Amen, you may be seated. All right, if you would take your Bible, go to the third chapter of the book of Ephesians. We're just gonna Do a little jump in here, let me pull this forward. So before we get to the text, Let me just try to give you an idea of what's going to happen for this morning message and then this evening message. Our attempt was actually to try to walk through the church age. Well, we haven't walked very far, amen? There's a lot to this, as you can see. We gave you the overview, did a couple flyovers, and gave you kind of some stuff in between. But what we're going to try to do right now is pick up here and start walking through and start mentioning some more of these Baptist groups. What were they called? Where were they from? What happened to them? All of those things. And so we're going to work our way up. And then finally, what I want to do this evening is after we delineate several of these, we're going to try to make the connection with where we stand today back to this group and then of course that takes us all the way back to the very beginning. So we're going to try to do that tonight because that's what pastor wanted me to do is try to bring the connection and so we'll be we'll be doing that this evening. But what I want to do right now is just try to identify some more of these groups that within these groups would have been represented some of Jesus is my church. Okay down through the ages. So Let me just, before we get into the scripture here, I wanted to mention a couple things. We do still have some books left, and I know you understand this. I don't want to take any back home with me, amen? If you haven't gotten any books, please make sure that you do that. They're out there. This is just the John Gonneau. I just brought that up to remind myself, but there's still several back there, so I apologize for not bringing more of the Waldensian books. I wasn't sure how many I could fit in my suitcase, and so I brought a whole carry-on stuffed with books, and that's what I brought, and when I was done, I was done. But somebody actually had ordered some. I'll be shipping some, and in all seriousness, if you wanted the whole set or something like that, I'm shipping already this week down here, so just please let me know whatever I can do to try to help you. I wanted to mention also one other thing. I really want to put a plug in for the tour. The tours are great, and all the information is on BaptistHeritageRevivalSociety.net. I have had pastors come to me afterwards and say, Preacher, that changed my life. That was the greatest revival meeting I've ever been to. I thought it was a tour. Well, it is, but I gave you some ideas. We've been to places where you just break into tears. You're hearing the story about the person's life, the suffering, the sacrifice they went through, how they lived for God. And then the preaching is tremendous. I don't know, it was about four or five years ago, we were actually in New England doing a tour up there. This would be heading back to England now. We've done New England, I should say. We've been to several other locations since. But Pastor Burke preached some messages up there, and they were life-changing messages. I've never seen a move of God like that on any of our tours, I don't think, maybe just once or twice. But he preached a message on depression, and good night. It was like being in a building and somebody jerked the back of the building. There was, as soon as he said amen, There were, you know, couples that have been in the ministry for 50 years, elderly folks get down in the mud on their knees just weeping like babies. It was an incredibly moving, powerful move of the Holy Ghost. And then he preached another message on insecurity, same exact thing. So the services are unbelievable. Nobody is there trying to be somebody. We're not in competition. We're not a club. We're just a bunch of loosely affiliated scriptural Baptist churches that get together and try to preach to each other and encourage each other and challenge each other. But the fellowship's wonderful. In New England specifically, there will be seafood involved, amen? And then we're trying to work out right now, we're going to Plymouth Plantation And there at the site of the first Thanksgiving dinner, you know, blah, blah, blah, pilgrims and all that. And one of the meals that is included in the tour will be the Thanksgiving dinner that we have catered there. And it's almost a $30 value just for that to a total over $70 value just to go. So if you saw what the price is, say, how do you keep it that low? Because it's not a money making venture at all. It is just to try to pay for it. I've lost my shirt on tours in the past because I want people to come. And so I try to keep it low. Now, I want to say one other thing, and please understand this. Your pastor did not ask me to do this, okay? So, if I get in trouble, then I'll just get in trouble, I guess. But I would love to see your church send him on the tour, him and his wife. I don't know what your financial situation is. I have no authority in this church, and I'm not your pastor, and I'm certainly not going to tell you what to do. And pastor, if you want to override me, that's fine. But I really, a lot of churches do this. They'd send their pastor and wife just to get refreshment, to be encouraged, to be helped, because when his batteries are charged, and he's right with God, amen, it's going to benefit you, amen. But just something nice you could do for them, and just a suggestion. Think about that. Other churches have done it, and I thought that'd be nice. I'd love to see him come. Partly, I'd just like to fellowship with him, amen? Only Pennsylvania people really understand Pennsylvania people. Am I right about that, Preacher? I mean, I got some other friends, but it's like, oh, you're from PA, cool. That's why me and Brother Gable get along. He's Cole Region, PA, and that is totally different, amen? And so me and Brother Gable, it's like we're brothers from another mother, amen? If you know the coal region, then you understand. Amen? But anyway, pray about that and also pray if you have any questions about the tour, what does it include? What do I have to cover when I come? All that kind of stuff. We ride on a comfortable tour bus. It's got Wi-Fi and all that. And then, you know, we have some of the meals are included, like we'll be staying in a hotel. So the way we work at this time, sometimes we travel every day and stay in a different hotel. You have to drag your luggage out every morning. And we have young men that will throw it in the underbelly and stuff. But now we're doing day trips from one hotel. So they're a little bit longer, some of them. But it's nice because you come back and you just go in and crash. And it's great that way. Um, and so the tour bus, the hotels included, um, that one catered meal is, is included museum fees and things like that are included in different places. So, uh, and then you just have to cover a couple of meals cause we had the full hot breakfast every morning there at the, at the hotel. So we usually stop for fast food once a day. And then we give people options. There's some nicer restaurants that people can go to and things. So anyway, that pretty much covers it. It's all on the website. So please, if you do want to come, though, make sure you read the website and check out everything that's involved there. BapstChurchRevivalSociety.net. Thank you for that, allowing me to put that plug in there. Amen. It's coming up quick. Ephesians chapter number three. Ephesians chapter number three. And I just want to look at two verses just to get us into the thought here this morning. And notice, if you would, verse number 20. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. I want to try to continue to talk to you about the church throughout all ages. Father? I thank you, Lord, for giving us this promise that you would have a church throughout all ages. And Lord, it's our duty now to, if we want to really know our history and know what our forebears were like, to go about to find out who some of these people were. And Lord, by your leadership and your enablement of men to be able to record history and for us to be able to read it, God, we were able to see some of these things. Lord, I pray they thrill our hearts today, challenge us, encourage us, and help us to understand that you did keep your promise, Father, to have your church here on this earth all the way until the end, Father. And we thank you and praise you for what you're about to do. Bind the devil away from here today. And I pray, Father, that even as people are preparing for church out there in Florida, God, I pray to you to work in hearts out there as well and help us to have a good turnout there. And I pray souls will be saved, lives will be changed in both places. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. All right. Go ahead and jump in. Now, the Waldensys, I gotta admit, are one of my favorites. Amen. But there are some favorites in with this as well. All of it really is good. I will warn you, I'm going to have to move fast, okay? So I'm gonna do a flyover. I'm gonna speak pretty quickly, but hopefully you'll understand, we're looking at different groups. So we're trying to identify where was Jesus is my church. And we believe that Jesus is my church was, in some of these groups that were orthodox scriptural churches of the Lord Jesus Christ within them so that God preserved a remnant in every age. And we're just trying to identify who some of those might have been. Okay, so let's talk about this group called the Paulicians. And the Paulicians were, of course, conspicuous in AD 660. They were called Paulicians for two reasons. We literally mentioned some of this, I think, yesterday. But first of all, they placed a strong emphasis on the epistles of Paul. Now, this is not to be confused with Peter Ruckmanism, which states that all we should read in the New Testament are the epistles of Paul and everything else isn't for us. That's not at all what their belief was. But they emphasize taking church doctrine from the letters that were written to the churches. Amen. And so in that way, you know, they're rightly dividing the word. But secondly, they're called Paulisians because they adopted Pauline names for their leaders. And we talked about that already. So there on your church timeline is basically where they would have began. And we've looked at this, and I don't know why I include this with all of these. I need to probably redo this. But every time you see all these groups pop up, it takes us just a minute. Okay, so our current study will cover Roman Catholic Institution, the Paulicians, and the Albigensians. So right now I want to look at the Paulicians and the Albigensians, okay? Polesians were conspicuous in several different places, by the way. There are migrations. Many historians claim apostolic origin of these churches. Gibbon stated in his classic book, The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. the faith of the Paulicians stemmed to the first century and was a branch of Antiochian Christianity. In other words, what Gibbon, by the way, not again a Baptist by any stretch of the imagination, but Gibbon basically stating that they stemmed all the way back to the first century, he was saying that these are just Jesus's my church. These are just the same people that were of Jesus's, the church that Jesus started. Now, it was common in England centuries later for the Anabaptists to be slanderously called Paulisians. What's interesting in both of these truths is, both with Gibbon and what you find a little bit later, and Neodonatists, the Anabaptists were called, they were called Paulisians and Neopaulisians. What you find is that the Roman Catholic institution knew that they were fighting against one belief system, and that belief system basically had two tenets. You have to be born again and baptism comes after salvation. Those were the two things that all of these groups held to that bothered Roman Catholicism. So the Paulicians rose to prominence around AD 660 with the conversion and subsequent leadership of a man named Constantine, not any relation to the Constantine of which we have previously spoken. This man lived from AD 630 to 687. And again, Constantine was from Armenia, a mountainous region, which is now modern day Turkey. Now I'll tell you what, when you go through Turkey and Istanbul, if you go anywhere in the East, you're probably going to go through Istanbul. They have tried, they're trying to make that the premier airport in the world, by the way. And by the way, they've done an amazing job. It's like, what do they call that? Mall of America on steroids. Pretty amazing. They've got like beds you can sleep in, stuff like that. But anyway, I can't, when I go there, I can't imagine orthodox biblical Christianity flourishing there, but at one time it actually did, amen? And it's an amazing thing. Islam ruins everything in the East, amen? All right, the persecution against the Polynesians were fierce. Benjamin Evans stated, what the pen failed to do, the sword of the magistrate affected. The Novatians and the Donatists and others that followed them are examples. Many of them taught those peculiar views of Christian ordinances, which are special to us as Baptists. All right, let me see, yeah. Benjamin Evans stated, beyond all doubt, such views were inculcated by the Polynesians, the primitive Waldenses, and their brethren. Over Europe they were scattered, and their converts were numerous, long before the Reformation shed its light on the darkness of Europe. to become a Polynesian pastor because of the great persecutions. This was the equivalent of wearing a target on your chest. When they entered the ministry, it is documented that this was the ceremony that they had to go through during the great persecutions. Are thou then able to drink the cup which I am about to drink? Now I can imagine today young men who are coming out of a Bible college somewhere, they're going to be ordained to the ministry, being willing to state this, okay? This was not a facade or fictitious, this was actual, okay? Notice, Are you willing to drink the cup or to be baptized with the baptism, which I am about to be baptized?" They knew exactly what was being stated because their response was, notice, I take on myself scourgings, imprisonments, tortures, reproaches, crosses, blows, tribulations, and all temptations of the world. So the Paulicians knew great persecution. all eastern emperors persecuted the police is your member that ship I showed you that was in rights martyrology where they had 60 suspected ministers and they put it out on the water and set it on fire. This is the group we're talking about the First were those initiated, persecutions that is, by the Empress Theodora and her son Michael III. During these 25 years, over 100,000 Polyseans were slain. They were drowned, beheaded, burnt, and killed in many other merciless ways. There is the mighty Empress Theodora, wicked ungodly woman. This is an extant doctrinal statement from an old Paulisian church. This dates back to the seventh century. It is in this book that was compiled by Fred Coneybear. Now, during the time for the Paulisians, I had a discussion again, I don't know why I've had so many discussions this week, whether some of it has been good, amen? It just seems like everything I get on, I want to reference that. But we talked about this thing of adoptionism. So there were a lot of heresies, just like during the time of the Bible, you had, you know, Judaizers and then Gnosticism and Allegoricalism and Zoroastrianism and all these other, you know, different isms down through the years. different assemblies at times, so heresies would come into different churches. Now, we know for sure that some of the Paulisian churches at least, at least this one in particular, fell into the error that was widespread and was really a philosophy as well, that Jesus Christ got his deity at his baptism. Now, everything else was equal, but some of them believe that. But the sad thing about this book, the reason I mention that is because when I first read this book, I was very disheartened because Coney Bear spends all of his time focused on that and really doesn't deal with what the actual document deals with and what it actually says. He just basically says, all of the Paulicians, therefore, were adoptionists. And we know that is not the case. We know that it affected some of their churches. So this just goes to the heart of this as well. Jesus is my churches today are not going to be any different. We're going to have to constantly fight doctrinal battles. And so I am a very doctrinal preacher in our church on purpose. Again, I'm doing five messages on one verse of scripture right now. Why is that? Because doctrine saves us and them that hear us. It protects us and keeps us. And there's constant attacks on our churches doctrinally. And the Paulicians certainly dealt with some of those attacks. And obviously some of them succumbed to that. By the way, Jesus did not receive his deity. He never received deity. He is deity, amen? So you can't receive something that you already possess, all right? Although Rome thought up many false charges against them, history proves that their doctrine was largely Baptist Bible doctrine, saving for those assemblies that would have bought into some of the adoptionism. All right, persecution sent them fleeing into several Eastern European countries. So if they truly do have an apostolic origin, they became conspicuous in the seventh century there in Turkey. Okay, then they, of course, perpetuate themselves into other countries and advance the faith and would have then probably become known by other names. Then, of course, we find that the Paulicians have certainly a large part in our Baptist heritage, okay? Let's move on and talk about the Albigensians. Now, we mentioned the Albigensians, and one of the reasons we mentioned them is because they're so close to the Waldensians in proximity. But again, I had a theory on them, and there's a lot of theories, a lot of discussion, a lot of debate about this among historians. Did they just spring out of the Waldensians and then migrate to France? And the truth is, I think the gospel is moving very swiftly in the early centuries, and seeds of the gospel were planted in the first century in the Cochon Alps and also in southern France as well. Okay, so their name for the southern French town of Albi, hence the name Albi-Gensis. This area was known for dissent and resistance to the Holy Mother Church. So there is where again they became conspicuous on the church chart, just to give you a visual on that. All right, so we're talking about in southern France, the southern portion of France. Albi is in this area, and this again is a place known for descent. Some historians trace the Albigensians back to the Paulicians. Others say they existed since New Testament times in southern France. That is my theory, that they were there in the first century and have existed ever since. The historian Faber wrote this concerning the Albigensians and their place in Baptist history. From the apostolic age itself down to the present, that venerable church has been seated in the valleys of the Cotian Alps. There it has never ceased to profess one and the same unvarying theological system. Notice, thus faithfully reflecting the sincere, unadulterated gospel of primitive Christianity. And there, both ecclesiastically and morally, the practice of its members is happily corresponded with their religious profession. This very remarkable church forms, in the first instance, the chain of connection between the primitive church and the church of the Albigensi. So, where I first started to look into this theory of them springing from the Waldenses was because of Faber's statement and certainly there's migrations and you know it's just like right now you know we have had a missionary that was in Russia we know some people right now that are in Ukraine one of the big issues there is when those two countries start fighting everybody in Ukraine knows somebody or has kinfolk over in Russia and everybody in Russia has kinfolk and knows somebody over Ukraine, and so it just becomes this messy situation. And because of the proximity, no doubt the seeds were there in southern France, but there were also migrations and connections where I would call the Waldenses and the Albigenses really sister churches kind of there throughout the Dark Ages in this region of Europe. So their influence concerned the Catholic institution. God bless them, they spread rapidly and begin to fill up southern France outside of the Roman Catholic institution, by the way. First, the Catholics attempted to convert them through ecclesiastical conversion, or coercion, amen? Maybe we talked about this when they attempted to make John Clark and, was it John Crandell, Obadiah Holmes, they tried to make them go and attend the Congregational state church, basically trying to fix them, pour saps in their brain and teach them what really a church is supposed to look like. Well, this stuff started way back yonder, okay? And so they attempted to educate them. By the way, this was the proclamation during the counter-reformation. So the Jesuits, from the Catholic verbiage and what they actually stated in writing was, this is an educational arm of the Roman Catholic institution to go out and re-educate people that have been led astray by apostates and heretics and educate them back in. Well, we know that they slaughtered a bunch of people, amen? So it wasn't just about educating people, but this is the guise that they use, all right? Now, this would not work on the Albigensians. Why? Because they knew the word of God. and the best protection this church, my church, or any church has against apostasy is to know what the truth is, amen? You want to defend against error? Know the truth, have it in your heart, live it, believe it, have a conviction about it, and stand upon it and fight for it, amen? We're just saying stand up, stand up for Jesus, and it dawned on me this morning, most of us aren't even thinking about the words, amen? Let courage rise with danger, and strength to strength oppose, amen? That's really what that mindset has a Christian soldier to doctrinally stand. They would not listen because they knew the Word of God and the Catholics came along a little bit too late. Then they were falsely accused by Rome to be Manichaeans, as were the Polyseans and the Waldenses, by the way. Rome used this as a reason to persecute them. Now what in the world is a Manichaean? This alleged heresy was a cross between Persian Zoroastrianism and Gnosticism. It is spiritualism, emphasizing on the immaterial, emphasizing on spiritual force, all of that. And I'm not going to get on Star Wars, amen. Don't anybody get nervous, amen. I don't have time for that, right? But anyway. This was an attempt to discredit them and to cause public dissent against them or anger against them. Next, Rome would turn to merciless persecutions. In A.D. 1139, Lateran II condemned them as heretics. The Council of Tours did the same in 1163. And once they were condemned as heretics, it was open season. It's like an iguana in Florida. You see an iguana, you shoot an iguana, amen? I had some big old three-foot lizard walk up my backyard about two months ago, and I filled him full of buckshot, told the cops he died of the measles, amen? But anyway, that's what you do. And so it was open season on them, right? Oops, sorry. Preacher's trying to take pictures, and I'm moving on, amen? All right, organized crusades against the Albigensians have been termed as one of the black spots of history. In one instance, and we referenced this yesterday, the town of Béziers was before the attacking armies. The Béziers massacre. Rather than seek out the Albigensies from among the Catholic populace, the papal authority gave the order, kill them all, the Lord knows his own. The heartless soldiers obeyed, all were slain, including women and children. Almost 20,000 were murdered in bloody fashion in this one attack. Find this ever talked about in a public school and I'll eat your dirty socks. This is all hidden. It's all gone. Rome just, oh yeah, they had some inquisition, you know, Spanish inquisition. That's all they ever did. Let's slap on the wrist and move on, love people. 50 million people died and we could just spend all day talking about from country to country to country to country, Jews and Gentiles alike. It's just, it's horrible that they would do something like this. Innocent people. So you say, why did you hate Notre Dame so bad? Why would you go over there and laugh? Because it burned down. But again, because I know where the money came from. They robbed people and pillaged them and stole their existence and stole their lives from them. And art's not going to make me change my mind, I'm sorry. The slaughters continued and grew worse, if that is imaginable, as the Dominicans were put in charge of the Southern France Inquisition. The Dominicans were known as the Pope's hounds. Again, we told you in slang terms, they called them God's dogs. The Dominican Order is a Catholic religious order founded by the Spanish priest Dominic of France, approved by Pope Honorius III. By the way, I love these names they come up with, Pope Honorable and Pope Honorius and Pope Pius. The Papal Bull, Religiosum Vitum, on 22nd December 1216. Membership in the order includes friars, nuns, active sisters, and affiliated lay or secular Dominicans, founded to preach the gospel and to oppose heresy. And oh, by the way, and to slaughter people on the weekends. The order's origins in battling heterodoxy, which stands in opposition to orthodoxy, influenced its later development and reputation. Many later Dominicans battled heresy as part of their apostolate. Indeed, many years after St. Dominic reacted to the Cathars or the Catharia, the pure ones, Jesus is my church was just a common name used for Jesus is my church back then. The first grand inquisitor of Spain, Thomas de Torquemada, would be drawn from the Dominican order. Imagine that, amen? Here's a Dominican. They're just there for education. Let's find a guy to go kill a bunch of people. Let's take them out of the Dominican order. You can see what the Dominicans were just based on these few facts alone. Pope Innocent III launched a total of four crusades to exterminate the Albigensians. Now, when you hear me make statements like the population of southern France was almost exterminated, that is not shooting from the hip. I don't shoot anything from the hip, necessarily. Most things I have learned, read somewhere, studied somewhere, and have a lot of facts and backup for it. This is absolute fact. In 1209, about 60,000 Unarmed civilians were slain. All were killed, including the elderly, women, children, and even babies, in one year's time. Christians were cast from high places. They were chased into caves and smothered with fires set at the entrance. They were torn to pieces by dogs, torn to pieces with large pliers called prongs, torn apart on racks, disemboweled, and had hot metal poured down their throats. They were burned at the stake, crucified upside down, and drowned. This is the history of the Albigensis. 1234, Pope Gregory IV raised a German army to kill several hundred thousand more Albigensians near Bremen and Oldenburg, all in the name of God. The Albigensians have one of the saddest stories in the history of the New Testament churches. And so, again, when we talk about sheer numbers, I believe it was the Albigensians and the Paulicians would probably be right in there. I'm sorry, sheer numbers, percentage-wise, I mean, they were almost wiped off the face of the earth right during this time frame. The greater part of them shed their blood for the cause of Christ. So widespread and devastating were these Crusades that the testimony of Christ was all but exterminated in southern France. And so Rome was very successful in what they were trying to do in France at this time. All right, those who did escape with their lives fled to Italy and Germany, where they sowed further seeds for the Anabaptist movement in Europe. So there were migrations under great persecution. The Albigensians were probably the basis of Bogomilism. So the gospel is going to enter Bulgaria right around this timeframe in a very powerful way, okay? So let's go ahead and jump into this, if we could. And I am going to just skip this one, amen? There we go. Bogomils. All right. Now, you'll notice some of these places, again, they're taking their names from locations. Albigensis, the southern French town of Albi, the Bogomils, Bulgaria. So the rise of this group took place around AD 720. They survived for several centuries. Now, we're not even in the middle of the church age yet, so bear with me. Preacher, what time do I have to be done? Just remind me of that. 1125. 1125. Okay. Alright. As was mentioned, the Albigenses were probably the basis of Bogomilism, okay? Now, Broadbent, in the conclusion of his church history, wrote, There have in all times been brethren who have been called by many names, Cathars, Novatians, Paulicians. You see, isn't there a spectrum of different beliefs among them? Yes, there was, but the vast majority of these groups held people within them that held the core doctrines that we would hold dearly to today. Paulicians, Bogomils, Albigensians, Waldensians, Lullards, Anabaptists, and others innumerable. Many congregations also of Baptists. They have been one in their endeavor to act upon the New Testament and to follow the example of the New Testament churches. They inhabited Bulgaria and would later flee under persecution to the Balkan countries. Now, you want to talk about a cold place, the Balkan countries, very, very cold, very difficult place. We support a missionary over there, actually, our little church does. But anyway, a lot of guys over there trying to get a work started, trying to get a work going, and it is very rough plowing over there. So again, the gospel was in places today, it just wouldn't seem like they ever had it, but in our history, In our church history, we find that, yes, they did have the gospel, some of them quite early. Two groups influenced the rise of the Bogomils. The Albigensians, as has already been mentioned, and the Paulicians. When the Paulicians went to Bulgaria, they became known as Bogomils, evaporating into that group. Now, remember these migrations, and remember when one group goes to another place, it's still just Jesus is my church, but now they might be called by a different name. For why would you call a Bulgarian Bogomil a Bogomil when they went somewhere else, amen? And so, and why would you call a Polyesian a Polyesian when he went into Bulgaria and there was a great movement there of the Bogomils in Bulgaria, et cetera, et cetera. So, the name Bogomils is thought to have meant friends of God. By the way, that's one of the differences between religion and true salvation, amen? Is it not works versus faith? Is it not religion versus relationship? And so the Catholics had religion, but they didn't have relationship, amen? On the other hand, those outside of Roman Catholicism were friends of God, amen? They actually had a relationship with Jesus Christ. They were persecuted as all other Baptist groups. Pope Innocent, another one of those wonderful names they come up with, the third tried to eradicate them. He launched a Dominican and Franciscan inquisition against them. So yes, Bulgaria saw great persecution as well. Unimaginable to think about what happened in these dungeons. They endured many enemies even though many died at the hands of the bloodthirsty Dominicans and Franciscans. They still continued to serve God. They were in favor of a very simple brand of Christianity. Now one of the interesting things I try to bring out is just some of the earmarks of some of these different groups. And one of them is that they were in favor of a very simple brand of Christianity. And it's been said of Baptists in any age, those that hold to the doctrine that the Baptists hold to today, in any age, that we never found God in idols or in gold or in big altars or fancy buildings, but we found God, the Spirit, God is a Spirit, in the simplicity of a meeting house. in the simplicity of gathering under an old oak tree somewhere, in the simplicity of standing out in the open field among the flowers he created and preaching his word, or hiding in a cave somewhere. You don't have to have all the fanfare to find God, and they were literally known for a very simple brand of Christianity. They spread the gospel as much as possible in spite of the opposition. Okay? All right, let's talk about the Paterines. We're now getting into the middle of the church age and you're starting to enter really one of these, this area we're calling the black spots and probably that could encompass the Polynesians and others as well. But let's talk about the patterings for just a minute. We're going to get as far as we can. We've got about five minutes left. By the year 1040, there were numerous inconspicuous at Milan. Their presence in this area is well documented at over 200 years in duration, okay? So this is the northwestern part of Italy, as opposed to the northeastern part of Italy, as opposed to the northwestern part of Italy, where Torino is, and then Toriplici, and the Waldenses would have been, okay? There was a lot of dissent in northern Italy to Rome. You got to understand you're just a couple hundred miles away to the northern part of Italy. But again, there are a lot of people through the centuries flying under the radar. Technically, they were under Roman Catholic dominance and control, but they were still practicing regular Christianity. And a lot of the underlings of the pope who would be in charge of these parishes and diocese, they were not enforcing all the dogmas that were going out. And so it's an interesting thing here that that happened. The patterings, again, there they are, and the church age just right there in the middle. There in the lineage of other major Baptist groups, William Wall stated, beside the name of Beringarians, other names that were used at several places and times were these, Cathari, or Puritans, or Pure Ones, Paterines, Petrobrucians, Lionists, Albigenses, Waldenses, and several more. About the year 1040, the Paterines had become very numerous at Milan, which was their principal residence, and here they flourished at least 200 years. They had no connection with the Catholic Church, for they rejected not only Jerome of Syria, Augustine of Africa, and Gregory of Rome, but also Ambrose of Milan. Considering them and other pretended fathers as corruptors of Christianity, they particularly condemned Pope Sylvester as Antichrist. By the way, let me say a couple of things here. Ambrose gets a pass by many because Ambrose was one of those guys that had one foot in Catholicism and one foot over here trying to get all he could from the dissenters at the same exact time. Alex brings a lot of this out. There's a lot of interesting stuff with that. Let me talk about something else in this statement. They particularly condemned Pope Sylvester as Antichrist. Not as an Antichrist, as Antichrist. So as you look down through these groups, one of the areas you're definitely going to find a lot of differences in is not only were a lot of them not even dealing much with eschatology, but those that were often believed that the Pope, who was alive during their time frame, was not an Antichrist, but he was the Antichrist. And just imagine for a moment if you could be convinced to take the Bible because you didn't know Revelation that well, had never been taught it, that all of these things are just allegory. They're just symbolic of things that are happening today. You could look at that and you could say, wow, everybody's dying around me. I've seen 100,000 people slaughtered to death. Surely I'm in the midst of the Great Tribulation right now. And surely when God made Jews, he meant the people of God today. So there were a lot, lot of variances in reference to eschatology. And that comes up even into the last, you know, couple hundred years among Baptists. So if you're going to try to find a Baptist that believes everything you believe, you just as well might understand they might be looking for one that believes just like they believe as well, amen, on a lot of different areas. But that's why we have what we call the Baptist distinctives, amen. These things are what really make you a Baptist, and anything else is window dressing, kind of. And I hate to say it that way, because all doctrine is important, all truth is worth fighting for. However, there are differences and variances down through these different groups, alright? But they actually believed the Pope was the Antichrist, okay? Alright, let me move on. They were known to have been people who emphasized personal separation. They were decent in their deportment. which simply means manner of life. They were modest in their dress and discourse, and their morals were irreproachable. That's interesting because you see the Waldenses recorded as having been pleading for their lives, and literally their characters so commonly known, it's oozing out of them, not bragging, just begging for their lives. Aren't we good people? Can't you see we're good people? Well, that didn't matter, right? And so again, these were just good godly people. And that's what really a Christian ought to be. We're not here to hurt anybody. We're here to just live our lives for God Almighty, bring Him glory, and along the way preach His glorious gospel and try to get others saved by the grace of God. That's our whole duty. Glorify God and win people to Christ. It's really simple. And that's how they were. It is recorded that the state did not trouble them. The clergy, however, preached, prayed, and published books against them with unabated zeal. They stood firmly against the Roman Catholic institution in a region saturated by Catholic influence. They called the crucifix in the backyard of Rome, I should say. They called the crucifix, the cross with Christ still hanging on it, the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place. So they looked at the book of Revelation. They weren't wondering whether that was Rome. By the way, did you know that everybody believed that? I mean, all Baptists of all ages always understood Revelation 17 meant the mother of harlots, a Roman Catholic institution. I'm going to give you this, and I'm going to close. They said the crucifix was the mark of the beast. Those that had it had the mark of the beast. Now, their doctrine was Baptist doctrine. We know this because Robinson records that many of them evaporated into Waldensian assemblies in the 15th and 16th centuries, as their doctrine was similar. They owned the scriptures as a rule of conduct and administered the ordinances of baptism to believers by one immersion. They maintained church discipline even on their ministers as examples are recorded. They were always found on the side of religious liberty and considered the oppressing clergy the locusts which darkened and tormented the world. They truly believed that they were living in the last days. They were persecuted, awed, dispersed, or destroyed, yet their spirit and conduct will again be exhibited in future sections of our history. That's according to Robinson. They were most well known for their stand for scriptural baptism. Now let me go back for just a second, okay? All right, so they said that the crucifix, all right, let me just give you this real quick. When I say everybody, almost down to one last group that we've looked at in their assemblies, in all of their writings you find they believe Revelation 17 was the Roman Catholic institution. Now, this is how people have compromised on this in these last days. So John Hagee, which I'm not a fan of, would never promote all of that, but I'll tell you this, he's world known, he's gone all over, he sets up these big massive screens in these big conference centers and he does these prophecy conferences. Now he's way off on some stuff, okay? So I'm not telling you, please don't follow John Hagee, okay? He's got a lot of issues. However, John Hagee for years built a ministry on saying that Rome is the mother of harlots of Revelation 17. until such time as Mitt Romney was running for office. So he throws his weight behind Mitt Romney. The only problem is the Roman Catholic talking head, basically PR guy, Phil Donahoe, he finds out that John Hagee is endorsing Roman Catholicism, or rather endorsing Mitt Romney. And so he says, we can't vote for Mr. Romney until he denounces the endorsement of John Hagee. So John Hagee supposedly has this conviction that Revelation 17 is the Roman Catholic institution and has said it all over the world for 20 years of his ministry. for 10 shekels and a shirt, sells his soul, says publicly, apologizes to Rome, says his main ministry's been prophecy. I was all wrong about that. I do heartily apologize. For political expediency, went against his main conviction of everything he taught in his conferences for 20 years all over the world in order to back Mitt Romney, the Mormon, who actually lost anyway. Man, so absolutely crazy, right? But no, this is not like, man, where'd you come up with this saying that Rome's Revelation 17? I'm a Johnny-come-lately, and I mean really a Johnny-come-lately. This has been a belief all the way back to the very beginning, from the time Rome began, that this is an antichrist. That's why I have no problem telling you, true church, false church, God's true church, God's Bible, devil's church, devil's Bible. I make no apologies for that. I'm not, what's his name, Ohega, I'm not apologizing for it, amen? Because it is the truth. Let's pray. while there's we look at these groups