The Advent Truth
The history of religious persecution during the Middle Ages and Reformation era is not something Christians should minimize, excuse, or hide.

For centuries, the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical system participated in a church-state order in which those judged to be heretics could face confiscation, imprisonment, torture, exile, and even death. Waldenses, Albigenses, Hussites, Protestants, and others experienced persecution when their convictions brought them into conflict with established religious authority.

How many died? The exact total is disputed, and responsible Christians should say so.

Historian John Dowling cited an estimate of more than 50 million killed for heresy under papal persecution (History of Romanism, pp. 541–542).

Another estimate came from Juan Antonio Llorente, a former secretary of the Spanish Inquisition who worked with its records. He estimated 31,912 were burned in person, 17,659 in effigy, and 291,450 received other punishments.

W. E. H. Lecky wrote: “That the Church of Rome has shed more innocent blood than any other institution that has ever existed among mankind…”

And this matters prophetically. Persecution of God’s faithful people is one of the identifying characteristics Scripture gives of the Antichrist power. Daniel said the little horn would “wear out the saints of the most High” (Daniel 7:25). Revelation describes the corresponding power making “war with the saints” (Revelation 13:7).

This is not an attack on individual Catholics. It is about identifying a historical religious-political system by the characteristics Bible prophecy itself provides.

History warns us what happens when ecclesiastical authority obtains civil power to enforce religion. Christ calls His church to conquer through truth and the gospel—not coercion.

Christian Nationalism is heading down the same road as Catholicism, and they will revive the persecution against God’s faithful people.

Prepare while you can. Get close to Jesus now. He is your only Hope.