Revival and War
The Devil's solution to Revival is War
It may sound strange to some people’s ears, but we Christians are really good at messing things up. Fortunately for us, we have a God who is really good at fixing things.
As good as the first century was, darkness was already starting to distort and corrupt the truth. Gnosticism is “the idea that personal spiritual knowledge was above the orthodox teachings and traditions given by the Apostles.” This idea had already started to grow in the first century. This soon morphed and adopted crazy concepts like all of creation is evil and only the spiritual is pure. It was then stretched to crazy points like it was illegal to have any “intimate relations within marriage.” It eventually divided the Trinity and put each part of God into its boxes, and then, over time, some even kicked the Holy Spirit out.
But the Father is patient with his wayward children. So, while history kept moving forward, a group of Gnostics eventually made their way to the western edge of the Roman empire and settled in the ancient Roman city of Albiga. The Empire eventually changed; leaders came and went, and Albiga's name got shortened to Albi, and this is where this story changed.
This small colony of Gnostics eventually formed a new group called the Cathars. Although the Cathar’s teachings were still very heretical, and many groups condemned them, the Cathars were growing in number and starting to change. Because they came from Albi, they were eventually known as the Albigensians around 1000 AD.
By 1200 AD, the Albigensians were not only large in number but (in my opinion) the Father was starting to work on them. Some Historians believe that internal spiritual changes towards biblical norms were taking place, and if they were allowed to continue. The reformation would have started in Southern France, centuries before Martin Luther in Germany.
Unfortunately, one of the long-held methods the devil uses to prevent revival is War. Just as these people were about to step into the light, darkness rolled in.
Pope Innocent III
Pope Innocent, who was anything but innocent, came to power in 1198. Then, in 1209, he decided to destroy the Albigensians in France. The Catholics quickly grew a large army that many have speculated came directly from local prisons. These new “holy warriors” were given the promise of their sins forgiven, the lands of all they concurred, as well as immediate acceptance into heaven if they died.
In effect, for their service of murder, they were given the promise of eternal life.
The Catholic armies started raiding the smaller towns and villages, burning, raping, and killing a path through the countryside. Soon, they attacked and burned the city of Toulouse. Those that escaped ran to the walled city of Béziers. This was a planned tactic by the highly skilled Catholic army that included Simon de Montfort, Arnaud Amalric, King Philip II of France, and his nephew Prince Louis VIII, a future king of France.
Reaching Béziers, they started the attack, but Béziers had not made herself ready, and refugees were still streaming in. Catholic warriors mingled with the refugees, and a large number of them made it inside before the walls of the city were closed. This brought about a concern, so the Catholic leaders held a quick meeting, asking, “What shall we do, some of our own are inside.” Basically, the issue was how can we tell them apart. Arnaud Amalric answered back with what became the battle cry.
“Kill all, kill all, for God knows which are His own.”
The city population was normally around 15,000 people, but because of the war, historians estimate the population had swelled to around 60,000 people. No one was spared, children were slaughtered alongside their parents as rivers of red blood flowed through the streets. All was destroyed as children were thrown into the burning churches. Not a cat, dog, or child lived.
For the next several years, this army continued, and the destruction of Béziers was repeated over and over again in many cities. Historians estimate that possibly as many as One to Two million people died in the next 20 years. But that number could easily be taken as a low number.
The Albigensians were a special people; they had many supporters from not only France but also the British crown, and their language, Occitan, even had Hebrew words mixed in. Even though historically, they started out as heretics with an extremely distorted gospel. It seems to me the Father was in the process of bringing them to revival from darkness into the light of the Messiah.
The survivors in southern France who did escape relocated as far south as Northern Africa and as far north as Scandinavia. As history progressed, these people became more and more zealous for the Lord as the Catholic Church hunted the corners of the world to find them.
The revival that was to happen within their community, in my opinion, became a slow-burning fire that lasted for hundreds of years. In an old German book that was translated to English in 1889 by Joseph Torrey, he found the following excerpt. “The corruption of the (Catholic) clergy furnished the heretics (Catharists) a most important vantage ground from which to attack the dominant church and its sacraments.”p. 348
“The Catharists were zealous in disseminating their principles everywhere; they were careful to improve every favorable circumstance for this purpose and seized upon every occurrence which could serve as a means to it. …the heretics, who at the peril of their lives traveled about from village to village and from house to house. As merchants, they frequented fairs and markets ….” p.320
The Cathars/Albigensians started out as true heretics of the faith, but in time, the Father slowly changed them until they became a force for Jesus in this world. The devil considered this to be a betrayal and moved his forces against them for complete destruction.
Modern Day
As I talked about in the post “In the Shadow of Nimrod.” Assimilation was the primary tactic of New Babylon, AKA Rome. But things shifted after Caeser Constantine assimilated the stronger religion of Christianity. Christian containment was not possible because people refused and just spread out.
So assimilation turned into domination, and at least 50 million of us died in Europe. Then, just a few hundred years ago, after the new world was “found.” The Catholic orders changed back, the armies were quieted, and a new form of assimilation moved forward.
This kind of assimilation was done quietly through charity and care work. In America, many tribal nations still bear the scars, as do adults around the world who survived their orphan programs.
They became the “caregivers” to the poor and orphans. People like Mother Teresa were held up as examples of purity. All the while, she worked in child trafficking with people like Hillary Clinton. So what really happened to the Children?
What About Us?
We are believers in the Lord Jesus, the Followers of the Way. Still, we struggle with hundreds of denominations like a Baskin and Robins ice cream stand with 51 flavors. We have pretenders in the pulpits and up-and-coming future leaders who need to learn NOT to model their new ministry after the pretenders. The SBC, Baptists, Charismatics, and more are all getting rocked to the core. The kingdom is getting rocked, but the Father is seeking to bring us into greater clarity.
Until then, we struggle along, attempting to understand and apply scripture as best we can. Perhaps that will be the purpose of the Two Witnesses when they come. Perhaps they are coming to correct all our theology because we’ve got it all messed up. I mean, why else would the leaders of the world be trying to kill them?