<TITLE>14. Par 113-120</TITLE>L-113 Now, so then the Holy Spirit church had to keep itself away from such things. But in Pergamos, it was all addressed to the angel of the church of Pergamos. See, 'cause it was his responsibility now to do this.
But Constantine was not interested in Christianity; he wanted to bring his pagan ancestors, his pagan church... And the Laodicean which had rooted and--or the Nicolaitane which had rooted and grounded into Rome and had made a great showing, and many of the people were Christian believers (so-called), formal... And the true church was in the minority, always was and always has been. I'm just going to wait a minute, let that soak real deep. See?
Remember, the true church has always been the little bitty group that's been pushed out of the other churches. The true church never was organized, because it's not an organism; it is the mystical Body of Jesus Christ living on earth, the Holy Spirit moving in these members. So you can't organize Christ, you can't do it. I want you to hold onto that for that Laodicean age, now. And remember it and keep it, 'cause every Word I speak is on this tape.

L-116 And now, remember, keep it in mind: God's true church was never organized. The Catholic church is the first organization ever known in the world, never before was there ever an organization, and it is the mother church as the Catholics say it is. It is the mother church, mother of organization churches. The Bible says she was, so you can't dispute that. When they say that's the mother church, it is the mother church. She's pictured in Revelation 17; we're going to get to her directly. All right.

L-117 Now, so Constantine, with this in his mind to strengthen his empire (as Rome always did, to hold the keys to the world), he had to bring his pagan ideas and take the Christian ideas, and some way consolidate them together, to weld this together and make hisself an empire that would be second to none. See? 'Cau--Because that he was... That would make him yet the greatest ruler in the world: Constantine.
And as far as conversion, he was--he was a politician, but not a saint of God, as some of them try to make him. He wasn't. Never one thing did he ever do that even sounded like Christianity to me. So on the one of the Nicolaitane churches he put a cross; and as far as anything else he ever done that looked Christianity, I never seen it; 'less he, that night he painted them on his shields right there 'cause he had a dream; the Christians was praying for him that he'd win the battle.
Now, then it would strengthen his empire. And then to do this, he brought in pagan ceremonies over into the Nicolaitane Christian church. I'll call it the formal denominational church that was forming. He brought pagan ceremonies over into this Nicolaitane church, and that was the birth of Catholicism.

L-120 Now, brother, I'm quoting history. I have thousands of Catholic friends, and they're just as much friends as Protestants are. But Protestants can't holler; just wait till tonight's over. See, see? You're going to see they did the very same thing. Pot can't call kettle greasy (See?), because it's--it's just the same thing; the same spirit got right among them. And then you're going to see why I'm always condemning that thing. Because it's wrong. The very Spirit in me, if... I try to, and something in me cries out; I just can't hold my peace about it, always have, because...


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