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Catholic Priest Bruce Ritter Founded Covenant House Youth ‘Safe House’ In New York Where The Young Boys He Housed Were Anything But Safe

Covenant House founder Father Bruce Ritter was a pedophile Catholic priest who created a safe house in order to give him a steady supply of homosexual boys.

Published

7 years ago

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The Post’s front page on Dec. 12, 1989 shouted, “TIMES SQUARE PRIEST PROBED Former male prostitute cites ‘gifts.’” Based not on Kite’s word, but entirely on the facts of Morgenthau’s investigation, the story made no mention of sex with Ritter, except for one detail: Morgenthau had assigned the case to his Sex Crimes Unit.
SHARE NOW THE END BEGINS:

The fall of Covenant House founder Father Bruce Ritter was an omen of the sexual-abuse cases involving hundreds of Roman Catholic priests and tens of thousands of victims all over the world.

This story for me is personal. Multiple times during my Catholic high school days in the years between 1975-1979, Pedophile priest Bruce Ritter came to my school and recruited high school students for volunteer work at his Covenant House in nearby New York City. I was going to go, but something held me back from doing it, and now years later I can see exactly why. Bruce Ritter was using his Covenant House to supply himself with an endless stream of young boys that he dazzled with gifts and money in order to engage in sodomite activity.

“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.” 2 Peter 2:1-3 (KJV)

When pedophile Catholic priest Bruce Ritter was operating back in the 70’s and 80’s, America and the rest of the world were nearly completely unaware and unprepared for the scandal that was getting ready to break.  But the Vatican was not unprepared, in fact, they used their global resources and endless mountains of money to cover it up so that no one would ever know what was going on. And for a time they were quite successful.

“And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.” Revelation 18:1-6 (KJV)

The real scandal is not that the Roman Catholic Church is populated by a majority of homosexual priests, and the real scandal is not that they like to abuse young boys and occasionally some young girls. No, the real scandal is that the Vatican has always known about it, has always protected it, and has always lied about it in order that it could continue. That’s why you see current Pope Francis moving so slowly, reluctant to take any real action at all other than giving speeches about it. Francis doesn’t want to do anything about it because having homosexual priests who abuse young boys is official policy of the Roman Catholic Church, and has been for centuries. That’s the real scandal here, and there will be no justice until Revelation 18.

Since Ritter’s fall, predatory priests have since been found to have abused thousands of children and young men in New York, Washington, DC, Pennsylvania, Australia, Chile and Ireland.

FROM NY POST: For 18 years, Bruce Ritter was considered a hero for how he ran the charity he founded for wayward, homeless youths. Then, several young men claimed he had sexual relationships with them and illegally used nonprofit Covenant House funds to lavish them with money and gifts. He was given a slap on the wrist: Manhattan prosecutors made him quit, but did not charge him. Yet when Ritter was forced out in the winter of 1990, following a courageous exposé in The Post, few in the city could guess how widespread the problem was.

Pedophile Priests and the Coverup of Sexual Abuse by the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church

VISIT THE NTEB ARCHIVE ON PEDOPHILE PRIESTS IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

When the Bruce Ritter scandal was first broken by The Post in 1989, priest sex-abuse stories were rare in the United States and unheard of in New York.

His story differed from today’s church cases in that “the secular powers more than the archdiocese or the Franciscans protected him,” says Charles M. Sennott, the former Post reporter who at age 26 broke the story of the district attorney’s probe in December 1989.

Sennott, who founded and runs the Boston-based journalism advocacy and educational GroundTruth Project, said, “The story didn’t get at the deeper truth of coverups going on in one diocese after another” — because Covenant House belonged not to a diocese, but to the Franciscan order, a worldwide community of Roman Catholic priests founded by St. Francis of Assisi in the 13th century.

The Post’s front page on Dec. 12, 1989 shouted, “TIMES SQUARE PRIEST PROBED Former male prostitute cites ‘gifts.’” Based not on Kite’s word, but entirely on the facts of Morgenthau’s investigation, the story made no mention of sex with Ritter, except for one detail: Morgenthau had assigned the case to his Sex Crimes Unit.

But Ritter enjoyed a similar coverup for the same reasons that other charismatic clerics with cult-like followings do: unwillingness to blow the whistle on deviant priests who reel in money and garner political prestige under a veil of saintliness.

It took a young journalist to bring Ritter to heel, if not to justice. As Sennott related in his gripping 1992 book, “Broken Covenant,” it all started with an order from his boss to “pick up on six.”

Bruce Ritter founded Covenant House in 1972 as a small facility for homeless teens in the crime- and drug-ravaged East Village. But the strong-willed, intellectually brilliant and domineering priest eventually grew Covenant House into a charitable giant with 178 locations in the US, Canada, Mexico and Central America.

By 1979, its flagship shelter near Times Square was “emblazoned with a three-story symbol [of a dove in hand] painted in blue” flying above rooftops. Ritter’s belief in raising funds from private enterprise rather than from government made him seem the “perfect mix of free enterprise and compassion,” Sennott recalls.

President Ronald Reagan named Ritter one of America’s “unsung heroes” in his 1984 State of the Union Address. Covenant House subsequently more than tripled its annual budget from $27 million in 1985 to $90 million in 1989.

“He was a corporate St. Francis of Assisi,” Sennott said.

Ritter wielded the levers of power with an air of papal infallibility. In 1987, he outfoxed then-Mayor Ed Koch to take control of an old Greenwich Village union building that Koch wanted to use as a prison but where Ritter planned to house 800 homeless kids.

TV cameras focused on Bruce Ritter, then 62, standing next to First Lady Barbara Bush at President George H. W. Bush’s 1989 State of the Union Address. By that year, Covenant House’s board was a who’s who of financial and media clout.

It included captain of industry Peter Grace, financiers Teddy Forstmann and William Simon, Woman’s Day magazine editor-in-chief Ellen Levine and high executives of IBM, Chase Manhattan Bank and Bear Stearns.

But Ritter ran Covenant House virtually unchecked. Church officials and the organization’s insiders ignored years of buzz about his relationships with boys and a mysterious, secret “safe-house” program for certain youths who were Ritter’s favorites.

In October 1989, Post metropolitan editor John Cotter told Sennott to pick up a call. A former male prostitute named Kevin Lee Kite told Sennott about his long-term sexual relationship with Ritter. It wasn’t a crime — Kite was 25, although he claimed to be 19 — but Kite had much more to tell. In exchange for sex, Ritter had paid him off with a nice apartment, a computer, a college scholarship and money to buy good clothes and restaurant dinners — an illegal use of nonprofit Covenant House’s funds.

Sennott was raised in a traditional Catholic home in Boston and didn’t want to believe the worst about a saintly idol like Ritter. “It wasn’t easy for me,” Sennott recalled this week. “Cotter said to me, ‘What made you think it would be easy, pal? Welcome to journalism.’”

Days later, Kite showed Sennott paperwork to substantiate his claims, including receipts for the funds Covenant House lavished on him.

Kite told counselors at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Crime Victims that his liaisons with Ritter started when the priest met him years earlier in New Orleans and brought him to New York with the promise of leading him to a new life. But it turned out to be another form of prostitution, Kite learned: sex in exchange for money and goods. Ritter’s hypocrisy also infuriated him. While on a panel set up by US Attorney General Edwin Meese to “study” pornography, Ritter publicly warned that the genitalia on Michelangelo’s David sculpture could provoke dangerous sexual desires.

Kite’s next stop was the office of Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. Morgenthau’s famed sex-case prosecutor, Linda Fairstein, gave him a tape recorder to catch Ritter discussing sex and money with him.

Prodded by Cotter, who warned the reporter, “I’ll kick your ass” if he got beat on the story, Sennott pursued the scoop. He learned from sources that the DA had put Kite into a “witness-aid program” for his protection.

On Dec. 6, a nervous but determined Sennott reached Ritter by phone. The priest denied all the allegations to Sennott and suggested he, Ritter, was being “set up” by “organized crime.”

Father Bruce Ritter died in obscurity at his farmhouse in Otsego County on Oct. 7, 1999. Covenant House survived under new leadership, and continues to serve homeless and runaway youth. Since Ritter’s fall, predatory priests have since been found to have abused thousands of children and young men in New York, Washington, DC, Pennsylvania, Australia, Chile and Ireland. The church has paid out billions of dollars in settlements — including $60 million by the New York Archdiocese in the past two years, The Post reported this month.

Now Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò charges that Pope Francis has known since June 2013 that former Washington, DC, Archbishop Theodore McCarrick was a “serial predator” but covered for him until an investigation forced McCarrick out in June. The pope unsatisfyingly responded, “I will not say a single word on this.”

It’s a pity that the church didn’t learn from the lesson of Father Bruce Ritter — that the truth will come out eventually, even if it’s too late to erase the suffering. READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Survivors Sue Archdiocese of New York, Covenant House And Franciscans For Sexual Abuse

Announce the filing of 2 lawsuits against the Archdiocese of New York, the Conventual Franciscan religious order, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York and Covenant House for sexual abuse as minors of 2 survivors by notorious perpetrator Fr. Bruce Ritter. The lawsuits were filed as a result of New York’s new Child Victims Act (CVA)

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THE PROPHECY NEWS PODCAST: The UFC On The White House Lawn This Weekend Stunningly Brings Us The Ancient Roman Empire Roaring Back To Life

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2 days ago

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June 12, 2026

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President Trump Hosting UFC On The White House Lawn Is A Stunning Symbol Of America’s Roman Spirit And The Coming Revived Roman Empire Of Daniel

Washington has always been draped in Rome. From the Senate to the Capitol, from the marble columns to the imperial domes, from the eagle imagery to the fasces displayed in Congress, America’s ruling class built its civic temple with Roman hands and Roman imagination. The United States presented itself as a republic, but it borrowed the language, architecture, symbolism, and ambition of the empire that came before it. Rome was never as far away from America as we were told. It was carved into the stone from the beginning. Now the symbolism has stepped out of the marble and onto the White House lawn.

“For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” Revelation 17, 17,18 (KJB)

On this episode of the Prophecy News Podcast, Rome understood spectacle. Rome understood how to command the imagination of the people. The arena was never merely entertainment. It was power on display. It was the empire telling the masses who ruled, who conquered, who mattered, and who could be crushed. The Caesars knew that the people could be governed through bread, blood, theater, fear, glory, and distraction. The arena was Rome’s pulpit, and the empire preached itself through violence, triumph, and applause America learned the lesson well, very well. The White House, the palace of American executive power, becomes the stage. The fighters become the spectacle. The cameras become the amphitheater. The nation watches as combat entertainment is fused with politics, patriotism, celebrity, military pageantry, and national celebration. Just as it was in the days of Rome. This is not just another headline in a collapsing age. This is a prophetic snapshot of the Roman spirit of empire rising in the modern West. America is not named in Daniel as the final empire, but America has carried the Roman spirit across the modern world. It has exported Roman-style law, military order, global dominance, civic religion, political symbolism, mass entertainment, and imperial power under the banner of freedom and democracy. America calls itself a republic, but it increasingly behaves like an empire. That was Rome’s path as well. First the republic, then the strong men, then the spectacle, then the empire. And finally, the inevitable collapse of all of it. The White House lawn has become the arena, and that old Roman spirit is speaking once again. Here at our 250th anniversary, our republic is fading, the spectacle is rising, the Beast system is forming. And the final empire of Antichrist is preparing for its last act before the King of kings returns to break it in pieces and set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. Is America Mystery Babylon? That’s the question we will be looking to answer here on Day 2,279 of 15 Days To Flatten The Curve!

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We Are Broadcasting Live Four Days A Week

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Every Sunday morning, from 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM EST, we invite you to join us live and in-person at the Bible Believers Church here inside the NTEB Bookstore in Palatka where we lift up the Lord Jesus Christ in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, and preach a message from the pages of the King James Authorized Version Holy Bible.

OUR MOST RECENT SUNDAY SERVICE VIDEO: Faith Like A Child

• The RIGHTLY DIVIDING Radio Bible Study

Every Sunday evening from 7:00 – 9:00 PM EST, we offer an in-depth rightly dividing and dispensationally correct rocket ride through the preserved word of God as found within the pages of the King James Holy Bible. 

  • SUNDAY NIGHT: Our original Sunday Night Radio Bible Study, it’s from 7:00 – 9:00 PM EST, and we have praise, singing, testimony and of 90-minute King James Bible study. All our King James bible study programs are archived here.

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Every Monday and Friday afternoons from Noon to 1:30 PM EST, we examine breaking news and current events  in light of bible prophecy. 

  • MONDAY AT NOON: Every Monday at Noon we review all the latest news and events related to bible prophecy, and examine what is happening in light of what is written. If you miss the live show, all of our Prophecy News Podcast programs are archived here.
  • FRIDAY AT NOON: Friday at Noon we review all the latest news and events related to bible prophecy, and examine what is happening in light of what is written. If you miss the live show, all of our Prophecy News Podcast programs are archived here.

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Listen to What Our Donation Angels Have to Say About the Ministry of Now The End Begins

  • “You are truly an end time ministry and I appreciate how our Precious Lord is using you to educate his very own flock. There is a lot of confusion , but your ministry is putting scripture in the right prospective. Thank-you so so much Geoffrey S Grider for standing firm and putting in a lot of hours of your time. God Bless You , also your Ministry and your family. IN JESUS MIGHT NAME.” T. Muto
  • “Jesus. I am now 64 years old and never in all the years I’ve been a Christian was I able to grow in the Lord as much as I have in the last past year. All because of our blessed brother’s work Geoffrey Grider who as the bravery of standing fast forward without fear of claiming the truth of God by the power of his love in Jesus Christ. May God bless you abundantly to the end my dear brother… ROMANS: 8: 36,37,38” Mireille Anderson
  • “I met you at the car dealership earlier this year. We spoke briefly, then you handed me a card and told me to check out the website. You left. A few minutes later, you returned to tell me not to forget to look up the website. I told you…” I already did. I already subscribed.” In that short time we spoke, I experienced from you…a total stranger…peace, joy, kindness, gentleness, compassion, and love. I am convinced that God sent you to share the Good News that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. For that, and for the work you are doing for the Kingdom of God, I say…Thank you and God Bless You.” Sonia Merced
  • “I really enjoy the emails and Bible studies! I haven’t found a church and enjoy your services very much! Be blessed brother!” Marcia Mann
  • “You and your organization are on the front lines in the Battle For Truth…. current events, end times, and trying to awaken a sleeping Laodicean Church. Thank you brother for fighting for us and all your teaching and insight God bless…” Daniel Cartrette
  • I just want to thank you for the teachings you give every Sunday night on radio.  You are such a blessing to me. I absolutely love your way of teaching the scriptures.  I don’t have a church where I can have fellowship and teaching, so you have been my teacher for many months now. Thanks God you are there for all of us who have no church to go to.  I pray that the Lord will bless you abundantly in your ministry, and your loved ones too.  You are such a blessing to me, and many others, in these last days before the rapture.  Thank you so much Geoffrey, from the bottom of my heart. May the Lord keep you, until He comes back for us. You are in my prayers.” Donald Godin
  • “Thank you for the work  you are doing brother.  Your page and your testimony were a blessing to me this morning as I came across it for the first time.  Thank you for the reality of your testimony and what God has done for you in introducing you to Jesus our Lord.  God has brought me, in salvation, to Himself as well, through His love and mercy and grace in salvation.  How can we praise Him enough?  How can we not share this good news!?  I pray this day for God’s blessing on your ministry that He may save many souls through the work He has called you to.  Isaiah 40:31 (KJV)” Mark and Melissa
  • “Love the Sunday night bible study. I want to support someone who has the passion for the lost like Geoffrey does and rightly divides the word of God. God bless you.” Teresa Carey
  • “I give because not many news outlets are brave enough or Godly enough to tell these stories from a Christian’s point of view. I see stories here that will not be seen anywhere else.” William Grayshaw
  • “It’s hard to find solid biblical teaching in America these days. It’s a blessing to be able to take part in a ministry financially without being concerned about false teaching. All glory to God! God bless!” Maximilian Swan
  • “I donate because you are reporting the truth about the increasing wickedness of our time, as God’s word foretold. In so doing we are reminded to “Keep looking up” as we wait in joyful hope for the Lord’s coming, Maranatha! ” Anthony Sloane
  • “Geoffrey has the best End Times News out there. I have been receiving his emails for years now and always enjoy his Sunday night messages although I don’t always think exactly as he thinks. We are all in this “boat of life” together and as I come to the end of my life’s journey here, I am more aware of Jesus’s call for us to be one as He and the Father are One.” Deborah Cleaveland

STREET-TESTED NTEB GOSPEL TRACTS:

This is the official gospel tract of NTEB, used here on the streets of Saint Augustine and sent around the world as they are purchased through our website. We ask you to prayerfully consider supporting the work of Now The End Begins by purchasing a box of these full-color, high-quality gospel tracts. Thank you in advance!

But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORT…TO THE FIGHT!!!

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

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THE PROPHECY NEWS PODCAST: Spielberg Says ‘Disclosure Day’ Movie Takes The Position Of The Catholic Church To Prepare People To Receive Aliens

Published

4 days ago

on

June 10, 2026

By

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Spielberg’s New Aliens Film ‘Disclosure Day’ Shows How Hollywood, Rome And The Government Are Conditioning Mankind To Receive A Counterfeit Revelation

Now here’s a little wrinkle to the new Steven Spielberg ‘Disclosure Day’ movie that almost no one is talking about. Spielberg says the movie narrative takes the position of the Roman Catholic Church to prepare people to welcome UFOs and aliens into our global society. Remember that Vatican announcement some years back when Pope Francis said when aliens arrive, the Catholic Church will baptize them? Well, hello there! Steven Spielberg and the Vatican in an end times bed together, who knew? Now you know. You won’t hear this on any other Podcast, so buckle up.

“And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” 2 Corinthians 11:14 (KJB)

On this episode of the Prophecy News Podcast, back in 2014, Pope Francis stunningly said Rome would be open to baptizing Martians when they showed up. Now Steven Spielberg is rolling out a UFO disclosure film with a Roman Catholic nun character and theological questions about God, creation, and intelligent life beyond earth based on Roman Catholic doctrine and teachings. Hollywood and the Vatican are not accidentally walking down the same road — they are rehearsing the same end-times script. Amos asks “Can two walk together except they be agreed?” They cannot. This Friday, Steven Spielberg gives the world the gospel of the coming Antichrist as Rome gets ready to sprinkle the aliens upon their arrive. And this lost world, already primed by decades of UFO and extreterrestrial conditioning, will call it revelation while the Bible openly calls it deception, and warns us not to fall for it. Christian, you have no idea how deep this rabbit hole goes, but today, you’re going to find out!

Study Helps And Links For Today’s Podcast

We Are Broadcasting Live Four Days A Week

  • The BIBLE BELIEVERS Sunday Service

Every Sunday morning, from 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM EST, we invite you to join us live and in-person at the Bible Believers Church here inside the NTEB Bookstore in Palatka where we lift up the Lord Jesus Christ in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, and preach a message from the pages of the King James Authorized Version Holy Bible.

OUR MOST RECENT SUNDAY SERVICE VIDEO: Faith Like A Child

• The RIGHTLY DIVIDING Radio Bible Study

Every Sunday evening from 7:00 – 9:00 PM EST, we offer an in-depth rightly dividing and dispensationally correct rocket ride through the preserved word of God as found within the pages of the King James Holy Bible. 

  • SUNDAY NIGHT: Our original Sunday Night Radio Bible Study, it’s from 7:00 – 9:00 PM EST, and we have praise, singing, testimony and of 90-minute King James Bible study. All our King James bible study programs are archived here.

• The NTEB PROPHECY NEWS PODCAST Hour

Every Monday and Friday afternoons from Noon to 1:30 PM EST, we examine breaking news and current events  in light of bible prophecy. 

  • MONDAY AT NOON: Every Monday at Noon we review all the latest news and events related to bible prophecy, and examine what is happening in light of what is written. If you miss the live show, all of our Prophecy News Podcast programs are archived here.
  • FRIDAY AT NOON: Friday at Noon we review all the latest news and events related to bible prophecy, and examine what is happening in light of what is written. If you miss the live show, all of our Prophecy News Podcast programs are archived here.

Your Generous Donations Make These Live King James Radio Bible Studies & Prophecy News Podcasts Possible!

HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page

Listen to What Our Donation Angels Have to Say About the Ministry of Now The End Begins

  • “You are truly an end time ministry and I appreciate how our Precious Lord is using you to educate his very own flock. There is a lot of confusion , but your ministry is putting scripture in the right prospective. Thank-you so so much Geoffrey S Grider for standing firm and putting in a lot of hours of your time. God Bless You , also your Ministry and your family. IN JESUS MIGHT NAME.” T. Muto
  • “Jesus. I am now 64 years old and never in all the years I’ve been a Christian was I able to grow in the Lord as much as I have in the last past year. All because of our blessed brother’s work Geoffrey Grider who as the bravery of standing fast forward without fear of claiming the truth of God by the power of his love in Jesus Christ. May God bless you abundantly to the end my dear brother… ROMANS: 8: 36,37,38” Mireille Anderson
  • “I met you at the car dealership earlier this year. We spoke briefly, then you handed me a card and told me to check out the website. You left. A few minutes later, you returned to tell me not to forget to look up the website. I told you…” I already did. I already subscribed.” In that short time we spoke, I experienced from you…a total stranger…peace, joy, kindness, gentleness, compassion, and love. I am convinced that God sent you to share the Good News that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. For that, and for the work you are doing for the Kingdom of God, I say…Thank you and God Bless You.” Sonia Merced
  • “I really enjoy the emails and Bible studies! I haven’t found a church and enjoy your services very much! Be blessed brother!” Marcia Mann
  • “You and your organization are on the front lines in the Battle For Truth…. current events, end times, and trying to awaken a sleeping Laodicean Church. Thank you brother for fighting for us and all your teaching and insight God bless…” Daniel Cartrette
  • I just want to thank you for the teachings you give every Sunday night on radio.  You are such a blessing to me. I absolutely love your way of teaching the scriptures.  I don’t have a church where I can have fellowship and teaching, so you have been my teacher for many months now. Thanks God you are there for all of us who have no church to go to.  I pray that the Lord will bless you abundantly in your ministry, and your loved ones too.  You are such a blessing to me, and many others, in these last days before the rapture.  Thank you so much Geoffrey, from the bottom of my heart. May the Lord keep you, until He comes back for us. You are in my prayers.” Donald Godin
  • “Thank you for the work  you are doing brother.  Your page and your testimony were a blessing to me this morning as I came across it for the first time.  Thank you for the reality of your testimony and what God has done for you in introducing you to Jesus our Lord.  God has brought me, in salvation, to Himself as well, through His love and mercy and grace in salvation.  How can we praise Him enough?  How can we not share this good news!?  I pray this day for God’s blessing on your ministry that He may save many souls through the work He has called you to.  Isaiah 40:31 (KJV)” Mark and Melissa
  • “Love the Sunday night bible study. I want to support someone who has the passion for the lost like Geoffrey does and rightly divides the word of God. God bless you.” Teresa Carey
  • “I give because not many news outlets are brave enough or Godly enough to tell these stories from a Christian’s point of view. I see stories here that will not be seen anywhere else.” William Grayshaw
  • “It’s hard to find solid biblical teaching in America these days. It’s a blessing to be able to take part in a ministry financially without being concerned about false teaching. All glory to God! God bless!” Maximilian Swan
  • “I donate because you are reporting the truth about the increasing wickedness of our time, as God’s word foretold. In so doing we are reminded to “Keep looking up” as we wait in joyful hope for the Lord’s coming, Maranatha! ” Anthony Sloane
  • “Geoffrey has the best End Times News out there. I have been receiving his emails for years now and always enjoy his Sunday night messages although I don’t always think exactly as he thinks. We are all in this “boat of life” together and as I come to the end of my life’s journey here, I am more aware of Jesus’s call for us to be one as He and the Father are One.” Deborah Cleaveland

STREET-TESTED NTEB GOSPEL TRACTS:

This is the official gospel tract of NTEB, used here on the streets of Saint Augustine and sent around the world as they are purchased through our website. We ask you to prayerfully consider supporting the work of Now The End Begins by purchasing a box of these full-color, high-quality gospel tracts. Thank you in advance!

But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORT…TO THE FIGHT!!!

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

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How Constantine’s 4th-Century Religious Revolution Turned Persecuted Christianity Into The State-Backed Roman System That Became The Catholic Church

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June 9, 2026

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The Roman Catholic Church Rose From The Ruins Of Pagan Rome As Constantine’s Empire Turned Christianity Into A State-Favored Religious Institution

The origins of the Roman Catholic Church are not found in Peter preaching at Pentecost, Paul writing to the churches, or the apostles planting local assemblies under the authority of Jesus Christ. The New Testament church began in the first century as a spiritual body of born-again believers saved by grace through faith. The Roman Catholic system, as a centralized, hierarchical, sacramental, state-favored religious institution, began taking recognizable shape in the 4th century, when professing Christianity was forcibly joined to the power structure of the Roman Empire in what can only be described as a hostile corporate takeover. Cue the woman riding on the Beast.

“And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.” Revelation 17:6 (KJB)

The Bible knows nothing of a pope ruling from Rome, a priesthood offering a repeated sacrifice of the mass, Mary as mediatrix, purgatory, relic veneration, indulgences, cardinals, monasteries, confessionals, or a Vatican state. Those are not apostolic doctrines. They are later historical developments, many of them growing out of the centuries after Constantine. The church that Christ purchased with His blood was not a Roman corporation. It was, and remains, a spiritual body.

“Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.” Acts 20:28 (KJB)

Constantine Did Not Start Christianity, He Politicized It

The decisive historical shift came under Constantine. In A.D. 313, Constantine and Licinius issued what is commonly called the Edict of Milan, granting legal toleration to Christianity and restoring confiscated Christian property. Britannica describes it as the proclamation that “permanently established religious toleration for Christianity within the Roman Empire.” That was the beginning of the Constantinian shift: Christianity moved from persecuted faith to protected religion. But what looked like relief from persecution also opened the door to corruption by imperial power. Before Constantine, Christians were often hunted by Rome. After Constantine, bishops began receiving imperial favor, church disputes became matters of state interest, and the machinery of Caesar began wrapping itself around professing Christianity. That is not the pattern of the New Testament.

“Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight,” John 18:36 (KJB)

The Lord Jesus Christ did not commission His apostles to build a religious empire. He sent them to preach the gospel for the salvation of individual souls for the body of Christ.

Nicaea Shows The New Imperial Church Order

In 325 AD, Constantine called the Council of Nicaea to address the Arian controversy over the deity of Christ. The deity of Christ is absolutely Bible truth, and Arius was wrong. But the historical issue is not merely what doctrine was debated; it is who summoned the council and what that revealed. Even the Catholic Encyclopedia, preserved at New Advent, says the emperor “begged the bishops of every country to come promptly to Nicaea,” provided imperial transport, and supplied their maintenance during the council. It also admits that it is “not historically known” whether Constantine convoked the council solely in his own name or in agreement with Pope Sylvester.

That is a staggering admission. Why? Because that means that the first great council of the emerging imperial church order was not called by an apostle, not called by Scripture, not called by a New Testament pattern of local church authority, and certainly not by Jesus hand-picked leader Paul, but by a Roman emperor. The problem is not that Nicaea affirmed the deity of Christ. The problem is that this moment reveals a new arrangement: the emperor and the bishops now standing together in a system of church-state power. The apostolic churches had pastors, elders, and bishops. They did not have Caesar organizing their doctrine and funding their councils.

“The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder,” 1 Peter 5:1 (KJB)

Peter did not call himself pope. He called himself “an elder.”

Theodosius Completed What Constantine Began

Constantine legalized and favored Christianity to enhance and increase his political power and control. Later, Theodosius I pushed Nicene Christianity into the position of imperial orthodoxy. Britannica notes that Theodosius “established the creed of the Council of Nicaea (325) as the universal norm for Christian orthodoxy” and convened the Council of Constantinople in 381. This is where the matter becomes even more plain. By the late 4th century, the Roman Empire was no longer merely tolerating Christianity. It was enforcing a particular form of Christianity as the approved religion of the empire.

That is the soil from which Roman Catholicism grew. not the upper room, but the imperial court; not apostolic simplicity, but Roman organization; not spiritual separation, but church-state union.

The Bible warned against exactly this type of mixture:

“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?” 2 Corinthians 6:14 (KJB)

The Church At Rome Was Not The Roman Catholic Church

Paul wrote to believers at Rome in the first century, but Romans is not a Catholic epistle. There is no pope in Romans. No mass. No Marian dogma. No priestly confessional. No Vatican treasury. No sacramental system. Paul addressed saved people in a local assembly.

“To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints:” Romans 1:7 (KJB)

Notice what he does not say: “To the pope at Rome.” He does not address Peter as bishop of Rome. He gives no instruction to submit to Roman supremacy. He teaches the same gospel he preached everywhere else: justification by faith, grace, the blood of Christ, and the righteousness of God apart from the works of the law.

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:” Romans 5:1 (KJB)

The later Roman Catholic claim that the church of Rome is the mother and mistress of all churches cannot be read out of the New Testament. It must be read back into it from later ecclesiastical tradition, which is exactly what they did.

The Bishop Of Rome Rose By Prestige, Politics, And Power

The bishop of Rome did not appear in the first century as a universal pope. His authority grew gradually because Rome was the imperial capital, wealthy, influential, and associated by tradition with Peter and Paul. Over time, the Roman bishop increasingly claimed special authority over other churches. But that development was historical and political, not biblical and apostolic. In the New Testament, church government is local. Bishops and elders oversee flocks. No single bishop rules the entire body of Christ from one city.

Paul told Titus:

“For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city,” Titus 1:5 (KJB)

That is the Bible pattern: elders in every city, not a pope over every church.

Pagan Rome Did Not Die, It Put On A Religious Robe

The Roman Catholic system absorbed much of the machinery, imagery, and religious instinct of pagan Rome. As the empire became “Christianized,” the old Roman appetite for temples, ceremonies, sacred offices, relics, holy days, and priestly mediation was repackaged under Christian vocabulary.

This is one of the most important points: Roman Catholicism did not simply absorb New Testament Christianity. It institutionalized, ritualized, and Romanized it. The result was a religious system with Christian terms but Roman architecture; biblical names but pagan habits; apostolic language but imperial structure. The New Testament believer is not saved through a church hierarchy. He is saved by the finished work of Jesus Christ.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:8,9 (KJB)

That one verse destroys Rome’s sacramental system. A number of years ago, Pope Francis dispatched Anglican bishop Tony Palmer to start spreading the message that Rome now believed in salvation by grace through faith, but it was a ‘failed from the start’ effort that rang hollow everytime it was sounded.

The Real Issue Is Authority

At the heart of the Roman Catholic question is not merely history. It is authority. Rome says authority is Scripture plus tradition, interpreted by the magisterium under papal authority. The Bible believer says final authority is the word of God. Anything else that is more or less is not of God.

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:” 2 Timothy 3:16 (KJB)

The Roman Catholic system must lean on tradition because its defining doctrines cannot possibly be established from the New Testament. The papacy, the mass as a sacrifice, Marian dogmas, purgatory, indulgences, priestly absolution, and the treasury of merit are not apostolic Christianity. They are later man-made additions.

The Bible warns against religious tradition replacing the commandment of God:

“Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition,” Mark 7:13 (KJB)

The Bottom Line

The Roman Catholic Church did not begin as the church Christ founded. It arose as a historical development after the apostles, especially in the 4th century, when Christianity was legalized, favored, organized, and eventually enforced by Roman imperial power. Constantine opened the door in 313 AD. Nicaea in 325 AD displayed the new imperial-bishop alliance. Theodosius advanced Nicene Christianity as the empire’s religious norm by the end of the 4th century. From that soil grew the Roman Catholic institution: hierarchical, sacramental, political, and centered increasingly on the authority of Rome.

The first-century church was a body of believers gathered around the apostle Paul and his gospel. The Roman Catholic Church became a religious empire gathered around Rome and its hierarchy. That’s the dividing line.

  • One is spiritual. The other is institutional.
  • One is built on the finished work of Christ. The other developed a priestly system of mediation.
  • One preaches salvation by grace through faith. The other binds men to sacraments, tradition, and ecclesiastical authority.

The Bible believing conclusion is plain: the Roman Catholic Church is not the mother of biblical Christianity. It is the Roman corruption and counterfeit of it. At the Council of Trent in 1545, the Roman Catholic Church offficially declared their opposition to Paul’s gospel, and that’s where things have remained ever since.

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