The Mustard Seed and the Vatican

The Parables of the Kingdom of Heaven

PART THREE

                                                                                                                By Pastor F. M. Riley

                                                                                                                   November 12, 2013

     “Another parable put He forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:

     Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but, when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof,” Matthew 13:31-32.  

Introduction

     The first parable, The Parable of the Sower, had to do with the sowing of the “seed” of God’s precious Word, during and following the first coming of Christ.  The second parable, The Parable of the Wheat and Tares, had to do with the crop that resulted from the sowing of the “seed” of the Word,   and also revealed that Satan began sowing “tares” among the “wheat” in order to defeat and nullify the effects of true Bible believing Christianity. The Lord explicitly stated that “the tares are the children of the wicked,” 13:38.    

      Now let’s turn our attention to the third parable in the series…..

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

     This is the third parable in the series.  “3” is the Bible number signifying “resurrection and/or rapture.”  That this parable reveals a resurrection occurring is often overlooked or ignored by most commentators and Bible students.  I will explain this statement as we study the parable.  But now let’s turn our attention to…..

     The symbols…..

     Caution…..The “man” in this parable is not Christ Jesus, and “the field” is not the world.   

     The “man” in this parable is the Roman Emperor, Constantine.

     The man’s “field” was the Roman Empire.

     The “mustard seed” in this parable is not the gospel of Christ, but rather the odious false teachings from which the false religious system springs forth and grows.     

     The crop produced by this “mustard seed” grows up into a “tree” with many “branches.”

     The “tree” is the ancient Babylonian religious system resurrected in the Roman Empire.

     The “birds” are demonic spirits and fallen angels.  Compare 13:4 and 13:19. 

     The “branches” are the many divisions which have come forth from the Roman whore false religious system. 

     The Exposition…..

     Let’s begin by noticing the exact wording that the Lord used in relating this parable; “a mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field.” From this statement we know that the “mustard seed” was already in existence, and in someone’s possession.  The “man” in this parable “took” the seed from whomever possessed it, and sowed it in “his field.” Now let’s carefully review Biblical and secular history to identify the “man” and “the seed” which he “took” to plant in “his field.” 

     Our readers should turn back in their Bibles and carefully study Daniel 4, noticing especially 4:19-23.  Notice that the exact same description of the “tree” in Matthew 13:32 is first found here in Daniel 4:20-21.  Coincidence?  Not hardly! 

     The ancient Babylonian religious system was established in the earth after the flood by Nimrod, Genesis 10:8-10; 11:1-9.  Significantly, every pagan religious system on earth today can be traced right back to the idolatrous religious system founded by Nimrod in the city of Babylon after the flood.  

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       But let’s “fast forward” to the time of Nebuchadnezzar, the ruling autocrat over the city and kingdom of Babylon in the time of Daniel.  As the ruling autocrat over Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar was also considered to be the “head” or “leader” of the Babylonian religious system, just as Nimrod had been centuries previously.  Notice that Daniel explicitly referred to Nebuchadnezzar as “the tree,” Daniel 4:20; 4:22. Daniel also said that “the tree” was to be “cut down,” 4:23. 

     While the immediate application of Daniel’s interpretation most certainly applied to Nebuchadnezzar, the long term prophetic application was to be fulfilled after Nebuchadnezzar had passed from the scene.  Now go to Daniel 5.  In this chapter Nebuchadnezzar had been dead a number of years and his grandson, Belshazzar, had become the ruler of Babylon. 

     It was at this point that secular and Scriptural history reveals that Cyrus the Mede, surrounded the city of Babylon with his armies.  To show his defiance of Cyrus, Belshazzar shut up the city of Babylon and had a drunken party with his military officers.  Belshazzar was so defiant that he took the sacred vessels that the armies of Babylon had previously taken from the Jewish Temple and mis-used them by serving liquors in them to his officers.   

     For those readers who have never seriously studied the prophecies of Daniel, the ancient city of Babylon had a double wall surrounding the entire city that was 300 feet high.  The massive gates in the city wall could be closed and barred, so that no one could enter or leave the city.  This appeared to make the city “invincible” and unconquerable.  When the army of Cyrus then surrounded the city, Belshazzar in his wicked pride simply shut up the city and threw a drunken party for his officers. 

     But the Lord God was so incensed by Belshazzar’s wicked pride and the mis-use of the vessels from the Jewish Temple which had been “sanctified” for the worship of God, that He caused the handwriting to appear on the wall of Belshazzar’s palace, pronouncing Belshazzar’s doom, and the doom of the Kingdom of Babylon.  That same night the city of Babylon was conquered by Cyrus and Belshazzar was put to death, Daniel 5:30. 

     But now let’s get the rest of the story…..

     Cyrus, for whatever his reason, had a bitter hatred for the Babylonian religion.  Cyrus issued an order to his soldiers that all of the Babylonian priests were to be immediately put to death without mercy. Thus, that very night the Babylonian religious system was destroyed, with one small exception. When the word spread that the priests were being slaughtered, one of the priests escaped by fleeing in the night.  He fled to the city of Pergamos [at that time a city-state], where the king of Pergamos gave him “sanctuary” and ultimately re-established and adopted his pagan religion as the official religion of the kingdom of Pergamos.  In other words, a “seed” of the ancient Babylonian religious system had been preserved and was received into the possession of the King of Pergamos.  Since only one of the Babylonian priests had escaped, this made that ancient religion “the least” of all the pagan religions on the earth, just as “the mustard seed” is “the least of all seeds.” 

     The Lord Jesus Christ Himself, in the first century of Christianity, verified this truth in His letter to the church at Pergamos, Revelation 1:12-17.  In verse 13 of this letter the Lord explicitly stated, “I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat [throne] is: and thou holdest fast My name, and hast not denied My faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.”  Christ clearly states twice in this Scripture that Satan’s throne and dwelling place at that time in history was located in the city of Pergamos.  Was this just an idle statement?  Not hardly!     

     Then during the latter part of the second century of the Christian era, one of the Roman Emperors made a trip to the city of Pergamos.  While there, he observed how the Babylonian priests were able to gain total devotion and control over the adherents to their religion.  The Roman Emperor reasoned that this “religion” was exactly what was needed in Rome to wield together and control the citizens of the Roman Empire.  Therefore, when he returned to Rome, he took two or three of the Babylonian priests back to Rome with him and encouraged them to establish their religion in the city of Rome.  If our readers are paying close attention, this tells us exactly how the “seed” of the ancient Babylonian religion was transferred from the city of Babylon to the city of Pergamos, and then later brought to the city of Rome, Italy.  But this is not yet all the story…..

     Enter Emperor Constantine.  After Constantine had become the Roman Emperor, in 313 A.D. he

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convened a “church council” in the city of Nicaea.  Constantine invited and urged every head of a “religious” group in the Roman Empire to come to the council.  According to the history of Eusebius, many “Christian” [?] pastors went to the council. But not all! Some Christian pastors living at that time had enough true Godliness and spiritual sense that they refused to have anything to do with Constantine’s council.  Eusebius, in his history, refers to those pastors who refused to attend the council as “the pure.”  Take note! The history of Eusebius proves that not all Christian churches came out of, or descended from, the Roman Catholic religion as the Catholic priests today like to claim.  Their claim is simply not so!  There have always been true believers who took the inspired Word seriously for what it actually and literally says, “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,   And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty,” 2 Corinthians 6:17-18. 

      At that council Constantine related how that he had been given a “vision” of a great cross in the sky with words written in the latin language, saying, “By this sign conquer.” Constantine took this to mean that he was to embrace “Christianity” as the official “religion” of the Roman Empire.  At that council Constantine established a Hierarchy, laying the foundation for what would ultimately develop into the Roman Universal [Catholic] “Christian” [Sic!] religion. Constantine then gave government grants out of the Roman treasury to the pastors who were willing to compromise their “professed” faith in order to be a part of Constantine’s new Hierarchy.  These government grants enabled the compromising pastors to begin building huge church buildings for their congregations and exercising “religious” authority, backed by the power and authority of the Roman Empire, over those pastors and churches who refused to have anything to do with Constantine’s newly established Hierarchy. The “Dark Ages” had begun, and it lasted for a 1,000 years until the time of the Protestant Reformation.  Prior to this time almost all Christian churches still met in private homes, in fields, by the river sides, in caves, and various other places due to their extreme poverty and sacrificial lifestyle.   Constantine, at that time, made himself the official “head” or “papa” of the Roman Catholic [universal] ”Christian” Heirarchy. [Sic!]

    Of course, the pagan Babylonian priests in Rome welcomed the opportunity to add “Christianity” to their paganism [?], which they did by changing the names of their pagan gods, simply giving their gods  “Christian” names, and kept right on worshiping the same way they had worshipped since the days of Nimrod.  More about this when we study the next parable. 

Conclusion

     What we see in this parable is how “the mustard seed” of the pagan Babylonian religious system, which had been almost totally destroyed during the reign of Cyrus and the Media-Persian Empire, was preserved and resurrected back to life by Emperor Constantine in the third century of Christianity. 

     The Lord Himself predicted that this odious “mustard seed” sowed by Constantine in the Roman Empire would grow into a great monstrosity of a tree with many “branches,” to the extent that the “birds of the air” [demons and fallen angels, 13:4; 13:19] would “come and lodge in the branches thereof,” 13:32.  We believers living today can look back at Christian and secular history and see how this literally came to pass. Today, the world headquarters of all “false religion” [Satan’s throne] is still located in the Vatican in Rome, Italy.   Let this exposition be a warning to every reader.  “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try [test] the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world,” 1 John 4:1. 

    No reader should take this study as a blanket condemnation of the Catholic people, for it is not.  My heart goes out and my prayers go up to the Lord God for the poor, deceived Catholic people.  The wicked priests know what a “religious” scam they are running, but they deliberately keep the people deceived and in heathen darkness.  Nevertheless, by the grace of God, many have been delivered from the clutches of “Jezebel,” the whore religion of Babylon, Revelation 2:20-23.  Look to Christ and live!       

     Dear readers, you can trust the inspired Word of God implicitly for your salvation, Romans 10:17; John 14:6; Acts 4:12; 16:30-31. The inspired Word of God will never fail you or betray you, but you

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cannot trust the opinions and theories of even well intentioned “religious” men about the Word.  “…try the spirits…” and “prove all things,” 1 Thessalonians 5:21.  Study the Word for yourself and accept it at face value for what it actually and literally says and teaches.  Take heed! 

TO BE CONTINUED…..

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     Permission is granted to any true believer or Bible believing Christian ministry to reproduce this study to share with others, or to quote from it in context as written.

     My heartfelt thanks to those readers who are supporting this ministry with their gifts and prayers.   It is you folks who make it possible to keep sending forth the truth of God’s Word to God’s people and to lost seeking souls.  May our gracious Lord bless your sacrifices a hundred fold. 

     Please address all comments, questions, and correspondence to:  Pastor F. M. Riley, Last Call Gospel Ministry, 184 County Road 108, Harrisburg, Missouri 65256, or I can also be reached by sending an email to:  fmr7sngn@centurylink.net

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