ibnetsi
They have Two Weapons: Fear and Surprise and Ruthless Efficiency.
That was unexpected.
It was a hideous blot on church history no matter how it’s looked at. Jewish, Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, agnostic, almost anything. Only the devil could love it.
“To be fair” on a secular level, its death toll shrinks to microscopic size when compared with Islamic atrocities, or even worse, official atheist atrocities (i.e. Communism).
But these murders were not the worst murders it committed. The worst murders were its murders of soul. These were people with no excuse not to know the gospel — and they treated it as their selfish cudgel, until it could not be identified as gospel anymore. Forget Mary — Don’t you think JESUS wept?
I’ve heard that there was a bad infiltration of Islamists into the church at that point in history, which led to its hideous torture practices. Maybe there was. However we still have a church asleep at the wheel, permitting it. A church that at this point in time mostly worshiped itself.
Why was there any Christianity at all going on in it, it is to be wondered. Well if it weren’t for the Lord’s promise to keep the church alive, there wouldn’t be any. However it showed how hideous the church can get, and it should serve as a warning to all churches today of any denomination. May it be the “NEVER AGAIN” of Christendom.
bump for later
The Inquisition executed between 8 and 12 thousand people over its entire 300 year history. Soviet Russia executed 15 thousand people *a month* for political crimes under Lenin, and that was before Stalin really got things going.
The people executed under the Inquisition actually got trials, to boot. Not so much in Russia.
In all fairness, the Inquisition needs some context.
In Spain of the time, there was already a royal inquisition, but it was weak and ineffective. But at the same time, there was great and evil perversion in Spain. Some convents were little more than brothels, some churches were pagan enclaves with fallen priests conducting profane rituals and carrying out orgies. Otherwise, much of the land still had deep undercurrents of paganism in it, often corrupting Catholic practices as badly as does Voodoo in the Caribbean.
It was obvious and pretty horrifying to the average Spaniard. This was why they begged the church to set up an Inquisition, to root out all this nasty stuff.
The timing was also good for it to spread to the new world.
When the Conquistadors arrived in the Aztec Empire, these hardened mercenaries were horrified by what they saw there. Wanting to destroy every aspect of that evil society, an accompanying priest prevented the destruction of a huge library of codexes, scrolls, that contained their knowledge.
He intended to return them to Spain as valuable documents. And then he read them. He was so utterly horrified with what he had read, like the conquistadors, he was convinced beyond any doubt that any trace of this civilization had to be annihilated. He personally burned the codexes.
Meanwhile, back in Spain, the Inquisition did what it could before it went utterly rotten. While they did persecute the Jews and others, this was at the behest of the monarch. It also engaged in a lot of de-Islamification as well.
Break out “THE CUMFY CUSSION”!
The same goes for the people who think the mormons are about to take over and impose "theocracy."
Institutional sin.
So if an institution confesses it’s sin, repents and turns toward God, it can go to heaven?
Why does it seem to be a made up word to misdirect? It is more victim hood, more manipulation.
Do a word search on it..........................