Church and State

The word Papacy means “the joining or the amalgamation of Church and State”

The word Catholic, derived from the Greek, means “universal.”

Its opposite is sectarian, the universal church of Rome is Babylon, 1 Peter 5:13.

The City of Rome was not sectarian.

It was a pagan religio-politcal system that worshiped many gods, just as was Babylon, and that is why Peter ascribed the name Babylon to Rome when he gave his final greeting to the members of the Christian Church who were in Rome at the time.

This idea is revealed in Revelation 17 where the woman, the Papacy, is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

The pope is the high priest of his church, and also the king of the nation-state of Vatican City, which has its membership in the United Nations.

This system is a direct counterfeit of the order of Melchisedec, which is the Government of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For “Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.” Hebrews 7:17

And what is that order?

For “He is both Lord of Lords and King of Kings.” It is an Ecclesiastical Theocracy, the amalgamation, or the joining of Church and State.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is both the King of His Kingdom and the High Priest of His Church according to the order of Melchisedec.

Thus, the church of Rome-the-Papacy is a direct counterfeit on earth, of the Kingdom of God which is in Heaven.

For Jesus declared, “My kingdom is not of this world;” John 18:36

A little history is in order.

It was in the year 337, upon the profession of Christianity that Constantine the Great linked, or joined church and state, thus subordinating the church to the state, making the church an instrument of state policy.

His reorganization of the political administration of the Roman Empire became the pattern for the ecclesiastical administration of the Roman Church, and that of the Roman Catholic hierarchy.

About 343 the Synod of Sardica assigned the bishop of Rome jurisdiction over metropolitan bishops, or archbishops.

Pope Innocent I (d. 417) claimed supreme jurisdiction over the entire Christian world, but was unable to exercise the power that he claimed.

Augustine (d. 430), one of the great church Fathers and founder of medieval theology, maintained that Rome had always been supreme over the churches. His classic ‘The City of God’ set forth in bold outlined the Catholic ideal of a universal church in control of a universal state, and this provided the theoretical basis for the medieval papacy.

Leo I (the Great, d. 461) was the first bishop of Rome to proclaim that Peter had been the first pope, to assert the succession of the papacy from Peter, to claim primacy directly from Jesus Christ, and to succeed in applying these principles to papal administration of the affairs of the church.

Leo I gave to the theory of papal power its final form and made that power a reality. It was he who procured an edict from the emperor declaring that papal decisions have the force of law.

With imperial support he set himself above the councils of the church, assuming the right to define doctrine and to dictate decisions.

Leo the Great was definitely a temporal as well as a spiritual leader of his people.

Later papal claims to temporal power were based largely on the supposed authority of forged documents known as “pious frauds,” such as the so-called Donation of Constantine.

The meaning of the word Papacy is “the joining, or the amalgamation of Church and State”

The Papacy received its full powers in the year 538 A.D.

Formally giving the Pope his position of High Priest of the Church and King of the State, delivering the known world into the dark ages.

And this is why the United States was established as a Constitutional Republic, separating Church and State, and granting the people freedom of religious faith to worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience.

Ellen White, who was born just 27 years after the deadly wound was given to the papacy in 1798, describes the contrast between the oppressive system of the Middle Ages and the system that the Constitutional Fathers envisioned and implemented:

“Among the Christian exiles who first fled to America and sought an asylum from royal oppression [an oppressive state] and priestly intolerance [an oppressive church] were many who determined to establish a government upon the broad foundation of civil [state] and religious [church] liberty. Their views found place in the Declaration of Independence, which sets forth the great truth that ‘all men are created equal’ and endowed with the inalienable right to ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ And the Constitution guarantees to the people the right of self-government, providing that representatives elected by the popular vote shall enact and administer the laws. Freedom of religious faith was also granted, every man being permitted to worship God according to the dictates of his conscience. Republicanism [a state without a king] and Protestantism [a church without a  Pope] became the fundamental principles of the nation. These principles are the secret of its power and prosperity.” GC, p. 411.”

Ellen White further wrote:

“The founders of the nation wisely sought to guard against the employment of secular power on the part of the church, with its inevitable result—intolerance and persecution.” GC, p. 442

In this way, the founding fathers rejected the apostate Roman Catholic view that it is legitimate for the church to use the power of the state to enforce its beliefs and practices. Instead, the Founding Fathers established a government that returned to the view of church and state that had characterized Jesus and the earliest church, one that separated church and state and guaranteed the freedom to worship God according to the dictates of conscience.

George Washington, the first president of the United States and the chair of the Convention that ratified the Constitution in 1787 wrote to the Baptist Delegation in 1789:

“If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the Constitution framed by the convention where I had the honor to preside might possibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical society, certainly I would never have placed my signature on it; and if I could now conceive that the general government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny and every species of religious persecution. For, you doubtless remember, I have often expressed my sentiments that any man, conducting himself as a good citizen and being accountable to God alone for his religious opinions, ought to be protected in worshiping the Deity according to the dictates of his own conscience.” George Washington to the Baptist Delegation, August 8, 1789.

Thomas Jefferson wrote.

“The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. It does me no injury for my neighbor to say that there are twenty gods, or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” (Thomas Jefferson, Writings, p. 285)

And also.

“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.”
(Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782; from George Seldes, ed., The Great Quotations, Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel Press, 1983, p. 363)

Jefferson knew full well about the mechanism of the Inquisition:

“Is uniformity [in matters of religion] attainable? Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity [of belief and practice]. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth” (Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia,  1782; from George Seldes, editor., The Great Quotations, Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel Press, 1983, p. 363)

Anyone who knows the history of the Papacy during the Dark Ages knows very well that the idea of separation of church and state was written into the Constitution to stop the church from meddling in state affairs, not the other way around.

It is true that the words “separation of church and state” appear nowhere in the Constitution.

However, although the specific expression is not found, the concept is clearly and explicitly contained in the First Amendment to the Constitution:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion [clause #1],

or prohibiting the free exercise thereof [clause #2];

or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances  [clause #3].”

Some contemporary Christian activists have even gone so far as to say that the First amendment applies to the Federal Government but does not apply to the states. But the Supreme Court on the basis of the Fourteenth  Amendment has overturned this idea consistently.

Notice that the intent of the First Amendment is not to forbid the establishment of a church or one religion over and above another church or another religion. 

The word ‘religion’ in the First Amendment is not preceded by a definite or an indefinite article.

Thus, the First Amendment forbids Congress from drawing up laws that have anything to do with religion, period.

In this sense, the Constitution clearly contains the concept of the separation of church and state, because the state is forbidden from making laws that establish religion, or prohibit its free exercise.

Therefore, the state can have nothing to do with religion except to protect everyone’s right to practice it freely according to the dictates of their conscience.