Our Lord Jesus warned us against the leaven of men's doctrines. In Matthew 16 when His disciples had forgotten to bring bread, He said to them, "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees." When they didn't understand what He was talking about, He asked them if they didn't remember the miracle of the five loaves turned into five thousand, and the seven loaves into four thousand, and how many baskets of fragments they brought back up when the multitude was finished eating (12 baskets). The lesson is that they brought back much more bread than what originally went out, but what was brought back was fragments.
Our bread in the West most often has yeast (leaven) added to it, which makes it rise. It makes the loaf of bread appear to be a lot more than it really is, because it has many tiny bubbles in it when it rises. In our Lord's example the leaven represent men's doctrines added to His Word. One of the thing men's leaven doctrines do is to turn His Word into fragments. You don't get the pure whole unleavened Word, but only fragments, and a lot more of just... fragments. This is why many brethren have a hard time piecing God's Word together in their mind. It's because men's doctrines are ever busy fragmenting.
There are some Church systems today that especially practice this leaven doctrines added to God's Word regarding the endtime Antichrist, treating the pope as the Antichrist prophesied for the end of this world, and Rome as the main persecutor.
(First of all, I am not a Roman Catholic. My family's roots go back to France and the first French Protestants. They fled persecution by the Roman Church in France, which is how our family came to the Americas in the early colonial days.)
When the Protestants rebelled against the Roman Church many centuries ago, Rome sent armies to stop the rebellion. Protestants were persecuted, and some bought into the Jew's idea that the pope was the Antichrist, and that the very end was coming to pass right then. It didn't happen. We are still awaiting the time of "great tribulation" our Lord Jesus was talking about as a sign for the very end of this world just prior to His return.
And for today, some in the Church still take up that old lie by the first Protestants, claiming the pope is the endtime Antichrist and that Revelation 17 is pointing to Rome. It's a good deception planted by crept unaware Jews. The Jews were persecuted by pagan Rome, destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D., and scattered the Jews from Judea into the countries. And when Rome along with the other European nations turned to Christ, the orthodox unbelieving Jews were forced to either convert to Christ or leave. So the Jews felt unjustly persecuted by Rome. The Jews today even still blame the pope during WWII for supporting Hitler!
Thus the Jews literally hate... not just Christianity, but Rome especially. And what's funny, is that when Rome was still pagan, the Jews enjoyed religious freedom in Rome. It was Christians that were persecuted by the pagan Romans in that time, not the Jews.
Another reason behind the Jew's love at pointing the finger at Rome and the pope today, is to move suspicions away from Jerusalem regarding endtime Bible prophecy. The Revelation Babylon harlot is actually about Jerusalem as that "great city" of the last verse of Revelation 17. That is where the beast is to arise from the bottomless pit and kill God's two witnesses that are to show up there and prophesy for 1260 days (Rev.11). All the history allusions to Rome regarding that are just really... illusions and nothing more. And those illusions are designed to get you off track from keeping focus on the events to occur in Jerusalem for the very end of this world.
Our bread in the West most often has yeast (leaven) added to it, which makes it rise. It makes the loaf of bread appear to be a lot more than it really is, because it has many tiny bubbles in it when it rises. In our Lord's example the leaven represent men's doctrines added to His Word. One of the thing men's leaven doctrines do is to turn His Word into fragments. You don't get the pure whole unleavened Word, but only fragments, and a lot more of just... fragments. This is why many brethren have a hard time piecing God's Word together in their mind. It's because men's doctrines are ever busy fragmenting.
There are some Church systems today that especially practice this leaven doctrines added to God's Word regarding the endtime Antichrist, treating the pope as the Antichrist prophesied for the end of this world, and Rome as the main persecutor.
(First of all, I am not a Roman Catholic. My family's roots go back to France and the first French Protestants. They fled persecution by the Roman Church in France, which is how our family came to the Americas in the early colonial days.)
When the Protestants rebelled against the Roman Church many centuries ago, Rome sent armies to stop the rebellion. Protestants were persecuted, and some bought into the Jew's idea that the pope was the Antichrist, and that the very end was coming to pass right then. It didn't happen. We are still awaiting the time of "great tribulation" our Lord Jesus was talking about as a sign for the very end of this world just prior to His return.
And for today, some in the Church still take up that old lie by the first Protestants, claiming the pope is the endtime Antichrist and that Revelation 17 is pointing to Rome. It's a good deception planted by crept unaware Jews. The Jews were persecuted by pagan Rome, destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D., and scattered the Jews from Judea into the countries. And when Rome along with the other European nations turned to Christ, the orthodox unbelieving Jews were forced to either convert to Christ or leave. So the Jews felt unjustly persecuted by Rome. The Jews today even still blame the pope during WWII for supporting Hitler!
Thus the Jews literally hate... not just Christianity, but Rome especially. And what's funny, is that when Rome was still pagan, the Jews enjoyed religious freedom in Rome. It was Christians that were persecuted by the pagan Romans in that time, not the Jews.
Another reason behind the Jew's love at pointing the finger at Rome and the pope today, is to move suspicions away from Jerusalem regarding endtime Bible prophecy. The Revelation Babylon harlot is actually about Jerusalem as that "great city" of the last verse of Revelation 17. That is where the beast is to arise from the bottomless pit and kill God's two witnesses that are to show up there and prophesy for 1260 days (Rev.11). All the history allusions to Rome regarding that are just really... illusions and nothing more. And those illusions are designed to get you off track from keeping focus on the events to occur in Jerusalem for the very end of this world.