Note: Constantine's "conversion" to Christianity made him the first Christian rule of the Roman Empire, uniting church and state. He issued the first Sunday Law in 321 A.D. Justinian issued a decree to unite all men into the Catholic faith in 532 A.D.

Note: The statues of the 'gods' from the Pantheon are now found in the Vatican Museum with the exception of the great statue of Jupiter, which has been modified, retitled, and seated on a throne in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome as St. Peter. Thousands of pilgrims kiss the foot of Jupiter while thinking it is the statue of Peter.

Following the conquest of Mesopotamia by the Persians, the Babylonian priesthood fled to Pergamum in Asia Minor. Here they erected the Acropolis temples of Pergamum in honor of the Greek Pantheon, but continued to worship the Babylonian myster god under the name Saturnus.

The Babylonian mysteries were preserved in the temple of Zeus at Pergamum and transferred to Rome in 133 B.C. The penetration of the religion of Babylon became so general that Rome was called "The New Babylon."

In 133 B.C. the Babylonian solar cult was bequeathed to Rome by Attalus III. There its symbols and forms were incorporated into the cult of Caesar and later into Roman Catholicism.

Frontispiece from "Di Fortuna," a book on astrology printed in Rome with the approval of Pope Clement VII in 1526. Atlas holds the universe, operated by the forces of good and evil of the Persian Mithra religion. The pope is seated on the circle of the Zodiac as the cosmic ruler, the sun god.

Rome: The juice of the grape was thought to be the blood of Bacchus, god of wine and revelry. The Roman mass has its origin, not in the Christian communion, but in the initiation rites of the ancient mystery religions which are themselves traceable to the fertility cults and mystery ceremonies of Babylon.

Golden door in the chapel of St. Ignatius in San Francisco, California, uses several symbols identifying the wafer god. The Unicorn, Peacock, and Phoenix are all well known symbols in the occult for the sun, Lucifer, or Satan.

This monstrance (case used to display the wafer-god of the mass) in the Vatican Museum has the three letters S.F.S. within a small blaze. Each of these letters is a universal symbol for the number 6 in the pagan mysteries. To the eye of an initiate it simply reads 666.

Note: Olcott, commenting on the existence of cult symbolism in Christianity writes: "From the foregoing, which treats merely of the more important solar festivals, it is clear that thes eproducts of paganism are as much in force at present . . . as they ever were, and that Christianity countenances, and in many cases actually adopted and practices pagan rites whose heathen significance is merely lost sight of because attention is not called to the source when those rites have sprung, In short, sun worship, symbolically speaking, lies at the very heart of the great festivals which the Christian church celebrates today, and these relics of heathen religion have, through the medium of their sacred rites, blended with practices and beliefs utterly antagonistic to the spirit which prompted them."

This hideous horned nature spirit is found on a sacred reliquary, among the most sacred items in the Vatican treasury, beneath St. Peter's Basilica.

Nature spirits are a common feature in pagan cults throughout the world. In Roman paganism, they were called fauns; in Greek, they were knkown as satyrs. They are reflections of the horned, hoofed-god, traceable to the sun-god of Babylon.

Note: "Heathendom died and was buried: Yet, after a brief interval it rose again from the tomb. But unlike the vampire, its garb was changed and it was not recognized. It moved through Christendom in a seductive dress." Author unknown.

The Roman Catholic monstrances use a cescent to mount the wafer-god, thus duplicating the pagan imagery of the solar disc in a crescent, the ancient symbol of cosmic conception.

The majority of old monstrances use the crescent as a mount for the wafer when placing it on display for adoration.

This golden child in the Vatican treasury, like so many other images of the child in Roman Catholic churches, is reminiscent of the ancient worship of Tammuz as a child. Born on December 25th, he represented the rebirth of the sun. As the pagan god-child, he was called "Baal-berith," or lord of the fir-tree. The word "yule" is a Babylonian word for infant. December 25th was called by the pagan Anglo-Saxons, Yule Day.

Both the Egyptians and the Persians celebrated the birthday of their god on December 25th. Other names applied to the sun-god as a child are: Mithras, Horus, Isvara, Deoius, Jupiter, Plutus, Ninus, Osiris, Dionysus, Bacchus, Iacchus, Adonis, Attis, etc. All myths of child worship are a reflection of ancient Babylonian customs.

Indian Madonna and child, Divaki and Krishna, mythical characters created by Brahmans to counter Christianity in 600 A.D. The Hindu cult already had similar Madonna and child mythical characters, such as Isi and Isvara, and Lakshmi, mother of the universe.

Mother or Mary-worship is the most powerful and emotional phenoenon in the Roman Catholic Church today. This mystic cult is given credence by the countless accounts of supernatural phenomena involving statues, apparitions, and healings. Since Mary-worship is found nowhere in the writings of the first Christians, it is evident its origin is found in the universal adoration of the mother goddess throughout paganism before the time of Christ. It was adopted into the rising Roman Church early in its history – some suggest after the 4th century A.D.

The placing of Mary in a crescent is a remnant of the fertility cults of the ancient mother-goddess, traceable to the Babylonian queen, Semiramis, who was titled "Mother of God" and "Queen of Heaven."

The very images of the pagan gods were adopted as Christian. "In some cases the adoption received no other disguise than to have the word 'saint' placed in front of the god's name. In other cases, the name was changed, but the rites, symbols, and processions continued as before." A.B. Cook, Zeus – A history of the Greek Religion.

Zeus the Greek god, holds the symbol of thunder, a ligntning bolt. His position of chief god and holder of the thunder originated in Mesopotamia. He is called Marduk in Babylon, Baal in Canaan, Adad in Assyria, Jupiter in Rome, and Enlil the hoofed, horned, lord of demons (from which we get the symbolic figure of the devil) in Sumeria.

Mary, or a female figure representing the Roman Church, holds a lightning bolt in her hand in precisely the same way as it is carried by chief dieties in the pagan mysteries.

Ancient Mesopotamian king or demi-god holding a crooked divining staff, representative of the serpent or lightning bolt.

Although the Roman Catholic Church claims that the crosier represents the shepherd's crook, it actually can be traced to the divining staff or the augur of pontifex maximus of ancient Rome, who inherited it from the priests of Babylon.

Adad, Enlil, Baal, Neptune, Poseidon and oher 'gods' of storm and sea were depicted as carrying tridents. It was symbolic of lightning. Wavy lines represent the female and were associated with the serpent; the straight line is male, representing the phallus; thus, this symbol represents male and female union.

Tridents, as weapons found among the Hindu gods, contain the fleur-de-lis, a fertility symbol throughout the east and associated with the sacred shin - w - in secret societies.

Poseidon or Neptune, ruler of the sea or underworld, holds the trident, traceable to the horned, hoofed sun-god of Babylon, who carried the trident or pitchfork.

The trident, projecting from the head of Jesus on a Roman Catholic Madonna and child image. The same symbol is found on clothing and regalia, architecture, and art.

These Satanic hand signs, symbolic of occult powers, appear in the Roman Church on statues, paintings and throughout the priesthood.

Fleur-de-lis on the Tiara of a Neo-Assyrian winged-god from the Palace of Kingt Sargon II (721-705 B.C.) in the Louvre, Paris.

Typical example of the use of the Fleur-de-lis in Roman Catholic symbolism. It is also used in architectural design and clothing.

Lion-headed image holding the keys, representing power to turn the doors of heaven and hell, power over peace or war on the earth. The keys were held by Pluto, "god of hell," and the chief dieties of Asia Minor, Janus and Cybele.

The keys of Peter or the Pope. In 437 A.D., four hundred years after the beginning of the Christian Church, the Pope publicly laid claim to be the possessor of the keys of Peter.

Ancient cylinder seal from Mesopotamia. Notice priest holds in his hands a circle of beads. Beads were commonly buried with the pharaohs of Egypt and used by the pagan cults of the East. They are used by Moslems today.

The Catholic rosary originated in paganism; it was used by the ancient Mexicans, the Brahmins of Hindustan, the Tibetan priests of Tartary, and in the cults of Greece and Rome.

The Pine-Cone Courtyard: it was built in 1816. Under the Nicchione (big Nich) built by Pirro Ligorio, the colossal pine-cone can be found which gives the courtyard its name: the bronze pine-cone which was found in the baths of Agrippa, was a fountain which dripped water with spectacular effects. During the Middle Ages it was located in the hall of the ancient Basilica. From the Pine-Cone Courtyard access can be had to the Greek Cross Room, where there are the two masterpieces of the low Empire, the sarcophagus of the Empress St. Helen and of St. Constance, Constantine’s daughter. The first represents a battle beween Barbarians and Romans, the second shows the Eucharistic grape harvest. These items are located in the Vatican Museum.

Oannes, Babylonian fish-god, was an allegory in the mysteries of the return of Nimrod from the world of the dead. He is depicted as half-fish. Notice the fish's head over the human head.

Neptune (Poseidon), part man and part fish, ruler of the underworld or the sea - yet another representation of the sun.

Pagan priests as half-fish, sprinkling holy water. Stone relief on temple laver from Assyria, in the Peragmum Museum, East Berlin.

Each priest is depicted wearing a fish-head mitre. One of the names of this god in Babylon and Philistia was Dagon (dag=fish, on=sun). One of the most common ways of depicting Dagon is described by the archaeologist, Layard: "The head of the fish formed a mitre above that of a man, while its scaly, fin-like tail fell as a cloak behind, leaving the human limbs and feet exposed. Layard's Babylon & Ninevah, p. 343.

Mitres are universally used in Catholicism by popes, cardinals and bishops. There is no Christian origin for this symbol. The mitre has its origin in the ancient mysteries of the East.

The Pope often displays his mitre publicly. It is one of the most visible evidences that sun worshiop has continued under the name of Christianity.

A typical Roman Catholic statue, Westminster Cathedral, London. Notice the large disc behind the head.

Note: The halo is not a natural phenomenon. It is commonly attributed to the concept of the body aura, still a current teaching in the occult. Its origin is most likely Persia, Egypt, and India, where blazes, discs, and rays can be seen adorning the heads of statues of Persian, Hindu and Egyptian deities. It symbolizes the deification of dead heroes and astrological gods. It has no place in the Christian Church. The halo's existence in Christendom is most likely a result of the active intercourse with ascetics and pagan monks from the East, common in Egypt and Rome during the first centuries of Christianity.

The disc as a symbol of the sun is as old as Babylon. Notice the two solar wheels, mounted in crescents on this relief from old Babylon, in the Louve, Paris.

The solar blaze behind Mary's head, is made of a combination of straight lines (male, phallic) and wavy lines (female, yonic) symbols, representing sexual conception.

Roman sun-god. Notice the horns, and rays emanating in all directions. This relief is from the excavated Roman baths in Bath, England.

The face of Apollo, the Greek sun-god, surrounded by straight and wavy blaze lines, from the Temple of Apollo facade in the Pergamum Museum in East Berlin. The face in the sun with horns represents the ancient adoration of the horned sun god of Babylon.

Face in the sun at the top of one of the giant serpentine pillars of Bernini's canopy in St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican.

Rendition of one of the oldest pictures in the world, from Mespotamia. The text associated with it links the cross to the sun. The original is on display at the University Museum in Philadelphia.

Papists place crosses upon their churches, upon their altars, and upon their garments. Everywhere is seen the insignia of the cross. Everywhere it is outwardly honored and exalted. But the teachings of Christ are buried beneath a mass of senseless traditions, false interpretations, and rigorous exactions. The Saviour's words concerning the bigoted Jews, apply with still greater force to the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church: "They bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers." Matthew 23:4. Conscientious souls are kept in constant terror fearing the wrath of an ofended God, while many of the dignitaries of the church are living in luxury and sensual pleasure. (The Great Controversy, by Ellen G. White, 1888, p. 568.)

Unquestionably the largest occult solar wheel on earth is located in the court of St. Peter at the Vatican in Rome. Notice it is made of a wheel within a wheel, with eight spokes, a common symbol of cosmic energy in paganism. Protruding from its center is an obelisk, the ancient symbol of Osiris, the solar phallic god of Egypt.

Masonic pendant displays eye with a solar blaze in a triangle, surrounded by snake with tail in its mouth, symbolic of the costmic force or 666-god, the rule of the Zodiac.

The evil eye looking down on worshipers from the apex of the dome in the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

The bronze tomb of Pope Sixtus, or Pope 6. Five popes titled themselves "six" Six was the sacred serpent number of the mysteries.

Quetzalcoatl, the lord of life and death in the Aztec and Toltec culture, 1000 A.D. Notice the full heart in the chest. Humans believed to possess a deified heart were sacrificed; their hearts were then offered to nourish the sun.

The flaming hearts found on Catholic images of Mary and Jesus have no Christian origin. This heart was sacred in pagan mysteries: Osiris, Vishnu, Bel, etc., and was worn as an amulet around the necks of Roman youth.

The winged figure of a spirit hovers over the dead body of the departed. It is on a painting from an Egyptian book of the dead.

The mother pelican feeding her young with her own flesh was a symbolic allegory of the sun feeding the planets. Now it is a symbol in the Roman Catholic Church of Christ serving humanity.

Looking down over Bernini's canopy, St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City. The altar is surrounded by rings of occult symbolism on the floor.

St. Peters Square in Vatican City. The world's largest occult solar wheel with an obelisk, a solar sun symbol, in the center of the court.

A close examination of the papal crests on the 'holy' door in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, reveals the occult symbolism of the solar deity, as well as the sacred number of astrology: 666.

A stone relief from the Coptic Museum in Cairo, Egypt. Coptic, or Egyptian Christianity, strictly followed the old Alexandrian creed. The Alexandrian patriarch ordained the bishops of the Ethiopian (Abyssinian) Christian Church, which continued to sanctify the seventh day as the Sabbath until the 20th Century.

Castle of Montsegur in the French Pyrenees mountains was the final refuge of the Albigenses in the 13th Century.

Note: Since the doctrine, "Compel them to come in," was developed in the 4th Century by Augustine of North Africa, forced conversion through torture and persecution at the hands of secular authorities was carried out among most Christian nations until the birth of the American Republic.

Note: When the papacy reached the height of its power under Pope Innocent III, the monstrous council of the Inquisition was established about the year 1200 A.D. This institution spread throughout Europe, resulting in the death of over 60 million Christians during its bloody history. According to the sure word of God, similar Roman Catholic tribunals and persecutions will reappear before the return of our Lord. (Revelation 12:17; 13:15.)

Note: Thousands died behind cold walls in dark dungeons for no greater crime than believing in the Word of God. Although the English monarch Henry VIII separated from papal authority in 1531, persecution of religious dissenters by the state continued in England.

Note: Ignatius Loyola, born in 1491 of Spanish nobility, was the found of the "Society of Jesus," known today as the Jesuits.

The Society of Jesus (Jesuits) was first constituted in the chapel of Notre Dame Church in Montmartre, Paris, in 1534. Now this church is called the Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart).

Statue of Ignatius recuperating from a battle injury, in the castle at Loyola. It was here that he had the first of his visions, and a nervous breakdown. His emotional condition, combined with the fictitious stories of the Catholic saints whose lives he studied, resulted in a series of mystical hallucinations.

Note: "After determining to become a great Catholic saint, committing himself to the service of Mary at Montserrat, Ignatius traveled on foot to the town of Manresa, where he spent almost a year praying and practicing forms of maceration. In the cave at Manresa he began to have visions of the mystic meanings of the Catholic faith. He claimed to have become another man with another intelligence." Edmond Paris, Secret History of the Jesuits, p. 18.

Statues in the sanctuary of the Jesuit Church of Rome, depicting the church's destruction of what she considered Protestant heresy.

Note: During the rise of the Protestant Reformation, the Roman Church had few scholars to match the Biblical scholarship of her enemies. One of the first responsibilities of the Jesuits was to fill this need as pontifical theologians. A major thrust of the new order was to regain Roman Catholic supremacy in Europe by taking over the schools, colleges and universities. Benjamin G. Wilkinson, Truth Triumphant, Leave of Autumn Publications.

Note: Adam Weishaupt, the father of Jacobinism and a renegade Jesuit priest, worked zealously to promote his secret plan for an atheistic revolution to establish a universal utopia.

The writings of Adam Weishaupt and other atheistic conspirators contributed to the thinking and mood that produced the horrors of the French Revolution. The storming of the Bastille by the Parisian mobs, July 14, 1789, signaled the dissolution of the church and monarchy in France. From 1792 to 1796, the Jacobin party in the national assembly led out in an anti-Christian Reign of Terror that shocked the civilized world.

This relief, displayed above the seats of the Supreme Court justices in Washington, D.C., shows the profound place of the Judeo-Christian law of Moses in our government. The first half of the Decalogue is covered by a knee. It suggests that man's obligation to God is a matter of each person's conscience, but the right side of the table of the law is to be enforced by the state.

Source: "The Great Controversy," by Ellen G. White, 1888, republished by Laymen for Religious Liberty, Inc., P.O. Box 908, DeLand, Florida 32721, 1990.