must be maintained for everyone. It spreads ruin in sacred and civil affairs, though some repeat over and over again with the greatest impudence that some advantage accrues to religion from it. “But the death of the soul is worse than freedom of error,” as Augustine was wont to say.[21] When all restraints are removed by which men are kept on the narrow path of truth, their nature, which is already inclined to evil, propels them to ruin. Then truly “the bottomless pit”[22] is open from which John saw smoke ascending which obscured the sun, and out of which locusts flew forth to devastate the earth. Thence comes transformation of minds, corruption of youths, contempt of sacred things and holy laws — in other words, a pestilence more deadly to the state than any other. Experience shows, even from earliest times, that cities renowned for wealth, dominion, and glory perished as a result of this single evil, namely immoderate freedom of opinion, license of free speech, and desire for novelty. https://rsf.org/en/dangerous-comments-pope-freedom-expression


xvii https://www.britannica.com/topic/Index-Librorum-Prohibitorum


xviii  “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost” -Thomas Jefferson, 1786. “The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” - Thomas Jefferson, 1787.


xix  https://www.ccel.org/f/foxe/martyrs/fox105.htm


xx  The Fifth Amendment states: No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-5/


xxi  https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/constitutional-amendments-amendment-8-freedom-excessive-bail-fines-and-cruel-punishments


xxii Danel 7:2 “Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.” The Great Sea of Danel’s vision is the Mediterranean. All of the beasts come up out of that sea, and all of the nations in the vision find their geographic location around the Mediterranean.


xxiii See Judges chapters 13-16.


xxiv  Revelation 17 will be examined in an upcoming segment.


xxv  Revelation 13:3 The healing of the papacy’s deadly wound will be covered in detail in an upcoming segment. It is the position of the author that the wound has been healed, and current events demonstrate the proof of this.


xxvi  Great Controversy, p. 588. https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/132.2635#2659






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Earthquakes and Tsunamis: Signs of the Second Coming of Christ

By Wings of Liberty • July 30, 2025
The largest earthquake to hit the planet in 14 years struck off the coast of Russia on July 29, 2025. The monster 8.8 magnitude quake triggered global tsunami warnings, including officials urging the evacuation of the Hawaii islands coastline. Sirens blare. Anxious millions watch the internet for news updates, concerned for themselves and the safety of their loved ones. People watch and wonder. Floods and storms and earthquakes. War and disease and famine. What do these things mean? It is all a fulfilment of Bible prophecy. Nearly two thousand years ago, Jesus warned humanity of the signs of the end of the world, culminating in His return to this planet to raise the dead and rescue His faithful believers - 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18, and the destruction of the wicked – Matthew 13:30. We should expect to hear of “wars and rumors of wars” – Mathew 24:6, and to see “pestilences and famine” – Matthew 24:7. The Lord specifically referred to earthquakes and the roaring of the waves. Christ warned: And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. Luke 21:25-28 The signs of the times are everywhere, friend. While officials can tell you to evacuate the coastline, and news agencies can inform you of the devastation which took place from this or that natural disaster, the explanation and deeper meaning of the increasing agitation and unrest in our world is found only in the Bible. These are the signs of the approaching Creator and Redeemer. Are you ready? Today is the day of salvation - 2 Corinthians 6:2, the door of mercy is still open. Christ is ministering in the courts in heaven on ehalf of humanity. But when he returns to this earth it will already be too late for repentance. The work of intercession will be finished and the door of mercy closed. Today is the day to seek the Lord while He may be found!. It is not safe to trifle with the call of mercy.

THE CURSE OF CHURCH AND STATE, PART 2: SILENCE, HERETIC

By Wings of Liberty • July 23, 2025
Control is the aim of all religionists who desire civil power. They want the power of government for one single reason: they are not content to allow their religious ideas to stand or fall in competition with other religions and philosophies in the marketplace of ideas, judged by each person for themselves as true or false. Instead, they intend to dominate human thought and behavior by having government compel their religious views on society using the force of law. Since they have lost the argument in the public square, they will win it by force. Some of these religionists may have vague intentions of altruism, hoping to reform a corrupt society through religious compulsion. But, regardless of motive, as soon as the objective is obtained it is inevitable that the union of church and state will result in persecution. This is because the power of government is to make laws for society. When religionists have this power they will make laws for their religious purposes, and laws to punish breaches of their religious laws. The result is religious persecution, and the corruption of church and state. There are many examples to demonstrate that the above proposition is true. In theocratic Muslim countries where the church controls the state, censorship of media of all sorts is enforced, from books to movies, and the internet. There are religious restrictions on every aspect of society, and these restrictions are for the good of society in the minds of those who pass them and enforce them. Compliance is mandatory, and a person is considered an enemy of the common good if he dissents. In Islam, as in all religions, the ultimate dissent is considered to be conversion away from one’s former religion. But when the mosque controls the state, one converts from the religion which controls the government. In much of Islam, conversion is to be punished by death. Islamic teaching stipulates that a delay of three days for “reconsideration”, is appropriate prior to carrying out the death penalty. i The Roman Papacy also wants control of government, even global government, i and it long ago proved that it persecutes dissenters. For centuries it banned books and persecuted their authors, ii justifying it actions with the claim that reading John Locke, Galileo, and John Milton, was “heresy” and “contrary to morality”, and suppression of writings is necessary for the common good. Many martyrs were tortured and killed for possession or creation of prescribed religious materials. This censorship and persecution is supposedly justified by the papal teaching extra ecclesiam nulla salus - "outside of the Church, there is no salvation”, and, “it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff.” iii Thomas Aquinas, often lauded by Catholic scholars, agreed that "to be subject to the Roman Pontiff is absolutely necessary for salvation." iv Thus, the Papacy justifies censorship by the following perverse argument: since only Catholic doctrine can save society, dissenting or heretical views must not be tolerated if society is to be saved. This position is not only ancient, but also modern. In advocating for a new reinterpretation of the Constitution through a lens of Catholic social doctrine deceptively called “common good constitutionalism”, v Harvard legal scholar and Catholic Integralist, Adrien Vermuele, stated: The libertarian assumptions central to free-speech law and free-speech ideology – that government is forbidden to judge the quality and moral worth of public speech … [should] fall under the ax. Libertarian conceptions of property rights and economic rights will also have to go, insofar as they bar the state from enforcing duties of community and solidarity in the use and distribution of resources. vi Carefully consider Vermuele’s assertions in this vein and it will slowly dawn on you that he is quietly but vehemently opposed to American independence, the Bill of Rights, and probably apple pie. Vermeule believes the United States government should be subordinate to the Roman Catholic Papacy. When he advocates for government censorship of public speech that is low in “quality and moral worth”, what he means is that the Catholic Church should direct the government to suppress public speech it opposes. Vermeule’s contentions prove the proposition that a union of church and state results in wickedness and oppression, as President John Adams wrote. vii But there may be another word to describe his intentional attack on US independence. What do you call a proposition that your country’s government and Constitution be subordinated to the Pope of Rome, who is not only a religious leader but a foreign monarch, and that your fellow citizens be stripped of their freedom of speech and property rights? While these menacing thoughts are published under the sometimes-subversive cloak of academia, Vermuele betrays enough of an inner latent Torquemada that there should be serious alarm bells for liberty lovers. Take David French, for example. French, a lawyer, former editor of the National Review, and Protestant twice has debated Sohrab Amari, a well-known Catholic Integralist and editor of the New York Post, on the subjects of American liberty and Originalism versus a Catholic social doctrine reinterpretation of the Constitution. viii French is a staunch supporter of individual rights, and the defense of civil liberties as enshrined in the Bill of Rights. Amari believes the government should be subordinated to the Catholic Church, and that the Constitution needs to be “reinterpreted” so that it conforms with Catholic doctrine. French handily won both debates. But if the Catholic church controlled the government, the French/Amahri debates probably do not end with a handshake. They end with French’s writings proscribed, his house expropriated and converted into a camp for Catholic migrants, ix and French himself chained to a rack and tortured for heresy. That is the difference when the church controls the state. Many Protestants today want civil power, and claim to be setting up a kingdom for Jesus Christ. They claim there will be more liberty in this kingdom, not less. But Protestants who believe in a union of church and state are not much different than Papists. They have behaved like Papists when they have had civil power and there is every reason to believe they will again if they obtain it again. There are many examples of the foregoing, but one or two will suffice. In Scotland, “The National Covenant or Confession of Faith” was first created in 1580 and certified by an act of Parliament in 1640. The law was approved by Charles II in 1651 as a condition precedent of his restoration to power. As noted by author and liberty advocate A. T. Jones, the Covenant “declares, in approval of various acts of the Scottish Parliament, as follows: … do condemn all erroneous books and write concerning erroneous doctrine against the religion presently professed, or containing superstitious rites and ceremonies papistical, … and ordains the home-bringers of them to be punished … and ordains the users of them to be punished for the second fault as idolaters. i In order to protect the Covenant religion, the Covenant declares that “all within the realm are bound to profess it”, and states all must: … recant all doctrine and errors repugnant to any of the said articles, and all magistrates, sheriffs, etc., are ordained to search, apprehend, and punish all contraveners; … that none shall be reputed loyal and faithful subjects to our sovereign Lord or his authority, but be punishable as rebellers and gainstanders of the same, who shall not give their confession and make their profession of the said true religion. ii Magistrates were required by the Covenant to: Maintain the true religion of Jesus Christ… and be careful to root out of their empire all heretics and enemies of the true worship of God who shall be convicted by the true Kirk of God [Church of God] of the aforesaid crimes. iii Scottish Reformer Jon Knox himself stated that “none provoking the people to idolatry ought to be exempted from the punishment of death”, and “it is not only lawful to punish to the death such as labor to subvert the true religion, but the magistrates and people are bound to do so unless they will provoke the wrath of God against themselves.” iv As noted, this is far from the only example of Protestant misdeeds when they obtain civil power. John Calvin had Michael Servetus arrested and murdered over a religious disagreement. Zwingli endorsed violence to encourage conversion, and Melanchthon drowned an Anabaptist for the “heresy” of being rebaptized. Thus we see a union of church and state in Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism all yields the same evil result. The supposedly “true” religion (as declared by thin-skinned religionists who cannot stand to have their ideas debated and adopted or discarded as the individual decides) is established by civil law, dissenting views are censored, and the expositors punished, persecuted and murdered. That is the lesson of history in all ages, and it is the prophecy of Revelation 13 that so will it be at the end of time. Revelation 13:11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. 12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. 13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, 14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. 15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. 16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. The next installment in this series will examine the links between Catholic social doctrine, the labor movement, and the push for church and state union. 

THE CURSE OF CHURCH AND STATE, PART 1: Canon and Feudal Law

By Wings of Liberty • July 6, 2025
In times of persecution and danger, anonymity has long been the necessary cloak for the truth. Speaking of the oppression under which the truth labored as the Revolutionary War approached, the eventual second president of the United States, John Adams, anonymously stated the following in the Boston Gazette in 1765: Every body knows how dangerous it was to speak or write in favour of any thing in those days but the triumphant system of religion and politicks. And our fathers were particularly the objects of the persecutions and proscriptions of the times. It is not unlikely therefore, that, although they were inflexibly steady in refusing their positive assent to any thing against their principles, they might have contracted habits of reserve, and a cautious diffidence of asserting their opinions publickly. These habits they probably brought with them to America, and have transmitted down to us. i Adams was saying that the pilgrims who fled Europe passed down a knowledge of the dangers which public opinions could bring from kings and priests. The Papacy was hostile to not only religious freedom, but to freedom of thought, speech and the press. English monarchs, both Catholic and Anglican, had harshly punished dissenting views. The “fathers” Adams references are those who suffered for their faith and opinions in the public square, even to the point of martyrdom. They had consequently learned to be careful when expressing their views publicly, especially on the “triumphant system of religion and politicks”. Today, many so-called Christians loudly (and often arrogantly) demand that church and state once more come together in America and enforce their version of Christianity on the population by force of law. ii But of course such a system will result in the same oppression and punishment of dissent as it has in the past. Politicians and advocates of church/state union in America might be surprised to hear the second president of the United States speak with such ardor against their cause. But John Adams denounced the union of church and state as “tyrannical” and “wicked”. Hear this father of American independence in his own words: Since the promulgation of Christianity, the two greatest systems of tyranny that have sprung from this original, are the canon and the feudal law … By the former of these, the most refined, sublime, extensive, and astonishing constitution of policy that ever was conceived by the mind of man was framed by the Romish clergy for the aggrandizement of their own order. All the epithets I have here given to the Romish policy are just, and will be allowed to be so when it is considered, that they even persuaded mankind to believe,faithfully and undoubtingly, that God Almighty had entrusted them with the keys of heaven, whose gates they might open and close at pleasure; with a power of dispensation over all the rules and obligations of morality; with authority to license all sorts of sins and crimes; with a power of deposing princes and absolving subjects from allegiance; with a power of procuring or withholding the rain of heaven and the beams of the sun; with the management of earthquakes, pestilence, and famine; nay, with the mysterious, awful, incomprehensible power of creating out of bread and wine the flesh and blood of God himself. All these opinions they were enabled to spread and rivet among the people by reducing their minds to a state of sordid ignorance and staring timidity, and by infusing into them a religious horror of letters and knowledge. Thus was human nature chained fast for ages in a cruel, shameful, and deplorable servitude to him, and his subordinate tyrants, who, it was foretold, would exalt himself above all that was called God, and that was worshiped. In the latter we find another system, similar in many respects to the former; which, although it was originally formed, perhaps, for the necessary defense of a barbarous people against the inroads and invasions of her neighboring nations, yet for the same purposes of tyranny, cruelty, and lust, which had dictated the canon law, it was soon adopted by almost all the princes of Europe, and wrought into the constitutions of their government. It was originally a code of laws for a vast army in a perpetual encampment. The general was invested with the sovereign propriety of all the lands within the territory. Of him, as his servants and vassals, the first rank of his great officers held the lands; and in the same manner the other subordinate officers held of them; and all ranks and degrees held their lands by a variety of duties and services, all tending to bind the chains the faster on every order of mankind. In this manner the common people were held together in herds and clans in a state of servile dependence on their lords, bound, even by the tenure of their lands, to follow them, whenever they commanded, to their wars, and in a state of total ignorance of every thing divine and human, excepting the use of arms and the culture of their lands. But another event still more calamitous to human liberty, was a wicked confederacy between the two systems of tyranny above described. i You likely were unaware that Founding Father John Adams spoke so strongly against a union of church and state. And you will not likely hear his views repeated by most modern conservative thinkers or politicians. You will not hear them from the Opus Dei-linked Heritage Foundation, which authored Project 2025, or from Harvard scholar and Catholic Integralist Adrian Vermeule, who openly advocates that the Catholic Church should control the U.S. government. i You will not hear of John Adams treatise on canon and feudal law from adherents of the New Apostolic Reformation, who believe they have a mandate from Christ to control every major aspect of society. ii All these would prefer John Adams be buried in the dustbin of history because he speaks contrary to church/state ambitions. In denouncing canon law, John Adams condemned the Roman Papacy as an engine of superstition and oppression, designed to imprison the minds of the populace in “a state of sordid ignorance and staring timidity”. In denouncing feudal law, he condemned that system of nobles and lords who owned the land, while all the common people were required to serve them, supposedly in exchange for protection. Medieval feudal law finds its echo in the policies of the World Economic Forum. The oft-repeated claim that “you will own nothing and be happy” is in fact nothing less than a call to return to serfdom. The devil, prince of this world, tempted our Savior in the wilderness with the allure of earthly power – the same earthly power that many Christians covet today. Satan took Christ up into an exceedingly high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them and said unto Him, “all these things will I give thee if Thou wilt fall down and worship me.” Jesus replied, “get thee hence, Satan” – see Matthew 4:8-10. It is the antichrist of the Scriptures, that man of sin, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalt himself above all that is called God, who desires temporal power. As soon as he had it he turned persecutor. As soon as modern Christians have civil power, they also will turn persecutor. This has been proven time and again in history, as will be discussed in the next article. In denouncing both canon and feudal law combined, John Adams condemned the unconstitutional aims of a growing and ambitious group of modern Christians who intend to make their “Christianity” the law of the land for the common good of society. The heart of humanity has not changed. Such a system was a curse in the time of the Inquisition, and it would be a curse in our day should it be recreated.