<TITLE>12. Par 131-143</TITLE>L-131 {351-2} That's the reason them... That's the reason Irenaeus, that's the reason Polycarp, John, Paul, those great mighty men out there combating that thing... Paul saw it. He said, "I know that after my departing, that wolves are going to enter in among you, brethren teaching perverse things; it'll draw you away."
Look at that stern little old apostle standing there, his back beat full of stripes, his eyes watering, but he could see farther than their--that scope--claiming that out yonder that they can see a hundred and twenty million light--years of light space. He could see plumb into eternity. Yes. There he was. And he predicted it and said that's what would take place, and said... Also went on down to the other age to come...

L-132 {351-4} Now, notice, there he was. Along after him... Saint John lived the longest. And when Saint John was trying to take all the sacred epistles anointed with the Holy Ghost and put them together and make the Bible, the Roman empire caught him and put him on the Isle of Patmos. He was out there on the Isle of Patmos for the Word of God's sake. Polycarp was helping him translate it.
I read the other day the letter that Mary, herself, wrote to Polycarp and upbraiding--not upbraiding him, but commending him for being a gallant man that who could teach and accept the teaching of Jesus Christ of Who was born of her from God. Mary's own note that she had wrote to Polycarp...
Polycarp was fed to the lions, you know. No, he was burned. It was too late for them to turn a lion loose in the arena, and so they tore down a bathroom (an old bathhouse there) and put him in the--in the--in the arena and--and burned him.

L-136 {351-7} And on his road coming down, he was walking with his head down, and the Roman centurion said, "You are an old man and well respected. Why don't you denounce that thing?"
He just kept looking towards heaven, and a voice spoke from somewhere. They couldn't understand where. And said, "Polycarp, don't fear; I'm with you."
Why? He was standing by that Word. And when they begin to pile the boards on him to burn him, there was a heavenly music come down, and a--and the anthems from some angelic somewhere singing songs. He never even one time batted an eye to them. That's gallant men; that's men who can stand.
The martyrs down through the ages there suffered terribly. But what was they? They were under the inspiration, the Spirit of God, the power. And don't forget this, church, and you brethren on tape, I want you to examine this: How could man do anything else besides the power of God that had been released to them?

L-140 {352-4} I'm going to set this box up here to represent that. If God sends a certain Spirit among them, that's the only thing that they can work by, is the Spirit that works among them.
Now, we'll prove to you by the history of the church and by the opening of the Seals and the powers that let loose... And watch exactly the church responded to the--the anointing, and they couldn't do nothing else.

L-141 {352-6} Now, the first was that lion that roared, that pure unadulterated Word. The second in Thyatira was the ox, and it was a--a burden, a beast of burden (pardon me), and it was also a sacrificial beast. And wasn't that exactly the poor little church of Rome that settled down there to a thousand years of dark ages? And anything that didn't profess to be of the Roman church was put to death immediately; and they had to labor, go from place to place.

L-143 {352-7} You Masons, I'll call your attention. You remember the sign of the cross? Now, you--you know what I'm talking about. Now, notice. Now, if you--if you notice that was packing and preserving that Bible. See? And they had to labor among one another. There you are, the ox.
And when it come time... We read it last night. See, when the thing went forth, and the sacrifice come, and they had to go, He said, "Don't you hurt the wine and oil." What did they do? They willingly walked up there and died.


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