From Israel To Italy

I came across some fascinating insights into the Roman Culture during the period of the Roman Empire. These insights became like puzzle pieces that once two of the pieces come together, the thrill begins as each piece quickly moves into position to form the bigger picture. If you, the reader, will take a few moments and look at how these pieces come together, I believe it will give you a broader picture into Italian thinking and culture. And once you have a better understanding of Roman culture, you will be able to relate to the 1 billion current adherents to Rome.

The Mistress of the World

In the period of the building & conquest of the Roman Empire, Rome was in all her glory.

“All the Mediterranean countries lay at her feet…It was the ambition of her rulers to express the splendor of their age by adorning with public monuments every province of the empire. Rome herself towered in her glory as the city on which ‘the looks of men and gods were turned’. The Colosseum with its overwhelming massiveness, the Pantheon with its lofty vaulting, and particularly the Forum of Trajan, a building of unparalleled magnificence and ‘admired even by the gods,’ seemed to proclaim that the Empire and eternity were one. The ancient man was inclined to believe that monuments will last for ever.”¹

Heaven is Now on Earth - Immortalize-Me

This mistress fed upon the attention of her paramours. She welcomed their money, affection, wonder, and deities while she conquested and subjugated their cities and regions. As the mistress aged, she prostituted. She, as a city, took on the attribute of eternity in the eyes of the world. Her buildings would “last forever” — and the men inscribed on those monuments would receive glory and be immortalized. Rome in its power and Heaven in its eternity were wed. There was no place higher; no place would be more glorious.  Therefore, it would be quite understandable for the Ceasar to proclaim himself as god and the people to believe it wholeheartedly. Heaven is now on Earth and the chief, glorified ”person” is obviously the divinity of the city.

It was, therefore, fit to bestow the most precious epithet on Rome and to call it: The Eternal City. The state became an object of worship, a divinity; and the Emporer embodied its divinity as he embodied its sovereignty.

Immortality meant either fame or cleaving to one’s home, to one’s earthly abode even after death…The Romans had no conviction that there was any after-life at all, certainly no conviction of an immortal felicity or retribution…The term immortality became a metaphor, signifying one’s being remembered by the people. Cicero said: ‘in exchange for life’s mortal state, you will have gained for yourself immortality…the entire people of Rome accorded to me, not a vote of thanks which would pass with the day, but eternity and immortality’.”²

Emporer + Vicar = Pope

So, we see that Rome afforded itself the prestige of Heaven by abandoning the after-life and glorifying men through memorials and monuments. In that system came the great mix — The Ceasar (a man) became god himself above all other gods. The city, Rome (on Earth), became the desire and abode of all — in life or in death. The glory and fame granted by the people was guaranteed peace and tranquility while following the emporer was promised salvation. Is it any wonder why there was so much bloodshed, intrigue, espionage, and psychological madness around the throne of Rome with that kind of power and belief at stake?

Would it then be that far of a jump for Constantine to wed the ideas of bishop and ruler around the glory of Rome and himself? I find it quite interesting that the title Vicar is used to portray a person in place of God-incarnate on the Earth. And that we would so happen to find this Vicar today — residing in Rome of all places.

What is also fascinating is how much more the Vicar plays emporer rather than pastor if he is a true representative of Christ. He has a monument-temple, outlandish empirical clothing & hatwear, sceptre-staff, ring to kiss when you bow down before him, private and elite palace guards, heads of state for guests, carried around on a throne, a bullet-proof Pope-mobile, a separate “country” called Vatican City, billions of dollars at his disposal, and much more.

Don’t forget the critical theological ramifications where the Pope declares he has the power to forgive sins and to declare who will or will not be a saint through his system. In fact, many popes even to the late JP2 have written that no one can have full salvation outside of submission to the Pope and his declaration. Is this not eerily similar to the Ceasars of old?

Yet, Italy has never renounced the worship of man, the emporer. We know that Rome has not repented of it. Therefore, the nation, accompanied by the peoples of its religious-cultural export ³ remains to this day resistant at best and rebellious as normative. Italy does not want to change rulers. It is still infatuated with being the mistress of the world rather than the faithful and exclusive bride of Heaven.

Biblical Saints vs. Roman Heroes

In Ephesians 1:1 Paul writes to the saints of Ephesus — the living believers. And how do we know they were living? Because Paul says that they “are currently and continually faithful in Christ Jesus.” This is here & now language. In 1 Corinthians 1:2 Paul continues to say that all of those who are found in the Church and are truly believers (the sanctified) because of Christ Jesus are called together by God to be saints. There are at least 40 other references in the New Testament to saints who are all saved & living believers at the time of the letters written to them.

However, Rome set up a system which is much more a carry-over to the ancient gods & practices of its empirical past than obedience to the Scriptures. The glorification of man in the Ceasar’s day was to “secure a person’s eternity” and bring glory to Rome, the eternal city. The ancient Romans would build monuments and shrines to their beloved and inscribe their names to seal their hero-worship status. The hero would be enshrined in Rome and take on a godlike status because they were granted immortality.

The worship of saints that comes from Rome today is very similar:

• To be named a saint is to secure Heaven for you through an earthly decree.
• a Roman saint had to manifest supernatural miracles both while alive — and after death.
• a Pope and council of Rome must approve your sainthood.
• Sainthood takes on a god-like quality – they can do miracles, perform blessings, and hear & answer prayers of others.
• Monuments, shrines, inscriptions, pictures, icons, candles, and more are sold for profit in their names into the millions if not billions of dollars. In fact, there was quite a fuss in Italy when they recognized Padre Pio as a saint and the Vatican (Rome) moved into his home town and set up shop for the expected millions of visitors who were about to throng to the town for prayer to Pio and the purchase of officially blessed relics and icons.
• A saint is set much higher than a common practitioner — Rome respects persons and earthly status but God shows no partiality to these things. ⁴  On this point, we have a very vivid and recent example. After John Paul 2 died, the hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Rome chanted “Santo, Santo, Santo” for days. This means that they were crying for “sainthood” to be granted to JP2. Many people from cardinals on down remarked that they had already begun praying to JP2. And now, JP2 is on the “fast-track” to immortality & intercession hotlines.
• a Roman saint is a glorified hero of a certain area — in other words, you can have a saint to idolize for every function, disease, machine, and house pet under the sun.

Rome is refreshing its heroes. They used to have a calendar here in Italy where every day was devoted to a saint. But they had to discontinue the calendar because there are now too many saints to remember and categorize. So every day must be pick-a-saint day.

In Closing

All worship belongs to Yeshua the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. And He is the King of the heavenly City, New Jerusalem, the only eternal city which is coming in power and glory. You can only stake your citizenship in one or the other.

Look at these powerful words and promises of Jesus:

Revelation 3:11-12:
I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.

Revelation 21:2:
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

~ not as a mistress for her lovers.

In what city will your name be found? Will your future fade with time or flourish with Eternity? Does your King come from the New Jerusalem or the fallen Rome?

1. Heschel, Abraham, The Sabbath, c. 1951, Shambhala Publications, Boston.,  pages 30-31 [back]
2. ibid., page 31-33 [back]
3. what I mean by this phrase is in reference to the hundreds of millions of people around the world who have also imported the Roman doctrines, traditions, and culture - who also need to turn from the papal belief system. [back]
4. Acts 10:34; Romans 2:11 [back]

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There are many ways that I could expound on a title like The Jekyl & Hyde Italians. I could easily take up the themes of taxes, laws, manners, or religious practices and we’d have some funny & shocking posts. However, my main description is of the Religious-Secularism that pulls at them from all sides. I actually feel sadness for the Italians and their deep, deep struggle to see the Truth of Biblical Faith which reigns over secularism and through healthy religion.

The Great Divide

Simply, Italians from the day they’re born are confronted and confused with a terrible dichotomy or division to life.

On one side, the Roman Empire tells them that God created the universe in 6 days and is the Source of our origins.¹ This is what the family for generations has had to follow and believe. To deny this is to refute Grandma and discredit the priest. This is their values side of what they know.

On the other side, the Italian (European) public education system pounds naturalistic Darwinism into them from a young age. This theory basically says that chance and natural laws come together and form the origin (and meaninglessness) of life. There-is-no-God atheism is the stew they’re boiling in from Monday through Saturday. This is the idea of science or facts that they know.

What we have then is the common Italian who walks around as secular as can be, living for the pleasure of the moment (or the moments to come), and thoroughly confused as to where they came from and where they’re going.

Here’s the Hard Work

I think one of our greatest tasks as Bible-believing and practicing Christians in Italy is to help Italians to see that God is the source & designer of life, that He does have a plan for life ( Ephesians 1:7-10), that He is know-able, and that they are responsible to Him for what they do with that life.

1. of course, they don’t give the Italian the “why” and they say that God is not know-able apart from them and their mediation [back]

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“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free” Gal.5:1

During a holiday in beautiful Austria, we were encouraged to visit a delightful town on the shores of a lake, Zell am See. It is a well known ski resort and is located in a beautiful setting, with towering mountains all around. We were enjoying a welcome break after 8 years in Italy, where we have been challenged in many ways and especially in the Christian spiritual realm. While walking around this town, we came across the Catholic Church which dates back many centuries, (as many of these
churches do!). As part of our stay in Italy is evangelizing Italians, we have spent many months of study in an effort to get to grips with the reason for such spiritual oppression in that country. Many friends and visitors have commented that they “feel” oppressed in their spirits whenever they come to Italy. We are now realizing more and more that the Vatican
and, therefore, the Catholic Church play an enormous role in this. One can argue the point, but the religion of any country has an effect on the whole population. Whether one has separation of Church and State or not, the religious beliefs of the country’s political establishment shapes the way a country is run through it’s laws and other things. If one has a very strong spiritual influence like the Vatican has in Italy, then that shapes not only the political system but also the psyche of the population. The purpose of this blog is not to go into details of this, except to give two simple examples :

1. One of the first “duties” of a newly elected Italian Prime Minister is to visit the pope (sic).
2. By law, Italians have to sign away a percentage of their tax to either the Catholic Church or two other religious establishments. It is called the “Otto per mille” or “Eight per thousand”. In other words,eight euro out of every thousand euro paid in tax goes to the designated institution. There will be a more detailed blog on this later.

So what has all this to do with the photo? Quite a lot.
I walked into the church to see what was inside.As I turned to walk out, this sculpture caught my eye.It was at the back, almost hidden.Above it, to the left was a statue of the “madonna” holding what is supposed to be baby Jesus.The contrast was enormous.On the one side , this pathetic representation of our Glorious Lord and on the other a jewel studded statue of the “mother” of Christ.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. In a flash of intuition, I suddenly realized:”this is it!!” I have yet to see anything graphic that condenses everything that I have studied over these few years regarding the spiritual bondage of catholics,
and sadly, more and more Protestant denominations than this statue.
Jesus, the Anointed One, is still considered as a dead figure on a cross or as a baby in the arms of a woman.
Yet He is the soon returning Glorious, Resurrected, God the Son.
The problem in Italy and other predominantly catholic countries is that Yeshua Mashiach is held captive in the minds of people. Catholics will more than likely pray to other “gods” or “godesses”, (read saints and madonnas), than to the True and Only God.
The striking thing about this sculpture was not only that the representation of the Lord was chained to the wall, but that it was behind bars too!
Almost as if to say, “We must make doubly sure that Jesus is not freed, just in case the truth comes out and we lose an empire of a billion plus subjects.”
If you think I am exaggerating, come and experience Italy for yourselves.
This is the reason that we pray and intercede for a Holy Spirit led Reformation in Italy. May the King of Kings break the chains of religious bondage and apostasy so that hundreds of million of prisoners will see the light and experience the glorious freedom from sin.
Grace and shalom

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La Turca, modern day ,ancient italian toilet

Originally uploaded by Rob and Adele.

This is the one thing that amazes visitors to Italy. “What do we do? Do we stand. Do we sit .Do we face forward or do we face backwards?” Like so many things in Italy, from Government offices to shops, you are left guessing. The same with the taps when you finish and want to wash your hands. In a normal modern country, there is normally one way. You turn the tap. Not in Italy. You have to guess. Some you turn the tap, others you press a foot pedal, or a rubber hump on the floor. Then there are those that have a photoelectric cell, but where ? Above the tap ? Under the tap ? And so on .
Oh yes, we still cannot get used to the public bathroom where you have the ladies’ and gents’ toilet sharing the same hand washing area. Welcome to Italy, the land of Romance and Mystery.

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Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is
one LORD:
5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy
God with all thine heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy might. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)

These reflections may seem out of date already as John Paul II has been dead and buried 4 months now. However, as I have only recently started blogging, I appreciate the opportunity to share my views to a wider audience.

Considering the fact that I am Italian, born-again Christian and living in Italy, I have an advantage in insight to what goes on here.
Beppe Severgnini in his book “La Testa degli Italiani (the Italian Mind) - Are you ready for the Italian jungle? ” makes some interesting comments towards the end of the book when describing Italians and religion.

“Let’s put it this way: why huge crowds besieged Saint Peter’s- first to say goodbye to John Paul II, then to welcome Benedict XVI- and the Italian churches are emptying? Enthusiasm for the Pope contrasts with the difficulties experienced by many parishes, that on Sundays resemble the Confraternity of the Gray Hairs: the youngest is 40 years old and is often there to accompany the daughter to the children’s mass. The torrid participation seen in Rome seems distant to the tepid habits of many catholics : nine out of ten Italians declare themselves believers, but the weekly attendance to the mass is declining : one out of three in 1985, one out of four today.”

Severgnini goes on and says:

“Those interested may not respond. Or they could say: one can love the Pope and not go to church. Objection: John Paul II had a “rock star quality “as they say in America, but he did not compromise on certain things. Sunday Mass for him was not an optional but an obligation.”

This is the crux of the matter. Italians especially, and I suspect, many catholics worldwide were enraptured or enamored with a person rather that with the Lord. As with Israel of old who clamoured for a visible king they want now a visible leader. The fact that John Paul II had a certain charisma, reinforced this.

Every Sunday, the national TV channels would show the Pope at Saint Peter’s Square giving his weekly benediction. Thousand upon thousands would be there. But not in church.
What really struck me and many of my saved brethren, was the unbelievable crowd that was present at his funeral. We were shocked to see this outpouring of worship and adoration towards a mere human being. The millions of Euro spent both by the Vatican and the city of Rome to host the visitors frustrated us, because this money, in part, comes from the forced religious tax imposed on Italian taxpayers. (A separate blog -Otto per mille- will deal with this).

Image courtesy of the Australian Broadcast Corporation

All this for someone who had dedicated his whole life to Maria, “the mother of Jesus”. I put it in quotation marks because we Italian born-again believers do not believe that the Maria he worshipped is truly the mother of our Lord, but a repackaged pagan goddess. His coffin had a big “M” under the cross and the wording “totus tuus” - Latin for “all yours”.

But there were two things that really struck me, and it was as if the Lord had opened my mind to understand a bit more of the end times and the Book of Revelation.

The first was how one man could, at his funeral, gather heads of state from almost every country on earth and bring religious leaders from totally different religions together. This suddenly made me understand that it will definitely be possible for one man, in the end times to do this. It was so real, being here and watching the scene played out live, like the Israeli delegation shaking hands with the Iranian delegation.

The second was the absence of any representation from Russia and China. This had such a profound prophetic significance for me. Gog and Magog and the Kings of the East, spoken of by Ezekiel and John in Revelation. We now read that these two countries are holding joint military manouevres!

My heart goes out to our Jewish friends. May the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob grant you grace to understand the times and turn with teshuva to Yeshua Hamashiac, before Jacob’s troubles. We are living in exciting times and we encourage each other with the glorious hope of the return of Yeshua.

Grace and shalom

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